Tonight we learned about Snot Zombies, thanks to Bridget, who Madison has been playing each time she plays "Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime." She's been asking to play this all week, so on an off we try a level here or there. It's a terribly simple game, but she's been enjoying it, and of course Daddy is there as part of the team, assisting in capturing the bigger ghosts, or at least fending off "snombies." That's what Bridget calls the zombies who shoot out ectoplasm: "Snot Zombies."
So Madison is finished with her testing, which happened during other testing, which made for a few weeks where there was just testing, testing, and more testing. The end results of the first quarter for Madison's testing are these: Science average is 100. Math is 97. Social Studies is 93. English/Literature is 95. She's on honor roll, again, and in fact just as she has been for the past few years. Madison is at this point self-sufficient in all of these subjects. She doesn't have to study that much at all. Okay, let me rephrase that: she doesn't have to study. We sort of try to ask her things for review, and she already knows all the answers, sometimes before we ask them. Nevertheless, we stand by to help, and offer assistance where we can. But the truth is that she - at this point - doesn't need us that much in her learning process. I think the only weakness area might be organization, and keeping things clean. But that's hardly notable, given how incredibly well she's doing elsewhere. Of course, we push (gently) to get her more disciplined in other areas like organization and so forth. But the point is that she's pretty much got everything covered in school. Tonight, she's just reading about history, about the Wright Brothers, and about North Carolina in general. Why? Because she's always reading about things, even after school. Her average is 96.25, when you take into account that 93 average in Social Studies. She's already met and surpassed goals that students in fifth grade are supposed to achieve by the end of the year, and although we do our best to encourage her to grow, she's really doing this on her own: she just enjoys learning.
That's why you can see how as parents we were disappointed to hear that she didn't make the Gifted Program, the one her teacher recommended her to. We weren't even thinking about a gifted program, and it was somewhat of a pleasant moment when we were presented with the idea, and the subsequent benefits. But it's not happening. Additionally, she won't be tested for another two years, when she's in seventh grade. That's so far away, it sort of makes you wonder what the point is. Kind of too late there, perhaps. We got this news tonight, and it's somewhat of a bummer in some ways. Mainly because it was kind of built up to us. Sort of build you up with hope, full of compliments, and tiny visions of the future. And then the sudden letdown. It's basically like a standard sports season in Georgia. But it's your daughter, and suddenly you've got all these images of "NOT WORTHY" in your mind. Which of course isn't true. We sincerely wish they never even bothered with the tests at this point. Madison was fatigued by them, on top of the others.
Anyway, as frequently pointed out to us, she's at sixth grade levels with reading and math. And her science average - again - is a perfect 100. So I guess she's not "gifted," but instead simply working at a level about one grade ahead. I think that's the takeaway. There's a difference between "working at a higher education level" and "gifted," and this is determined by a series of tests during testing season. It's kind of an odd situation here.
So I guess we just "coast" this year out with straight A's again, because she kind of already knows it all. And in between, we continue to have some educational fun at home with science projects and history trips. We'll see what we can do to stretch her abilities at home. The schools have done a great job in bringing her to the point she's at, of course. That's why she's at the place she is now. Of course, her natural abilities are in there as well, along with the grace of God. It's been a solid team, and she's doing very well. It's just that sometimes it seems there's not much to learn here.
I wish I was in her shoes. She just does so well without having to even try that hard. Her homework is done in a flash. She's so smart. She does work hard, but with some things, she doesn't even have to. It just all comes to her naturally. Like I said, Mommy and Daddy are willing and wanting to partner with the school, but at this point, none of us have much to do to get her further along, including Madison.
So Madison is finished with her testing, which happened during other testing, which made for a few weeks where there was just testing, testing, and more testing. The end results of the first quarter for Madison's testing are these: Science average is 100. Math is 97. Social Studies is 93. English/Literature is 95. She's on honor roll, again, and in fact just as she has been for the past few years. Madison is at this point self-sufficient in all of these subjects. She doesn't have to study that much at all. Okay, let me rephrase that: she doesn't have to study. We sort of try to ask her things for review, and she already knows all the answers, sometimes before we ask them. Nevertheless, we stand by to help, and offer assistance where we can. But the truth is that she - at this point - doesn't need us that much in her learning process. I think the only weakness area might be organization, and keeping things clean. But that's hardly notable, given how incredibly well she's doing elsewhere. Of course, we push (gently) to get her more disciplined in other areas like organization and so forth. But the point is that she's pretty much got everything covered in school. Tonight, she's just reading about history, about the Wright Brothers, and about North Carolina in general. Why? Because she's always reading about things, even after school. Her average is 96.25, when you take into account that 93 average in Social Studies. She's already met and surpassed goals that students in fifth grade are supposed to achieve by the end of the year, and although we do our best to encourage her to grow, she's really doing this on her own: she just enjoys learning.
That's why you can see how as parents we were disappointed to hear that she didn't make the Gifted Program, the one her teacher recommended her to. We weren't even thinking about a gifted program, and it was somewhat of a pleasant moment when we were presented with the idea, and the subsequent benefits. But it's not happening. Additionally, she won't be tested for another two years, when she's in seventh grade. That's so far away, it sort of makes you wonder what the point is. Kind of too late there, perhaps. We got this news tonight, and it's somewhat of a bummer in some ways. Mainly because it was kind of built up to us. Sort of build you up with hope, full of compliments, and tiny visions of the future. And then the sudden letdown. It's basically like a standard sports season in Georgia. But it's your daughter, and suddenly you've got all these images of "NOT WORTHY" in your mind. Which of course isn't true. We sincerely wish they never even bothered with the tests at this point. Madison was fatigued by them, on top of the others.
Anyway, as frequently pointed out to us, she's at sixth grade levels with reading and math. And her science average - again - is a perfect 100. So I guess she's not "gifted," but instead simply working at a level about one grade ahead. I think that's the takeaway. There's a difference between "working at a higher education level" and "gifted," and this is determined by a series of tests during testing season. It's kind of an odd situation here.
So I guess we just "coast" this year out with straight A's again, because she kind of already knows it all. And in between, we continue to have some educational fun at home with science projects and history trips. We'll see what we can do to stretch her abilities at home. The schools have done a great job in bringing her to the point she's at, of course. That's why she's at the place she is now. Of course, her natural abilities are in there as well, along with the grace of God. It's been a solid team, and she's doing very well. It's just that sometimes it seems there's not much to learn here.
I wish I was in her shoes. She just does so well without having to even try that hard. Her homework is done in a flash. She's so smart. She does work hard, but with some things, she doesn't even have to. It just all comes to her naturally. Like I said, Mommy and Daddy are willing and wanting to partner with the school, but at this point, none of us have much to do to get her further along, including Madison.
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