After wearing croc-style shoes all summer long, it was time to don socks and sturdy shoes. I made sure to allow her extra time for her to put them on herself.
She confidently pulled her own school bag and despite her voiced apprehensions in the car, she was ready to march into the classroom as soon as we got there. The hallway was crowded with lots of moms and children and cameras, as usual. I had Sparkle sign Glitter in, just like last year. It's good handwriting practice and helps her remember our phone number. Sparkle even remembered how to spell my name.
The room was all set up for the kids. There were two short tables with kid chairs. At each seat was a coloring page and a pink or blue box filled with crayons. Each box was labeled with a child's name. Glitter's was the one close to the door and I pointed it out to her. She's very familiar with the concept of a personal box of colors ever since I instituted the practice at home.
Finally it was time for the kiddos to enter the classroom. Glitter was about to cross the threshold when I reminded her to give hugs. I would be so sad if I didn't get a good hug before leaving her. So Glitter gave Sparkle and I great big hugs and kisses and demanded kisses in return.
Then she marched right in, no tears or clingy-ness, and sat down at the seat with her box of colors. I know she'll have a great day.
Then Sparkle and I went home. I decided to start the school year with testing. Yeah, not fun, but I wanted a baseline. I used the DORA (reading) and DOMA (math) tests from the Let's Go Learn web site.
Sparkle flew through the reading test, as I expected. Her scores showed some improvement over the first time I gave her the test, at the end of Kindergarten. I was glad to have with the results, but I have mixed feelings about the test. I love that the test covers multiple grade levels, which is a big help when dealing with asynchronous development. I liked that the test seemed to remember where she was at last time. However, the end of the test (reading comprehension) dragged on and on. Last time I think she had three short passages to read. This time it gave her six long passages. We took a break near the end and played Candyland before finishing the last passage.
Then after lunch she did the math test. I was apprehensive about this test, as math is her weakest subject. I hated this test. Sparkle hated the test. Part of the reason I chose the test is that it is suppose to be adaptive. If she gets an answer wrong, she should get an easier question. Well, when the student can't figure out that 18 is less than 25, why on earth would you later on ask her to do division with remainders???? The test also asked about a *lot* of stuff that I haven't taught her yet and other stuff was phrased differently from what she was used to. As a result, Sparkle got really, really discouraged, up to the point that she no longer tried to figure out the questions and started clicking random answers. It was a very disheartening experience, even though, at the end of the test she scored at grade level.
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