I know this is a common question, and so thanks in advance for the help. We finally got the results of Faith's (age 10.1 at the time of the test) pysch-ed assessments back in October/November. In general, it just confirmed what I already suspected. But I'm wondering if there are some nuances in the results that might be helpful. GAI - 136 - 99%ile - Very Superior Verbal Comprehension - 118 - 88%ile - High Average Perceptual Reasoning - 140 - 99.6%ile - Very Superior Working Memory - 108 - 70%ile - Average Processing Speed - 103 - 58%ile - Average Subtests Similarities -15 Vocabulary - 15 Comprehension - 9 Block Design - 16 Picture Concepts - 17 Matrix Reasoning - 16 Digit Span - 10 Letter-Number Sequencing - 13 Digits Forwards - 8 Digits Backwards - 12 Coding - 10 Symbol Search - 11 They also administered the WIAT-III and the total was in the 95%ile. I have the breakdown if that would be useful... Math fluency was notably lower, at 58%ile, as well as Essay Composition (23%ile). The tester did note that it was the time limits that impacted the essay, and that when allowed extra time, Faith produced an essay that was more in line with her actual abilities. As well, they administered the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System assessment to assess her "higher-level problem solving" (direct quote). I have all the subscores (well, percentiles) for this as well. The only marked areas of weakness were "Visual Scanning" under Trail Making (9th %ile) which was highlighted in the report because Faith spent time looking over her responses (catching one error, but slowing her down). They also described her as "rallying under load", which I believe means her performance kind of was dependent on the difficulty of the task (ie, she performed better on harder tasks). As well, the tester noted high levels of anxiety that impacted her performance. She has been in therapy for a year and we have seen improvements, but not entirely, and perhaps we need to consider medication... Anyway, I'm still left wondering what exactly I should *do* with this child. She struggles with completing task that are either "too hard" or "too easy" and wants absolutely everything to *mean something*, which is frustrating because frankly, most of elementary school feels somewhat meaningless to me, too. I had started to suspect she was a visual-spatial, whole-to-parts learner, and that was confirmed by the tester. So... anything jump out at you from those scores? Any advice for a perfectionist, bright, practical VSL? Keeping in mind that I have two other children, who also have exceptional learning needs and require a lot from me... Thanks! Heather

Yes, that is definitely the case! I'm just having a hard time objectively identifying who's needs are most urgent at the moment. I think I have identified the 7 year old's reading as the area I need to focus on, as if I can get him reading well, that will free me up to work more intensively with the others. Thank you all so much for your words of wisdom and encouragement. I may post again asking for help fleshing out a particular child's program... For now, I have lots to ponder...

Thanks so much for your reply! Yes, my ADHD is medicated and that helps a ton. Audiobooks are a great idea... I need to plan more of that for our drives. And I am looking into a computer-based math program for Thomas, if I can find one that doesn't require independent reading. I think maybe Teaching Textbooks, if I can figure out placement. Faith does quite a bit independently, but I'm feeling lately like it is not the "richest" material, you know? I feel like she needs more from me... More discussion etc... I would hate for her love of learning to continue to suffer because I keep choosing "efficient" material... This is just so much harder than I envisioned (and frankly, than the first 4 years of homeschooling were, when I only had one "student" who's needs weren't really unusual yet and just presented as a "quick learner"...

I haven't posted much about my kids' strengths and weaknesses, so I'll do that briefly here before asking for advice... Faith - 10.5 year old daughter - 5th grade. Homeschooled since K. Very smart but perfectionistic. Has had psych-ed testing but still waiting for results. Preliminary phone call made it sound like she is "gifted" but I don't know if we're talking 120 or 140+, you know? Learns things easily but has trouble working independently. Often feels like things are either "boring" or "impossibly hard" and it is hard to find the middle ground. I suspect she is a VSL and needs a big picture approach. It seems like curriculums that support this style are very parent/teacher intensive and take a lot of time. Thomas -7.11 year old bio son - 2nd grade. Homeschooled since 1st. Very bright but struggles with reading. Has just started Vision Therapy (30 minutes of practice daily) and is on the wait-list for psych-ed testing (dyslexia? gifted?). Because he can't read, he needs my help for all subjects, including math, where he is working ahead of level (late 3rd/early 4th?). Bereket - 8.0 year old adopted son - "2nd grade". This son was just adopted 18 months ago from Ethiopia. He is also very bright, learns things like games quickly, but academically is more like a preschooler. Working on letters, numeracy, colors, rhyming, etc. Also in an intensive Trauma and Attachment group that meets weekly and has daily "homework" with me. Mom - 35 years old. Gifted IQ + ADHD and anxiety (medicated). Struggles with keeping all the balls in the air. Likes to have a written plan, but kids are so unpredictable, it is hard to plan very far in advance. We have 18 medical/therapy appointments in March, plus things like piano lessons and swimming lessons. Feeling spread very thin, and like there are no real options other than to keep homeschooling, as all kids have exceptional learning needs. So... all that said, how on earth does a person do this well? I'm feeling like I need to re-examine our homeschool methods/curriculums as I am using a bunch of things that are relatively easy for me to implement but don't actually provide the right style of instruction for my kids. BUT, everything that seems more appropriate seems SO teacher intensive (MCT LA for Faith, Barton for Thomas, etc.). I want homeschooling to be a positive experience for the kids AND me, and at this point, I feel like it is sucking the lifeblood out of all of us... Help! Any tips, advice, insight, encouragement is welcome!

