You might want to consult with the teacher first. In our program, beginners start off with a foam violin to learn how to hold it and a bow first. (rest position, playing position, bow hold, a lot more than you might think)(You can achieve the same results using a ruler taped to a cereal box to avoid dropping accidents...that's a sickening sound). I still remember my girls walking proudly through Kroger with their 'violins' in rest position (ten years ago)! We started out with rentals from a shop that allowed us to trade them back in as the kids needed new sizes. That was helpful to me because I knew NOTHING about how to change a string, reposition a bridge, or diagnose a problem. The shop owner saw a lot of us the first year until I got comfortable with handling things more independently (he took care of minor repairs free of charge...also had insurance included.) We didn't get them a better violin until they were older and on upper level literature. As far as parental involvement, YES. As a long term Suzuki mom, I can tell you that it's a wonderful program. I've taken notes through hundreds of lessons, helped them with weddings, funerals, and other stressful playing events when I'd rather have been doing other things. My kids have had many great opportunities and met lots of fine people over the years through their music studies and performances. They've developed a work ethic and discipline that I certainly didn't have as a teen. Sometimes it drives me crazy, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. I built it into our school curriculum and it's considered a subject as important as math and grammar! In fact, we begin every morning with music and math...the two toughest things. We go to a camp during the summer where they play with phenomenal kids from around the country who think Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Saint Saens are cool. Good luck in your journey. Enjoy every minute of it.

I'll share our experience....my daughter is a 15 year old 10th grader and strong academically. In our state, you are supposed to be an 11th or 12th grader to qualify for dual enrollment. However, after a visit to the local CC chancellor, she was allowed to take courses as a 10th grader because of her ACT scores and because of recommendations from professors that knew her. This year she's taken two math courses, one psychology, and one western civ. class. In addition, she is self-studying at home for the AP biology test (next week). Our experience has been that CC work has been ridiculously easy and not a very efficient use of time. The math courses were only a repeat of what she'd already had at home rather than a continuation and strengthening of concepts. We should have tested out of them. The history class was a complete joke. In all classes, she has over a 100 average (how is that possible? Bonus points for showing up, watching movies and writing three sentences about them, etc.) So while my daughter has four A's in 'college-level' classes:glare: to add to her transcript, she's learned FAR more in studying for the AP test. We're probably going to pursue more of these next year. Some positive things I can say about the CC experience is that she's gained confidence, she's learned about different teaching styles and dealing with them, and she's become a better manager of her time. (The professors loved having a student that showed up, listened, took notes, and studied...apparently not the norm.) However, I really have learned that I want her to have the benefit of strong knowlege along with that strong transcript. Our CC lacks the rigor to give her that.

I always made my daughters 'dress up' for church....I wanted them to be respectful and present themselves at their best. However, about a year ago I began teaching junior high Sunday School. While I frequently tell my girls they aren't clones and it doesn't matter what others do, I am sensitive to the fact that it's almost physically painful for tweens and teens to stick out too much. Mine are the only two homeschooled students in a large youth group. Wearing their nicest jeans with cute tops helps them feel a bit more connected. No sloppiness or grunginess is tolerated. No slogans on tshirts unless it's a youth day and all the kids are participating in the service. They do innately know what is appropriate for different situations at church. My girls sometimes play (violins) for services and always want to dress in their best for those occasions. You've taught em...they know inside. One more thing.....teen girls can be pretty tough on those who are different...even at church. It makes me really sad to see this behaviour, but they're in the process of learning better, hopefully. After getting more connected myself and seeing what my girls faced in the youth group, I understood more why wanted to wear jeans. It's a small concession to make our church a place they love to be.

The rent-to-own arrangement is great for parents of new violinists in my opinion. There's a lot to learn about the care and feeding of a violin....and a lot can happen. Rentals include insurance for the replacement in case something unfortunate happens. It also allows you to pop into the shop for a string change, a bridge straightening, finding the source of that new little buzz......and you'll learn a great deal in the process. Our shop let us trade in when my kids were old enough for a full-size, so I just considered each violin we traded up to an investment in the one we wound up with.

