"Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times ..."

Over the past school year, we have really gotten into listening to audiobooks.  I am horrible at reading aloud, especially books that have more than one main character, who all need to sound different.  In fact, I struggle with this issue even when reading silently to myself.  (On a side note - I have found that watching a tv/film version of said book helps immensely by giving me the voices in my head, though of course I cannot reproduce them aloud.)

Enter: audiobooks!  The first audiobook we listened to, about a year and a half ago, was The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien, narrated by Rob Inglis, and from then both SC and I were hooked on having a professional read to us.  As SC's reading skills began to develop, she even began to follow along with her own copy of the book, which exposed her to more words (and what they look like) than just listening alone would have.  Over this past year, she has gotten to where she can follow along without getting exhausted (which frequently happened when we started out), and we have found some great books that we love.

Many of the books we were able to find on audible.com, which is a monthly subscription service.  Each month we get 1 credit toward the purchase of any digital audiobook (they have larger packages), and considering the 1 credit costs only $16, and most of the audiobooks are $20-$30, it is a great savings.  We have also been able to find some at the public library (like the Harry Potter books), because they are not available digitally.

So, in reverse order of listening, here are our "read-alouds" for this past school year.

1. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, by J.K. Rowling, narrated by Jim Dale(currently listening)

2. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, by J.K. Rowling, narrated by Jim Dale

3. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, by J.K. Rowling, narrated by Jim Dale

4. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, by J.K. Rowling, narrated by Jim Dale

5. The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Lee Stewart, narrated by Del Roy

6. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, narrated by Anne Hathaway

7. Coraline, by Neil Gaiman, narrated by the author

8. A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L'Engle, narrated by Hope Davis

9. Zorgamazoo by Robert Paul Weston, narrated by Alan Cumming

10. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, narrated by Jill Clayburgh

11. The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo, narrated by Juliet Stevenson

I should note, SC is very interested in fantasy/sci-fi stories, especially the darker ones.  In fact, the book from the list she liked least was From the Mixed-Up Files.  While these books are appropriate for her (and we spend quite a bit of time discussing them), they may not be appropriate for all 5 year olds.


*Are you making a list of the books you have "read aloud" this year?  Join me, as I will be adding this list to the "List it Tuesday" link-up here:

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Thankful Thursday: "The truth is rarely pure and never simple."

"The truth is rarely pure and never simple. 

Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, 

and modern literature a complete impossibility!"

Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, Act I

This week I am thankful that SC successfully completed our first-ever standardized test.  I wrote previously that we had her tested just before she turned five years old for IQ and achievement, but other than a new understanding that she is gifted, asynchronous, and really needs to work on listening skills, there wasn't much we could do with the results at this point.  

What I really wanted to know was whether or not I had missed anything in planning and teaching.  In the State of Texas, the Texas Education Agency publishes a set of standards called the TEKS, and while that is helpful in directing planning, it does not tell me now, before we start, what SC really already knows.  I went through the kindergarten TEKS standards last summer, and other than a few of the science and social studies parts, in my opinion, she had already mastered most of it because of the product she was generating when we did preschool and kindergarten level work at home.  

For starting this fall, I did the same thing, looking at the first grade level TEKS, but I was more unsure.  Again, we had not done much of the science or social studies items at home, though many were taken care of at the Mother's Day Out pre-k program she went to.  However, I am not that worried about missing information in these areas for the upcoming year.  It is the math, reading and language arts skills that I really wanted to know about, especially since she is working so far ahead: what has she already mastered, what is a struggle, what does she not know at all?

I chose to go with the ITBS Level 6, which is the level for students going into 1st grade (K.7-1.7).  I did not want the test to be so difficult that she was only getting a few questions correct (what I thought might happen if I had jumped two years and chose Level 7), but I hoped that she wouldn't just blow through this one, either, and have wasted my time giving a test that she scores 100% correct answers on.  

Level 6 was a perfect test, and though I do not know the "official" results yet, because I was the test administrator (ITBS allows this, as long as you get certified, which requires a bachelor's degree), I was able to see where, when and how she made mistakes.  Most of the mistakes were made with regard to listening comprehension.  Though we knew that she struggled in this area from the previous tests, it really helped to see her make the mistakes.  I was able to see that she does fine when there is one or two pieces of information, but if there was three or four, she tends to forget the first part of what I was saying.  This held true across all the categories, both in the actual "listening" section, but also in the math area when she had to listen to word problems that had more than two numbers to manipulate.

The other problems she got wrong (other than for listening reasons) were in the vocabulary section, and specifically had to do with categorization.  Some of the words she was asked to identify (by choosing the picture that best represented the word she heard me say) were things like thick/thin and skinny.  I realized that as a family we have purposely avoided these types of categorization words due to the fact that they can be applied to people, as well as the word "fat," which is the opposite of "skinny" in this context.  AC and I have not wanted to deal with SC pointing out these specific differences in people (because she does notice and point out in a childlike manner) in public because though her intent is not to offend, sometimes the words of a child can be taken as offensive, and people can still be hurt by them.  

 So, I would say that overall, this was a great testing experience.  AC and I both wanted SC to have some experience with taking a standardized test, and though the State of Texas does not require that we test or submit scores, we think the information we can learn from the testing (as long as it is analyzed in way that is not simply "did she score X" or "did she pass") will be a great help to us going forward.

Have you had experience with testing young elementary students at home?  What do you think about the ITBS test specifically?  Let me know, then check out some other Thankful Thursday posts here: