Someone posted recently about Christmas books on librivox. I have searched and searched but can't find the post. If the author could repost that would be great!

Has he considered a major that might include this? Maybe he should -- thoughts welcome. One of his grandfathers is a history professor (he also spent 5 years in the Marines) and that's what son always has said he would do. My husband has pushed him to consider more practical things, and that's part of his interest in the military. I think if you met him you would say his main passion is the humanities (history, philosophy, writing) but certainly his main extracurricular passion is theater tech and things related. I don't see him as an actor (he does that as needed) -- the part he really likes is writing, staging, lighting etc. And he's very good at wiring, building, computer, etc. -- he was the youngest person given that responsibility at his school. If he weren't so weak at math I could see him doing something in computers or engineering since he has always been a bit precocious in that area.

Like the above poster, I'm surprised since I fly a lot and am surprised at what big bags people take on. Most of the airlines I have been flying lately (mostly Delta and Alaska) seem to offer to gatecheck anything, so the trick seems to get something through security. Though I totally sympathize with the kids (I have helped several kids/young adults over the fall who were flying for the first time and needed help checking in etc), I do wish the airlines would discourage people from bringing large carryons. If connections are tight, or there are other problems, it takes forever to board and deplane these days because of the volume of luggage people are bringing online.

I was never able to pull this off in an organized way, though my kids did take some outside art classes and took piano lessons for years, now on to other instruments. But they are pretty conversant for 7th and 10th graders and I think a lot of it has been the family (not terribly organized) exposure. What we did well in the composer area: Listened to classics for kids, a public radio show that you can get as a podcast and all the episodes are online. http://www.classicsforkids.com/ Listened to the Maestro CDs. http://maestroclassics.com/ Ann Rachlin audios. Had the CDs/audible for The Story of Classical Music, Famous Composers and More Famous Composers. These were some of my favorite. Listened to the CDs for Classical Kids http://www.amazon.com/Classical-Kids-Collection/dp/B00000212C is one of the collections. All of the above mix stories and the music in an engaging way. I enjoyed them all even when my kids weren’t listening. We went to as many performances as I could fit in. We bought tickets but I also found free things. I wish I had played more music and done things more organized by theme. But exposing and discussing did a lot. Similarly, with artists we just exposed a lot without necessarily organizing it. I posted lots of pictures and looked at picture books of artists. I dragged them to art museums or other shows whenever I could. Again, it seemed to make an impact even without being as thematic as I would have liked. Honestly, it was already an interest of mine, and I developed it further -- I think they picked up on it as something I loved.

Kara Shallenburg and Elizabeth Klett.

Sebastian, thanks for your post. I must have started my reply before you posted yours, so I didn't include it in my follow-ups. My older son is pretty self-starting and very confident with adults, so I definitely can turn it over to him. He has done a ton of looking on the internet, but I would like to connect him with some real life sources. I know parents say good things about their kids being self-starting and hard-working, but I have a younger one I wouldn't be saying this about (at this point, at least). I think if anyone meets him, he can impress as serious and hard working. That said, do you think I can be involved in making some initial phone calls? I don't need to be in the room for any of the conversations, but I would like to make sure he's connected with the right folks first. (I can also turn this over to my husband, but I tend to be the one who has more follow through on this sort of thing -- but my husband would definitely execute any task like taking him to a meeting or something like that).

Thanks so much. You all have been extremely helpful (and thanks for the search tips). I think it is clear we need to work on his standardized test scores. He and I went out for breakfast to talk about what you all posted and now we have some follow up questions. I think in asking about which branch of the military I was trying to ask a question he and I have now about where there are the most opportunities for non-STEM careers. I realize you all are most familiar with the branch in which you serve(d) so that may not be a fair place to ask cross-branch questions. His take on it was that the Army being the most numerous branch might have the most opportunties, but he sees mostly NROTC at the schools he is looking at. He likes the idea of doing ROTC but making a firm committment halfway through college if it still seems a fit. He's wondering about sports. He has never been able to enjoy team sports. He runs and hikes and is generally in good shape compared to kids his age. He's on the thin side. He's willing to step up the fitness regime. He did NOLS and a similar program last summer and said he was one of the kids who was best at being able to hike with a heavy pack for a long distance. I can't imagine he could take up sports at this point. He leads the technical theater at his school (sound, lights, anything involving wiring and computers and filming) and also acts when he can. That's really his passion, and I can't imagine him dropping that activity for something he dislikes. There's a lot of teamwork there, but there's something else about competitive sports he dislikes.

