Just relaxed

The school days are dwindling down. We did not to a school related thing today except to photocopy the answer sheet and mail it back to the assessment company for scoring. They say it could take up to 12 weeks to get results. Gosh, I hope it doesn't take that long.

I tried to nap today, but my body wanted to Go, Go, Go! So I went outside in the 90* weather and mowed our lawn today in sections. And in between each section I floated around in our pool.

So today was good...tomorrow will be better.

The final day of assessments…day 3

The devotion today was about daring to be different. There was a dare devil named Daniel “Spider Man” Goodwin who enjoyed the thrill of scaling huge buildings. Why in the world would he do that? Some people enjoy notararity and fame. Sometimes they just dare to be different. As Christians we are expected to be different from the rest of the world. We’re expected to be different in the way we act toward others, but more specifically the way we show love to others.

We read two chapters from the book of Exodus. Chapter 13 was the dedication of the first born humans and animals to God. Then the Israelites started their long journey of following the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night all the way to the Promised Land. They camped where God told them to. Chapter 14 is where Pharaoh changed his mind yet again and went in hot pursuit to catch up to the Israelites. What do you know God saved his people by opening up the Red Sea and letting them safely cross. But when the Egyptians tried to cross the waters swallowed them up and killed all of them. Leaving their bodies to rest on the shores.

Today was the final day for assessments. (THANK GOODNESS…I wish those aliens would abduct me for a week.) It was a HIGHLY distractible day. Socks went on hands like mittens, lots of mouth noises, and tags were ripped out of shirts today. Now for what JD did…just kidding…that was all him. The break down of today’s assessments are as follows: There were only 84 minutes of assessments completed today. (It‘s the shortest day thus far.) It took 24 minutes for study skills, 30 for science, and 30 for social studies. We did study skills before lunch and did a science review and social studies review and both assessments after lunch.

The study skills assessment. These are questions asking the student to read and interpret different sources or types of information. Basically, it is to gauge a students “school street smarts.” It includes the following sources: table of contents, map and key, dictionary, graphs, outlines, library catalog cards, and schedules and posters. He did better on this than I thought he would. He only missed 2 out of 30 questions for a possible score of 93%.

The science assessment. This was basic 5th grade Science questions about landforms, weather, force & motion, ecosystems, and the solar system. To the best of my 5th grade science knowledge I recognized only 3 questions as incorrect out of 40 questions. So that leaves him with possible score of 92%.

The social studies assessment. This was basic 5th grade social studies questions about Native Americans, important documents, studying and interpreting crop charts, and other history type questions. Again, to the best of my 5th grade social studies knowledge I recognized 4 out of 40 questions as incorrect leaving JD with a possible score of around 90%.

Test 1 Vocabulary -4 of 40 = 90%
Test 2 Compreh. -4 of 50 = 92%
Test 3 Spelling -13 of 30 = 56%
Test 4 Lang Mech -5 of 36 = 86%
Test 5 Lang Express -4 of 48 = 91%
Test 6 Math comp. -1 of 44 = 97%
Test 7 Math concepts -3 of 50 = 94%
Test 8 Study skills -2 of 30 = 93%
Test 9 Science -3 of 40 = 92%
Test 10 Social Studies -4 of 40 = 90%

Missed 43 questions out of 408 for a composite score of 89.4% WOW! I know I have less hair than Monday…too bad only the gray ones didn’t fall out.

Now we start out relaxation time…school is not “officially” over until 7 June. That will be 180 days of school for this year. But I will still have him working on a few things next week. Things I noticed during the assessments. (Bummer I know.)

Day two of assessments

The devotion today was about Sarah Josepha Buell who wrote Mary’s Little Lamb. She was a self-taught teacher who lobbied for the establishment of Thanksgiving holiday on the last Thursday of November. Mary’s Little Lamb made its way into school books and is easily recalled verse for verse by millions of children and adults alike. That seemingly small poem has had a lasting impression around the world. The same can be said of a mustard seed. Jesus used it to illustrate how faith in God can make God’s kingdom grow.

