Annual brag thread! No Brag too big or small!!

[Condessa]

My oldest dd is joining gymnastics team.  She is so excited.  Gymnastics was the love of her life when she was younger.  Two and a half years ago, she was about to test for team from preteam when her coach’s health failed and the gym shut down.  Then when he died, she said she never wanted to do gymnastics again.  I am so glad she is getting her passion back.

Dyslexic dd2 has started reading for pleasure!  I am ecstatic.  I was truly worried that she would never enjoy reading, and would miss out on one of the great pleasures of my life.

Older ds has been advancing in cello by leaps and bounds.  I thought that it was because most of the songs in Suzuki book 1 are the same as for violin (which he did for a year before switching to cello) and that he would slow down when he hit material he’d never seen before.  It hasn’t happened.  He’s into the latter half of the book now, and still taking about 1-2 weeks per song.  And his tonalization is so good!  It’s really pleasant to listen to him practice.  Also, all his practice has really payed off in increasing manual strength and dexterity—his handwriting and fine motor skills have gone from being his greatest struggle academically to close to normal for his age.

Ds4 is starting Singapore 1a.  He is shaping up to be my most asynchronous yet.

Edited September 6, 2018 by Michelle Conde

[Dmmetler]

DD got her back walkover last night! She has been blocked on backwards tumbling for almost 2 years, to the point of having to restart from scratch. She’s on a Level 3 team due to stunting, and isn’t getting pressure to get her tumbling, and in some ways, I think that was the best thing-when she knew she was valuable to the team without the skills, she started progressing again. 

[SeaConquest]

37 minutes ago, dmmetler said:

DD got her back walkover last night! She has been blocked on backwards tumbling for almost 2 years, to the point of having to restart from scratch. She’s on a Level 3 team due to stunting, and isn’t getting pressure to get her tumbling, and in some ways, I think that was the best thing-when she knew she was valuable to the team without the skills, she started progressing again. 

Congratulations! Backward skills are hard. You have to take that leap of faith into the unknown. She will be doing back handsprings in no time. Is she a base or a flyer in stunting?

[Dmmetler]

Base or spot-she is extremely good at seeing when a stunt is unstable and how to keep it up, and in directing others how to do so. Level 3 is where twisting and flipping within stunts starts coming into play (and it gets scary to watch as a parent ? )

[kubiac]

DS5 has started reading the Horrible Science series. He's been a fluent reader since 3 but he doesn't love it (he seems to abhor fiction), but "human body books" fascinate him.

[rebcoola]

Older DD got 1st stepsister in Cinderella confidential this is probably the biggest part she's ever gotten and its the production that had the most kids audition so she is thrilled.

[pinewarbler]

On 8/18/2018 at 12:34 PM, SeaConquest said:

Sacha is off to lifeguard camp, and I am a nervous wreck. And, I'm never a nervous wreck when my kids go off to camp. He's just worked so hard to get here, it doesn't come easily for him (the physical stuff), and I want it to go well so much that my insides ache. It is so difficult to just stand back and watch and hope that they get what they desperately desire. This parenting business is rough.

Just saw this, and it brought back memories :)

My kids are in a school board with almost 500 elementary schools. When my eldest was 10 or 11, she wanted to audition for the board-wide string ensemble that would perform in a prestigious concert hall at the end of the year. Even though she had played non-stop for a few years, my first instinct was that she was too young. I said so. That got me nowhere ?  She told me she was going, and I would drive her. I supported her in preparing for the audition, and she was very ready. She was using an ancient school violin and a bow with not much hair, but knew the material cold.
The day of the audition, we walked into the auditorium, my DD nervous. As I looked around, I saw super confident kids with very very expensive beautiful instruments. The cases for their instruments cost more than my sofa. They had tiger moms who had taped the sheet music to the walls and were glaring at the kids as they practised. 

And this is the first time this had ever happened....I really thought I was going to throw up and could barely breathe. Here was something my kid had really worked for.. had I really given her every opportunity? I made sure she knew where she had to go to audition and that she was tuned and warmed up. I watched her walk down that aisle. Then I left the hall so that she didn't see me start crying. Parenthood is really tough!

