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Cordelia needs to make a decision between continuing with her viola and doing something called ILT (Information, Literacy, and Technology). ILT sounds fascinating and is the only way to guarantee getting time in the library to check out books, but we're leaving the decision up to Cordelia. She's inclined to go with her viola because she doesn't want to give up on it (she knows it would pretty certainly be giving up on it permanently) and because her two local friends will be doing orchestra. She hopes they can practice together. The boy wants to switch from cello to bass. The girl hopes to start viola but might end up with something Cordelia refers to as 'baritone.' Baritone what isn't clear.

I wish Cordelia had the option of doing both viola and ILT. The opportunity to continue her instrument is important. She won't have that chance again. But ILT is a great opportunity, too. The kids who do that are going to do some stuff online that other kids won't get to. They're also going to have input on upgrading the library to include materials for middle schoolers. They'll plan and produce PSAs. They'll do a few other things, too.

I e-mailed Cordelia's soccer coach, and he suggested trying to find a different team. The impression he gave me is that what he's doing is aimed at the eighth graders more than the sixth graders. Based on what we pried out of Cordelia, a big part of her difficulty with the strategy stuff was that he used terms she wasn't familiar with. She's used to talking about defense, mid-field, and offense. This coach used terms like (if I'm remembering correctly) halfback and striker. Cordelia had no idea what those meant and was afraid to ask.

Scott did confront Cordelia last night about not going to the game. He was not pleased at all. He required that, if she doesn't get on the other team we're trying to get her on, she go to next week's game for her current team. He wants to prove to her that the game hasn't changed. I really hope she gets onto this new team (it depends on whether or not another girl who's having trouble with scheduling drops out). I don't think the current team is at all tenable. I'm also not sure how the current coach would feel about having Cordelia at next week's game when she's not going to this week's practices.

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A question Cordelia asked me the other day (about what the K rating means) leads me to believe that she's ventured into the waters at fanfiction.net. She admitted that she's interested in fic for The Heroes of Olympus series as a way to satisfy her craving for more canon while she waits for the fifth book to come out in October. I'm not sure how she happened on fanfiction.net; I don't suppose it's at all hard to find, though.

I'm debating whether or not I should point her at AO3 as another source of fic. She might be better off at fanfiction.net where the age of participants skews younger, and she might well reject AO3 just because I suggest it. No eleven year old wants to be following in her mother's footsteps on something like this. I'm not sure she knows that I post at fanfiction.net. At least the stuff there is the least likely of my fics to freak her out, and, at either archive, I write in fandoms she doesn't know.

I'm not so concerned about whether or not she runs into smut. I suspect that she's still at an age where she won't be interested (I hope she's not squicked!) in most of it. She's been notably reluctant to let me talk to her about puberty and sex. If she is interested and does read it, well, we all have to start somewhere in sorting out good information from bad. I hope she'd be willing to talk to me about it, but I can't assume that she will.

Cordelia hates writing, so I don't think she'll start writing fic (I'd think it was great if she did). I wish I thought she'd be willing to talk to me about it. I wish, too, that I knew some people in that fandom who I could introduce her to. I think she'd love to talk about the books and the fic with other people who aren't me or Scott. She's really passionate about these books. She's read the first four several times each and is always pleased when her school friends share her interest.

Anybody know anything about The Heroes of Olympus fandom? She's not so interested in the Percy Jackson side of things, but she might be willing to start there.