<p>cujoe- One kid in my sons class is in band and on football team…at a fairly large HS too. The football team makes fun of the kid and call him “band fairy” --sad… the band kids love him.</p>
<p>tangent, but yea, band kids have a weird unity, in my school each instrument made shirts and stuff… it was really weird to see a bunch of kids with matching stuff…</p>
<p>My kids used to think band was a cult before they joined, but man do they have fun while making GREAT music…they will be marching in the Tournament of Roses Parade this Jan. 2.</p>
<p>good luck to your kids! and i quit band prior to actually beginning, i chose violin instead… different kind of stigma</p>
<p>im 17, my advice to you is this:</p>
<p>beat this child, believe me it works</p>
<p>You never want to encourage or want to fit circles into squares. They are great as is! The best thing that happened to my son was attending Walden School in Dublin, NH for every summer in HS. What a fabulous program for musically talented kids. I am sure it played a huge role in my son’s acceptance into every school where he applied. It has a culture that fosters self confidence as well as working together and being part of something bigger than yourself. Did he get motivated from the experience: you bet. He jumped into pre-IB and then IB after he had been slip, slip sliding 8th grade away.</p>
<p>Great thread, makes me wonder if we are doing the right thing with D#2 , our second-grader.</p>
<p>She is not gifted but advanced. She was capable of reading and doing math at the second grade level since she was in pre-K. We didnt want to advance her because she was not that developed socially and was afraid that putting her is a higher grade may do her more harm than good. Her school does the pull-out program for the gifted and talented and she has been in this program in both first and second grades. We had problems with her in first grade. She was not finishing her class assignments and it was a battle to get her to do her homework. She felt that it was baby workand wondered why she couldnt do more challenging work.</p>
<p>My husband and I thought that she has to learn to do work that is not challenging. In later years, this would translate to the tedious tasks that are part of a lot of jobs and daily responsibilities. We showed her ways to enjoy boring class assignments and tests - like trying to finish them at record time and trying to get 100(s) for 10 consecutive times etc., while we provide stimulation for her in other ways outside of school - which she enjoys. We also taught her that this method does not work for assignments that are challenging to her. Those need to be carefully worked at and that she should not aim for 100(s) but do her best. This method seems to be working so far in second grade. She eagerly does her homework correctly and in reasonable time and has been getting 100(s) in all of her math and reading tests.</p>
<p>But we do wonder, from time to time, whether we are using the right approach with her because D#1, even though she is at Princeton was not advanced just smart and this is our first time of dealing with this. This thread has a lot of good information to reflect on. Thanks for the good ideas!</p>
<p>Why does a second grader need homework at all? </p>
<p>You’re very careful to use labels. “Not gifted, but advanced” “not advanced just smart”… I don’t know where you get these labels, but frankly, your children both sound highly intelligent to me (as a teacher). I would keep in mind that schools are not completely successful at identifying the gifted; in fact, they are pretty good at not identifying gifted students who don’t happen to do well on the one test they give.</p>
<p>Thanks dmd77, glad to have a teachers perspective on this.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The strategy above seems to work for now, but there is a potential downside to consider. What will the child do once the assignment is completed ahead of time? Will she be given more challenging work and will there be time to tackle this challenging work? My S’s 3rd grade teacher refused to let him be with 4th graders even though it entailed no disruption because she did not believe in tracking (we have no gifted programs). Another agreed he could do more challenging work after the regular assignment, but had no clue as to how to provide it. Furthermore completing the tedious busywork ate into the time he could have used to do more challenging problems. So the end result was a bored and idle kid. " The devil makes work for idle hands." These idle hands made origami airplanes.