Today was another “give me more of the bible day.” We read four chapters from the book of Exodus. Chapter 9 continued with the plagues against the livestock, the festering boils, and the hail storm. Chapter 10 was the plague of the locusts and the three days of darkness. Chapter 11 was the death of all the first born sons. Chapter 12 was the instructions for the first Passover and the exodus from Egypt.

Day two assessment breakdowns are as follows: There were 118 minutes of total testing done today (4 minutes longer than yesterday.) It took 36 minutes for language expression, 38 for math computation, and 44 for math concepts and application. We did language expression and math computation before lunch and math concepts and application after lunch.

The language expression assessment. He did very well on this assessment. He easily identified the errors in each of the sentences, selected sound topic sentences, and developed good paragraphs. However, he was distracted and polishing the table with his shirt in a rhythmic way. When he missed questions # 19 and 20, I stopped the assessment and told him to take a five minute break “to get that energy out.” I then asked, “Are you sure you took your pill this morning?” Yes he did. Even though he was “busy” he only missed 4 out of 48 questions leaving the final tentative score as a 91%. JD was

The math computation assessment. This was a simple assessment to see if the student could add, subtract, multiple, and divide. In public school 75% of the EOG is calculator active. Which means they can use their calculators. I assumed this assessment was the same. It did not say on the test page for JD that a calculator could not be used so I let JD use a calculator. But then about half way through the assessment I pick up the teachers instructions and saw “Do not use calculators.” (What!? Oh man now what?) I told JD what the instructions said. He was extremely upset and you would have thought I sacrificed his dog Tater right in front of him. It was a awfully slow process to get through the rest of the assessment. JD was highly distracted from the very beginning of the assessment. Instead of focusing on the correct answer to the first addition problem he pointed out that there was not an answer for the letter “I.“ One question offered choices “A, B, C, D, or E,” to the next question offering choices “F, G, H, J, K.” (Where’s “I”? Who would notice that but my son?) JD moved around so much during the math assessment I got dizzy. At one point he even turned backwards in his chair after finishing a question. I had to ask him to turn back around to start the next question. Throughout the assessment I was constantly reminding him to “focus and settle down.” There was even tapping and humming for my entertainment as well. Despite all the “distractions” …to the best of my 5th grade math education I saw that he only missed one question out of 44 for a final possible score of 97%. (And in the process I pulled out so many of my hairs…literally. I kept having to swipe them off my papers. Oh well that assessment portion is over.)

The Math Concepts & Application assessment. This was the portion of the math assessment with word problem type questions that may or may not require addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. He did well during this test, but it was still like trying to give an assessment to a kid jacked up on candy who just got of “the wildest roller coaster ride EVER!” The best I can tell he only missed 3 out of 50 questions for a possible score of 94%.

Day one of assessments

The devotion today was about “A Penny Saved” is a penny earned. Trivia time…did you know that 300 billion one-cent coins with 11 different designs, have been minted since 1787? Edge to edge, those pennies would circle the earth 137 times! Then it transition into the pennies given to charities and how much pennies can add up to. The very fitting bible verse to day was from 2 Corinthians 8:12 and it says, “If you are really eager to give, it isn’t important how much you are able to give. God wants you to what you have, not what you don’t have.”

We only read chapter 8 of the book of Exodus. It was about the plague of the frog, gnats, and flies.

Now onto the second most important part of the day. It’s assessment week and I have a breakdown of the testing we accomplished today. There were 114 minutes of total testing done today. It took 20 minutes for vocabulary, 50 for comprehension, 16 for spelling, and 28 for language mechanics. We did vocabulary and comprehension before lunch and spelling and language and mechanics after lunch. I scored the assessments the best I could, but never revealed the final possible score to each test. I just praised him for “rocking” each individual assessment. I encouraged and praised him the whole day and I most certainly never said “awe” or “bummer” if he answered anything incorrectly. I have to say this is a huge eye opener into JD’s mind, learning method, and focus areas for 6th grade.

The Vocabulary assessment - The five sample questions at the beginning of the assessment started the anxiety wall and JD was tapping his head on the table moaning like he was in trouble. But once I told him to relax that this was only practice he overcame that mood. This portion of the assessment went well and he tentatively obtained a score of 90%.
- The word answer again to JD means the same thing as the word agree.
- He also had trouble with the word reluctant. Is it to be watchful, unwilling, unreliable, or neglectful? He answered unreliable.
- He couldn’t pronounce essential. Once I pronounced it he easily picked the right answer.
- He thought the driver of a glider plane was an astronaut, but finally changed it to aviator when I read the four choices.
- Is a venous fly trap is specially organized or adapted. JD struggled with this because the word he wanted was not in this list. He then said, “If choice “A” was fit instead of unfit I would choose that. He finally picked organized. (bummer…the plant files things…)
- What word means the driver acted before he had time to think about it? There were two tough choices. JD picked quickly instead of instinctively. I later asked him what instinct meant. His reply, “Something that doesn’t live any more.” (Ok…extinct)
- What does the suffix “ous” mean in the words glorious and joyous? I had JD say full of joy/glory, always joy/glory, less than joy/glory, and similar to joy/glory in order for him to finally pick full of.

The Comprehension assessment - JD was trying to rely on his memory of the passages instead of rereading them for the accurate info. He also gravitated to selecting the first answer that seemed right instead of reading all four possible answers. I reminded him about both potential pitfalls and short cuts. He only missed four out of 50 questions that I’m aware of so that gives him a potential 92%.

The Spelling assessment - There were 30 8+ letter spelling word questions, but a total of 46 spelling words to look at. Only two of the 200+ words we studied this semester were on the assessment. So I was hoping he wouldn’t get easily defeated. (And he didn’t) His final score was a 56%, but I’m thrilled. I thought he would only get less than 20%. I offered two approaches to finding the correct spelling of the words. One was try to remember how it looked while reading it somewhere during your hours of reading. The second method was sound out all four options and narrow down your choices. His method of choice was neither of these. Instead he said, “I choose the one I know I would not spell like.” (Meaning he spells phonetically and if a word is spelled phonetically he knows it’s incorrect.) That little boy is so smart about figuring out his own methods. I had to look up three words in the dictionary to see if I was right. I’m super proud of that 56%!

The Language mechanics assessment - This assessment focused on capitalization and punctuation only. Because I did not spend too much time on these this year we I did a quick review on the basic’s of punctuation like: exclamation mark, question mark, period, quotation marks, comma, apostrophe, colon, and semi-colon. Then, we did a quick review on about 20 different rules for capitalization. This worked well because he only missed 5 out of 36 questions for a possible score 86%.

100 Blog Posts!

Today makes the 100th blog post I've written. I need to get a different hobby. Anyway, we did another random name drawing and Marcie you are the winner. You should be getting something in the mail shortly.

I really missed reading the devotion and bible yesterday and I NEED to remember what’s the most important thing in our lives…that would be God. Today’s devotion was all about the Red Cross and Clara Barton‘s role in establishing the Red Cross. (Hey there’s a social studies lesson here.) First she was a civil war nurse. Then, during her 23 years of Red Cross service she helped aid in the Spanish American war. Then the devotion transitioned into Jesus caring for the poor and sick. His request to his followers was to do the same. When we care for those in need around us, no matter how small or simple an act, its as if we’re giving it directly to Jesus.

We also read one chapter out of the book of Exodus. Chapter seven was about God giving Moses and Aaron the precise instructions about throwing the staff down and it turning out to be a serpent and about the staff being raised above the Nile and turning the Nile and all the water in the land into blood. When Moses and Aaron did this it happened just as God said. When the magicians in Egypt tried to replicate these acts they too were able to perform the same acts. JD asked, “How did they do that?” All I could think of was Satan’s limited power was behind it.

A reminder - I ordered the CAT 5 (complete battery) for JD’s assessment this year to see where he stands and how much information he retained from the past 5 ½ years of public education. So as reported yesterday…today my goal was to research all “social studies” topics I could according to the standard 5th grade teaching curriculum. So I went to the North Carolina website and found two pages of curriculum to be taught to students is 180 days. (TWO PAGES!)

