A new week begins - and ITBS, yee-haw!!

I hate waking up in the morning and dreading getting out of bed. Which is, pretty much every morning. Like there is nothing to look forward to, just another day of stuff I have to get done but don't want to do. I'm just having a pity party, I know - things really aren't that bad. It just feels like they are! We had to do banking and hit the post office this morning, so we got a really late start on school - I mean, really late, since we didn't even get out of bed 'til nearly 10am. So now it's almost 5pm and we're about midway through our lesson plan for the day. I really, really want to just be done with school... I can't see how it matters at this point, to have to finish up. It's just 5th grade, and she's ahead of the curve anyway.... Scooter thinks she needs to have "closure"; to finish up with the other kids in the co-op and all that hooey. To which I say "phooey". But then I still have to go to work on Tues. & Thurs. which are her co-op days, and it's right there at church, just like school is... I guess I just really want to be done with our M-W-F home days..... or, I could just quit work!! Yeah, right. I really need that money right now, pittance though it is. Pooh.

This week is ITBS.... which is Iowa Tests of Basic Skills.... why Iowa, I don't know.... I guess that state sets the Gold Standard, eh?! This is the test they give nearly all public school kids, as well as most private school students.... and we test our homeschoolers to show that they are doing as well - if not better than - publically schooled children. Last year Kiwi rocked these - at 4th grade, she tested at 7th - 9th grade levels in all subjects. She was in the 95th percentile of children. So, is she brilliant, or is the average public school kid waaay below the standard they ought to be?? Makes you wonder...... This year, she's struggling a bit, and I think it's the stress caused by daddy being gone. This quarter was the first she has ever gotten anything other than straight "A's" on a report card.... she got a B and a B+. Not like that's bad; it's just not typical of her. So I tried to warn her that the ITBS points might not be as high this year and not to freak out over it (she's waaay harder on herself than I am on her! I know she's bright; I don't need "percentages" to tell me that!

Well, I guess I need to go make sure she's on track.... I smell felt pens, lol.....