She made it... was placed in the back row, but she made it. Within 2 years she was the concertmaster. I noticed that year that she was the only child who tuned her own violin (?!), who helped others when they had problems, and who volunteered to stay to clean up after the rehearsals. Now years later, she is just changing instruments (to have a new challenge) and refuses to be part of the drama that seems to be endemic in that field. So maybe throwing your kid into the deep end (if that is really what they want) is the right thing to do! 

[lewelma]

DS has just started at MIT, and for one of his upper-level classes, all the freshman had to approach the professor after class and explain their backgrounds to make sure they were properly placed.  DS said it was like a 'whose who' as the 15 freshman in the class were each giving their background  --

"I was in blue MOP, I was a USAMO gold medalist, I was in black MOP." 

DS is thinking I've got this, I've got this.

They continued, "I went to the IMO, I was in the TST group, I was a MTS finalist..."

DS: I've got this, I've got this. But he is getting nervous as he waits his turn, listening to all of these amazing kids.  

Then the guy *right* in front of him very casually says to the professor, "I've read a lot of your work, and I got a perfect score on the IMO."  Um..... Oh....... OH!! Oh, goodness, I know who you are!

Then it is DS's turn.  "Well, I went to the IMO, but I did NOT get perfect score."  

Edited December 18, 2018 by lewelma

[lewelma]

And second brag... DS just became an Emerson Scholar at MIT for 'outstanding achievement' on his instrument!  They only took 5 freshman strings. He is so excited!!

[maize]

Congratulations to your son Ruth!

[drjuliadc]

I like these threads a lot.  It is fun to hear about what types of students are at MIT, for example. Lots of other neat things too.

At his last lesson, my 5 year old’s piano teacher told me he has perfect pitch, or at least close to it. She didn't have a lot of time to check for it.

I wonder what kind of positives and/or negatives go along with this.

[4KookieKids]

2 hours ago, drjuliadc said:

I like these threads a lot.  It is fun to hear about what types of students are at MIT, for example. Lots of other neat things too.

At his last lesson, my 5 year old’s piano teacher told me he has perfect pitch, or at least close to it. She didn't have a lot of time to check for it.

I wonder what kind of positives and/or negatives go along with this.

 

Oooh, my best friend in hs had perfect pitch and it was often more of a curse than a blessing. For example: she learned her scat part for a very competitive jazz competition on a piano that (it turns out!) was slightly out of tune (half step off). She'd learned it so thoroughly and completely, however, that she could not adjust up the half step needed for her audition and she definitely lost the part! 

OTOH, my grandma has perfect pitch, and it sure makes her one heckuva violin player, so there are definite perks as well!

[Donna]

On 10/7/2018 at 10:09 PM, drjuliadc said:

I like these threads a lot.  It is fun to hear about what types of students are at MIT, for example. Lots of other neat things too.

At his last lesson, my 5 year old’s piano teacher told me he has perfect pitch, or at least close to it. She didn't have a lot of time to check for it.

I wonder what kind of positives and/or negatives go along with this.

 

Dd has perfect pitch. The only negative for her was when she was little, she had a really difficult time in violin group classes listening to out of tune playing. She learned quickly to control her outward reaction though.

Positives for her include really good intonation on the violin, able to tune her violin without a tuner, easily learns music by ear--even longer classical pieces so once she can play something she no longer needs the sheet music, can transpose the music into any key immediately, easily names notes in chords, and can easily name the key of a piece which is a great skill to have when playing traditional music in jam sessions where melody players put tunes together randomly and the accompanist/backer needs to know where to go. Though she has perfect pitch, she does not seem to be hindered by a slightly different "A" so when listening to old recordings, that were sometimes sped up a bit changing the intonation a bit, she is not bothered...she either changes the tuning on her fiddle a bit to sound like the recording or plays the tune in the correct tuning (A=440 or whatever).

Edited October 9, 2018 by Donna
left out an "and"

[drjuliadc]

On 10/8/2018 at 11:16 AM, Florimell said:

My DS has perfect pitch and it is very helpful with intonation on the violin. It has also become more sensitive over time. When he was about 5, he could identify by sound the names of all of the notes on the piano except the very highest/lowest and the names of 3 note chords. By 8 or 9, he could identify and name every note in any chord in all the major and minor keys (augmented, diminished, etc.), the notes in a random group of 4-5 notes played together, and he could name the key of any piece of music just by hearing a few measures. Now, at 10, he can identify quarter tones as well. He also does a lot of improvising/composing on the piano and he can record what he plays and transcribe it into Finale just by listening to his recording -- he doesn't have to work out or try to remember the notes he played.

