the good, the bad and the ugly

The good: It's monday and I'm actually quite energized this morning. I love water with lemon slices!

The bad: Had to order a new dress at the last minute for my sisters "little black dress" 30th b-day party this weekend and had to pay $14.95 in shipping and handling.

The ugly: Planted grass in the backyard and the dog took down the fencing and dug a 2 foot hole to put his milkbone in.

The Good: I'm down 30 lbs!

The Bad: Instead of going to school part time this week - the kiddo will be there full-days because it's standardized testing week.

The Ugly: Preparing for our homeschool assessment and while I know we've done a lot in reading and math... I don't have a lot of "proof"... we don't do worksheets... so now I've got to figure out how to "show" what he's learned.

The Good: I have a job interview today!

The Bad: I am not sure I want the job!

The Ugly: But I hate the job I'm in - vicious cycle!

The Good: I get to "wow" the ladies at bible study tonight with my homemade lasagna (even the pasta is from scratch) and amazing Lamb's Rest Inn Cookies!

The Bad: I tasted a little too much of the cookie dough and had a couple too many piping hot cookies last night.

The Ugly: I also went overboard on my consumption of the fish fry goodies as well, at least each day is a new one right?

The Good : My 5 Y/o seems better.

The Bad : My Gran is dying

The Ugly : I feel rougher than normal.

The Good : the sun is shining
The Bad: my w/e at work was hell
The ugly: I will not look for any ugly today, had enough all w/e

the good: only TWO weeks of school left and I'm on week 2 of p90x already

the bad: tomorrow is weigh in day and it is looking like I will be a bit short of the weight loss goal (reach 175).

the ugly: this week's school schedule including two exams, three homework assignments (two due today with about 20% completed), and two lab reports.

The Good: I just went for a walk on this beautiful monday morning and won my soccer game last night
The bad: I basically live out of a duffle bag at my boyfriends house
The ugly: I have a huge exam tomorrow that I haven't really studied for....

If that is my bad and my ugly, I'm living a pretty amazing life thus far.

The Ugly: Preparing for our homeschool assessment and while I know we've done a lot in reading and math... I don't have a lot of "proof"... we don't do worksheets... so now I've got to figure out how to "show" what he's learned.

Is there any way the standardized testing results will prove that they have become well versed in math and reading?

It's possible... but difficult to say. One of the reasons I homeschool is because he's dyslexic... standardized tests are ummmm... almost unbearable for him. For Math and Reading we follow a completely different curriculum than the school does. As a matter of fact - we create our own curriculum for math. Instead of teaching him to calculate area on paper... we go out with a tape measure and measure the area of our garden, our driveway, etc. Then I'll ask him how much he would charge me to weed the garden. Then he calculates how much he would get per square foot, etc. We do "cooking math", "shopping math" (what's the better value per unit)... it's all very practical stuff... but he's never "seen" the stuff on paper.

It's possible that the standardized tests will prove that the progress is good... it's also just as likely that the tests will say he's learned nothing.... so we always do the assessment "just in case". On the plus side... after 2 years of homeschooling full time... and after him never getting higher than a C in K-3rd grade... my kiddo has achieved honor roll all year long in Social Studies, Writing, Science, Gym, Art and Band (plays clarinet). His confidence is through the roof!