Incognito
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Posts posted by Incognito
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We go to a studio that is modest. I am pretty conservative and nothing in music, costumes, or dancing would make me bat an eye.
Our studio does offer "hip hop" but it is really just a high energy, acrobatic type of dance with some fist pumping and dabbing and lots of cartwheels and head stands. It is fun and great exercise but it is really a challenge for the studio to come up with appropriate music every recital. They don't even have a class for the older girls because it actually comes off pretty silly. I honestly think any studio offering true hip hop is going to be pushing the limits of what some folks feel is appropriate for kids.
I think you might prefer studios that don't even offer hip hop. The more conservative studios around here just don't have it. I think it is really hard to do a conservative hip hop and not have it come off looking goofy.
I think jazz can go either way depending on the studio. Ours is not saucy or anything I could call inappropriate or suggestive. However, I think the style of dance is just going to look more suggestive when you put teens with womanly bodies on stage doing the dancing.
Our studio's hip hop is also very athletic - not sexy at all. I suppose that is because it is 75% boys?
Jazz on the other hand... This year's show was all decent enough except one jazz performance by the teenage girls - they actually whipped off their skirts during the performance and were using chairs and tables as props for sexual positions. It's hard to understand how that was considered a great idea - and it is hard for us to see how parents want to actually see their kids performing that way. Their costumes (once the skirt was ripped off) were like the black sexy stuff at a lingerie store with fishnet sockings and garters.
In trying to figure out how to make it all work for our family (years ago), we went with just the classical ballet program that follows the international Royal Academy of Dance - they dance to classical music, have certain moves to learn, and it is very well structured. In our studio the non-competitive ballet sometimes has suggestive songs, and does not necessarily have as professional teaching, so the kids aren't as polished in what they learn.
Good luck. Our studio was quite modest when we started 7 years ago. Many of the things they do still are, and the classical ballet program is just what we thought it would be, but whoever choreographs the teen jazz competitive stuff has had some doozies two years in a row. The younger jazz groups do moves I am not particularly fond of, but nothing too over the top.
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We have been fortunate enough to have an umbrella-type school which has a large department for kids with different learning needs, and they helped pay for the Fast ForWord program. It isn't for everyone, but it helped my child make amazing connections and progress a TON, both in reading and in ability to converse with others (my child had before been extremely slow to respond because they were processing the sounds - they are still not lightning fast responding, but they are conversational). So if samples look like they target your needs, and you can access it, I HIGHLY recommend it. Tedious as anything, but it really did great things for my child (our umbrella school makes us promise to bribe the kids to do it - I didn't need to purely because of who my kid is, but I understand most people do end up bribing).
Violin has helped with a lot of things (metronome work is integrated, as is careful sound discrimination). We did a number of those dyslexia workbooks as well. And trampoline and different things suggested by vision therapists - I think trampoline play has been very helpful (but that is not phonological processing in itself). I love it when "therapies" are just a part of life instead of separate intervention-type things.
TBH I don't recall the name of the other online intervention we did - it was pretty hard to tell if it made any positive difference, so I haven't thought about it for a couple of years.
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We have something similar to this, but with a base and bench:
https://www.amazon.com/Yamaha-Weighted-Digital-Sustain-Amazon-Exclusive/dp/B01LY8OUQW/
My son seems happy with it (he takes lessons from someone using a baby grand, and hasn't complained at all).
I sympathize with the budget issue, but I guess I feel like having the full keyboard for someone who excels at music is important. We're not lugging it around though--that is certainly a consideration.
You might look on Craigslist to see what's available.
(Also, I'm pretty sure you can do computer playback with it, but I haven't tried it yet, so could be wrong)
I agree about having a piano. We do have an upright piano, I mean for getting the score written directly by the computer (instead of my child writing it themselves). I don't think the one you linked works for that? Or does it?
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Do you have a Guitar Center nearby? The ones we go to have a few setups on display that my kids have tried. Whether you need 88 keys or go with less keys is personal preference. I actually prefer the 49 keys ones as they are more portable. I had used an 88 key one while in hostel (university) band and it was a pain to lug it from room to room and take up more space on my hostel room L shaped desk. My kids took the music composition class at the local music and art center.
Link is to Guitar Center's midi keyboard controller page.
I could try some sort of music store. I feel a bit bad doing it, because they all have prices so much higher than buying online from the US (we're in Canada), so I would be very unlikely to buy there. We do buy other things at music stores, so maybe. I don't recall seeing these kinds of keyboards, but I wasn't looking so maybe they are there.
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I have heard good things about Dancing Bears, but haven't used it. I'm surprised you got that diagnosis. That is what we are dealing with too.
