http://sbac.portal.airast.org/practice-test/ Practice test is already there. Just log in as guest. It will lead you through the test.

For some of you who'd like to see the percentage of scale scores, here it is. I fiddled around Excel. :nopity: CST Scale Scores For Math, Grades 2 through 7 Scale Score Gr2 Gr3 Gr4 Gr 5 Gr6 Gr7 570-600 1.59% 3.61% 4.33% 4.35% 0.90% 1.36% 540-569 3.02% 5.11% 0.00% 3.14% 1.53% 0.00% 510-539 3.94% 5.53% 6.08% 6.75% 1.90% 2.75% 480-509 4.45% 5.40% 6.43% 3.36% 4.40% 1.70% 450-479 9.22% 10.05% 6.19% 9.54% 4.71% 6.16% 420-449 8.86% 8.73% 11.21% 11.62% 10.10% 9.30% 390-419 15.59% 11.40% 17.45% 10.45% 10.35% 9.69% 360-389 12.44% 15.01% 14.51% 11.56% 15.58% 16.78% 330-359 14.15% 13.27% 12.88% 12.03% 16.71% 16.03% 300-329 10.01% 9.08% 9.40% 11.72% 13.90% 14.52% 270-299 6.97% 6.74% 6.30% 8.12% 10.91% 12.27% 240-269 5.33% 3.80% 3.86% 5.45% 7.01% 7.37% 210-239 2.98% 1.67% 1.26% 1.52% 1.80% 1.93% 180-209 1.22% 0.53% 0.09% 0.35% 0.19% 0.14% 150-179 0.22% 0.08% 0.01% 0.04% 0.01% 0.02% Total 463,446 443,229 432,630 432,325 436,076 393,171

I've been reading War and Peace with some help of shmoop.com Here's a part of their character analysis regarding Natasha. "You know what else is pretty darned progressive about this character? Natasha is a woman who's actually shown to have a normally functioning sex drive. Maybe we've been reading too much Dickens around here, but boy, is it refreshing to see a young woman in fiction shown to like boys – and later, men – and not have that be some kind of horrible demonic thing that condemns her to a life of misery and prostitution. You think we're exaggerating? Have you read any Trollope recently?" Once I read that I started wonder when women's stoic virtue started. In Iliad, Helen was an adulterer but all forgiven by her husband after costing sack of Troy while men had to fight heroically for their immortal fame. Do you think most fallen women in 19c novels who had quite miserable endings came from the religious values in middle ages? It seems women in Tolstoy novels are more livelier than somewhat restrained women in British novels. I wonder how heroins' virtues have changed over time and what traits were praised by writers in each period and/or country. I know some people in this forum have good knowledge in literature. It would be greatly appreciated if anyone enlightens my ignorance. Thank you!

DS 9 has never been an art person. He's not fond of coloring, drawing or any sort. It got him in science exams at school this year. He studies science with California 5th grade text book which is full of colorful pictures at school. But he's tested on black and white sketches on names of body cells and plant parts, etc. He gets 100% on concepts or text based test but he's been missing a lot on sketch based name recognition. He can't relate the pictures and the sketches. Does anyone know of any science workbook which might be full of these sketches, so he could familiarize in them? Thank you. Lan

DS 9 has never been an art person. He's not fond of coloring, drawing or any sort. It got him in science exams at school this year. He studies science with California 5th grade text book which is full of colorful pictures at school. But he's tested on black and white sketches on names of body cells and plant parts, etc. He gets 100% on concepts or text based test but he's been missing a lot on sketch based name recognition. He can't relate the pictures and the sketches. :confused: Does anyone know of any science workbook which might be full of these sketches, so he could familiarize in them? Thank you. Lan

That's why I minimize the contact with my son's public school teacher and communicate with emails mainly. I don't think they enjoy dealing with parents that much. :0) Wasn't public school system developed to produce decent workers for industrial revolution era? It was never designed to customize each kid in the class. Some people have just wrong expectations from school regarding customization since it's a nearly impossible task for a teacher. That part will always be parents' share.

