It is normal to freak out and be jumpy for a while... sorry. I was a passenger in a car that hit a light pole head on. The entire thing started a block or so away when the driver thought she was in reverse and was really in drive and paniced. For a while it was hard to be a passenger. One of the hardest ride for me was the first one when a family friend picked me up from the hospital and felt I would be more comfortable in the front seat since there was more room. Nice thinking except that is where I was when the accident happened. Today things are pretty much ok. I did have a flash back and panic attack recently when my husband started to back up and went back into drive and forgot to go back in reverse when he hit the gas (same thing that happened 13 years ago), but he caught it.

Her teacher right now has her working on a review piece, learning her new piece and working on the exercises for the next piece. So this week she is reviewing "Song of the Wind" finishing up memorizing "Go tell Aunt Rhody" and doing the exercise for O Come, Little Children. This I love! When she is doing good, she passes through the pieces in 2-4 weeks depending on how many lines there are (she does about a line a week). I guess my best bet (and I still want input from other parents please!!) is to call up a few or more and sit in on some lessons and see how they do things, as well as ask. We got really lucky with our current teacher.

My 5 year old has been playing the violin for 9 months now. I knew nothing starting out and found a Suzuki teacher in my town and it has been wonderful! Her teacher just informed me today that they will be putting their house on the market and moving once it sells :( She thinks it will not be sooner than 9 mos given the market but I want to at least start scouting out new teachers. I have no interest is swtiching until I have to though. Can you tell me what you like and dislike about the Suzuki teachers your children have had? I know each do different things. For those who have looked or had different teachers, what would you recommend asking/looking for in a new teacher? Are group lessons important at young ages? One specific question I have is: Have any required perfection to move onto a new song. Is this something that has helped your child or hurt them? Right now, as long as Emma can play the song without a mistake, she is allowed to move on. I can not see her enjoying playing if she is to repeat the song until perfection. Thanks! Anne

Does the boiling also work when the child has been sick? Or is it better to just replace?

Thank you for your views. I really like the ideas in AAS but was concerned about teaching the multiple sounds for the same letters. Right Track Reading is very similar and I grabbed that out and she did ok with the letters she knew so I think we will try that. Actually the author of RTR lives in the same city I used to and I bought the book at a small seminar she was doing may years ago. I think I will incorporate RTR with the sound cards/tiles from AAS to keep them familiar to her. I have not seen/heard of OPGTR (will have to look that up) but will keep that in mind if these two do not work with her.

I am working with my 5 yo DD on her sounds. I have 3 different programs that I am not sure which to really use. I have All About Spelling, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and Right Track Reading (all picked up or given to me over a few years time). I have been working with AAS for a couple weeks. First step is to make sure the child knows all the sounds. She knows "at" so I started with sounds that would make words with "at." Today I added C. My concern here is will teaching her (for example) that C says /k/ and /s/ right now confuse her when we start putting the sounds together. For instance in the word cat? I am wondering if I should I use one of the other two and then come back to AAS once we finish one of the other two books?