Iowa Assessments

The kids did Iowa Assessments at the beginning of the week.  I wanted them to get tested here in Texas while they were still comfortable with their surroundings.  I do not know what South Carolina will request of us, so we did it partially to cover all our bases.  Henry and Caroline had never done a standardized test before, so they were somewhat nervous going into it because of the unknown.  At pick-up, however, Henry got in the car and said, They need to put me in eighth grade because that was so easy.  Alrighty then.  Good thing you're going into eighth grade.  Caroline felt mostly confident about her test.  Josiah was confident about parts and not so much about other sections.  

On the second day, they got to the car and Caroline relayed they had vocab that day and it was very easy.  All three kids said their vocab sections were easy.  Then Caroline said they had a capitalization section.  She thinks she got most of those.  And then they moved on to punctuation.  Caroline said she did not see the need for punctuation and she doesn't have time for that in her life.  She thinks she got most of them wrong.  That's fun. 

The proctor sat everyone next to someone in a different grade level.  Caroline sat next to a 3rd grader.  At times she glanced at that child's test.  During the vocab section, Caroline noticed the kid got stuck on a problem.  She looked at it and it said, vision.  In Caroline's mind she kept saying, "A! A!" because A was eyesight.  

It'll be interesting to see the results.  All three were unsure of their social studies sections.  I know we do that a little differently than the traditional schools.  I warned the kids ahead of time that there may be stuff they don't know because we don't always do things in the same order as the schools.  Just give it your best guess.  

We had doctor and dentist appointments all this week.  When the dentist told me none of the kids had cavities, I was able to exhale one last time.  Caroline will miss her hygienist a lot.  They always chatted and Caroline really liked her.  

Benson checked out okay, too.  He had an appointment on Friday morning to get all his vaccines up to date.  Typically, Todd has dog doctor duty while I have kid doctor duty.  I hate going to the vet.  It always makes me very anxious because I don't like having to control him so close to other dogs.  Benson checked out fine though.  Now that we're moving, Todd is back on dog duty!  Henry is always my vet companion and, as thanks, he enjoyed himself a mocha from Starbucks.  

Mid-week, the kids helped me change the headlights in my car.  They mostly observed, but they got to see it was possible to do it yourself.  Save some bank.  Thank you, YouTube.  Then the boys wanted to pretend to drive the car.  From their immediate stances of recklessness, they will not be driving together until they can carry their own car insurance.  

sleeping at the wheel...

Later in the week, we met up with friends.  The kids ate pizza at home, while the adults went out to eat.  Then we hit up a new movie in the theaters - IF.  We knew a storm was brewing, and by the time we arrived at the theater, the sky was close to black.  As soon as we parked, the rain hit and we ran.  It was a massive thunderstorm.  While we were watching the movie, we could hear the thunder and rain overtop the movie which was already very loud.  Later we learned that it was a Derecho storm with damage for 1050 miles - from Austin to Cape Canaveral.  There was a lot of damage in our general area with power lines and downed trees.  Fortunately our house remained unscathed. 

the movie we didn't see

the movie we did see

Because of the storm, we missed out on a Sherlock Holmes play we were going to see downtown Houston on Friday.  They cancelled it for storm damage in the area.

Josiah had a busy weekend.  On Friday he went to a friend's house for an end of school year party.  While Josiah was partying, the kids and I had a playdoh competition.  We used a random word generator, created the object, and the other person had to guess.  Some of the favorites were Henry's house and Caroline's "playdoh" - I guessed circles, bubbles, pancakes.  Nope.  Playdoh.  

The next night, Josiah had his friends over at our house for Jam Session #3.  They made it through seven songs together.  This time, they had a drummer come, so Josiah was on vocals the whole time.  It is so nice that he has friends who enjoy making music as much as he does. 

We're always high class and like to get our new recipes from the Costco magazines.  I made a lemon shrimp and asparagus pasta meal one night this week.  This one was a good one.  Caroline was enjoying it until I gave them the warning about the effects of asparagus on their pee.  Caroline exclaimed, This is asparagus?!!  Yes.  I don't like asparagus!  You did 30 seconds ago.  That's when I thought it was something else.  Well. Your pee is going to smell.  

This week we have plumbers coming from Monday through Thursday.  They have to tunnel under the house to fix some leaks.  At least the rain has stopped for their coming.