Flower, Kim Chunchu Before I called his name, he was just a gesture When I called his name, he came to me and became a flower. As I called his name I want to be called my name just right for my color and scent, then I'll come to him and become his flower. We all want to be something. I want to be your unforgettable wink as you are to me. _______________________________________________ This is one of the most popular poem in Koreans. My translation surely doesn't do it justice. But I still like to share...

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts, views and experiences regarding games. My son has addictive personality, which came from my mom's side of family. He loves to read for hours if he has any books with dragon in the story. But he'd also love to play games for hours until his eyes turn red if I let him. He gets all wired whenever he comes back from a family friend's house where there's no restrictions with games. It takes a while to detox the effect, which was another reason why I've been so strict with games. As he gets older, I'd like to give him more freedom and let him learn from trial and error. Hopefully he gets mature and develops healthy attitude toward games even if we have to go through some hiccups. Thanks for recommending the book Luann. I'm heading to amazon.com.

My son will be 10 soon. Until recently, I've tried to shield him from the harming effects of playing any kind of electronic games including on line games. So I've limited his playing time for 20 minutes on weekends only. And we don't have any game machines at home not even Nintendo DS or Wii. But they are just everywhere. He goes to a birthday party and has a play date with his friend. It mostly ends up him playing those games or just watching someone else playing. Even at his school, the principal throws Wii parties for principal's AR club, a bunch of kids who meet the AR points for each quarter. I don't think I can control him from playing these games forever since he seems to be envious of his friends who owns all those game gadgets and loves to talk about games with his friends. Maybe it's part of the kids' culture these days. My biggest fear is that he becomes a game addict once he goes off to college and is no longer under my roof. Since he's approaching preteen age, I'd like to help him develop healthy attitude toward games and learn to be in self-control with games. The only problem is I don't know how. Any suggestions? Additionally, what do you think of Club Penguin? Are there any good(?) game websites with cute cartoons without shooting or weird pictures?

http://www.learnlatinonlinefree.com/lessons_latin_i.php Brent posted youtube lessons, pdf lecture notes and worksheets. He teaches grammar with lots of resources but Ecce Romani is his main reading lessons book. My 9 year old son is learning Latin with Prima Latina and having fun with its DVDs. He motivated me to learn Latin. I got Latin Prep, Cambridge Latin and Wheelock's based on the reviews in the following link. http://www.redshift.com/~bonajo/latincurricula.htm I like Cambridge Latin approach since it helps me reading right away. Wheelock's is a bit too hard core for a beginner. I'd annoyed to see principal parts of words in the dictionary and none of these books seem to explain what the parts are until I found it out from the learnlatinonlinefree website. What a relief!http://www.learnlatinonlinefree.com/principal_parts_verbs.php If you use Wheelock's or Cambridge Latin, these sites will be useful. http://www.wheelockslatin.com/ http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/latin/wheelock/contents.htm http://www.cambridgescp.com/Lpage_A.php?p=clc^oa_unit1^intro

I'd like to delete my previous posting since I don't seem to have the right information for the pro-rated tuition. Sorry for the confusion.

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http://www.economist.com/node/17672806 This article made me think about my preference to heroes. I like victorian novels and enjoys genuinely good heart heroes but I stay away from byronic heroes since they are too passionate and suspensful, so obviously I don't like gothic genre or vampire novels. I can't even watch scary movies. Scary scenes stay in my mind so vividly that I had a hard time to go to the bathroom when I was little. Ever since, I just have avoided watching any of that sort. I couldn't have understood why some women fell for irresponsible guys or even bad guys and repeat the same mistakes falling for the exactly same style. Do you think girls who long for more byronic heroes might fall for unreliable characters when they choose their partners? I've always thought I was a bit dry or like to be in control of my feelings to pursue a passionate love. Maybe I was just a chicken?! :D

Janice, There are bunch of Kindle forums if you google it. They might be able to answer your questions. I got mine last Friday and was surprised it showed most highlighted sentences. I got mixed feelings about it. Interesting to see what other people thought worth underline but I'm not sure I want to share it with others.

