The World According to Leslie

I have mixed feelin about the end-of-year testing. Did you know that in middle school, there are 3-4 different types of tests?  There's the EOG (end-of-grade test, for selected middle school subjects), the EOC (end-of-course test, for students in high school classes in certain subjects), the NCFE (North Carolina Final Exam, for most subjects that do not already have an EOC/EOG), and teacher-made exams (for classes that don't have a state test but still require a final exam grade)!!  My daughter gets to take 4 EOGs/NCFEs, 2 EOCs, and 1 teacher-made exam!!  Yes!! That adds up to SEVEN!!!!  SEVEN tests for my ONE child!!!! As a teacher, I can see that it is useful to see where students may have deficits in certain areas. I do not, however, think that the tests should be used at the end all/be all for the students. They should be used to help differentiate learning for the students. Find a way to teach the students what they lack. Find a way to enrich what they do ...

On Friday, Tony and I went to the NCHE Homeschool Conference. Check out information about it here at THRIVE! 2017 We did not attend the sessions. After a lot of research, we decided to check out the Vendor Hall. I'm glad that we didn't try to do the classes too. My brain could NOT have handled it. After a few hours in the vendor hall, my brain was completely fried. The vendors were set up in a HUGE hall. There were 232 spaces. Some of the vendors had 2-8 spaces for themselves. But... still.... that's A LOT of people!  Before we went, I had done my research. I knew for SURE who I wanted to see. I knew some of the ones I wanted to check out just to be sure. I had downloaded a map of the vendor hall and had highlighted the ones I wanted to check out. By the time we got there, and started through the first row of vendors, I had put the map and my list in the backpack. We decided just to check out ALL the vendors. Some of them were NOT what I wanted.  So we didn'...

Some decisions are easy. Some decisions take a lot of prayer and consideration. Easy decision (most of the time).... what to wear. Hard decision.... where to go to college, who to marry, where to live. Sometimes, you get to make decisions for yourself. You get to decide alone or you can talk it out with the other people involved and make a decision. Sometimes, decisions are made for you. Either circumstances beyond your control or other people take the decision away from you. I have talked many times about decisions I have to make (or have recently made). Tony and I are going tomorrow to the homeschool conference in Winston-Salem. We are going to be checking out information and curriculum for homeschool. We still have not made a complete decision. This is still part of the research. However, we still have to do the research together to be able to make an informed/educated decision. We have to make one soon, but we want to be sure it's the best thing possible. Becaus...

"Yesterday's the past, tomorrow's the future, but today is a gift. That's why it's called the present." Bil Keane Over the past couple of weeks, I have still been on autopilot . I have just been going through the motions. Mother's Day is bittersweet for me. On May 9, 2002, Tony's mom passed away. That was on Thursday before Mother's Day. We buried her on Saturday, May 11. Now, every year, it's hard to face Mother's Day. Don't get me wrong, I love my Princess! This year, she got me an awesome card.  It said to relax and have time for myself. Then on the inside it said, "for about 10 minutes because I need a sandwich!"  Loved it!  We got together with my parents on Friday night for Dad's birthday!  Then on Saturday, the whole family was together for Mother's Day.  All of us, including my brother's kids were there!  Papaw Paul even got to come hang out with us! The quote I chose for today is one we h...

Have you ever been on "autopilot"? For the past couple of weeks, I have had so much stuff to get done. I just feel like I'm on "autopilot" trying to complete stuff. I am still working on VBS.  While I have a core team of people, I still need about 15-20 more volunteers. Plus, we have to do volunteer training (May 20th) and get all the supplies together for everyone!  While we have a good bit of stuff already for The Princess's Silver Award, we still need a lot more stuff.  As of today, she has been approved to have a yard sale on May 27th and to put up wish lists on Amazon and Dollar Days.  I will post the details of those here when we get them set up. We are still working on getting stuff collected and raising money for the Better to Give project at church. I have a Wish list set up through Dollar Days for that, and I will post that information here ASAP! It's also the end of the year--school year! Next week, the final progress reports for ...