For what it is worth, interventions are great and important, AND so is accepting that a kid is who they are, and they will have to work a lot harder than others in some areas (and that difference may never go away).
For us, phonological processing targeted interventions, as well as metronome type work, have helped quite a bit. We continue to do copywork, and the Spelling You See program has been good for us as it uses coloring and looking at words and their parts (and is very positive/work-together kind of learning).
It is hard to hear that our kids have obstacles and it doesn't feel "fair", but another "for what it is worth" - my child who has this struggle is SOO much better at pushing through difficult things than my other kids are. It is great training for the hard things that life does throw at all of us, and since they are putting in the hard work of persevering and getting back up again from failures, they reap the reward of being able to do that more gracefully when they need to in other areas of life.
ETA: It is interesting that you said that your daughter could read and sound out words without difficulty, but then in testing she had very poor decoding skills. Why do you think there is this difference between what you have observed in life and what was observed in testing?
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I use Finale, but as I mentioned in the other thread, that was because it was the one that would run on a PC back when the best computer for music on the planet was an Atari ST, but I had to share a computer with a CS/Math major :). Sibelius is what I see most college students using now.
On the controller, that would be OK if you only want to input one part at a time, like if you're doing an orchestral score or one of my Orff orchestrations. The more comfortable you are on piano, the more something that is closer to a piano keyboard will help (BTW, Yamaha has digital/electric hybrid baby grands that are completely awesome. And are on my "if I ever win the lottery" list, because they are far more expensive than a good baby grand and a good digital separately).
Do you have any recommendations? I really don't know what to look for. We have a passable upright piano for playing on, but for composing music I think it would go so much easier with a midi keyboard. Would something like the link below be decent? It gets great and absolutely horrible reviews, but has 88 keys.
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Same problem.
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Get a good computer notation program. If you have a keyboard, you can play your parts in real time directly into the software in Finale or Sibelius.
In general, the more theory and music literature she knows, the better composer she'll be. If she hasn't done it yet, something like the Fundamentals of Piano Theory series is a good one to start, or something like Benward's theory book. Many colleges will have a non-credit theory fundamentals, often online, and that wouldn't be a bad choice, either. I'd also look for a used music literature text (I like Listen, by Joseph and Vivian Kerman. If you get an older edition, you should be able to find recordings of all the music needed pretty easily if you have an Amazon Prime subscription (or an Apple Music one). Possibly on Spotify as well. )
She should write down her ideas and play with them. But learning the rules is important in knowing how to break them. Be aware that most young composers do a lot of inadvertent plagiarism. They have a melody in their head and don't remember that they've heard it somewhere before. That's fine, for now-but when she plays something for you and it sounds like Ariana Grande (or whatever), do point out that "it sounds like you were inspired by X"-because she'll become more aware of this over time.
I have some questions about computer notation programs and keyboards. Do you have any recommendations on keyboards? How many keys minimum would be decent? I am sure a full awesome keyboard would be best, but budget doesn't allow that. :) Is something like this good? https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00VHKMK64/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_92?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
Then once you have the keyboard, how does it work? I am totally ignorant about this. I understand you would plug it into the computer via USB. Do we need more tech items to make it work?
I had a free notation program on our computer, Scorecloud. Is Finale or Sibleius better?
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Dr Seuss's Birthday Bird book - Happy Birthday to You - it must be about 10,000 words and 150 pages long. Longest picture book EVER. How many times can you say Birthday in one book?
We have this awesome puzzle book from Usborne which I hide when I have a child that is old enough to remove the puzzle pieces, but not old enough to put them back. Yeah, what I want to do is do 5 puzzles WHILE reading a book. Great fun. The kids get them back later.
LOVE Margaret Wise Brown - always something surprising yet perfect. And while I don't like reading aloud the Richard Scarry books without a plot, the ones with a story are very fun. The Great Steamboat Mystery, for instance.
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Homeschool Buyers Coop is doing free summer trials again for Discovery streaming, NG, and also something called a Maker Studio. The first two are videos (yes, please!) and the Maker Studio is sorta like a 3D printing design intro. I only played with it for a few minutes today.
Similar to the Maker Studio is tinkercad.com. I think that's like a contemporary kid version of Autocad. But I think these work best if you can get access to special printing equipment. Sometimes libraries have them for a fee-per-use. Or a print shop. You could agree with him that you'll print one project every other month, or whatever works for you. Or he could just enjoy designing things. Seriously, my dad worked for years just designing things in Autocad (I think he started on the original 1.0 version, lol) and hardly ever saw the finished result. And that was for a company that actually still made their machines in the other half of the building.
