When your DD9, who already had enough instruments to start a band, is just two months into learning to play the flute, and drops this line:

"For my next instrument, I'm going to pick the violin."

[pause while she observes the horror-stricken face of the parent who just coughed up several hundred dollars for a new flute]

"I mean after I master the flute. In about a year or two."

Dude, I can relate. DD wants a drum kit for Christmas. She asks me to take her to music stores that sell drum kits all the time. I told her we are not paying for more music lessons. She says she'll teach herself how to play by watching youtube videos.

I told her that we are not getting her a drum set since if we get anymore instruments squeezed into our tiny apartment, we'll have nowhere to eat or sleep. She says she'll give up her playroom and toys to house the drum kit since she is too old to be playing toys anyway (it is true that she never plays with her toys; we keep them around for play dates).

I have to think about this but I really don't want to live with a drum kit.

The electronic ones may not be so bad (and are head-phonable I think).

This is worthy of a separate post. We tend to keep a backlog of toys DS has outgrown for play dates, too.

Go for the drums- SO much fun!

... when your 15yo college student impishly notes that she nearly missed her math professor's apologetic plea to the class to be sure to at least LOOK past the first quiz question so that they can look up how they would approach the last problem...

WHY?

Oh, because she was busy finishing the LAST question at the time.

"Mom, it was this AWESOME angular momentum problem!" Then she provided me with details, including excited and expansive hand motions, and sighed wistfully. "Physics is SO BEAUTIFUL with calculus. SO beautiful."

We have a drum-playing child. We do have a full acoustic kit, but if you're short on space (physical and sound), I'd vote for electronic drums. Or a sound-proof room. You need headphones one way or the other, as you don't want to blow out your ears while you're only a child. Our drum teacher just suggested not buying a kit at all initially, but using a practice pad only, at the beginning, to work on stick control and rhythm patterns.

That is awesome because physics is beautiful with calculus...

While I never understood physics or calculus that well (my mind works in a different way) I completely and utterly understand finding the intense beauty in something that few others see/understand. I actually got happy reading your post because I love that she felt that way.

I think I would feel that way about microbiology or archaeology for instance...

Yes, if we were to get a drum kit, it'd have to be a digital one but if I recall correctly, even the cheapest model was around $500.

No drums around here for awhile.

SO is a competent drummer so he could teach her the basics but I already tried that with piano and it doesn't work with DD as she thinks we're not "real" musicians.

Love this. Physics with Calculus is so beautiful isn't it. Wish my school district understood this better and offered AP Physics C for the kids who have completed calculus already.