Home again, home again.....

We have survived the testing! JT handled the whole thing very well. We ended up canceling our reservations with the hotel when I started thinking about the cost of the whole thing. Monday morning we left early enough to have time to get lost if necessary. Surprisingly enough, I managed to find our destination with no trouble.

When we arrived at the test site, I found the site manager who had arranged JT's special accommodations, allowing him to take 3 test sections for 2 days, instead of the standard 2 sections for 3 days. She assured me everything would be fine. When we went to the room where the actual testing was taking place, I told the teacher what was going on.

After the morning session, we got lunch. I asked JT what the hardest math question on the test was like. He told me none of them were hard. I tried again, "Well, tell me about the one that took you the longest to solve." He said, "None of them took longer than 20 seconds." "How do you know that?" I asked. "I counted for all of them!"

Should the fact that he was able to time each question WHILE solving it bother me?

We went back to the hotel at the appointed time. We were asked to wait until they found somewhere to have him take the test. Three other families had made similar deals and were also asked to wait. It took 45 minutes for them to figure out where they should be. I thought all of this was arranged in advance. Silly me! When he finally went to the room, I asked how long that section should take. I was told about 1 hour 20 min. I figured I'd come back up to the lobby in 1 hour, knowing it wouldn't take him as long as they predicted. They came and found me 30 minutes later...he was done.

The next morning, I asked if he could finish the last 3 sections in the morning session, since he had been done early the morning before and had finished the 3rd section so quickly. Morning sessions run from 9- 11:45. They came to get me at 11. He was finished.

The most disturbing thing about this whole ordeal was the fact that other parents were being forced to spend loads of time waiting when they really didn't need to be. Why hadn't they arranged to have more convenient testing? The morning sessions were for the younger grades, afternoons for the 7th-11th. Some parents had kids in both groups and sat there all day. Some had toddlers with them. One mom told me she traveled 1 hr 40 min both ways and had to do it all 3 days.

I guess the cyber schools don't want the kids testing in their home school districts for many reasons. But wouldn't it be easier for them to pay a fee for the kids to do that? Test scores would probably be better. It might even be cheaper than the cost of renting so many locations. I'm sure there are all sorts of politics involved. Maybe I'll check that out before next year's testing.

I'm glad the testing is over. However, it was nice to spend a few hours each day in the parent waiting area. As I spoke with the other families, it was interesting to hear their educational story. No two were alike. Some had started out in brick and mortar. Some had done traditional homeschooling, some a little Christian schooling, some had always been in cyberschool. Under usual circumstances, when I try to explain our family to people, I always feel like the 'weirdo'. My daughter (now graduated) went to Christian school preK to 2nd, moved to public until 5th and then back to the Christian school 6th-graduation. Our middle child, JT, started public, moved to cyber. The youngest is in Christian K and will cyber next year. These people were like me! I felt like I had finally found my clan. No one there expected me to drop my kids off at the public school and be happy with anything they gave me. All of these people wanted their children to be educated in a way that was appropriate for the CHILD. How crazy is that?!