More LEAP'ing

Day 1 of the really serious prep for the LEAP test. From Barnes & Nobles last night, I bought two seriously thick books - $26 bucks each!  One focuses on language arts and the other on math, and both are specifically for the Louisiana LEAP test.

I know that saying “Louisiana LEAP” is redundant in terms of the Louisiana part, but I utterly confused a Connections Academy customer service rep yesterday when asking if incoming freshman had to take the LEAP. You see, Connections Academy has its own LEAP test. So we went round and round for several minutes before we both figured out that we were talking about two different things.

Me: Just got a letter today for my daughter Jojo saying that she’ll have to take the LEAP in order to register as a freshman.

Her: Oh no, she doesn’t have to take the LEAP, but it does help us place her where she should be (don’t you love that phrase “where they should be”?). You can even take it on-line.

Me: Actually I looked it up on-line, and it’s only being offered once this summer, and there’s no make-up date. I don’t know how she would take it on-line. Do you proctor one specifically for Connection Academy’s student?

Her (sounding a bit indignant): Did you find that on our website?

Me: It’s not on your website. I found that on the Louisiana Department of Education’s website. I think they would have more current info on the LEAP.

Her: Give me a minute. . .

We eventually sorted it out and realized that Connections has an assessment test that they call LEAP. Confusing, isn’t it? So if I’m redundant in writing about Louisiana’s LEAP test, that’s why.

No More Little Monkeys Watching Harry Potter in the Bed

Last night I got almost no sleep, and it was my fault.  The boys are getting excited about an upcoming Hogwarts summer camp. Normally we precede this event with a one to two month long Harry Potter marathon, where we listen to all 7 unabridged books back to back on cd.  It’s like the world of Harry Potter comes to live in our house for a couple of months – complete with the British accent.

This year we didn’t get a chance to listen to the books – it’s just been a busy spring and early summer.  It almost doesn’t feel like summer without the echoey voice of Jim Dale reading J.K.’s words to us as we go about our day.  The boys have taken it upon themselves to get into the mood and have been playing the Harry Potter wii game and watching the movies.  Although I suspect they are watching the movies more to get hints for the game rather than because they enjoy the films.

Bedtime rolls around, and the boys are faced with the question they get every night, “What are you watching while you go to sleep?” I know, I shouldn’t let the kids watch movies while falling asleep, but it keeps the peace in the house at night and all parents should have some benign bad habits. Bobo wants Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

We’ve been through this scene several months ago – they watch Harry Potter while going to be, they get scared and they all wind up in bed with us. I say that. Bobo insists that it won’t happen this time, that was a long time ago, they’re bigger boys now and Ebby backs him up.  

OK, I say. I’m always willing to give the kids a second chance. “But you are not sleeping in our room if you’re scare,” I say. They fall asleep, no problem. Around 10:30 Bobo comes rushing into our room looking scared.

“Uh . . . uh,” you can see him contemplating what to say. “Just wanted to say good night and give you a hug.” That’s not what he wanted, but he goes back to bed anyway.

11:30, Ebby comes into our room. He’s not as easy to convince to go back, and one kid in the room with us isn’t so bad. But man, he tossed and turned and kicked and hit and thrashed and fussed all night. At one point he woke up saying that he was scared. I got no sleep.
 
So that’s it! For the time being, no more Harry Potter at night before bed!

Calming Down: The LEAP’s Not So Bad

I found a ton of stuff on the LEAP test on Louisiana’s DOE site from a sample practice test to lesson plans to overviews. We started at the beginning with the practice test.

At first poor Jojo freaked out worse than I did. Let’s just say tears were involved.  So I walked her step by step through the first few reading comprehension problems. It was obvious that the anxiety was more from not knowing how to take a standardized test rather than not knowing the answers.

We spent about a half hour going over the first 5 questions. I talked her through things like process of elimination, educated guess, and figuring out what the question really wants to know. Then she breezed through the rest of the language arts part, minus the writing section.

She surprised me on the editing section where I thought she needed a bit more help. Nope, she talked herself through the entire section:

“No, that’s present tense and it should be past.”

“No comma needed there since they should be separate sentences.”

“Okay, that’s possessive when it shouldn’t be.”

And she got the entire section right. Of course her success only reinforces my theory that if you read enough good literature then you pick up on good grammar along the way, but that theory is for another post.

Math may be a bit trickier, but I think we can work through it. There were more problems that she didn’t know how to do. Then we had to stop because I couldn’t find a working calculator (my elves, aka Bobo & Ebby, have run off with all of them).

A couple of hours later at the library check-out, I was informed that all 8 of the LEAP test prep books I wanted to check out were reserved for the reference section and that they had none on the shelf for normal usage. At least I knew what was out there in regards to LEAP test prep, but good, goodly, moogly, are these books expensive.

One unexpected trip to Barnes & Nobles later, I found the two I needed but I had to look all over the education aisles to find them. I never figured why the test prep books were not in the test prep section.

Since the sample test from the DOE website was not the full length, we may start tomorrow going over another sample test in language arts. I’ll get Jojo comfortable first in what she feels that she’s good at and then work on math once we get a calculator.

8th Grade LEAP Test Freak-Out

Got a letter in the mail yesterday for Jojo from Connections Academy saying that she’ll have to take the 8^th grade LEAP test before she can start 9^th grade. Arghhh! I’m still on the fence as the whether or not to homeschool her for high school.

On my side for homeschooling, I think Algernon got a much deeper education in some area being at home. She certain read more classical literature (do you know of any other 21 year old who’s read The Brothers Karamazov twice?). She certainly did more writing than the average school student. Her math wasn’t too bad – she made it through advanced algebra with an okay understanding. She knows history better than a few people with history degrees.