Something I do to reduce the number of dishes used is to be somewhat strategic in the order I do my prep. For instance, if I cut the meat up first, I will use a different cutting board and knife for the veggies, but if I cut the produce first, I can use the same knife and board for the meat. Dry ingredients measured before wet so I can use the same measuring cups etc. It doesn't make a huge difference but it does help.

Yes, I agree Alessandra! Such a smart and helpful bunch!

Thanks everyone! She is much happier now!

My fifth grader is in tears because her math program taught that the sum of angles in a triangle is always 180• without teaching *why* this is the case... Can someone help me with an age appropriate explanation? I am at my wit's end! (And even more ready to read the results of her psych ed testing...) Thanks, Heather

We like the Akimbo series by Alexander McCall Smith. They are early chapter books. I read them aloud to all my kids when they were in the 5-7ish age range, though my daughter could have read them herself at that age.

I tried PM'ing you but it says your mailbox is full (or something). Try Winners/Marshall's! I've found 5 or 6 bras there for $10-16! I love the Calvin Klein Custom Lift bra, and I have found it several times for around $16 in a 32D.

I have to chime in on the bra thing... I'm another who went from a 34 A/B to a 32D (and actually, I think a 30DD would fit even better but I'm in Canada and our online shopping is miserable. No free returns!). Anyway, on another board I'm on, a whole bunch of gals all switched to the "new" method of measuring and pretty much every one, including the gals who are much bustier than I, were wowed by the fit of their new bras! It really is incredible! Now I need to find a strapless in my new size for summer. I wore a 34B again yesterday for the first time in months and remembered how ridiculous it is! Lol

This makes me giggle because I actually put "Random Act of Kindness" on my kids' chore charts a couple months ago. Yes, I know " assigned" would make more sense... The "random" part is that they are supposed to notice a situation on their own... Two of my kids "get" it and one looks at it as a day off chores. Lol. I like "intention acts of kindness"... Maybe when I reprint the chart I will change it...

I forgot to say that with my daughter, when we were doing revisions, I would say things like, "Have another look at "ovver"... Does that look right to you?" (Might see the mistake, might not) "Can you think of a spelling strategy we could use to figure out the right spelling?" (Maybe she can, or I suggest one). "Right, so when we divide the syllables of ov-ver, we can see that we don't need the double v. We want the long sound of O, so we need an open syllable." Basically, I try to help her to identify her own mistakes, and then walk her through the correction explicitly if it is a rule/word she knows.

Yes this is very normal. When a child is writing a spelling test, they are typically only focused on the spelling, but when they are writing in other contexts, they are also concentrating on meaning, spacing, punctuation, capitalization, etc. SWB mentions in one of her lectures that usually by age 9 they are able to apply what they have learned in other settings, and my own experience has been the same.

Absolutely! I think you are in a strong place to move forward from!

What I see is a child who did better than 77% of her same grade nationally normed peers. That is not a bad score. Especially since you know her foundation from public school was weaker than you would like. I looked at my daughter's third grade testing details (we actually skipped testing this year because of crazy life circumstances) and the weighting worked as follows. Keep in mind this is the Canadian test, and a different grade, but maybe it will give you some idea. The composite score was made up of the following 6 areas, equally weighted: -Vocabulary -Reading -Language Total* -Math Total** -Science -Sources Total*** * Language Total was comprised of Spelling, Capitalization, Punctuation, and Usage & Expression, each weighted equally **Math Total was comprised of Math Concepts & Estimation, Math Problem Solving, and Math Computation, weighted equally *** Sources Total was comprised of Reference Materials and Maps & Diagrams, weighted equally. So in our test, if my math is correct (and I slept poorly, so it might not be, lol) Spelling was weighted about 4% of the composite score. Whether or not I aimed for 90%th percentile or not would highly depend on my assessment of my child's abilities. For my DD, I would be very surprised by scores below that. I suspect my boys are closer to "average" and will score around the 80%ile when I start testing them.