Goal one is geographic concepts of the United States and other countries of North America.
Goal two is analyzing political and social institutions in North America and examine how these institutions respond to human needs, structure society, and influence behavior.
Goal three is examining the roles various ethnic groups have played in the development of the United States and neighboring countries.
Goal four is tracing key developments in the United States history and describe their impact on the land and people of the nation and it’s neighboring countries.
Goal five is to evaluate ways the United States and other countries of North America make decisions about the allocation and use of economic recourses.
Goal six is to recognize how technology has influenced change within the United States and other countries in North America.

In order to teach JD what I needed to I had to research MANY different websites and collect MANY different articles to relearn and teach JD “5th grade Social Studies Basics.”
We taped six pages together and did a timeline covering the time period of 1600-1950‘s. It included:
- important documents or laws
- evolution of US transportation
- any major wars
- and the early settlements through the westward expansion.
* We discussed in length ALL the entries made to each line on the timeline.
* We did a short study on the major tribes of Native American Indians.
* We did a short study on the three branches of government. We talked about what each branch was responsible for and any requirements needed to hold that position in government.
* We discussed the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, Emancipation Proclamation, Magna Carta, Mayflower Compact, and a few others…
* We talked about famous people including the famous women of history.

If you didn’t already catch this…I HAD TO RELEARN ALL OF THIS FIRST! (Because I don’t remember ANY of this stuff.) I mean…names sound familiar but I couldn’t place the exact event associated with it. Dates…forget memorizing dates…not going to happen. Important documents to me are my birth certificate, social security card, and retired ID card! And forget wars too…until today I couldn’t tell you who fought who or even why. This stuff never interested me in school, but now I will probably never forget this information. Makes me think I could take a substitute teacher job next year. (NOT!)

Very tiring day

After a restless night I woke up this morning only to do absolutely nothing but research all the science I could to review with JD today. When I remembered and it was confirmed that I ordered the complete battery of tests to include science, I freaked out! So I researched: animal and plant life, matter and energy, and Earth and space sciences. I have ten pages of both handwritten and computer copied and pasted material now. JD and I went over this extensively today. It’s far too wide-ranged to type it all and far too boring to read it. I will tell you I know more about animal and plant life, matter and energy, and Earth and space sciences than I ever cared to. (Tired smile)

Sadly, we did not even do a devotion or read from the bible today.

So that’s all for today…time for some “me time.” Jeff said, “He’ll be glad when the testing is over.” I will too.

Friday will be a social studies cram party!

Good practice test day

(Sorry in advance about the length of the blog today...but I have assessment information towards the bottom.)

We did not do the word bank, journal, music, or history lessons today. We only did the devotion, bible reading, math, English worksheets, and a North Carolina science EOG.

The devotion was about 19 May, 1780, when the New England region had an unusually dark morning. And the cause was unknown. The animals thought it was evening and did their evening routines. The roosters roosted and the cows walked back to their barns. During those darkness hours people hastily assembled church services. (Could you imagine that?) Three times in the bible there were conditions referred to as hours of darkness. Those were during creation, the ninth plague, and when just hung on the cross for us. The bible warns us not only to stay away from the “works of darkness” but to expose them. To do otherwise is to remain in the dark.

We read from the book of Exodus today. I was only going to read two chapters, but it was reading so much like a gripping-page-turner story that we continued through chapter 6. Chapter 4 was God showing the protesting Moses the miraculous signs that He would provide. (What didn’t God just reach down and thump Moses in the head for protesting so much?) Moses finally left God to ask Jethro if he could go find his family in Egypt. Jethro said, “Go in peace.” Moses’ wife circumcised their son on the way in order to spare Moses life. Aaron met Moses along the way and they met with the elder to say all that God told Moses. In chapter 5 Moses and Aaron met with the Pharaoh. The Pharaoh brushed them off saying, “You’re distracting my workers.” Then the Pharaoh gave the instructions to stop giving the workers straw for the bricks. The foremen were whipped for not making the quota. The foremen yelled at Moses and Aaron about this matter. Chapter 6 was when Moses and God having another conversation about freeing the Israelites and following through with His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give them the land. Then there was a brief family tree of the clans of Israel. (Those names…tongue tied…)