It is a good idea to discuss all these possibilities with your child’s teachers. We found the only solution to our kid’s situation was to drastically accelerate him in math and science once we were able to convince his teachers to let him. By high school, he knew he wanted to graduate early. He is now a freshman in college and enjoying it immensely.</p>
<p>Checkmate,</p>
<p>I hope that was meant in jest and not as the result of personal experience. Violence is not the answer. If you are being beaten at home, please consider talking about it with a trusted adult - someone at your school, church, your doctor…</p>
<p>InternetMom,</p>
<p>with one in Princeton and a now happy second-grader, I’d say you are doing just fine. Keep up the good work.</p>
<p>Marite, her second grade teacher gives her more challenging work after she completes her assignments. She is willing to work with her. However, her first grade teacher was more concerned with her finishing the class assignments and didnt give the challenging work she promised.</p>
<p>… and youre right, this method works for now and we will review this year and year.</p>
<p>BassDad, thanks for the encouraging comments.However, I do not want to hijack this thread for a second-grader so I will keep reading for ideas as others post about their experiences.</p>
<p>Internetmom-
Looking back, I realized that S had some serious issues by grade 2. He was not challenged at school in any subject, so I decided to have him take piano lessons. Within 3 months, I got a call from teacher who stated that S was most amazing student he has had and he stuck with it for years but was bored with some of the music. Then picked up violin in 5th grade and LOVES it. He also plays guitar or bass very well and has since picked up the tuba, which is his new declared favorite. Music holds his interest more than anything- he composes and plays well and I hope that a school with a great music program will someday accept him despite his performance in other classes.</p>
<p>we have a friend who is a musician- teaches orchestra- etc- he reads sheet music in bed- he is very happy with his life - his interests pretty much focus on music- but we have another friend who has Phd in stats- works in that field- but is also a musician and becoming quite popular- lots of musicians are also interested in math-
I think it is great to have a strong interest- and you never know- music may lead to other interests as well-
and tuba- you may have read other threads where jokingly recommendations have been made to take up bagpipes for college admissions- tuba I think would be in same category ;)</p>
<p>S wants a set of bagpipes for Christmas. Anyone have a set they want to unload?</p>
<p>Momnipotent,</p>
<p>I went through music school auditions last year with my daughter and wanted to give you a heads-up. There are music schools out there that care little about GPA and not at all about SAT scores, but many are stand-alone conservatories where music is all that he will study. In addition, they tend to be some of the most competitive in terms of the level of musical accomplishment required to get in. If your son is interested in that kind of environment, he needs to decide on an instrument (or composition if he is headed that way) and get started right away with the best teacher you can possibly find, even if that means an hour or more each way to lessons. Have him check out the audition requirements at places like Curtis, Juilliard, NEC, Hartt, Cleveland Institute and Peabody for some idea of what he is up against. If any of these places are on his short list, he definitely should start working on audition repertoire as soon as possible.</p>
<p>At other top programs like Oberlin, CMU, Rice and BU, grades are also very important. Places that have excellent music departments and that may have somewhat lower GPA requirements include Indiana University, University of North Texas, and St. Olaf. I’m sure there must be others, but did not really focus on any of them for my daughter. The University of Maryland’s program looked good and they have a stunning new music building, but they are probably getting pretty selective, particularly for out-of-staters.</p>
<p>Thanks BassDad- any ideas for summer music–that are really affordable, brief (less than 2 weeks) and in mid-west. I am going to check out the Cleveland Institute and Oberlin. He will likely need to stay fairly close to home unless things really turn around. Does your D like Oberlin?</p>
<p>Daughter loves Oberlin, but she is into a lot of liberal political causes and is a vegan to boot, so she’s the stereotypical Obie. Oberlin is quirky - some love it and some can’t stand it, so you really have to go visit while school is in session to get a good feel for the place. In my opinion, CIM had a more old-school, conservative, by-the-book vibe to it.</p>
<p>She went to the opposite kind of summer programs (expensive, long and in the East) so I can’t help much there.</p>
<p>cujoe said:
Um… cheerleaders wear matching stuff to school too; are they weird?</p>
<p>Momnipotent, since you’re near Columbus, you might want to give the music department at Otterbein a call. IMHO, they are a hidden gem, and the folks at Otterbein are also about the nicest and most helpful I’ve ever met. Dr. Craig Johnson is the chair of the music department, and if you called or e-mailed him, he might be able to give you some insights/ideas about music opportunities close to home.</p>