Proud Mama

Even as I've come to hate standardized testing, I have to say that I'm so proud of my little girl for not only passing the grade 3 HSA reading test, but for scoring in the "exceeds" range.  This is pretty monumental for her for several reasons.

1.  Lucy did pretty poorly the first time she took the HSA test last month.  Like really poorly.  So poorly, in fact, that I wondered if she would even pass it this year.

2.  Lucy wanted to take contemporary dance lessons (in addition to hula), but I thought we should wait until after third quarter because I was pretty disappointed in her second quarter report card.  Even knowing that her report card greatly differed from her ability, it still said she wasn't doing her best work.  She and Charlie, however, convinced me that Lucy should take the dance lessons because she would work hard to improve her grades.

3.  I don't like the Accelerated Reading program and don't force my kids to participate.  They read every day, and I use the AR reading levels to help guide me when I go pick out books for Lucy at the library, but reading should be FUN!  And the more they read for fun, I posit, the better they'll get at reading.  That being said, I haven't really pushed Lucy to read more chapter books because she doesn't finish them.  It's not that they're too hard, it's that they're too boring.  She loses interest and moves on.  How can I fault her for this when adults do it ALL the time!?  But I told her we were going to start moving on toward longer and more difficult books, and we did.

So, all this is the long way about saying that Lucy totally earned this really great HSA score, and if you haven't guessed, she improved her grades as well.  She's been reading different books and, of her own accord, pulls out the Usborne math dictionary (which is a totally great resource, btw) when she has trouble with her math homework.  I cannot express how proud of her I am!  She set some goals and accomplished them.  True, she hasn't yet passed the math (missed passing by one measly point), but I'm confident that she'll nail it next month on her third and final try.

My little girl is growing up, folks, and it's bittersweet.