I have some dumb questions about ROTC. I haven’t been able to get the search function here to work for days, so I apologize for asking things that have probably been covered here numerous times. My 16 year old son (a sophomore) thinks he has an interest in a military career. I’m not sure if I agree that’s where he’ll end up, but it would certainly be an admirable thing to do. My skepticism is that his impressions are largely formed by our family’s history of service and the way the whole family loves military history. My knowledge of ROTC is very scanty, goes back to college, and almost none of our local friends would be any help. I see that ROTC is really tilted to STEM majors now. My husband was Marine ROTC scholarship and was a history major, grandfathers similar situation, so I didn’t know that until I read it here. I know the scholarship is more prestigious, but I’m mostly thinking about this as a career path, as opposed to getting him the money for college. I don’t see him as a STEM kid since he is not very mathy. He has had an intermittent interest in being a doctor but I’m not sure how well he would do in pre-med with math as his weakest subject. (He sees himself as likely a psychiatrist if he did become a doctor.) He’s not terrible in math, but he is an extraordinary student in the humanities. He goes to a tiny high school that is strong in writing and the arts, and will get very strong recommendations from the teachers -- they see him as a natural leader and academically gifted, as well as a kind person. He’s a great written and verbal communicator. His PSAT scores just arrived and they are not great except in reading, which was very high. He has a couple of times tested very high in IQ, especially in the verbal area. My overall worry about him is that your impression of him would vary depending on the lens you use. If you look at his report card, teachers’ comments, meeting him, he is an unusually impressive kid. If you look at his PSAT scores for 2 years, he looks pretty average (and I bet that will continue -- he's never done well on that type of thing). I don’t care about the prestige of what he does (and I don’t think he cares either), but I want him to end up in an interesting and challenging career in which at least some of his peers will be intelligent and interesting to him. My husband and I have both had that, and it is an incredible gift. Questions: Is there much point of looking at ROTC if you aren’t a STEM major? If the goal is to be in the military as an officer and have some interesting positions, should he pursue ROTC? One of my military friends thinks the Academy graduates get better positions and that he might have stayed in longer if he had pursued that route. I can’t get my son to look at the Academies and I’m not sure it would be a fit for him anyway. Would taking a gap year before college to study Arabic make a difference? A year off to do language study abroad, including possibly Arabic, has been an interest of his anyway. What branch of the military should he look at given who he is? I take it some ROTCs are more common at schools. Should he be looking for more what college he wants, or what military branch he wants (and then could perhaps do ROTC at a nearby school)? Money aside, is it close to as good to be in ROTC as to have a scholarship? I’m thinking about the placement when he graduates. Are there people to talk to about this? We live in Portland, Oregon, but he thinks he wants to go to schools in the South or the Midwest. Apologies for the length of this and I’m sure I’ve got the nomenclature all wrong, so forgive me.

Actually, this isn't the kind of issue that would cause them to lose their public charity status. In my neck of the woods, state schools only get like 9 percent of their budgets from the state. So they are very dependent on recruiting out of state tuitions for example. I don't like junk mail either, and I don't work higher Ed, so I don't have another agenda here.

I'm not getting recent posts when I try to do a search.

Could you explain this more? Or should I start a new topic? I would love to have an easy portable way to listen to our giant collection of audio books on Cd, especially SOTW.

