Achievement Tests - Day #1

We just went through all the preliminary filling in of tiny "bubbles" on the answer sheets with #2 pencils all sharp and pointy, making sure to fill in each bubble completely with a nice, black mark. Massenet's lovely overture called "Cherubin" is playing softly in the background and we are ready to begin.

The girls are doing the CAT E Survey and, although I am presenting a calm and reassuring facade to them, I am a complete and fidgety bundle of interior nerves, as if I inadvertantly swallowed an extra teaspoon of Robitussin DM, which once caused my friend Maria to see Jesus carrying a lighted candle through her bedroom.

We're taking it pretty easy on the tests. There are six tests covering Vocabulary, Reading Comprehension, Language Mechanics, Language Expression, Mathematics Computation and Mathematics Concepts and Applications so we're going to do two per day on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The tests are all short, with the longest one timed for something like twenty minutes, so it's no great pressure. On them, anyway.

The girls are both engaged on Test 1 Vocabulary, in which they have ten minutes to answer twenty vocabulary questions. They are, if I do say so myself, absolutely rocking the vocabulary - it's one of the best school subjects for both of them. Math, which comes on Thursday, not so much.

[time lapse]

Okay, they finished the first test, both of them completing it within the ten minute time period. We did the samples for Test 2 Comprehension; this is an eighteen minute timed test and Aisling totally freaked me out by nonchalantly saying, "I need to blow my nose," and getting up from her chair.

Gaaaaahhhh!!!!

I shooed her back into her chair and brought her some tissues. She blew her nose, laid the used tissue on the dining room table beside her (eww) and went back to work.

Meelyn's sweet, serious head is bent over her test booklet - this is a big deal for her. She said to me this morning that she hopes she gets a good score because she doesn't "want you and Daddy to be disappointed." Love the lovely teenager. She is such a delightful person that I'd like to kick myself for wasting all that time dreading her teen years by wondering if she'd be a hideous beast like I was. Ugh.

The time is about to go off. Gotta go.