I CU #4

Intensive Care for The Christian Unschooler

“This week we want to…" We have fireworks that we didn't get to use on the 4th due to thunderstorms, so we are looking for a chance to do them this week.   

“The kid is…” He's been spending time with his Grandparents, and still playing and building on Roblox. He's also taken an interest in our family history.

“I am learning….” about our family history on both sides of the family. I've been playing around on Ancestry.com. I found a picture of two of my Great-great Grandfather's that others have posted.

Also...
First I want to say, I'm not really a big fan of standardized testing- especially the end of the year standardized tests that have caused so much chaos in the news lately (CRCT). BUT the other day, I came across the results from Padawan's IOWA (ITBS) Test that he took at the very beginning of 5th grade. I was looking over his scores that I had barely paid attention to when it was sent home last October in the midst of the 5th grade fiasco (the one that I still need to blog about). 
Anyway, the point is that it was the first time I looked at the grade levels that he tested at instead of just the percentiles of how he compared to all the other kids in the nation that took the test. It shed more light for me about why he gets along so much better with older kids, why he was so bored with school and considered most of it busywork and irrelevant, and why at the beginning of our homeschool journey he kept getting frustrated with me because I was trying to teach him things he already knew.


These are the grade levels that he tested at after a 4th grade education in Public School.
Vocabulary 9.2 (99th percentile!)
Reading 8.1
Spelling 4.6 (40th percentile- I knew he was below average in spelling- I didn't realize that it would be considered grade level.)
Math Concepts 5.4 (He tested at 7.6 in Concepts, 6.6 in Problem Solving, but 2.9 in computation)
Social Studies 9.6 (Almost 10th grade- 96th percentile)
Science 7.6
(They always swapped out Science and Social Studies Units at his school and were REALLY slack on teaching Science some years-  so I know he didn't learn all of that there. It just shows you what kids will learn on their own when they are interested in something.)

“I am struggling with…” being paranoid about being in my own house since the snake incident. My husband couldn't find the snake during the week that Padawan and I stayed at my parent's house. It must be gone. Evidence of that would be really nice though!!!!! It really sucks being afraid in your own house, but it is getting a little easier everyday.. I think....

“This week is the first time….” The neighbor girl came by to visit me for the first time in a couple of years. We had a nice talk. She looked and talked so grown up. Its hard to believe she is only 10. It also shocked me how much she talked about boys. She said she wouldn't like to be homeschooled because she would miss all the cute boys at school. We're talking going into 5th grade here! I don't remember being into boys that much at that age. Padawan and his friend never really talk about girls. Their conversations mainly consist of Legos, Star Wars, or cars. She assured me that boys that age are into girls too- except for the nerdy/geeky ones.

“I am grateful…” that we are homeschooling! I'm also grateful for my husband for trying so hard to find that darned snake, and for putting up with our paranoia about it this week.