Finishing up the school year

According to the homeschooling group I rely on for information (they're very on top of things and have contacts in the legislature, consult with lawyers, etc. So it's not as if they're just moms who make things up. They really are a legit group), it's not as easy as the governor decreeing that homeschoolers wouldn't have to do end of year testing this year. And when I read their explanation, okay, fine.

I certainly don't want them mucking around with the law as it exists now. (Which they're already trying to do -- the HSLDA was at the state supreme court on Friday arguing against an interpretation of the law that would allow school districts to just randomly add requirements for people who wanted to homeschool. Just no. All it takes is one superintendent with an axe to grind and things get ugly.)

And so, we spent some time every day last week working through our online standardized tests.

I'm super glad that this year youngest is in a grade that can do the online version. The questions are the same as the paper one, but you get your scores immediately rather than having to trek to the post office, pay the excessive priority mail fee (so it's insured and has tracking) and then wait a month to gee scores.

Both boys did well.

I went ahead and chose the untimed versions this year. Between the ADHD for youngest (his eval specifically says he should do untimed) and eldest's anxiety, I said why not. Eldest did better knowing that he didn't have a clock ticking, but I think if I were to look at how long he took to do it, he was within the time parameters.

So we'll work on it. I do understand that in life, he's going to have to be able to perform under pressure. We'll get there.

I was pleasantly surprised at how well youngest did. He's heading into week 3 of his meds this week, last week we ramped up the dose a little and...when he can focus, the kid is actually pretty smart. (I realize how that sounds, but you have no idea. Hubs and I have wondered if we were going to need to rearrange our thoughts on "retirement" to include caring for an adult child. I think I can safely say that as of now, maybe I can put that on the back burner rather than worrying about it. Is he Einstein? No. But he's not intellectually disabled, either.)

Anyway. With that box ticked, we'll finish out our curriculum still, but the major "get it done before taking any sort of break" work is done.