Test Results

I met with my Educational Specialist today.  This is one of the necessary parts of joining a Charter School.  I have to report on our studies and turn in samples of their work each month. At the beginning of the school year the kids each took a test to determine a level to base progress against.  My ES brought the results of those tests with her today.

Since my kids have never gotten report cards and have never taken any tests like this before it was sort of nice to see that they are doing just fine.

Henry is reading, writing and doing mathematics at about a 1.9 grade level. Which means he tested at the first grade, ninth month average. So he is right on target as far as age and abilities. Since reading is still a struggle with him (Those front two teeth are still holding strong! Those are the reading teeth as my Sister-in-law, who was a school teacher before having her own children,  explained to me once.)  We will see if reading finally clicks for him in the next little while. He reads but very slowly and he has to really work at it still. So it was nice to hear he is still right on target as far as academics.

Ian was excited to learn that despite being a 2nd grader he is reading at a 4.8 grade level and scored 4.1 in math.  I don't know exactly how they measure these things but evidently he is doing great.

Sophie's number were impressive as well. She scored a 6.2 in math and 9.9 in reading. 

Now these scores don't really mean a whole lot. I don't post them here to brag.  I know they aren't a measure of how smart my kids are or guarantee that they will do well in the future.  It doesn't even tell me that I am a great teacher.  I know my kids are learning and I have been happy with what they have been able to do thus far.  I never felt the need to test them before this but since the school insists on it, and if we want to have access to the funds the school provides,  we have to comply.   More than anything it is a relief to know my kids can take tests and do well at them. 

Now we await to see what the school says about Ian and Sophie's required writing assessment and when I mentioned to the kids that they have to take a scantron test in the spring they didn't know what I was talking about. They knew they needed to take a test but scantron was a new word to them.  So the testing continues.   And for kids who have never taken a real test in their lives I am just happy to see they can come through with flying colors.

 This first assessment was given to them via a computer. I wonder if it will make a difference. Perhaps I need to teach them how to fill in bubbles with a #2 pencil.

Transitions

Molly has not been napping lately. She can climb out of her crib and when I put her in there for a nap she emerges a few minutes later and usually when I go back there later I find all the clothes from her shelves dumped on the floor.  So I have given up trying to get her to sleep in her crib during the day. At night she seems to still be doing alright since by then she is especially tired,  I guess.

When we packed the car to go over the river and through the woods to Grandma's house for Thanksgiving I took the big stroller out of the back of the van and put it in the house.  I never got around to putting it back when we got home so it has sat here in the living room for a few days.  While we were doing school work one day Molly grabbed her favorite blanket and asked for her Binky (which she only uses at sleepy time). I relented on the pacifier because I needed her to be quiet for a little while. She climbed into the stroller and even gave herself a pillow and before we knew it she was snoozing away in the noisy front room cuddled up in the stroller.  She slept there for a good hour and a half and would have slept more except I had to wake her so we could go out to some appointment.

She did this same trick the next day again.  It was great. But I finally took the stroller out of the front room because we had to rearrange things a bit when we put the Christmas Tree up.  But when she started to get cranky and asking for her binky, I asked her if she could sleep in Sophie's room on the bunk bed. This is where she will eventually sleep full time.  I didn't know if it would work but she went in and laid down on the bed and slept for a good long nap.  I tried to put her in there for bedtime at night and it didn't work out. Sophie likes to read and night so Molly kept climbing up the ladder and bothering her.  I whisked Molly off to her crib, which is in our closet, and she promptly went right to sleep.

I don't know how we are ever going transition Molly into sleeping in the "girl's room" at night.  8 years is such a big difference in age. Sophie also isn't the most patient of girls. She doesn't like being bothered by here younger siblings and isn't helping the situation.  There isn't much of a choice, however. We don't have a 4th bedroom and Molly can't sleep in our closet forever.

Loves the Thesaurus

In her writing assignments with the Institute of Excellence in Writing curriculum that she has been doing the last few months there are some banned words. When Sophie writes she isn't allowed to use words like got/get, say/said, go/went, good/bad, etc. The goal is to get her to use stronger verbs and better descriptive adjectives.  I introduced her to the thesaurus recently and now she can't seem to write a paragraph with out it. She loves looking up words to find synonyms. I have even caught her just reading it.  I don't blame her, words are fun!

Here is her paragraph from today's lesson.  She didn't score full points since she didn't include an alliteration or a simile. She also did not include one of the sentence openers they taught her in her last lesson but I think she did remarkably well. Her writing is vastly improving and she seems to enjoy the process a little more now. It does require more work which she does fight at times but I think she is exploring the creative aspects of writing a little more since we switched to this program for writing.

The assignment was to read through a page of text describing how beavers build dams, outline the main points and then write a short summary paragraph.

Dwelling of Safety


Beavers build their homes soundly so that opponents can't harm them. They build their lodges at night so that enemies can't see them. Firstly, they accumulate sticks and rocks to form a mound. Then place more on top of the mound to make it higher than water level. After that, bevers tunnel to the center from under the water, dig it out, and create a room. They gather small twigs, which they eat and use to repair their lodge, for when they live in their homes all winter. The lodge is a secure dwelling.

It isn't perfect but it is so much better than what she used to write!

