Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Blood, Shopping, and Grades

The kids went in to the doctor's office today for their Factor V Leiden blood test. They were rather less than stoical about it. K., at least, had cause to fuss, as they had to dig around for quite a while in search of a good vein and apparently never did find one. They got a full vial from T., but only a little dribble from K. The nurses (who were clearly not eager to repeat the ordeal on K.'s other little arm), said they would see if that dribble was enough to test. I sure hope it is, as my poor little pumpkin is feeling bruised and traumatized.

Aside from the blood test drama (have I mentioned that it was very dramatic?), we had a very nice day. The weather has turned very pleasantly cool, at least temporarily. We did our big monthly trip to the Walmart, and I am always pleased when that is over with and our pantry is stocked.

My Edu-track program, where I keep our homeschooling schedules, has a feature for calculating and keeping track of grades. I never bothered with grades before, but this year I have been entering the results of T.'s quizzes and tests in math, grammar, Latin, Bible study, spelling, and reading comprehension. Of course, I test him mainly only so that we know which stuff needs more work, and also so that he is accustomed to tests, but it turns out that he finds grades very appealing. I printed out his progress report for the year today (87.9%, overall), and he was so pleased with it that he immediately showed it off to Ed and Katie. I think maybe it is the concrete evidence that he is learning something and is doing reasonably well (of course, we would prefer that the grades be higher, but that is something to work toward) that tickles him so much. Anyway, K. now wants her own report card. And, she wants grades in Latin and grammar and Bible study, as well as penmanship, reading, and math, which are the subjects she has been doing. I told her that I thought most kindergartners get Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory sorts of grades, rather than numbers and letters, but she wants what T. gets. I also told her that in order to get grades in those extra subjects, she would have to do them. Still no objection from K. Finally, I told her that I wasn't ready to teach her grammar yet (maybe in the spring), but that she could have a go at Prima Latina and Bible study if she really wanted to. She did her first five words of Prima today very happily, so we will see if her interest lasts. I will have to make up her weekly quizzes and give them orally, so her grades will be a little more subjective than T.'s, but I guess that is o.k. She is a funny little thing.

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