Testing

Oregon is pretty homeschool friendly, thankfully. We have very few requirements, and one of them is to test the student in 3rd, 5th, 8th, and 10th grade. We don't have to submit the scores unless the school district asks for them, but we have to test. As a trial run, to familiarize him with the testing process, and to just get a baseline for when he takes his third grade test, I decided to go ahead and have Ryan tested this year. He would have just finished kindergarten if he were in public school, but I thought the kindergarten test would be too easy for him, so I had him take the first grade test instead.


A friend of ours from our old church works for Basic Skills (the organization who does the testing), so she drove out to our house today and administered the test to Ryan. It was nice to have a familiar face to lessen the anxiety (for me...Ryan wasn't daunted at all!). He whipped through the test fairly quickly and only missed one (a double-digit subtraction problem)! Whew. I was pretty sure I had covered all the bases, but it's nice to have it confirmed. Ryan actually had fun doing the test, so that was an added bonus! Some parents test every year so they know where weak areas are, and I haven't decided yet if I'll do that or not. For now though, it is a relief to know he's doing fine...being responsible for my kids' education is sometimes very intimidating and overwhelming!


To celebrate Mommy's relief and Ryan's great job on the test, we decided to take Ryan out to dinner and then to get a scoop of ice cream at Baskin Robbins afterward. Ryan tried something new again and got Fudge Brownie!