In my first 'real' job fresh out of college, I worked for a livestock supply distributor. My coworker was an extremely nice-looking, arrogant, know-it-all who made my life unbearable as the 'new girl'. Of course, he was the one around when I didn't understand a customer's order for male and female hardware items. He described the terms in great detail in front of a bunch of guys to my absolute mortification. Although he was quite a jerk, I don't think I've ever felt like such an idiot. Explain to your girls! And your guys! :blushing:

You are not alone. My family is on the same rollercoaster. There are too many issues to count...physical, emotional, spiritual, relational...and most folks can't understand because they haven't been there. I'll say a prayer for you and your son tonight. One thing that helps me during low times is to get on a forum and talk to other parents experiencing similar issues. Sometimes I can help someone else by sharing drug info, experiences, or hints that might help them. Usually someone says something that helps me. Parents are the BEST source of information. I'm watching my dd for symptoms this week that might be dangerous. (I found out she had an elevated ammonia level last week....we live with blood tests too....guess who noticed subtle stuff and asked for one?) Meanwhile we're trucking around, keeping life normal with music, school, church, and family. It's lonely because few know. Dealing with insurance, doctors, nurses, and hospitals can be the pits. But we're lucky in that we don't have to continually educate school personnel about our children's health issues. From what I hear from other's struggles, I think that would be unbearable for me. We were homeschooling before our problems began and feel there was a reason for that! You're a good mom. You work hard to keep life normal and do the best for your son. It's okay to be tired. I'm not going to give you that stuff about taking time for yourself, but do try to get a little extra rest when you can this week. You'll recharge. Hang in there.....you're not alone!

Thanks for the suggestion! I really struggled with buying her a ds in the first place, and it makes me feel better when she's doing something mildly productive. (I can't help it....I'm a homeschool mom...got to throw something educational into everything and mess it up..ha). I'll look at My Word Coach.

I'm looking for creative ways to engage my 8th grade dd in spelling/vocabulary. She just got a DS (the electronic kind...just noticed this might be misunderstood, ha) for Christmas. Have any of you bought this game? Is it useful or silly? We've done Spelling Power, Megawords, and other spelling programs but she still struggles with words. If I ASK, she can spell it correctly. She just doesn't seem to pick up on when she's written it incorrectly herself or if it's wrong on a multiple choice. I thought this might help her strengthen her visual skills. Any advice?

Thanks, Cynthia! My daughter needs this tomorrow morning and I had forgotten. Bless you, bless you! Diana

Thanks for posting this! My kids and I are still laughing.

We begin with music (strings) and then math...the two most challenging subjects....to kick our brains in gear.

I bought Princeton Review's Cracking the PSAT for my daughter because their ACT prep was very helpful. She said it was almost exactly like the test and prepared her well for what to expect. I found the 2009 PSAT at Barnes & Noble. Good luck to your son.

Good for you, Laura! If the garbage on tv is 'reality', leave me in la la land. If my family wouldn't mutiny, our tv would have been out of here long ago. Most of it is an open sewer. Who'd have thought we'd be watching ED commercials with our daughters in 2008? Congrats on the great decision!

I may get slammed on this one....the word 'homeschool' used as a verb. It just sounds so.....I don't know....can't we do better? I'm not saying I've found anything better. This thread attracted me because of the initial hoodie complaint. I totally agree...ick.

Basically.....as my daughter said when she was about seven, "That's what grown-ups say when they don't know what they're talking about." I could care less......that means you care. Sit, sat, set.....I live in the South...nuff said. Hmmm, nuf kind of irks me today. see-saw or teeter-totter.....???? I like this thread!

