Homeschooling

Archive for August, 2007

Question: Relaxed Homeschooling. Should I give my kids a midyear test?

I'm a Homeschooling mom of a 10 1/2yr old and also a 7yr old. My 10 1/2 year old has struggled a lot in spelling and reading but has come far this year.

We are kind a relaxed Homeschooling family. We use unit studies & Math U See. We took a break in Dec but did a little bit of schooling and I plan to start school back on Monday. I was thinking of maybe trying my hand at giving my kids a midyear test just to see where they are at grade level wise now.

By law we have to give a test every other year once the child is in 3rd grade and we did that the year before with my oldest.

So I was wondering do other relaxed Homeschooling moms give their kids test midyear just to see the kids are progressing or just wing it?

If you do give them a midyear test do you make it up, is there a free website I can download them or do you have to order them? This is just for me in my state of GA you don't have to mail them or anything.

Answer: Well, you may want to test, but I think this would not be the best time of the year to do it. I am just easing my kids back in from the holidays, doing easier & more relaxing books and activities, not what I would consider a more jarring test.

Also when we come back from the holidays, it may just be my kids, but I know that some children, perhaps not yours though, lose some retention and skills after a summer or holiday break and need time to review and get back into school for a little bit, at least a few weeks I would think. I would think testing in February or March would give you more accurate results, if you are caring about how they would score or do on the testing. If this is something you are just required to do by the state or something, and you are not concerned, (I am not sure), then that might not matter to you of course.

Here's a Georgia testing link that might help: http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/curriculum/testing/crct_forms.asp

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