This is all just amazing. Did he have any early exposure to pitch, from before age three?

[drjuliadc]

9 hours ago, Florimell said:

He never had any formal exposure to music before that.

What was his informal exposure to music?

[seaben]

This is a personal celebration. I just finished giving my talk about  Math Circles at the Northwest Math Conference. Definitely out of my normal wheelhouse and I'm really happy with how it went.

If you're curious I dumped the slide deck here: http://mymathclub.blogspot.com/2018/10/math-circle-talk-slide-deck.html

 

[Gil]

Pal can play 50 songs on piano. His next goal is to learn 125 songs.

NOTE: I'm not the least bit musical and can't judge his skill level at all but am still very proud of him.

 

 

 

 

[berwif]

Impressive stories! I hope my DS will also have such wonderful achievement. Whatever achievement he will have, either in academic or in life in general, I will always be proud of him. Homeschooling is a great way to bond with kids while joining them in their learning journey.

[pinewarbler]

Not a biggie, but can't share it with any friends, and most of our family members don't want to hear...

DS just received a certificate of Distinction for his results in the Beaver Computing math contest at University of Waterloo. His category has 2 grades, and he is in the youngest grade this year... and he was only 2 points short of being in the group of "top-scoring" students for 2018. I'm assuming he'll make it next year?

I am mostly happy because he cares to work hard and succeed in math contests now. The good experiences he's had this year with writing contests has improved his confidence and motivation. Hurray!

 

[chocolate-chip chooky]

This is a bit different to the other brags on here, but I wanted to share this crochet project my 12yr old completed. I'm always in awe of her skills, as I know *zero* about crochet and she's completely self-taught. I admire her passion, perseverance and attention to detail. This is the positive flip-side of all the challenges of perfectionism.

[Gil]

Since I shared a Pal Brag, it only seemed fair to share a Buddy Brag. 
Buddy made and screened a movie! Actually it's a "medium-length" short film, but still. 🙂

Buddy wrote, directed and also did the editing of the movie which is just over 12 minutes. He actually screened the thing for a group of 17 people, each of whom paid a whopping 25 cents to watch it.

I'm quite proud of him for sticking with the project and seeing it through. He had written a script for a sequel, but said he's not going to make it--he has another project he'll be moving on to.

 

 

[JIN MOUSA]

This is a small one, but I'm not sure where else to brag this, and that's the point of this thread, right?

I taught DD8 long division this week. She's in SM 3A, and we tried the long division lesson a couple of times, without success (the first time I haven't been fully satisfied with Singapore's presentation of material). She seemed to have all of the necessary skills for it though, and she wanted to learn it. So I did a bit of research on different ways to talk about and present it, planning on spending a couple of weeks on it. But within 3 days she was mostly ready to do it all on her own.

So this is a bit of a brag for both of us 🙂

[Donna]

Two quick little brags this week...

Dd, who struggles with severe test anxiety especially in math, spent two weeks studying for hours every day for her Statistics final. She took the DE course online but had to take the midterm and final in person at the school and proctored. She studied for the midterm, got a 95 on the practice test, then blanked out on simple things on the actual midterm and ended up with a 73. She was so nervous about the final because she really wanted an A in the course. She went through an entire notebook doing practice problems I wrote out for her each day in preparation for the cumulative final and just found out she got 100%. 

The other is she was invited by someone very prominent in the Irish music world to record on a huge project in February and though I can't share what it is until everything is worked out, I had to tell someone.

[lewelma]

For ds's upper-level maths class, the last problem-set was crazy hard last week, so a few of the mathy kids were working together. DS got the solution first, ahead of even the perfect-scorer mentioned above! Giving hints to solve the problem and then mentioning some missing cases has really increased ds's confidence.  DS has decided that he is a better problem solver than competition-exam taker! It is tricky being surrounded by amazing kids and takes time to find your place. DS has found some wonderful friends and study partners, and definitely does not feel like the slow, stupid second cousin. 🙂 

Also, DS just found out he got the top score on the final exam for honors physics! 