I'm so glad you asked that....I've had that dream too. Awful, isn't it? I spent all night in my sleep trying to find a dentist to fix me back up. What a relief to find them intact in the morning! You're not alone....hang in there.

One more thought.....have you ever seen anyone smiling while they run?:glare: Hang in there. You'll be so proud of your accomplishment.

The itching gets better. My daughter and I thought we'd go mad...it's intense, is it not? One thing that helps me is to put my running clothes right by the bed with my shoes. I don't allow myself to think about it because I can always think of all kinds of great reasons not to. Running is kind of a mystery to me too. Sometimes I'll be all ready to go mentally and just have an awful run. Other days I'll have to drag myself out the door and then have a marvelous experience. Give yourself a silly running name (my daughter calls herself Tail's on Fire) and post a journal with your times, distances and comments (good day, hated it, whatever) on the fridge. It's REALLY motivating to see how many miles you wind up with at the end of the week. Thanks for the post. It will help me drag myself out tomorrow morning.

Oh man, someone thought I was being defensive to all when I was only trying to address a couple of comments that said pronouncing it like I'd learned was pretentious. Thanks for the nice rep comment.....I was trying to be funny....sorry if it seemed I didn't notice or understand all the positives. My thanks for the positive comments were sincere, no sarcasm intended. I showed this to my daughters and they thought it was hilarious. They said they'd probably choose to each pronounce it differently just to mess with my mind.

Oh, how exciting! I tried to log on this morning and my server crashed before I could read that I've been branded as pretentious and, what was the word....hoity toity.:smilielol5: Seriously, I just noticed an error in my own vocabulary and thought I'd share. I appreciate YOUR comments and don't feel the least bit defensive or angered by them. It's important to me to give my kids accurate information and they can choose whether or not to use it....just like we do. The world will keep right on spinning no matter how I pronounce a word. However, when my daughter discusses her literature study with her literary professor cousin, her math assignments with her math professor uncle, or any work with those in the education field, I want her to know the correct usage of words. Just following the crowd doesn't seem to me to be a great apologia for discerning how to use our language. If that's the case, we'll have to start leaving the t's off the end of words like didn't and wouldn't, and preface each sentence with "you know what I'm sayin?" Seize the day! BTW, thanks for the kind comments from those who were interested and looked it up. Have a great day!

Well, it's helpful to know that my homeschooling friends weren't just kindly overlooking my goof. Like you, I've always heard it pronounced that way and assumed it might be a regional issue. When ordering, sales rep always just repeat what I say...I wouldn't correct a customer either. Oh well, I think I'll embrace the new way of saying apologia....or maybe I'll avoid it altogether like the words lay and lie. After all, I'm just a larva....there's time to figure it all out.:001_unsure:

Yes, it's like apple-OH-gee-ah. The stress is on the third syllable, not on the second and fourth. Sigh. I even taught a coop class using the wrong pronounciation. Lesson learned. When in doubt....look it up.

While listening to the Teaching the Classics dvd, Mr. Andrews mentioned something being his 'apologia'. Hoping HE had it wrong (foolish thought), I ran to look it up. Yep, for years I've had it wrong. It doesn't sound like apology or apologist. Probably all you guys have it right....but I'm just sharing what I found out. :blushing:

Sleepless nights when I worry about whether or not my kids have enough of.......challenges, wins, friends, activities, sports, happiness, free time, productivity, work ethic, spiritual food, fun, community involvement, etc. The stereotypes really bug me too. A lot. Even though they're ridiculous, so few KNOW they're ridiculous. And I'm tired of educating those who cling to them.

My daughters both got Menactra because my trusted pediatician who never pushes, always gives me the facts and backs off while I make a decision, looked me in the eye and said, "They really, really need this one. The symptoms are so sudden. They can wake up feeling a little bad in the morning and be gone by evening, I've seen it." He also said that his kids got it as soon as it was available because this illness scares him so much. Both my girls got the vaccine the same day and suffered no ill effects.