We took a North Carolina science EOG today just in case there were science questions on the assessment. JD did so well on those 44 questions. I didn’t score it though. I only wanted him to be familiar with some terms so I read the questions and the multiple choice answers and he was able to answer most of them all by himself. I’m so happy he retained most of what he learned about: animals and plants, landforms, forces and motion, and weather from public school. I guess if the topic is interesting enough it will hold his attention enough to make it all the way to the memory bank. (Whew.)

Today JD finished his Math assessment. There were only 18 questions left. I only had to assist him on one question today. So he scored a 94% on the 18 questions from today, but the total score from yesterday and today was an 88% on a state assessment. (Whew…breathing…)

We did another three English worksheets today. JD learned about run-on sentences and fixing them by adding a conjunction (and, or, but) to make it a compound sentence. Then we started unit two of the English workbook which is literature and writing. It focused on writing a good beginning to a paragraph. (These are definitely English skills JD needs.) It also taught him how to supply details to dull sentences. This took a lot of prompting or suggesting by me to get him to create details. Example: The wind was howling. Our new sentence: The hurricane type wind was howling like a hound dog. The next skill taught was writing dialogue. That is adding the comma and quotations before someone say something. Then, punctuating the end of a sentence and tying the sentence up with quotations after the dialogue. The last skill learned was writing a good title. We did a lot of questions like - When is my family going to get here? The story given was about a person waiting for hours at a bus stop and worrying about someone needing to meet them. I love that I get to sit one-on-one with JD to teach him these English skills. Sadly, this is definitely his least favorite subject and his writing skills reflect that. Now at least I’ll know if he gets it or not. Whereas before didn’t have a firm grasp of exactly what English skills he was lacking in. Turns out…so far it’s everything we’ve learned about these past couple of days. (Ugh!) We have all summer to catch up to his current grade level.

Today I researched the type of assessment JD will take. I ordered the CAT/5 Complete Battery. This is a full-length test and gives the most comprehensive test results. It covers reading, language, vocabulary, spelling, math, science, and social studies. It is suppose to take approximately 5 ½ hours to complete. (Maybe longer for JD.) According to the testing company I ordered the test from, and the state of North Carolina, I am able to administer the test in my home and be the administrator.

Here’s a breakdown of each component of the test:
Reading - Five reading subtests include two pre-reading tests for Kindergarten, a Word Analysis test for Grades 1-3, and Vocabulary and Comprehension tests for Grades K-12.
Spelling - This subtest for Grades 2-12 assesses three broad areas of spelling skills: vowel sounds, consonant sounds, and structural units.
Language - The Language Mechanics and Language Expression subtests work together to measure a broad range of language and writing skills essential to full literacy. Test items measure the ability to apply standard usage and writing conventions and to develop effective sentences and paragraphs.
Mathematics - The Mathematics Computation and Mathematics Concepts and Applications subtests assess the ability to perform fundamental mathematics operations, apply mathematical concepts, and use a variety of problem-solving strategies.
Study Skills - This subtest for Grades 4-12 measures how well students can carry out independent study using information-processing skills that they can apply across subject areas.
Science - Science items sample knowledge of the natural world and assess inquiry skills. Objectives are carefully targeted to the grade and match common curriculum groups: animal and plant life, matter and energy, and Earth and space sciences.
Social Studies - The Social Studies subtest measures understanding of various disciplines needed for a comprehensive global perspective: geography, economics, history, government, citizenship, sociology, and anthropology.

**Dear God...Oh my…now I’m getting nervous…thinking: Should I have taught him this or that? What if he doesn‘t know “x” amount of questions in a row and just gives up trying? (breathing and “What if-ing" myself to death…) Signed, Conniption fit in Cameron.

I will receive the test results in about 4-6 weeks after I send them in. It will show scale scores, national percentiles, grade equivalents, STANINE (standard nine…) and other data.