Fog

 My boys were very excited this morning.  After breakfast and before we started school they went outside and discovered that we had a bit of fog.  They then decided it was a great time to play outside.   Since I had yet to take a shower I told them they had to stay in the driveway. This didn't damper their enthusiasm.  They thought it was great that they could see their breath.  And Ian and Sophie even broke out their gloves as they whirled around.

 We really are spoiled here in California.  Our winters are so mild. We don't ever get snow and light jackets, actual shoes (not crocs or flip flops) and long sleeve shirts are about the extent of our winter gear.  So my kids get really excited when they see a change in the weather. Even though I knew the fog would burn off quickly and that the jackets would be put back into the closet and not needed the rest of the day it was fun to get outside while it was cold.

Vision Forum

My kids love to go to the post box to get the mail each day. If I happen to go out to get it they always look at what I brought in to see if anything exciting has arrived for them. This time of year especially has been fun since we have received a number of great catalogs from companies hoping to entice us into spending some money for Christmas gifts. One of the new catalogs we have received recently is from Vision Forum.

My boys looked through their catalog at all the great gear featured inside for an adventurous young men.  Henry fell in love with this bow and arrow set.  Ian in particular pointed out that the Dangerous Book for Boys Kits would be a great Christmas gift.

I usually take my time looking through all the homeschooling and christian books, movies and audio programs that they offer.

They are starting their Black Friday sale right now. This is what they are offering. Buy any 2 and get a 3rd free.

And if case you need even more of an incentive to give Vision Forum a perusal then enter to win gift cards from The Modest Mom or Raising Olives. They each have $600 in gift cards for some lucky winners!

Every Four Years

We happen to live near an Egyptian Museum. It claims to have the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts in the Western United States. My kids have been so excited all week because we were finally going to take them to see the mummies.

Here are the kids outside the doors. This is a avenue of goat headed sphinx's but somehow that part didn't end up in the picture. Oh well....

We weren't supposed to use flash inside the museum so our inside photos are rather dark. But I did my best to brighten them up a bit.  Here we all are in front of a replica of King Tuts Mummy case.

Sophie was really interested in this baboon mummy. Molly just called it "Monkey Mummy".

Here are the kids inside the mock tomb.  We spent a good amount of time in here looking at all the wall art. The kids were able to name just about all the gods depicted on the walls and tell the story of the weighing of the heart ceremony which is seen behind them.

At every statue we came across the kids would all pose and say take our picture with ______.  The above statue is Khufu. The one below is Amenhotep  III.

And here is Ahkenaten.

Nearby there was a cast figure of Nefertiti's head as well. But all eyes were on the statues.

The kids also sat in on a class where they learned to play the Egyptian game of Senet. They are going to one day teach me how to play since I spent that 30 min climbing up and down stairs with Molly.

Henry, this evening, told me he was "all egypted out". I guess that is the sign that we have worn out that topic and it is time to move on.

The museum was a great way to finish off our studies. We last went 4 years ago when we studied Egypt the first time with Story of the World and I am sure we will make our way here again in 4 years when we revisit the ancients in the next go round of history.

Magnents and Play Dough

Poor Molly has a hard time each day.  I spend a lot of my day telling her "not now" or "stop" so I have been trying really hard to give her things to do while we do school work each day.

Lately Molly has been enamored with the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom book.  I have been reading it often and she has been requesting the DVD as well.  One day while exploring the game closet she found a bag full of magnetic letters.  She quickly added them to the fridge and was singing  "a told b and b told c, I'll meet you at the top of the coconut tree" but of course her version was more "a..b... up coconut tree".

Later in the week I went to a Relief Society craft night and came home with a new nativity magnet set to play on the fridge. Molly has had a good time rearranging them on the fridge, the dishwasher and I even found Mary and Joseph on the oven at one point.

This one will stay on the fridge for awhile.  And so far it has kept her busy while I make dinner.

And for the first time in my life I actually made play dough.  I don't know how cost effective it is since the recipe I used called for Cream of Tarter and that stuff is expensive especially if you need a quarter cup of it. But the play dough was so smooth and it was nice to only have one color.  My kids all loved playing with it especially since I had just cooked it and it was still warm.

I broke out all the play dough toys too. That isn't something I do often. I just hate having to clean up the play dough mess.

Maybe play dough will have to be our new Rainy day activity. I know my kids love it and I do have a very nice big batch of bright pink dough now.

Plenty for all to have a large blob.

 

I know Molly would love to play with it everyday but I don't know if I am up for that yet. 

If you need a good Play dough recipe, this is what I did.

2 cups water

2 cups flour

1 cup salt

1/4 cup Cream of tarter

1/4 cup oil

food coloring or even paint (I just used food coloring)

Heat on the stove in a large pot. Fold the flour over and over making sure the bottom is pulled up to the top. After about 5 min. it should be stiff and well mixed.  Dump it out on a floured counter and kneed it (when it is cool enough to touch) for awhile until very smooth.  Then play and play.

Keep in a air tight container and it should stay moist for a number of months.

I am trying to keep Molly better occupied while I help the others with school. It isn't easy and she often gets pushed aside and as a result she is rather crabby so I am trying to make sure she gets read to and played with each day but also that she is given things to do while I am needed elsewhere.