If your middle schooler is in band

[Anonymous]

When DD was in middle school, she was graded on practice cards. What she noticed is no one really cared, and most of the students just forged the parents signatures before class. DD practiced (I heard), but refused to do the practice cards; she felt they were dishonest. The net result is she got a B in band, which kept her from straight A's in the 8th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When ours was in MS we had to sign off on her practice sheet each week that documented practice minutes. It was factored into her quarterly grade.

Did you know for sure that they did it, or did you just trust that they were telling the truth about practicing?

In our case we pretty much knew. She played a competitive sport so the only times she had available to practice were evenings and portions of the weekend. Since at least one of us was likely to be home then, we could hear her. Like PP, we wouldn't sign if the log overstated the practice time. Also, her MS allowed them to count their private lesson time as practice time.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't say I force mine to practice, but I do remind them to do so. IMO my son's practice is very half-hearted (e.g., he spends at least 5 min setting up, and periodically breaks to peruse music choices, etc, yet he counts all of this in his practice time), and I don't make an issue over that or question the times they record in their practice logs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't say I force mine to practice, but I do remind them to do so. IMO my son's practice is very half-hearted (e.g., he spends at least 5 min setting up, and periodically breaks to peruse music choices, etc, yet he counts all of this in his practice time), and I don't make an issue over that or question the times they record in their practice logs.

Yeah, my DS is the same, unless he gets a piece he really likes.