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Placement test.... Ugh!


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So, we're hoping to put DS into a parochial school next year for 7th grade. He really needs to be a more independent worker, be accountable to someone else, in other words.... Homeschooling has stopped working for us with him. I took him in today for a placement test and.... I just don't know. He said he didn't do well. He's a bright kid, he's solidly doing 6th grade work. He could be doing much better if he applied himself, but he's lazy and doesn't want to put forth too much effort. I know he did poorly because of the situation. He was very nervous, he said he'd forgotten how to do Greatest Common Factors, and he has never been in a school setting before and taking a test like that before. He does take tests at home, though, as part of the curriculum. It was just math and writing an essay about himself. His handwriting is horrible, and that's just print. I never taught him cursive. He was so uncooperative I decided that wasn't a hill I was willing to die on. I'm just really down right now. I can't homeschool him next year. Plan B is a Christian school in town, but I don't want him to go there for numerous reasons. However, he will go there if he doesn't get into the parochial school. Public school is absolutely not an option.

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:grouphug:

How well does he need to do for the parochial school's placement test to get in?  For writing, can you start him on learning to type while improving his handwriting? His handwriting doesn't need to look nice but it has to be legible.  He would also need to get use to writing down homework assignments when he goes to school.

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:grouphug:

How well does he need to do for the parochial school's placement test to get in? For writing, can you start him on learning to type while improving his handwriting? His handwriting doesn't need to look nice but it has to be legible. He would also need to get use to writing down homework assignments when he goes to school.

Well, it's not an admissions test, but it's to see if he's working on grade level. However, the class is full, he's on the waiting list, so it may make a difference as to whether he'll get in or not. He can write legibly if he wants to, but he just doesn't. And with him, everything in school is a battle, so I just have to choose my battles and making him re-write everything again and again unfortunately didn't make it to the top of my list. He doesn't want to learn to type. "Too much work," says he. I do force him to type his essays, though,so I can read them. But he's very slow. We tried one of those "learn to type" programs, but he didn't do well on it. He just didn't try. I'm hoping to talk to the teacher after she grades the thing and see what she has to say.

 

I'm just feeling like a homeschool failure right now. I know it's not really the truth.... But like with the handwriting thing. I feel like I should have been more on top of that. And I'm thinking with the math... was he just nervous or does he really not know it. I thought he knew it. Math is one thing I am on top of with the kids. I hate feeling like this!

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:grouphug: Krissi.

 

We all do our best with what we can do. 12 yo boys are hard, hard, hard. And they can take some responsibility as well. Maybe now, he will decide that handwriting and typing are in his best interest. We are a houseful of people with terrible handwriting (though those with a Y chromosome are the worst). You cannot force them to care and you cannot force them to work on it. It has to be self-motivated.

 

:grouphug:

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:grouphug: Krissi.

 

We all do our best with what we can do. 12 yo boys are hard, hard, hard. And they can take some responsibility as well. Maybe now, he will decide that handwriting and typing are in his best interest. We are a houseful of people with terrible handwriting (though those with a Y chromosome are the worst). You cannot force them to care and you cannot force them to work on it. It has to be self-motivated.

 

:grouphug:

You are right abut the responsibility, Jen. And that is part of the reason we are putting him in school. Thus far his education has been me cramming it down his throat. He takes no responsibility in his own education whatsoever. Actually, he is not self-motivated for much of anything. Any so now I'm thinking, maybe I shouldn't have been "kicking him down the road" like this for all these years. But I didn't know what else to do.
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:grouphug:   I think it's hardest with the oldest - knowing where to place expectations, knowing how hard to push, etc.  By the time we figure it out, we've already established a pattern with them.  Hope it turns out better than you expect.  And hope he gets in.  When will you know more?

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