The CAT for first grade

CAT being "California Achievement Test." Here in Virginia, you need to provide some "proof of progress" to the superintendent's office by Aug 1; one of these options is just to purchase the CAT or some similar test, and have your child take it (the parent proctors). That seemed simplest to me. All in all, it's supposed to take about 3 1/2 hours, although we're going to spend quite a bit less time on it, she's whizzing right through.

The first grade test is quite strange. It seems too hard for the majority of the country's first graders -- requires quite a bit of reading, knowledge of punctuation. One of the questions even required the kids to know the difference between "wonder" and "wander" -- i.e., which word connotes which concept. I can't believe the typical first grader can do this -- I think a lot of the country's eighth graders don't know. Madison knew, but she had to think, and she's not good at spelling yet. We hadn't covered some aspects of the language arts section, such as punctuation and capitalization, and she was upset about that. She had to think it through on the fly, and she didn't like this AT ALL -- she thought she would get every single question correct on the entire test.

We finished the reading/language section last night and have started on math. And now, Madison is in her element. 7 cents + 1 cent = ____? I don't think she'll have any surprises here, I don't believe even the 2-digit by 2-digit arithmetic involves any carrying or borrowing. Lots of "which bucket made this sandcastle?" kinds of questions. On the other hand, one of the questions in the science section asks: "Which picture shows a method of travel that is best for the earth?" showing someone in a car, on a bicycle, or on a motorcycle. Sigh. Can't escape tbe damned environmentalists even homeschooling.

Also, I keep telling her that the test is meaningless, shouldn't matter to her at all, but she's still mentally competing with all of those other first graders in the country who are taking it. There's no way I'm telling her the score when it comes in.