I recently read Anna Karenina after I watched the movie. Sean Bean, Boromir in LOTR, played Vronsky. It was an interesting experience since I read the book in Korean during college. Somehow I had remembered only Anna and Vronsky's part although half the book was about Levin. There are several translations of AK. Constance Garnett, Maude and Pevear translations are well known ones. I started to read Constance Garnett's without knowing there are other translations and wanted to get an audiobook from the library. Only to find out it carries Maude version audiobook, so it wasn't possible to read the book along with the audiobook although I liked David Horovitch's reading. I even checked out Maude translated book, but by that time I was so familiar with Garnett's style that it just didn't feel right. Garnett's version contains some French dialogue but it's not that distracting with footnotes. There were some moments that I wasn't satisfied with her translation and got annoyed a bit but once I got used to it, I liked her translation. I looked through Pevear translation of War and Peace at B&N and didn't like it. It seems to contain far more French than Garnett's, so this time I'm going to read Briggs' 100% British English translation. Only trouble is most audiobooks of W&P are Maude translation. My advice is before jumping into reading, compare the books with different translations and choose what you prefer.

If she watched P & P numerous times, she will love to watch North and South with Richard Armitage as Mr. Thornton. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyYiwD1Q1aY It's intresting that both heroines rejected the proposal based on prejudice and changed of heart later once they were able to see the heroes' true nature. But in P & P, Lizzy was less fortunate financially and family connections compared to Mr. Darcy who's Mr. perfect in terms of conditions. In N & S, Margaret was cultured in South and Mr. Thornton, a self-made industrial man, had to win her heart despite her dislike. Both heroines are strongminded. Personally I prefer Mr. Thornton since he's a self-made man. I might be biased though becaused of Richard Armitage's great acting and deliciously melting voice. http://www.richardarmitageonline.com/north-and-south/north-south-thornton1.html I found this english 322/ survey of british literture course link. Thought it would be a good source. http://www.jadwin.net/322/#description And here's victorianweb link. http://www.victorianweb.org/index.html

Thank you for your input, Karin. Thank you so~ much for your thoughtful suggestions, Mandy in TN. I'm so happy to know that you've used many of the same things. I agree with you. I got Primary Challenge Math which is interesting to me but DS is already familiar with some of the patterns. I'll get the Challenge Math. Yep! His mental math is very good. I'll make him write all the steps down during the Thanksgiving break and/or winter vacation. About his careless mistakes, here's what his teacher who has master's degree in math education said, "Don't worry. It might be hormone. He's a growing boy. His mind might be in soccer or recess play, whatever. He can't get 100% everytime. It will get better." Read all the good reviews Jacobs Mathematics: A Human Endeavor got in Amazon.com. I'm itching to buy it. I'll check out other math books you mentioned. Thanks for your help! Lan

Thank you for the great suggestions, EKS. You're right. I focused too much on solidifying concepts with drills and neglected challenges. He definately needs more interesting and challenging math. I'll look into Challenge Math since he doesn't like PM. He's a bookworm and likes the written explanations in Saxon and LOF. Thanks again!

