Homeschool Day 9/24 + Making Some Adjustments

 After looking at some of his scores on the standardized test, I'm going to make some adjustments.  

Language Arts

• I think it would be ok if we took a break from spelling or worked on spelling during his writing
• I would like to add copywork, dictation and narration to his writing.  I don't feel like he's getting enough writing with The Good and the Beautiful
• I feel like we are doing too much language arts in general

Math

• Because of his math scores, I told him we can either bump him up into Saxon 7/6 or we could do Life of Fred Fractions, Decimals and Percents and then jump into Saxon 8/7 or Life of Fred Prealgebra.  He chose Life of Fred Fractions.  

What we finished today:

Reading

• Where the Red Fern Grows
• The Wild Robot

Language Arts

• The Good and the Beautiful LA 6
• The Good and the Beautiful Cursive 6 - this counts as copywork in my opinion

Math

• Life of Fred Fractions - we did the first lesson, which he says was too easy

Science

• Apologia Earth Science
• How tides work
• How the major five ocean currents work

We finished the California Achievement Test Grade 6

 We finished the California Achievement Test Grade 6...which is the grade he would have just started if he went to public school.  I try to do standardized testing once in middle school, just to give my kids some exposure and experience with testing.  Then, about sophomore year of high school, we dive into SAT test prep.  Eventually, my kids take either the SAT or TSI (we prefer the TSI).

Results

Let me just say that the results were a bit unexpected.  

Overal Composite = 99th percentile

Reading Composite = 94th percentile

Language Composite = 99th percentile

Math Composite = 97th percentile

Things that make you go hmmmm....

Lack of a complete understanding of fractions lowered his math score.  This has been an issue for about a year now.  I think he's just little and struggles with fractions because they take a bit of a conceptual leap to understand.

Saxon Math is definitely doing him good.  Before this, Life of Fred was probably giving him a great foundation also.  I'm totally ok if he would like to jump between Saxon and Life of Fred.  Both are apparently super solid math programs.

The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts is excellent and so was Grammar Island, the book we used over the summer which taught him the eight parts of speech.  Spelling Workout is apparently...um...working out.  I think his spelling was in the 96th percentile.  

I expected his reading/language arts scores to be much higher than his math, but I guess I'm wrong.  He may end up being a really good test taker, which will help him with the SAT or TSI.

This was a huge morale booster for him.  It really helped his self-esteem, especially since he has been through so much with his dyslexia.  I'm glad we took the time to do this. 

Homeschool Day 9/22 - almost done with CAT testing

 We are almost finished with the California Achievement Test.  I think we will finish tomorrow morning.  He has one math section left (computations).  He scored in the 99th percentile in conceptual math.

Bible

• The Action Bible - Jesus tempted in the desert

Science

• Apologia Earth Science - oceans

Math

• We finished the conceptual math sections of the CAT test

Homeschool Day 9/21

 Here's what we did today.

Bible

• The Action Bible - John the Baptist

Reading

• Where the Red Fern Grows
• The Wild Robot

Language Arts

• Spelling Workout F
• The Good and the Beautiful LA 6

Math

• More testing with the California Achievement Test (we only have two sections left)
• He scored a perfect score on the word problem section.  Some of the problems were word for word from our Saxon textbook, it seemed like

History

• Story of the World 2 - Ferdinand and Isabella
• Famous Figures of the Middle Ages and Renaissance - Queen Isabella
• The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn

Art & Music

• The Good and the Beautiful Drawing I
• Violin practice

Homeschool Day 9/14 + More CAT Testing

 We finished school at about 1:30pm, so we were both losing it at that point.  But I was proud of the effort he put in for the CAT test and his violin practice.

Reading

• Where the Red Fern Grows
• The Wild Robot

Language Arts

• He wrote paragraph 3 of his four paragraph, persuasive essay
• CAT Testing
• He did the Language Usage section of the California Achievement Test.  
• Scored in the 99th percentile
• His total composite for Reading was 94th percentile
• His total composite for Language Arts was 99th percentile
• We haven't started the math section

Math

• Saxon 6/5 - dividing by tens

History

• Story of the War 2 - The War of the Roses
• The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn

Art and Music

• We practiced violin together.  I played guitar and he practiced reading sheet music he was given to practice at his lesson last week
• The Good and the Beautiful Drawing I - more tracing with tracing paper

Day 2 of Testing

 We're actually learning a lot doing this.  Even though it sounds dumb to take a standardized test as a homeschooler in Texas, we both are actually get a lot out of this.  It's been a huge boost to his self-confidence.  He was much faster with the test on Day 2.  He was less confused and knew more of what the test was looking for.  During the last section, he didn't even want to look at the instructions and do the example problem.  He just kept trying to grab the computer and get started.

Blue light lenses.  He needs them.  He told me that he's turning on the color-blind settings when he plays Playstation.  I didn't realize that he was having so much nausea/headaches with screens.  That was eye-opening.  No pun intended.  

I realized that his reading scores are so high because he starts every morning reading his Bible.  I honestly think that might actually be boosting his reading skills.  Not that boosting reading skills is why we read the Bible...lol. I guess it's an added bonus.  

We did the language mechanics sections today, which took all day, because he has a five minute attention span.  He scored in the 97th percentile, so apparently The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts is pretty awesome.  And thank-you, Spelling Workout, because his spelling was in the 96th percentile.  Even I can't spell some of the words in Spelling Workout.  I'm very happy with our curriculum selection right now and he doesn't want to change anything.

No School Because of Testing

 We're doing some standardized testing this week and probably next, so we won't be doing our regular schoolwork this week.  We are using the California Achievement Test (CAT) that is available online through www.academicexcellence.com.  It's $25, you can get the untimed version and break it up over the week or even two weeks.  It scores almost immediately.  It's actually a great way to introduce how to take a standardized test, because a lot of homeschoolers in Texas don't have any experience with standardized tests.  It's helpful to test once in middle school so they learn some strategies and are familiar with what these tests look like.

What I am learning from testing this week is that my son has no stamina.  We only did three sections today and he's wiped out.  He also started getting nausea and a headache from looking at the computer screen.  So we are going to need to break this test up even more than I already had planned.  Also, the reading comprehension score is probably not accurate because he literally knew all the answers before even reading the passage.  The reading passages were science-themed and he knew the answers to the questions.

So far, he scored in the 96th percentile for spelling, the 99th percentile for reading comprehension and the 75th percentile for vocabulary.  Those scores feel like a bit of a mystery to me.  I'm not sure why he struggled so much with vocabulary/word meaning, but it was noticeable when he was taking the test that he was uncertain what a number of the word meanings.