Thursday, April 18, 2013

Testing. Testing.

Today was the first day of our yearly SAT-10 (grade-level) testing. It was Weston's first time to participate and my first time to proctor. The kids were totally calm, but I was a nervous wreck. Thankfully, the day went well and the kids felt good about their tests. Weston's comment was "it was a really long, but really fun day." I guess he'll be glad to know we get to do it again tomorrow!

After a fun morning of testing, Ruth spent the afternoon...testing. She is trying for a CC honor called Memory Masters, in which the students memorize the entire school year's worth of material and then prove their knowledge through four "proofs:" 2 parent proofs (or 1 parent and another adult, if one parent is also a tutor or director), 1 tutor proof and 1 director proof. For the first three proofs the student must go through every piece of material, which takes about an hour and a half to complete. The fourth proof is simply a spot check and takes about 20 minutes to complete. A few mistakes are allowed in the first proof, fewer in the second and none in the third and fourth. A child who completes all these steps is considered a "Memory Master" and is recognized and rewarded on the local CC campus at the End-of-Year celebration. This was Ruth's second proof, and she made it through without a single mistake! This year's memory work includes 161 events and people in a chronological timeline; the 44 U.S. presidents; 24 History sentences detailing events from Ancient History; 120 locations and geographic features in Africa, Europe and the "Old World;" 24 Science facts, including the classifications of living things and each continent's highest mountain; 5 Latin noun endings and their singular and plural declensions; English grammar facts, including 53 prepositions, 23 helping verbs and 12 linking verbs; Multiplication facts up to 15 x 15, common squares and cubes, and basic geometry formulas and unit conversions. That's over 400 pieces of memorized information! Her last two proofs will be within the next two weeks, and we feel fairly confident she will reach her goal of becoming a Memory Master. 

Regardless of the final outcome, we are so proud of both Ruth and Weston for all the hard work they have put in this year at home/school and at CC!

1 comment:

  1. My brain just got tired reading all that she has to memorize! Good night!!! Good Luck, Ruth!!!

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