Standardized Testing

The girls were excited to discover
that our local Kroger has kid-sized
shopping carts--not toddler carts,
but ones that can actually hold all
our groceries. I just had to
handle the list!

We survived our first experience with standardized testing, and everybody passed! We had a few teary moments (the idea that they weren't expected to know every question was difficult for them grasp, and Monkey ran out of the time in most of the language arts sections). I'm still not a huge fan of standardized tests in general, but the legal hoop has been successfully jumped through.

Lion wasn't actually required to take them, but I was curious about where she would fall. She's been casually doing kindergarten work, but is technically too young to have completed kindergarten. With these scores though, she's definitely cleared for first grade if she's up for the challenge!

So what does an over-achieving 7 year old (Bug) do after spending a morning testing? Work on learning a new language and inform her mother that she really needs to learn about Shakespeare! (So she can understand the literary references in the book she's reading.) Fortunately, I found Charles Lamb's retelling of Shakespeare's plays as stories for children. As I write, she's curled up in the reading nook with "The Winter's Tale," a play that was prominently featured in a novel she was reading. The day of testing she watched a Spanish-language DVD from the library to help with her pronunciation. She's since decided she wants to pursue learning the language a little more seriously. We've added it to her daily assignment sheet, and she's been working her way through alphabet-based worksheets practicing vocabulary and pronunciation.

Music
Monkey has finally officially warmed up to her drum teacher! I actually heard them laughing together about something the other day. We've continued to set a timer for her daily drum practice, so she can build up her endurance and have more fun playing for longer stretches.

Lion is cheerfully plugging along with her lessons. She loves her teacher and continues making good progress.

Bug has recently expressed an interest in switching back to primarily playing violin. The piano wasn't proving challenging enough to keep her cheerfully interested. We stepped it up a little by requesting her piano teacher add music theory to her lessons. I also discovered her teacher had only been teaching her songs by numbered fingers, not by actually teaching her to read music. I'm sure she would have gotten to it eventually, but Bug was ready for the additional info now. Bug, Daddy, and I discussed the possibility of switching her formal lessons back to violin (as soon as next month) and encouraging her to continue studying piano on her own for awhile.

Just Keep Running
Running isn't just a casual hobby for Lion. This child needs to run. Daddy hadn't been able to take her for several weeks, and she was starting to run in circles through the downstairs on a daily basis. A time or two I actually made her put her running shoes on and take a lap or two around the outside of the house. Once she came back in cheering that she "won the race!" Funny little kid.

This week Daddy finally had time to take her out, and he took her to a track to run intervals for the first time (that's training by running very intense short distances). Since our current location is severely lacking in hills, Lion was interested in a new form of running challenge, and she loved it!

Science
Science is one subject that doesn't really get recorded anywhere else, because I don't do formal science lessons at this point. We've always encouraged the girls curiosity and answered their questions about the world around them as accurately as possible (thank you, Google!). With this lifestyle of exploration, we've so far easily crossed off all the science standards for their grades (Monkey actually aced that section of the test)!

Recently, we've discussed bees and the part they play in pollination, the classification and usefulness of spiders, how seeds form, identifying local birds and using a field guide, the differing needs of various plants (shade vs. full sun, enough room, etc.), characteristics of birds vs. mammals, etc.

And, of course, we're checking regularly on our hands-on science project:

Baby cucumbers! Baby peppers! Baby tomatoes!

Happy Independence Day!
We continued our tradition of having a "patriotic" breakfast: watermelon stars and red, white, and blue yogurt parfaits. This year the girls were responsible enough to really help prepare it, too. I sliced the watermelon, but they cut out the stars with a cookie cutter, washed the blueberries and strawberries, cut the leaves off the strawberries and assembled the parfaits. We missed out on fireworks the last couple of years on the drought-stricken West Coast, so we were really hoping to see some this year. The open field behind our house seemed like a prime viewing location. Unfortunately, the trees that surround it proved just a little too tall, and we only saw a few.