Our Last Day of School...

In a few minutes we are off to our end-of-year testing.  The big teen and Goldilocks are the only ones in our family at the moment who are required to be tested by our state.  Since they both have learning challenges, we opt for the one-on-one attention and untimed Woodcock-Johnson test with an educational evaluator.  The downside is that we are not allowed to leave the evaluator's office during testing and the two have to go one at a time, so I will be entertaining the little ones for the duration of the testing in the waiting room.  The estimate is 5 hours total.  I have packed two big bags of crafts, books and puppets to play with.  I am taking the portable DVD player, too, but it didn't behave very well a few weeks ago.  I am not sure how useful it will be.  I fed the kiddos eggs this morning so that their brains will be extra awake.  I think the big teen will do fine, as long as he doesn't rush.  He likes our evaluator, and she has worked with him for several years.  Little Goldilocks is not looking forward to this.  This is her first time being tested.  She has already cried twice.  I told her it is a series of games to show what she has learned this year, but she is still upset.  She really doesn't like anything new.  She was tested a few years ago when they were looking into whether she had FASD or not, but she doesn't remember that.  I pray that she will stay calm and not have any major fallout as a result of today.  Hopefully, our evaluator will be up to the challenge.  She is usually really good with special needs kids.


In other news ~ The kiddos enjoyed playing with The Lab Brats Investigate the Science of Cogs and Pulleys book this week.  This is a wonderful interactive book, and the kids made a helicopter, pin wheel, car, gears, and spinner.  There are a few more activities to do.  We look forward to learning more about cogs, gears and pulleys next week.  I have to see if there are some more books in this series. 





For the next 6 weeks, the "schooling" for the little ones will be very relaxed and almost completely child led.  The big teen will be watching an educational video every few days and follow his own interests.  I am also looking forward to doing activities with unplug your kids each week.  Hopefully, I will manage to get at least one more child swimming this summer.  I think teaching kids to swim is harder than teaching them to read -- if that is possible!  We will resume formal school in July.  I will still be here recording our lives, so check back to see what crazy stuff we get into.


Blessings, Dawn