I usually just browse EdX for mooc's. They're pretty high-quality and easy to use. I've tried to interest Crazypants in a few, but he's not able to do it "on his own time" so to speak, and I haven;t been able to solve the technical and space-time logistics so we can do a course together consistently. I think I'll wait until he's a bit older before I give that idea another serious go. But your kid might latch onto the idea. Who knows?
Tinkercad.com looks amazing! Thanks so much for sharing that.
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He might really like the board game idea in particular. Do you have supplies around? Sketch them out? Modify existing games?
Buildings don't usually have wheels, so I am not sure how much luck I'd have with architecture, but who knows?
I have a blank board game, and we can easily find or make tokens and things like that.
I haven't taken the lead in board game design, I've mostly just gotten out of the way! :) My kids will take existing board games and change them, but my especially visual-spatial child will be inspired by various things and just make them with various crafting supplies we have around. As a rule lover, sometimes when they were younger the rules were longer than the gameplay itself! I suppose we have a lot of games and decks of cards and dice around (supplies), as well as paper, cardboard, various crafty things, markers, etc.
I'd bet you could come up with some type of architecture that would be useful to have mobile - for disaster relief or even just for snowbirds travelling to Arizona (if you want wheels involved).
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Board game design and architectural design are two things that have suited our child. As far as finding a program to do it, we haven't. It has had to be ad hoc.
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We've liked Spelling You See. It isn't an instant fix. We've had measurable, forward progress, though. It has kids color code spelling patterns/rules in a text, so the kids are scanning for and highlighting them in context, then writing them either via copywork or dictation.
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One thing I enjoyed when in Victoria for the day once was walking around by the houseboats. It isn't anything fancy, but it is different and interesting to see what the community is like.
The BC Museum is quite good, so yes, I'd do that. It's been forever since I went to Burchart Gardens, but it was so impressive when I did - highly recommend it.
Empress is where people do high tea in Victoria, and you could also hit the BC Parliament. I like the stained glass windows in Latin.
I've been to Victoria a few times and never taken a car - I highly recommend taking transit if you can. Worked great for us.
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We were dropouts this year :( I bought the whole set, sat in on Michael Clay Thompson's lectures at convention and still couldn't really figure out what to do with the program. We read through most of the grammar book and my son could do some of the 4 level diagramming, but he had to keep looking stuff up because he would forget the names of different things. Also, the story passages made no sense in the big picture. Eventually, I just didn't see the purpose of the program. We finally just stopped doing it. I still have NO IDEA what to do with the vocab book. It asks questions about words that are not in that lesson and then the lessons themselves have little to do with the questions that follow. Ughh, and I spent so much money on the program. Darn conventions... where the new, shiny books/curriculum are so tempting.
It is a certain style - either you like it or you don't. We love it. I don't suppose you want to sell that set, do you? I like having two student books if I can find them used (I already have one).
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Spelling You See might work for you.
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My friend with 5 boys got hard-shell floor seats-with-backs that stacked up. A much smarter solution than beanbags which take up enormous amounts of space and never look tidy.
We had two before we downsized and now we have one for sentimental reasons but it is a space hog.
link?
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One of my kids loved CHOW, the other could hardly stay awake while we read it (but they both enjoyed SOTW). Can you read a few chapters and see how it goes? SOTW as an audiobook with the coloring pages and activity book was really fun, but also a lot more work than just reading CHOW.
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We had horrible cabinets in an old house (they sound almost as bad as yours). Painted them, put in some shelf paper, and put a fresh countertop on (I think the countertop was IKEA? - something fresh but inexpensive). It made it all look good, and while I felt awful about having anyone live with a kitchen like that, someone bought it (and hopefully re-did it as soon as they did).
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We've done this the last few years, but this year's selection doesn't even have the one or two decent books in each level. FWIW, the child can pick from any age bracket for the reward book. I'm a bit bummed - the reading log itself is easy and then I go buy a couple books there too to thank them for the freebies and add a few newer books to our collection. Probably won't this year.
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I'm so sorry.
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In school, most of my friends were in my major. It is an easy way to build friendships - study groups, shared interests... So perhaps she can try to focus on building friendships with people in her one class within her major?
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Music? Would a choir, orchestra, or band be a possibility?
Find a group of kids to do games with/you volunteer to run a PE time for families with kids his age (if you think you could make it engaging enough for him to participate well).
How old is he?
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Ooh, one of my kids might like this course! I'll have to see if it works in our schedule for the fall. :)
This could be interesting
in Accelerated Learner Board
Posted
How did this essay turn out? :)