Ds8 is a 4th grader at public school. Luckily he's in a very fast paced 4/5 combo class with an enthusiastic teacher. He's done Key to series in fractions and decimals, LOF fractions and decimals, and Kumon A through E. Over the summer, he finished saxon 6/5 with 80 to 100 percent score mostly by himself. I've noticed he made careless mistakes in multi digit multiplications mainly by doing in his head or even if he did write down the pocedure, he omitted to write down all the carry overs, did addition mentally, and ended up with wrong answers. I think it's caused by Kumon. I should have corrected that habit long before it settled. Once school started, he got so busy with two sports and homework, so I let him take a break from math. He seemed to have a little burn out from summer intensive saxon math although he didn't complain. I want to resume his math afterschooling since he got used to his school homework routine. But I can't decide which one I should use. Here's my tentative plan in order. Epgy until he finishes 6th grade math Key to percent LOF percent Kumon F It all depends on his willingness to do it. He'd rather read 1000 page books than solve math problems these days. Here are my questions. How do I spark his interest in math again? How to fix his mental math habit? Should I move on to my plan or make him do multi digit multiplication worksheets? Is there any fun math book? I know it seems oxymoron.

I think it's funny that it applies to ds8 in sports. Since he barely made the cutoff date, he's been always the youngest in his class. During K to 3rd grade, he's been advanced 2 to 3 years in math and reading but a bit behind in physical strength, weight, and coordination. So he couldn't play kickball or soccer during recess at the PS playground since he felt intimidated. One time he told me that he didn't think he could kick as high as those big kids in kickball. So far, he's done swimming every summer, did Taekwondo over a year, tried briefly skiing, ice skating and tennis. He also has been in AYSO soccer for a year and has taken Karate almost a year. He never showed any natural talent at any sports. But his underdog status seemed to change this year. He's more natural with Karate (previous Taekwondo lessons must have helped) and is a competent soccer player and swimmer now. He enjoys playing soccer during recess at his PS and collects trophies from Karate competitions. Other than one star player in the playground soccer team, he can match anyone else. I don't think these big kids did anything but sit around playing video games, so my son could catch up with them. He's still underweight and small compared to his peers but he compensates for physical weakness with technique. He plays smarter by applying skill to play soccer and practice Karate. Dh and I help him to improve his skills and he practices Karate everyday with dh. Whether it's academics or sports, you can't beat a person who perseveres and practice everyday. The turtles catch up to and surpass the complacent hares. Look at Evan Lysacek. Even though he won Olympic gold in men's figure skating, he doesn't have musicality. He said so himself. But he does have the stomach to handle the pressure and skate well consistently. He's famous for his rigorous practices.

But for the kids, it works quite well if there is no "fun" allowed until the clothes are in the hamper. Ds8 isn't allowed to watch TV or play computer games anymore until none of his clothes are laying on the floor. It's been working well but occasionally I had to remind myself to stick to the rule.

When Student Loans Live On After Death http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704741904575409510529783860.html?mod=WSJ_newsreel_personalFinance In summary, a 20 something died and left his student loan to his father, the co-signer of the private student loan. Unlikde federal loan, which forgave student loan if the holder dies, private student loans don't have that clause. So they could go after co-signers until debt is fully paid. It's indeed a sad story and no one wants to think about death. But I think it's worth to ponder. "To all you people who have cosigned a note with your son or daughter, buy a term life insurance policy to cover the amount of the loan. The rates for somebody in their twenties is very cheap and it could save you financial hardship later on."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB128121678189825407.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsForth I found this article thoght provoking. In my case, my father had paid all my expenses until I finally got a job after grad school. He had even paid off my credit card before I got married because he wanted me to marry debt free. As much as I'm grateful to my dad's generosity, I wish he would have taught me financial responsibilites since it took me years to become frugal. Dh and I eventually became financially responsible after I got pregnant. How do you teach you kids value of money and work?

Thank you all for the tips. I added my son's age. He's already 8 and a big reader, so depriving bedtime stories won't affect him anymore. I should have trained him earlier... Lots of good ideas. A chore chart sounds especially good. I can totally relate the lady who nailed her dh's clothes on the floor.:lol:

How do I train ds8 plus dh to pick up their clothes and put them to the closets or to the hamper except hiring Jackie Chan to teach them a lesson like in Karate Kid? Sometimes, especially a winter day when dh loves to wear layers of clothes and also loves to lay them around our house, I even fantacize myself throwing them away...