Right. But if Sally the second grader scored in the 90th percentile on a 4th grade test, it would indicate mastery of that level of material. If your 4th grader scored in the 90+%ile, it would also indicate mastery of *that* level. 90+%ile would likely correspond to a much higher GE.

Found this that might be of interest to you... It was a quote from the Iowa Acceleration Scale Manual (3rd edition), but I don't have a direct link to the manual: "In assessing achievement as it relates to making a decision about acceleration, earning a grade-level score that results in a ranking in the 90th-94th percentile indicates mastery (achievement) of the grade-level content." I would extrapolate from that, that if you are wondering if she has "mastered" the content of her current grade, you would look for a NPR above 90%.

Sorry, I was on my phone before and didn't really answer your questions beyond the abbreviations. Disclaimer: I am not a educational testing professional nor do I play one on TV. My daughter actually did the CTBS, as we are Canadian, but it is very similar. Where I find testing helpful is looking at areas that my child scored relatively low in, compared to her overall scores. In your case, you noticed spelling, which you had already identified. In my case, it was "Sources of Info" (read a neighborhood map and answer questions, etc), which made me realize that by focusing on History, not Social Studies, we had skipped some basic things. The percentiles and GEs are more helpful when you have tested more than one year. I look to see if my daughter is gaining at least the right amount of years (ie, if she scored 5.7 last November, I would look for 6.7 the next November). I also expect to see her maintaining or gaining in percentiles. If she were to "fall off her curve", I would investigate why. %C Stu does mean the percentage that the student got correct. How that correlates to the NPR depends on how the "normed" population did on the test. If a high percentage of the normed population got all the answers correct, that does not translate to becoming 99th percentile. I think, if I'm not mistaken, your example would mean that 28% of the normed population got all of the questions in that section correct. So scoring 100 means you did better than 72% of students. Does that make sense? If you google "interpreting ITBS scores" a number of helpful links come up. I hope this helps. If you have any other specific questions I am happy to give it a go. Heather

I'm pretty sure it is Standard Score, Grade Equivalent, National Percentile Rank, and National Stanine.

To the OP... I don't think you have unrealistic expectations. I am very close to my parents and even though they live an hour away, they come to help and/or visit very often. I consider them part of my "support network" (which also includes friends and church). I would be very disappointed if they acted as if spending time with or helping me or the kids to be a burden. I can totally see why your situation is annoying and frustrating for you. I think, though, that there probably isn't much you can do about their lack of interest/willingness to participate in your lives. And so in that respect, drastically lowering your expectations would probably help with reducing these feelings of frustration on an on-going basis. It might first be worth having a very frank conversation (maybe best led by your husband, since they are his parents?) along the lines of, "Look, we moved here specifically because you said you wanted to play an involved and supportive role in our lives. When you said that, I thought xyz. I'm feeling now like maybe you meant something else. Can you tell me what you meant by involved and supportive?" (I'm on my phone and can't look back and see if those were the exact words used. But you get the idea). Anyway, I would hear their piece and be prepared to accept that they may disappoint you. Anyway, I'm very sorry you are in this situation and surprised how many pp found it "normal" as in my experience (and looking at most of my friends), it is not typical here.

Another simple idea for board games... Use an elastic to hold the box closed and stand them vertically on the shelf like books. Like this: http://www.imperfecthomemaking.com/2013/02/a-simple-tip-for-tidy-board-game-storage.html It makes them easy to see and you can grab one without a bunch toppling down on you.

I also see signs of depression, or perhaps ADHD (I was recently diagnosed with ADHD, so I may be seeing it everywhere! Lol). But honestly, that combination of traits, especially if she's "always" been that way to some degree, would warrant evaluation by a psychiatrist in my family. I'd be looking for depression, ADHD, giftedness, or even Aspergers. All of those "conditions" can present in the way you describe, especially in girls. It really doesn't sound like a "character defect". Most people are doing as well as they can. (((Hugs))) I know it can still be very hard to live with, though.

Thanks! Is there a quick way to tell me which books are different? If it will take a long time, don't worry about it. I'm not sure which version I'm looking at... Seller wants me to suggest a price.

Does anyone have a Sonlight 2009 or 2010 catalog still kicking around? I'm trying to figure out the price of Core 3/D with Advanced Readers. Was the Bible stuff included? Thanks!