Homeschooling has clearly not been a negative, and this first semester's outcome has relieved this mama's worry.  

[pinewarbler]

We just had the FIRST robotics qualifier and my son's team placed very high so they're off to the Provincial (State) competition in January! They also won Best Research, but I'm thinking it was based on the experts they were able to interview (which included 2 astronauts who have been to the ISS) rather than their exhaustive research LOL! They did invent an interesting gadget for the Dragon's Den part of the competition.

I was a FIRST Lego League coach again this year, but decided to cut back to coaching one team (a senior team). We changed it up this year and had everyone problem solving/building/programming, which many teams do not do (often some of the team members work on a project and do much less robotic work). It meant that I had to mentor experienced kids to run workshops for the newbies, but I think it was worth it. They got a much lower robot score than usual, though... this would be unacceptable for many of the teams we compete with. It is a hard line for me, because the league emphasizes 'what you learn is more important than what you win' but I see no evidence of that at the Provincial level... it is all about winning.

I have to admit that I checked the requirements for the high school my DS wants to attend to see if I could beg off coaching next year and let him do something else. (Can anyone spell 'Mommie Burnout'?) No luck - the high school expects transcripts, an additional information essay that includes extracurr & awards AND an exam. At least this one doesn't add a lottery to it, as my DD had.

After five years of coaching FLL, I have decided that 4th grade student are too young to complete all of the league's requirements in time for an early winter competition and even 5th grade is pushing it. Most kids this age don't have the focus & drive to do the huge amount of work required. They also are lacking in many of the practical required skills, which has always shocked me (in my mind everyone spends their childhood building complex lego structures, reading and debating).

Unless there are children gifted in problem solving/programming/building it feels like pushing a boulder up a mountain coaching the younger ones. I even tried to move to a non-competitive model for the junior team, but everyone insists that they need to compete. The competition day for a junior team, however much a learning experience, can be very disheartening. My eldest, who is an FLL youth mentor, finally wrote to the competition organizers this year to suggest a change to the awards music ("We are the Champions") because it doesn't feel as if it fits in with the league's emphasis on Gracious Professionalism.

Once I have recovered from this craziness, I will remember that I will miss these days when the kids are off to university 🙂

 

 

[pinewarbler]

On 11/27/2018 at 4:21 PM, chocolate-chip chooky said:

This is a bit different to the other brags on here, but I wanted to share this crochet project my 12yr old completed. I'm always in awe of her skills, as I know *zero* about crochet and she's completely self-taught. I admire her passion, perseverance and attention to detail. This is the positive flip-side of all the challenges of perfectionism.

I am still in awe of this... the stitches are perfect!!!!

[Guest]

DD’s had a tough semester because of Cheer demands (after a couple of team shifts, she ended up on a team coached by one of the top names in the industry, and close to competition, 20 hours a week in the gym is common) on top of classes and everything else. She also ended up with a fairly difficult semester, with statistics, a history class that involved lots of reading primary sources and scholarly journal articles and writing essays and papers, and a writing intensive English class-plus a math heavy epidemiology class and a new herpetology class to teach (fun, but takes more prep and adjustment than the one she has taught several times before) She had a lot of super late nights, and ended up having to prioritize assignments and sometimes, just plain not do them all. Which ended up with some panics over grades that weren’t where she wanted them.

And after that, she ended up with A’s in everything. And a lesson on the need to set priorities.

 

She has decided that maybe it’s better to just take the classes she wants to take and that fulfill high school requirements instead of trying to do a AS-especially since she doesn’t plan to major in psychology (she’s thinking either animal science focused on ethology or cognitive science focused on animals). She’s also decided that she has enough really, really good college options-and most of the good programs are at State U’s with Ag schools, where she’s already qualified for their honors colleges and has a good chance of merit aid, so she’s not going to stress over standardized tests. 

 

She’s growing up. 

