There's not really a forum for this type of question so I hope its ok that I posted it here!

I was just wondering what interests your kids have? What do they enjoy doing beyond school?

dd7 is absolutely enamored with musical theater! In first grade she surprised us by coming home and announcing that she got the lead role for the school holiday play! We had no idea she even liked acting. We put her in a musical theater class a couple of months ago and they started working on their first production. Again, she got the lead role! (class is ages 5-12). She loves it! Its pretty neat...she has all the songs from the Phantom of the Opera memorized as well as Les Miserables. She can't get enough of it. We also found out that she has developed an amazing voice! Its so beautiful to hear. I'm so glad she has found an outlet like this. She seems to be totally free when she's in theater.

Aside from that, she loves hiking (and writing in her science journal), chess, and any board game.

Our son loves any kind of history (especially ancient and medieval), mythology, code writing, and drawing. He reads voraciously and his favorite genre is fantasy.

He loves the Warriors books by Erin Hunter, and we were checking out the website yesterday. Within 30 minutes he had figured out the code for how the site assigns you a "warriors name" based on your first name and city. I have this piece of construction paper with the key written in crayon. It's pretty funny.

His 8th birthday is in a few days and he's having a secret agent themed party.

E

DS11 is loving learning to play Bass Guitar, particularly the Beatles. He is guite good at Improvising (High School level according to my husband) but wishes he was better at composing. He plays Trombone in the Middle School Band.

He love online games, particularly World of Warcraft, and is currently starting a guild with a friend based on the "Percy Jackson" series. He likes Wii and DS games, especially with his friends.

He is trying out for "Guys and Dolls" the musical, at his school tommorrow. He'll play sports with his school teams, but beyond enjoying being on a team that wins, isn't much interested.

He loves to read, plays Magic the Gathering and DnD if he can find anyone to play with, which isn't often. Card tricks have been a recent interest, thankfully replacing whistling!

Smiles,
Trinity

DS (very newly 7 - 1st grade) is learning to ride unicycle at circus class. Loves soccer. Entrenched in the spiderwick chronicles right now. He also loves camping, hiking, and biking. And we're going to do a x-c ski club with him this winter. He just had a birthday party at a climbing wall on his request. He would spend hours surfing the web for new games if we let him. He gets 20 supervised minutes a day! He loves chess and strategy games too. He actually taught us to play chess.

He's also been taking piano for about a year and a half. He's blowing away most of the 10 and 11 year olds taking lessons with the same teacher. I really feel for the older kids that get grouped with him for piano!

DD 3 loves to keep up with her brother. But yet becomes more girly by the day. She is into all things ballarina right now.

E - The secret agent themed bday party sounds great! I bet he loves that!

Trinity - Wishing your son GL on his tryouts! Let us know how he does I think its great that he's learning guitar...my dh would love that he's playing the Beatles music!

Dottie - Just watch out when your dd comes out of her shell!

kim - my dd just turned 7 as well, but she's in 2nd grade. I have never heard of circus class...I bet thats a blast!!

Sounds like we have some very creative kiddos here! I love hearing about them and all the things they enjoy doing.

First I'll confess that all 4 of my boys, age 6-13, play too much Xbox, inadequately supervised. They have had game boys, nintendos, playstation, etc., but nothing has been such a constant obsession like this. DH & I are trying to monitor and reduce...I thought it was just a phase, but the older two get whiny when they haven't gotten to play Xbox. I think part of the fascination is that they all get to play it together (4 players) either as a team against others or against each other. They also love boxing each other (with full equipment) despite Mom's anxiety and different sizes, paintball, dirt bike riding, and other horrible boy activities that turn my hair gray and give me wrinkles.

All 4 are soccer enthusiasts, with DS11 and DS6 probably having the greatest natural athleticism. DS11 recently quit piano and life is GREAT! (it was torment for the last year). The other 3 still play, at which they are good but not great.

DS13 & DS9 love to read, especially DS13 who is much faster and more well-read than most adults. He also golfs avidly after soccer season, and is on the MESA team doing robotics with his high school.

DS11 has always been the labeled the creative one: drawing, writing, creating/building, and recently sewing. The art fascination has dwindled since he started middle school and has art class with a mean art teacher. He's on the Science Olympiad team and reads with disadvantaged youngsters.

DS9 is my math guy and he also loves Warriors, Pokemon, and any game. He spends a lot of time playing imaginative games with DS6, where they have an elaborate dialog but no outsider understands what they're talking about.

I love learning what all the kids enjoy!

Our DD13 enjoys camping and hiking which she does mostly with her GS troop. She plays the flute beautifully and is progressing well on the piano despite minimal practice (due only to lack of time). Swimming is her only sport, which she competes in during the summer, and will probably make swim team next year in HS. She lap swims on her own to stay conditioned. She has been in at least four different plays. She usually appears on stage as several different minor characters, as well as, the singing and dancing troop. This is her third year as a peer tutor. She also loves to play World of Warcraft in her free time!

DS11 plays the trumpet well and �takes piano lessons� as opposed to "plays the piano". He is very busy with basket-ball practice and games and also swims during the summer. He competes in speech team at school and has been in four plays. In the most recent one, he played a major role as the prince. He also tutors at school, loves to read and play World of Warcraft. He is very industrious with any bit of free time he has and spends it writing his fantasy novel or inventing. Last spring, he created a functional hover-board from a leaf blower!

Wow...a hover board? Thats incredible!

Tammy - I'm jealous your 7 year old is a 2nd grader. We're about to go in and advocate for a math jump anyway. I should go over to the conference thread and whine! Our teacher this year is quite the dud. The good news is there are probably 2 to 3 other kids in my son's class that are at his level for reading, so I'm not as worried about that.

And circus class is really neat. They have everything from toddler classes with trampoline and tumbling, to teenagers hanging from the ceiling. It's a great confidence builder for my overly cautious son!

And the hover board does sound really neat! That's amazing.

kimck - We got lucky. She made the cutoff for entrance to K because we lived in CA and so she was 4 for nearly 3mos We since have moved to NV and had we started her here she would NOT have made the cutoff! Im glad she entered when she did...as it was she was far ahead of K.

I forgot to add that dd loves to read anything science or animal related and that her favorite pastime right now is memorizing broadway musicals!

The hover board is cool. He researched how to build it extensively while DH was out of the country for a few months. He kept bugging me for a vacuum cleaner or leaf blower. I totally doubted that he could do it and made him wait for his dad to help with the power saw for the platform. DH really did just help though. It doesn�t have propulsion, which I understand would make it a hover craft, but he can steer it by shifting his weight, like surfing. He told me this week that he wants to make a battlebot next.

I think its notable that so many of the kids discussed here participate in drama.

Dottie,
DD and I really like design make-over shows also. I understand the hair issue. How many hair straighteners do your daughters have? I think mine has three!

I also think the circus class sounds great! Like a "ropes course" for kids!