Grateful Friday Night

• for the best family night in a while.
• Dinner at Chipotle, our favorite...
• then to Wal-Mart where everybody got to pick out a toy after the kids won the "Kids vs. Daddy" Nerf Swordfight Showdown in the middle of the toy department. Mommy stayed a couple isles over letting my heart smile while supressing my urge to tell them to stop.
• Then off to Krispy Kreme for Hot Donuts NOW!! YUM! And found out that KK gives a free donut for each 'A' on a report card. We'll be heading back real soon with Abbie's straight 'A' card. Free donut for each of us! Way to go Ab!!

Cool...

I just noticed that today Cameron is 3 years, 3 months, 3weeks and 3 days old :)

Grateful Friday

This is for you Cindy Lou...;)

• That I cleared the air with my mom. RIP fancy Grandy, HELLOOOO retired Grandy.
  
• For my girlies and the nights we get to go out and laugh, and laugh, and laugh. They don't happen nearly often enough.
  
• For our upcoming beach trip that is finally within sight! And our family beach portrait that we will have made while we are there.
• S'mores with cinnamon graham crackers
  
• That the skies have finally cleared this week. I was getting in a gloomy funk.
  
• The pure little boy joy that is a remote control monster truck. And I'm talking about my husband. I'm glad he has found something that takes his mind off of work right now. He and Cooper have spent some real quality time together the past few weeks going to the hobby shop and race track park, just some good boy stuff.

The first thing I dislike about summer vacation

Having to go to the grocery store with 3 hungry kids in tow is one of life's nightmares. We stopped at the deli to get chicken tenders but they didn't last quite as long as I hoped they would. This was meant to be a quick in-n-out for milk, bread and breakfast items. A quick 15 minutes and back to the house. It was probably more like 30 minutes but seemed like an eternity of being glared at by old people getting their weekly supply of prune juice and bran flakes. Cooper and Abbie were okay but just seemed very "bouncy". Cameron only has 2 volumes: loud and louder. I was so happy to finally be in the checkout line that it took me a few seconds to hear the splashing on the floor from the lidless water bottle that 'not me' set in the cart. More glares from, I'm guessing, the single childless man in line behind me. He changed lines. I think next time I'd actually rather go to Wal-Mart on a Saturday and let Tim watch the kids.

Let's start with Abigail

Got bunches to catch up on so I'll start with Abbie. She'll be in 4th grade next year and our system goes through 5th in elementary school. So in 2 short years she'll be off to middle school. It's unfortunate that in our area of mostly an upper middle class population, our middle school is considered sub-par by many educational professionals as well as parents. I have been fretting over this for the past year or so wondering what we would do since I am not willing to sacrifice her education. Based on the school's standardized testing, Abbie did not qualify for the advanced classes. I admit I was bummed by the results. It just didn't gel with all the 'A's she was bringing home on her work. I even started considering home schooling her since Cameron will be starting kindergarten that year and I could devote my full attention to her.

About 3 weeks ago, I finally decided to schedule her to be independently evaluated by a professional educational testing provider. I'd gotten the number from a friend and heard from several moms that he was wonderful. I made the appointment for the day after the End of Grade testing was over. I figured she'd already be in test-taking mode and we'd have plenty of time to get results back before school was out.

Mr. Haire came to the house to do the testing. The boys and I stayed downstairs so we wouldn't distract her. It took about 2 hours and had an Aptitude/IQ portion and an Academic Achievment portion. Mr. Haire could assess the Aptitude portion immediately, the rest would take about 2 weeks. The final report would show her grade level ability, learning style, her innate strengths and areas needing improvement.

Her final results showed that she had actually placed in the 99th% of students her age. I was blown away. Her overall grade performance level was 7.7 meaning that she correctly answered questions that were directed towards 7-8th graders.

The testing showed that she is a hands-on visual learner. She needs to work on "word-attack" skills. That was a new one for me. Just means that she hasn't developed skills to help her figure out how to spell words that she does not know. She's a superb reader but has problems with phonetics, probably why she doesn't have good "word-attack" skills.

All of this means that she tested into the Highly Academically Gifted program. In a nutshell, she will have the opportunity to receive a private school level education in our public school system for free. We have already gone to the program's curriculum night and met the coordinators and teachers. Tim and I are absolutely thrilled. It is going to be very challenging, but at the same time an incredible opportunity. Although they have to follow the school system's guidelines, their teaching philosophy is so different. Students aren't memorizing material to pass tests, they will actually be interacting, performing, and becoming part of the learning process.

Abigail, I am so very proud to be your mom. Every day I am excited to see how you grow and to witness the person God has created you to be. This testing has changed how I feel about you. Of course it has not changed my love for you. Instead, it has allowed me more insight to the person you are. You are not me, you are not your dad, you are YOU! I need to let you be who you are and try not to make you who I want you to be. That's hard for a mom. Hard to draw the line between "protecting" and "controlling".

I'm excited for next year and all of your "next years". Love you.