Monday March 30, 2009

Morning Mass was at 8am at St. Mary's, and it was rather uneventful today. After Mass, Connor completed unit 7 in the vocabulary book, and created vocabulary flash cards too. I bought him a plastic container to keep all the cards in, and Connor sorted his words alphabetically to store. After vocab., Connor completed six Math pages in Math Journal 2, studied Chinese, practiced guitar, read a chapter in his Chemistry book, made flashcards for his Chemistry vocabulary, and filled in some more blank maps. Although Connor can place all the countries in the world very quickly on Sheppard software, I'm finding that the skills do not always transfer to the blank map. On the geography software, the names of the countries are listed. When I present blank maps to complete, sometimes Connor struggles to remember the names. We are going to spend more time on blank maps this week.Connor finished Summer of My German Soldier and he started Jacob Have I Loved. He's been choosing to read mostly historical fiction lately.This afternoon Connor asked me if he could take the McQuaid placement exam this month. At first I said no, but then I paused to ask myself, why not? If he fails, then he learns that he still has more to learn. If he passes, he feels successful. If he passes with a high mark, then we can sit down with administration and decide how to proceed. So I called the office and asked if Connor, a ten year old, would be allowed to sit for the 7th grade exam. The administrative assistant was quite hesitant, and she said she'd check with the Dean and get back to me. I should have just signed him up for the test, and not asked if Connor's age prevented him from taking the exam. My mistake.