[daijobu]

On 12/17/2018 at 11:16 PM, lewelma said:

For ds's upper-level maths class, the last problem-set was crazy hard last week, so a few of the mathy kids were working together. DS got the solution first, ahead of even the perfect-scorer mentioned above! Giving hints to solve the problem and then mentioning some missing cases has really increased ds's confidence.  DS has decided that he is a better problem solver than competition-exam taker! It is tricky being surrounded by amazing kids and takes time to find your place. DS has found some wonderful friends and study partners, and definitely does not feel like the slow, stupid second cousin. 🙂 

 

 

Thank you for posting this and congratulations to you ds!  I hope you don't mind my asking because my dd is applying to MIT.  Unfortunately, she is nowhere near being an IMO competitor like you ds.  I'm wondering if all the students attending are at our near IMO level, and if not, how are they managing to complete their problem sets?  It seems to me that the social dynamic would favor all the best students working together, while students who weren't necessarily pure mathy applicants (maybe they were makers instead?) would be left to struggle.   

[mathnerd]

Mostly non-academics:

My 11 year old got himself a job as an Assistant Instructor in martial arts at his martial arts studio in May of this year. He spends 2-3 hours teaching every week in addition to all his other pursuits and academic workload. He is learning how to juggle things, prioritize and say enough is enough and has acquired good time management skills. 

On another note, DS participated in his first FLL competition and took on the Engineering side of the project, worked on it single-handedly because the 2 others working with him on the build threw tantrums due to differing opinions and walked away and their team finished 6th out of 11 teams. Still, he feels accomplished to have pulled the project off given his circumstances. He seems mature and even tempered when faced with stressful situations for which I am proud of him.

[lewelma]

On 12/25/2018 at 12:55 PM, daijobu said:

 

Thank you for posting this and congratulations to you ds!  I hope you don't mind my asking because my dd is applying to MIT.  Unfortunately, she is nowhere near being an IMO competitor like you ds.  I'm wondering if all the students attending are at our near IMO level, and if not, how are they managing to complete their problem sets?  It seems to me that the social dynamic would favor all the best students working together, while students who weren't necessarily pure mathy applicants (maybe they were makers instead?) would be left to struggle.   

I've been asking my ds about this since he has been home, and getting bits and pieces from him.  It looks like there are about 20 freshman MOP kids at MIT and 10 IMO kids (4 USA and 6 internationals).  Somehow 15 of the 30 have ended up in the same math class as my ds which is for sophomores and juniors and had 75 kids but ended up with 50 by half way through. All the other freshman take a more standard math path by either taking the 2 core classes (univariate and multivariate calc (which have 3 varieties - regular, honors, and stretch which extends 1 month into IAP (the one month January term)), or by taking one of the other 4 introductory classes (number theory, probability, linear algebra, differential equations).  I know some of the MOP/IMO kids also took a grad level probability class this term, but ds took the honors Analysis class which dropped from 70 kids to 30 by the end as they switched to the regular class.  Analysis would really mostly be for the math majors I think, and honors is for the kids who *want* to struggle. 

It appears that the engineers have their own math classes within their department that focus on the use of math as a tool for their trade rather than math for math's sake.  Kids can also get a math major with lower level classes than the MOP/IMO crowd, and are allowed to specialize in math for computer science or even statistics if they do the flexible option. Each class has prereqs, but apparently they are really not strict.  You just need the permission of the instructor.  DS is taking the 4th class in a sequence next term without taking the first 3. He feels that he knows 75% of these classes through his IMO studies, but I will admit that I am running a bit nervous about this class choice. The curves for the classes seem to be 40% A 40%B, 20% lower, but I'm not super clear on that. For analysis, ds is a bit over the average and is got an A-.  For physics the second exam's distribution was heavily weight to higher than 85% marks, so they made the final harder and ended up with a mean of 50%. DS got the highest grade at 84% and the lowest grade was 12%, so I think you would feel pretty sad to choose to take honors physics and then get 12% 😞 The drop period is apparently very long, as in a month before the final, so a number of kids apparently take an overload, and then drop the classes they either don't like or aren't doing well at.  Freshman are not allowed to overload.

As for problem sets, ds said he is not in the standard freshman courses, so doesn't join those study groups, but there are many and most kids seem to enjoy working together. He did say that at this point he wants to try to have a friend in any math class he takes so that he has a study partner, which is why he is taking the above noted high-level math class. Most kids get very good marks on the problem sets because they are allowed to work together, so you can always get the answers if you can't do it on your own. Also, I know that my ds typically does his p-sets on his own, but then saves up a number of hours each week to go help others who are having trouble.  This does not seem to be uncommon, so suggesting the top with the top and the bottom with the bottom does not appear to be the dynamic. However, if you get too much help (i.e. copying someone's answers) then you have a bigger problem for the exams. Looks like p-set are 20-25% of the overall grade, and are a huge part of campus life.

My ds is also double majoring so has no time for easy, exploration classes.  But if you only want a single major, you could dabble in UROPs for credit, or intro classes in many fields, or more HASS classes (humanities, arts, social sciences).  The core 6 classes are pass/no record (calc, multivariate calc, 2 physics, 1 bio, 1 chem), so you could take those plus your major (around 10 classes), and then 8 HASS, and 8 exploration classes. With this approach, you could end up with only 5 hard courses out of 32.  Overall, it appears that kids can manage the level of difficulty to fit their skill level, and there are lots of options.

Not sure if that answered your questions, but happy to answer more specific ones if you have them. 

Edited December 27, 2018 by lewelma

[daijobu]

13 hours ago, lewelma said:

Not sure if that answered your questions, but happy to answer more specific ones if you have them. 

 

Thank you for your detailed reply!  This context is indeed very helpful and reassuring.  

[pinewarbler]

Just a follow up... we survived FLL Provincials 🙂 I find it always takes me a week or two to get back to my old life! The team won the Teamwork Cup and were pretty happy. Next year will be their final year and best of all my youngest has new goals for next year that don't include coasting... 

My eldest, who mentored the team, won Provincial Adult Mentor of the Year and was thrilled. I think it helped her in applying to a prestigious STEM summer program in our country. She just received her acceptance letter! One month at a university with 45 other top students and no mom & dad 🙂  I can't tell you how much she deserves this. Typically, she has the worst luck and has often lost out on programs/schools she's worked very hard for in the final lottery. Or lost out to another student in her class who didn't work hard and didn't care about the opportunity. And then they came back loudly complaining about it. It often amazes me that she still has hope.

My youngest has also been filming lego engineering videos of himself for 3 or 4 years but I've always delayed him starting a youtube channel. Well, we finally have it up and running. I encouraged him to tell his friends/classmates to check it out. He was hoping for 5 subscribers by the end of the month 😆  When he came home from school, he said the kids just rolled their eyes at him. Sigh. Then one day I notice a few subscribers and ask him about it. His sister (who doesn't even want to own a smartphone) pipes up to say that in her physics class some kids were talking about youtube channels, so she told them to check out her brother's. Apparently, they thought it was the coolest thing ever and couldn't believe he was related to her.... At least she took it well!

[4KookieKids]

My oldest takes his first standardized test tomorrow! It's a first in our little homeschool, and I'll be so proud if he even makes it through the whole thing!! lol. I have no idea how it'll go, since he seemed completely lost when I went over the "this is what the test looks like" packet this week. It may be a colossal fail, but at least he'll have gained some experience (which is the main reason he's taking it.)

ETA: He made it through! Exhausted by the end, but still made it through! Asked when he'd get his score and almost cried when I told him about 2.5 months... lol. 

Edited February 10, 2019 by 4KookieKids

[chocolate-chip chooky]

18 hours ago, pinewarbler said:

Just a follow up... we survived FLL Provincials 🙂 I find it always takes me a week or two to get back to my old life! The team won the Teamwork Cup and were pretty happy. Next year will be their final year and best of all my youngest has new goals for next year that don't include coasting... 

My eldest, who mentored the team, won Provincial Adult Mentor of the Year and was thrilled. I think it helped her in applying to a prestigious STEM summer program in our country. She just received her acceptance letter! One month at a university with 45 other top students and no mom & dad 🙂  I can't tell you how much she deserves this. Typically, she has the worst luck and has often lost out on programs/schools she's worked very hard for in the final lottery. Or lost out to another student in her class who didn't work hard and didn't care about the opportunity. And then they came back loudly complaining about it. It often amazes me that she still has hope.