On the side against homeschooling, I admit I was too light in science. Prepping them for standard type tests was nearly non-existent. Deadlines . . well, I need to figure those out myself.

I feel that I’ve made several mistakes in homeschool, and I don’t really know how to compensate for or correct them. Jojo is a special case: late reader due to dyslexia, about a year behind in math due to H. Katrina and many moves, but still very bright.

Having to take the LEAP throws a monkey wrench into the plans of her doing high school. Technically, she is old enough to be in 10^th grade, but we lost a great deal of time moving as often as we did after the hurricane. I’m more comfortable having her in 9^th grade next year, and she’s perfectly fine with the idea. 

All this LEAP stuff forces me to realize it’s my fear of failure, not hers.  I fear the LEAP because I don’t want to be seen as a failure of a homeschool mom. She’s certainly capable of passing, but she may need a bit of prep.  Writing can be honed a bit. She’s not a bad writer as far as concepts go, but grammar needs a bit of work. Her math skills aren’t bad, and she learns quickly.

OK, there’s no question on whether or not to LEAP. I just filled out the registration, and I’ll have it faxed tomorrow. So why all the worry? It’s in 4 weeks, and there is no make-up date.

There lies problem: time. We have two weeks of Hogwarts summercamp, and then she has a week long Girl Scout camp after that. The test is at the end of June, and most of June is eaten up with camps and other activities. This test must take priority though.

Terribly frustrated now! I asked both virtual schools about having to take the LEAP in order to start 9^th grade, and I was told no that she would not have to take it. They both said that they would do their own assessment tests in order to place the children where they need to be. So this notification is kind of last minute.

I understand that the virtual schools have not been doing it long in LA. I understand that their hands are tied as far Louisiana’s regulations are concerned. If I had known about this a month ago . . . what? Would I have backed out of Hogwarts? No. Not registered for Girl Scout camp? Probably.

Calming down a bit. They are only testing her in English and math, and she only needs to score Basic in one and Approaching Basic in the other. That’s like a C and a D. OK, I think she should be able to do that.

The question is what I do if she doesn’t pass. Then I guess we are back to where we are right now: a bit behind but catching up via homeschooling.  That’s not really all that bad I suppose.

Taking a deep breath now and letting Jojo know. Oh she won’t be pleased that her next few weeks will be filled with LEAP prep, she won’t be able to work at Hogwarts and Girl Scout camp might be canceled, but life is as life is and not as I will it to be.

Inference

Watching PBS’s “Wild Kratts” with the boys last night, an animal came on and hubby asked Bobo if he new what it was.

Bobo: That’s the wild American badger. It’s the cousin to the skunk.

Hubby: Good. Do you know what a skunk is?

Bobo: Yeah, it’s a . . . uh . . . uh . . . uh . . . Yeah, it’s the cousin to the wild American badger.
 

A Leap of Reading

I was helping Bobo do his reading lessons earlier, and he matching words with the same beginning sounds using pictures.  We had finished about a page and a half, when we got to a picture of a can.  First I have him say all of the words in the list - you never know what kids think a picture of something is.  Then find the matches. He said the word can and, without missing a beat, spelled it. 

He’s never done that before. It’s a huge hurdle in the process of learning to read.  When a child goes from only being able to spell words he’s memorized to hearing an unknown word, breaking it down into the phonemes and then spelling it! Wow! It’s along the same lines as watching a baby stand for the first time. Just makes a mom all gushy.

Learning to read is such a mysterious thing. Ever wonder why there are so many different approaches to reading and reading programs out there? It’s partly because different children learn to read using different methods, but also because we still don’t know for certain how someone learns to read.

Think about it. These little squigglies we call letters have no relation to the sounds they represent. They don’t really “make” sounds, and they often represent multiple sounds. I’m often amazed that humans learn to read at all.  Reading is so cool!

Tidying up the Nursery: Why Does a Monkey Only Play in a Clean Room?

The boys have been driving me nuts for days!! Constantly fighting with each other. Constantly needing things that they are capable of getting themselves. Constantly asking ridiculous requests for things that they know they can’t do or have. Yelling at each other.

I can’t use tired as an excuse - at least not for them. They’ve been going to bed earlier than they have in months, and yet still waking up at their same time. So why? Why? Why? Why don’t they go and play with the bazillion toys they have?

I know I could handle all of this better if I could just get some sleep, but, despite their earlier sleep-time, neither Ebby nor Bobo sleep well even though they not being bitty babies. As a matter of fact, none of my kids slept well until they were about 6 or 7.  Bobo isn’t bad. Once or twice a week he wakes up from a bad dream and wants to crawl into our bed. But Ebby never sleeps well, and on the rare occasion that he does, it has to be in our bed with his feet in my face. My constant complaining of lack of sleep annoys even myself.

Yes, we’ve tried things to help. Herbal remedies. Nighttime routines. Being firm.  Food limitations. Yadda, yadda, yadda. But nothing works when a 4 year old starts screaming at 1 in the morning for any reason from his legs hurt to bad dreams to “I need a bit of a snuggle.”

The lack of sleep thing, I am not going to solve. With time, one hopes, all the monkeys will sleep the night through.

The not playing well during the day thing, I know what to do, but I just dread doing it.  I know that if I spend a good afternoon organizing their toys into orderly, themed containers, they will spend a good week playing well. I just don’t want to do it because I also know that at the end of the week the toys will be utter chaos and my two littlest monkeys will be at each other throats once again.

Why is it that there’s nothing like a clean and organized room that appeals to a child to spend hours or days messing it up?  Why can’t they look at a messy room and think what fun it would be to organize and sort the chaos?

Oh well. Enough time spent sitting on my bum drinking coffee. I need to go and enlist the boys into helping clean up the toys.