This Week at Our House #16 State Testing and Easter

Every school year I am required to give my homeschooled kids some form of state testing. Every year, I have used the California Achievement Test because it can be administered online. All of the other tests come as paper tests in the mail, then you have to mail them back to get the scores. That's too much work for me. I am glad that there is an online option available and I am surprised that there are not more.

I had two kids take their tests each day for 3 school days in a row. That always cuts into the academics that happen. That 3-day loss definitely put us more behind on math lessons. All of the kids did reasonably well, especially in math. Their scores definitely helped me to know where we are lacking. We will be putting greater stress on spelling and punctuation in the coming school year. It turned out well because I had already thought that I needed to be more serious about those and ordered "The Good and the Beautiful" language arts curriculum for Anya, Joseph, Joshua, Arwen, and Susan which arrived the first day of our testing. Susan is excited for hers. She will be heading into kindergarten after our summer break.

The week went pretty smoothly otherwise. We have been taking down the ugly wallpaper. I am hoping to have that done and the walls painted before next Sunday. Joseph, Anya, Rachel, Adam, Johnny, Ruth, and Kate have all been helping on this.

Sam is still going through the terrible twos. Ruth rightfully called him a bully one morning as she tried to give in to his every demand while getting him breakfast. I've declared that Sam cannot be the boss of the family and he will have to sit in his room if he is screaming and bullying and whining and crying. John seconded me on this. One day this

week, Sam fell asleep on the couch at about 7:30. He woke up and came into my bed at 10:30 and went right back to sleep. At midnight, we put him into his own bed and he slept until 8 am. That next day, he was happy and polite the whole day. It seemed that our sweet Sam returned. We decided to get him to bed earlier each night, but Susan, Arwen, and Josh keep sabotaging that by playing in his room and keeping him awake.

I told Susan that I needed to get her to the dentist because she needs some fillings in her baby molars. I mentioned this two weeks ago and she has reminded me several times a day each day since then. I guess I better make the phone call. I will take Sam in then too, since Susan will have
to see the pediatric dentist.

Adam sent an email to John, me, Ruth, Kate, and Rachel with pictures of cartoon girls in which he

said, "these are the girls that Johnny thinks are pretty." I am not sure if Johnny was embarrassed or mad, but he went into everyone's email, except John and Ruth's and deleted them. He even deleted the sent mail out of Adam's email. I just mentioned that Ruth could forward it again to everyone. Johnny may now be thinking of how he can get rid of it from Ruth and John's emails too.

The four new baby chicks all died, seemingly of the same thing the ducklings died from. But I took a few kids to a nursery to pick up a few plants for the garden, and Joseph bought a 6 week old rooster and Arwen a 6 week old hen. They were big enough to put in with the rest of the flock outside. They are healthy and surviving. But Joseph has worried about them constantly and is always going outside to check on them. They have been very safe and very healthy, although the cats will chase them and the ducks will bite them.

Ruth and Kate stay in their room transcribing church historical documents and learning so much. I wanted Ruth to have this time of learning, so I promise not to ask them to help at all until after 7pm. They think this is very fair and always come and help happily. Ruth is emotional, though, worrying about her future. Kate is still just waiting and working hard to learn all that she can.

Gideon hit 3 months this week. He is nearly 15 pounds. He looks around quite happily at everything. He coos and chats with everyone. He loves us to bounce him up and down. When we do, he sticks his tongue out and when we stop he gives us the biggest, dimpliest smile, which I finally got a picture of!

All of our bushes are in full spring bloom and Susan and Arwen have been picking bouquets, putting flowers in their hair and carrying them around. Then they fight about whose flowers they are. I fertilized all of our bushes last fall and they are so much bigger and so full of flowers.

For Easter, we did something a little different this year and I have loved it! John did a word search

through the Joseph Smith papers, which we have on file, and we began reading all of the things Joseph Smith has said about resurrection. We've also searched the D&C, the Book of Mormon, and the Pearl of Great Price for everything about resurrection. We have learned so much more. In the past, our focus has been on the last week of the life of Christ. That is good, but this year has been much better as we are gaining more knowledge and understanding. It has been a very religious Easter and I think everyone older than Joseph is thankful for that.

I can't overstate how much I appreciate John's ability to lead us spiritually as a family. When I knew that I wanted to marry him it was because I really admired how seriously he took the scriptures and how he studied them to learn what was in them. He reminded me of the mission president that was in

my hometown mission when I was a senior in high school. I knew then that I wanted to marry someone like that, I just didn't think I was worthy. I still don't think that I am worthy. I simply lucked out somehow.

We still had our traditional candy hunt for Easter for the kids. Arwen counted down the days until Easter for this one event. Adam, Rachel, Anya, and Joseph did all the hiding last night. They had fun finding tricky places. Susan got a wooden chest to collect all her candy and Sam was just cute, sitting by the candy set out for him to find and pointing at it in surprise and happiness.

Later tonight we will have our traditional lamb dinner which we are really looking forward too.

We will be finished with our school year in less than 3 weeks! Hurray for vacation!

More Pictures

I love our chickens

This is my little kitchen garden. It is right outside the kitchen. It has cucumbers, bell peppers, hot peppers, tomatoes, and lots of herbs. Right now when I want fresh herbs, I just step outside and get them. The vegetables will be coming in another month.