>”Mommy, I knew more than I thought I would know when they were asking me how much I knew,” that is the profound statement of the day, from one of my sweet children, after they were picked up from achievement tests. I don’t know how this will all turn out, I am always surprised by test scores and what my kids know and where there challenges lie. Sometimes I am right on the money, but sometimes I am pleasantly surprised and they know more than I thought they would know when someone ask them what that know…….you get the idea. The important thing is this, they are confident and happy, they know more than they knew last year (in most cases), and are becoming their on personal best. As a rule we don’t share with the children any of these scores, we have found that it will either give a false since of pride or a false since of insecurity or ‘feeling dumb’, so we only let them know where they did great or where they may need some improvement. Maybe other families have children whose character as been built up as such that they don’t have issues that we have encountered, but alas this is how we do it in our home. Today, it was worth it, all this testing that I hate doing because as she so aptly put it upon entering our home, she knew more than she thought she would know when they asked her how much she knew….and that made her happy.
This is the way will measure success today.
Don’t let the numbers get the best of you. Just know what you need to know, learn what the Lord wants you to learn when you realize you don’t know it. Enjoy life.

>Success is measured in different ways in our home, I have learned. We have had children on every side of ability when it comes to cognitive skills at given ages. We have a few that learned to read early (really early) and one or two that were about age level and a few who have struggled. Along the way I have educated myself with a load of info about Asperger’s Syndrome: http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/
Auditory Processing challenges , Sensory Integration issues, Epilepsy, all sort of neurological challenges….I didn’t come into this race feeling adequately trained or prepared for what was set before me. I used to measure success by doing something before grade level, then I measured by grade level, today I measure in smiles, hope, a move forward (even if it was predicated with a few moves backwards). I measure with how well I am able to hold it together when I must review the same thing we reviewed every day for a few weeks, and then a moment, the child gets some glimmer of getting it and wha la SUCCESS….hope for tomorrow.
Moms I hope you don’t get out a yard stick type chart and measure your children. We take test, we figure out what we need and we move on. In light of the upcoming achievement test, learn to look at all that is happening and measure only in the context of your on reality and HOPE. I have learned and continue to learn that this is not a sprint, it really is a marathon and I may appear behind the curve or ahead of the curve, but no one can call the true standings with out running in my shoes. Today, all of my kids are happy, playing in the mud, searching for bugs, loving on the little ones, some curled up reading books in quiet trees (the ones I wouldn’t have expected to be able to do this just one year ago), today is already a success and we won’t start what everyone else calls real school for another hour.
I love my life and I am happy where I am at.