I think you can find a lot if you watch all their sales and daily deals, etc. The problem for me (which is why they do it) is that of course I buy more than I would usually since I'm looking at their site every day. I find the text to voice almost intolerable. My son seems to be able to handle it okay, but clearly likes the real audios much better. For us it has been worth it to have the real audio. He has come so far with vision therapy that he is able to read so much more than he used to, but it is tiring. Right now he's reading the hard copy of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn while he listens to the audio, which is working well.

Thanks. Even though I'm not the OP, I needed to know this too.

That's adorable. It is so great when cats end up using the stuff we get them. It is hit or miss with ours.

There are several audio versions on sale at Audible right now in a 3 for 2 sale.

Of the ones already mentioned: My kids loved listening to Magic Tree House, though the single ones aren't the best use of a credit. The first Percy Jackson series is wonderful, with a great narrator. Our favorites for younger children not already mentioned: -- A Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom (wonderful, funny narrator) --Paddington books, narrated by Stephen Fry (works for very young) --Atticus the Storyteller; wonderful narration (works for very young) -- Who Was ...series --d'Aulaires' Greek Mythology (works for very young) -- Story of Classical Music/Great Composers/More Great Composers --Nelson Mandela's Favorite African Folkales

Thanks. I think that might be particularly good for my younger son.

Thanks; sounds like a great one!

Thanks! I think in my ideal world they wouldn't be teen movie per se -- also something that my husband and I would like. More like classics or modern classics that would hold the interest of teens. I'll look at this list more though.

I'm sure this has been discussed before, so if someone has better search skills than I do, I'd be happy for the links. I have a 12 and a 16 year old studying French. This is primarily for the 16 year old and his friends who have been studying French for 4 or 5 years. His teacher said last year that the best thing we could do to support the learning (other than being fluent ourselves, which I'm not anymore) would be to watch movies and the like in French. I tried to find things on our local cable, but I've decided to break down and buy him some French movies on DVD for birthday and Christmas. He likes to have his French class over socially, and I'm imagining that we could show some of these while the kids are over for a meal. These kids are not particularly sheltered, so a good movie even if it had some nudity would be okay. Conversely, they are not above watching things geared to elementary kids. I used to go see a lot of French films in the theater in the 70s through early 90s, so I'm trying to remember my favorites. Some ones that I thought were good then might be too slow on TV? Au Revoir Les Enfants was one I really loved at the time -- would it appeal? Thanks for any ideas.

These movies look awesome but as I look at the amazon links, they don't all seem to be in French or have a French language track. Would love help figuring that out. I have a 15 year old in his 4th year of French and a 12 year old in his first year. They don't mind things somewhat younger within reason. I would love to have some audios and movies for them. The movies could be used when they have kids from French class over -- so that's a priority for me. Thanks for any help! ETA-- I think it is just A Monster in Paris that I can't find in French.

As far as musicals go, we saw Into the Woods this summer and my kids loved it. If she likes fairy tales and music, I think listening to a recording would be fun. I enjoyed listening to The Fault in our Stars with my 12 year old. It is very good on audio. Humorous -- one of our all time favorite audios in The Hero's Guide to Saving the Kingdom or something like that. The narrator is amazing and I think he has narrated sequels as well. A Tale Dark and Grimm is good too though it is more on the dark humor side. I think that one is a Johnny Heller narration and he's a good narrator for funny books.

I guess I'm surprised it would make a huge statistical difference, since most people I knew in (professional type) grad school when I was in and subsequently do not have spouses and dependent children. Using law school as an example, overwhelmingly most people in law school don't have young children and if they do, they have a spouse who is supporting the family and insuring them, and wouldn't move away from that job. Although it has been a long time since I was in law school, I continue to have a lot of contact with recent grads. Of course, no one would go abroad for law school from a career perspective, so I'm assuming you are talking more true grad school and not professional school. I thought most people in PhD programs weren't racking up a lot of costs since they were employed by the university at the same time?

Thanks so much! I forgot to check it today and that was one I really wanted!

Thanks for doing this!