My youngest has also been filming lego engineering videos of himself for 3 or 4 years but I've always delayed him starting a youtube channel. Well, we finally have it up and running. I encouraged him to tell his friends/classmates to check it out. He was hoping for 5 subscribers by the end of the month 😆  When he came home from school, he said the kids just rolled their eyes at him. Sigh. Then one day I notice a few subscribers and ask him about it. His sister (who doesn't even want to own a smartphone) pipes up to say that in her physics class some kids were talking about youtube channels, so she told them to check out her brother's. Apparently, they thought it was the coolest thing ever and couldn't believe he was related to her.... At least she took it well!

Can you give us a link to his youtube channel?

[4KookieKids]

Dd7 met with her piano teacher yesterday and played the song she’d learned the previous week. Teacher proceeded to introduce the idea of transposing music (which Dd has some exposure to already), using her new song as an example. Without any real knowledge of key signatures or keys, dd proceeded to transpose her song from C into D, E, F, G, A, and B all one right after the other just by ear. The teacher pulled me aside to say that she doesn’t know many adult pianists that could have done it so naturally and fluently and it was really something else. I couldn’t help but be proud of her, even though I generally try to value hard work over natural gifts.

[pinewarbler]

OMG... I can't believe it, but FIRST just contacted me and our First Lego League robotics team has been offered a place at the International level. We'll be attending a huge tournament with the best teams in South, Central and North America. I really thought we were done for the year and I was taking everything apart. Then I read the email and started screaming 😆 

Now it is back to the table. The team says they want to start from scratch and design a new robot, and learn new programming. How will I get them to see the challenges from different angles.... that will be difficult..

[SKL]

Sorry if this doesn't belong here, but you said no brag too small.  After much work trying to help my "average" kid develop study skills, she got a 100% on a world history test.  This is a subject where, a couple months ago, she was resigned to the idea that she would always bomb the tests, and survive by trying to be perfect on homework.  (The tests are "open note," but knowing how to take the right kind of notes and prepare with them was still a challenge.)

She's also running a pretty solid A in science (closed book/note tests).

And this week she did relatively well on a math test which many bright kids flunked.  She didn't understand some of it either, but she worked just enough on what she could understand.  For this class they are allowed one 3x5 note card.

So I think we are learning how to learn?  Such a great skill to acquire.

[igbu]

Here’s to extended FIRST seasons👍🏼.  We are big fans of FIRST.  Our oldest DS’s FTC team won “states” and qualified for Worlds!    They started proposing design tweaks on the ride home🤓😂😎.

[LTBernard]

DS10 performed piano in his first wedding. He did amazing even on less than stellar equipment.

[Donna]

We are finally allowed to tell people...dd will be the fiddler for Riverdance the whole summer in Dublin, Ireland. She is so excited!

[maize]

2 minutes ago, Donna said:

We are finally allowed to tell people...dd will be the fiddler for Riverdance the whole summer in Dublin, Ireland. She is so excited!

Amazing!

[Scarlett]

Wow, I don't know how I missed this thread, but your kids are doing amazing things.  My ds19 is doing well at CC.  He has always been very bright and never had to study and furthermore never wanted to study.  Chemistry is kicking his butt this semester.  He spent 3 days straight studying for a big test and I was super proud that he made a 95 on the test but even more proud that he studied so hard for it.  He said the class average was 75 so it was apparently a difficult test.  

[Jackie]

It’s my daughter’s second year doing Destination Imagination. She loves it, but it stretches every kid on the team - applying knowledge, learning new skills, dedicated teamwork, little to no adult assistance or scaffolding allowed, and being judged heavily on creativity and the ability to think on their feet. It’s easily the hardest thing she does.

Her tiny, young, 3-person team just took 3rd place at State Finals! They’re ridiculously excited. Completely over the moon. Next up is preparing for Global Finals!

[Runningmom80]

My DS 8 who is in public school impressed his music teacher in February by listening to a song she played at school and then coming home to play it. She said he is close to perfect pitch, he just needs some practice. 🙂 

 

Edited April 16, 2019 by Runningmom80

[Guest]

DD is in the process of trying out for the regional Homeschool high school cheer team (she's finally old enough to officially be considered high school), and last night, flew for the first time in years-without having a panic attack or shutting down. That is huge! She's really liking the team so far, so I'm hoping it works out for her.