Standardized Testing

For this subject, I am deferring to Oliver DeMille.  He does such a good job explaining it with this article: click here.

Sam just received his scores back from the Explore test a couple of weeks ago.  I noticed he did awesome in Math and....wait for it..... Reading Comprehension.  Wow.  The Math score was totally expected, but the Reading Comprehension score blew me away because the English score was really low compared to the other scores.  We have been working on grammar and stuff, but I really do ascribe to the theory that a student who does a lot of reading (of good quality literature) will learn how things should be written... how they should sound...how ideas are transferred.    The most interesting thing was that in the sections he scored lowest in, the ones that were wrong were all at the end of the section.  I sat down with him and we went through these questions to have a "learning moment".   It turns out that he knew most of those answers.  He just didn't have time during the test, so he guessed.

I try not to place a lot of importance on these tests because, as Oliver describes in the above article, I want them to know how to think and love learning more than I want them to be able to answer multiple choice questions.  When has a person's boss ever asked them to answer multiple choice questions as a regular duty?  When has a business owner every excelled because they could answer multiple choice questions?  What really happens?  We get paid to think.  And - those who out-pace others in the hunger to learn can usually think better.

An Exaggeration...but only a little

On a Scale of 1 to 10

It is not unusual to have Rosie come into our bedroom anywhere between 4 am and 6 am to snuggle in until wake up time, which varies, of course.  So when I woke up this morning about 6 am to see Rosie standing there, I thought nothing of it.  

"You need to come see something in my room," she whispered. 

"Just get in bed, honey," I sleepily replied.  

In the dark, I did not notice her frustration.  Over to Papa's side she went.

"There is an emergency in my room," she implored him.

OK.  If she had used the word "emergency" with me, I would have reacted differently, right?  I would like to think so.  Papa followed her into her room, like a wonderful parent, and found that she had indeed thrown up on the floor.  I am such a dork.  Why didn't she tell me it was an emergency?  This afternoon, she said it was because she didn't want to tell me why.  Am I that scary?  

Today at the store, I heard (the whole store heard) a lady deriding her poor little girl.  She couldn't have been more than 4 or 5 years old and she just kept singing and talking to her mommy.  I have no idea who they are and what they are dealing with, but doesn't she know that most people keep that kind of thing behind closed doors?  But no - Here she was for the whole world to see and hear what most of us are guilty of to some degree at some point. 

This post really has nothing to do with home schooling.  It is more to say I am thankful for a faith-filled home where the Holy Spirit is invited in daily to work on all of our hearts.  He helps me to treasure the people in my life, especially my family.  

Rosie is feeling much better tonight.  The day was pretty uneventful.  She said that on a scale of 1 to 10, with a 1 being normal and a 10 indicating a need to puke, she was only at a 3.5 when I put her to bed.  On a scale of 1 to 10, Mama is thinking this little girl is a 10. :-)

Pace

Today we received news that Sam achieved the National Honor Roll for the AMC 8 (American Mathematics Competitions) !  He took the test, along with the rest of his math team, several weeks ago.

A couple of things this brings to mind are :

His older sister spent a lot of time helping him prepare for the test.  She is part of the High School Math Team and she tried to figure out what was holding Sam back from doing his best on these tests.  He typically does really well at home on practice tests, but didn't do as well at the actual test.  Hope decided to make the practice test look like the exact same format.  It must have helped!  I ask myself how many sophomore high school girls would spend so much effort to help their younger brother in such a way.  Maybe there are more than I think, but I am totally convinced that being home schooled together has fostered that relationship.

The other thing is that the kids can proceed in any subject as fast or as slow as they are able.  (Of course, Sam would like to proceed very slowly in writing and grammar, but there are limits mom puts on going too slow. :-))  Math, however, has been something Sam and Hope have enjoyed and they have gone at a pace that is different than they would have in a school outside of the home.  In fact, when Hope started learning math many years ago, Sam just joined us and I just let him observe and do what he could.  He kept up with Hope for several years and then slowed down a couple years ago because he needed to in order to comprehend it.  I love having this flexibility without having to deal with it at parent-teacher conferences after it may be too late!  Well - I have conferences, I guess, but they are in my own head. :-)

So - I hope this didn't come across as a brag-fest.  I believe there are many kids who could adjust their pace in any subject and, with the help of a mentor/teacher/tutor, they can speed up or slow down whenever needed in order to get the most out of their education.  It is just easier when there are no formal classes.