Glasses ARE making a difference.

It's amazing what some glasses can do for your child!  She still struggles with some reading, because she's lacking some basics skills, but she grasping and getting the information so much faster now. I really think it's helping her that she can see! She was just on the boarder line of needing glasses and we went with it, because we could also get them to be prism to correct for convergence insufficiency.

I so wished we went with this passive route several years ago when we learned she had convergence insufficiency. She's even doing math work with no fuss.  For the last several years I've had to deal with I don't understand it and had to work through her whining over the work. Looking back I think she was this way, because she couldn't see properly.

When she got her glasses on she said without my glasses things are 'normal'; with my glasses things are super clear and just pop-out at you!  I had to explain to her that super clear and pop-out at you IS normal!

She even this last week has been, are you ready for it, doing WORD problems WITHOUT my help!! For the last several years I've have had to sit next to her while she reads the word problems and correct the mistakes she was making.  This week she just did it without having to have me sit next to her while she read them to me! Can I just as that's awesome! She said for the some: I didn't know the person's name so I just skipped that part, but I understood and read the rest of the word problem just fine. That is a HUGE improvement for us. I really can't share how that's an improvement.


We've always have done spelling, math, reading, writing, and all the other subject required by my state, but this year I'm going to make spelling, writing, and reading more of a priority and  focus. We still will be doing all of subjects we just will be doing more language arts then in years prior.  I was given the first level of All About Spelling so I'm looking forward to giving that ago. I also have a list of books I'm going have the kid read this year in addition to reading to mommy and other free reading materials.

In years passed I've done history with a text book. This year I'm going to approach it with literature. I'm looking forward to that as well.  How have things been going with you? Are you doing anything new this school year?

Convergence Insufficiency

Convergence Insufficiency is a topic I haven't talked about in a LONG time! It's never really gone away for my daughter and here we are 3 years later and we still have reading issues. Reading issues that I'm sure are associated with this vision issue.

We tried various methods over the years and various phonics, hands on programs to help improve her reading. We have seen IMPROVEMENT but nothing that we really have been totally please with.
Today, I took the kids in for the annual vision exams and it turns out both kids are farsighted and need reading glasses. We decided NOT to get glasses for our son, only because the prescription is for a very small correction. He's not having issues with reading at this time so we decided to hold off. The script is good for an year, so if we notice issues within this year we can get it filled then.

Our daughter's prescription is for a slight correction as well, but she also getting  prism lenses to help correct the convergence insufficiency.  We'll have her new glasses next week so I'm hoping that she'll noticed a difference while reading and we'll notice a difference as well.

When we got home we told my husband about everything and answered Web-princesses questions about her classes. She took about a book she's been reading and said "So the glasses are going to help me see, read, better. I can see, read, the words on the page just fine." We told her she will notice the difference when she gets her glasses. It's going to be interesting to see how she reacts to them once they are here.

Wall book and running

I think my children have Facebook envy. Well at least my daughter does. She has decided to make wall book. She's hoping family will post messages on her wall book.

I posted a message on there this morning telling her to clean her room. You know what? She actually cleaned it! It looks very nice.

She wrote on her wall her excitement about giving cross country running a go. We found a local club to join. Well we actually found two. One is just for homeschoolers the other is for anyone.

We decided to go with the one that is open to anyone because my daughter is not sure if she want to compete at meets. If she just wants to run and be apart of the group then it is free for us. If she decides she wants to compete then it will cost us a little bit of money for an uniform and entry fees for the meets.

Testing New Mobile App.

A little over an year ago, well really 1.5 years ago I entered the smartphone world with an android based phone. Seeing android is Google owned one of the first things I looked for was a Blogger app. I had a few options but none of them were made by Google so I passed. I didn't want to use a 3rd party app and give them my password.

Today I on a whim decided to search the app store for a Blogger app and to my surprise I found one made by Google so I thought I would give it a try.

This blog post was made on my phone.

CAT scores

Well a few weeks ago I gave my kids a CAT test. I mainly gave them this test because my husband requested it. I used Seton Testing Services so each test cost $25 and I was able to administer the test myself.  Seton Testing Services sent me the booklets, detail instructions, and scanable answer sheet for the kids to fill out. I had to send all the materials back to them. They scored the test and sent me the results.

In the mail today I received the results. Superstar scored average on everything but math. For math he scored above average.Web-Princess scores were average except on those areas that required reading.  Those areas she scored below average. I totally expected this from her because of her struggles in reading over the years. We have seen improvement, but I know that improvement is still below 'grade' level.

As their teacher I already had an idea of where they would fall, I didn't need these test to tell me that. I gave the kids the test because my husband wanted them done. He wanted something to show where the kids are with their schooling.

I know that many within the homeschool community don't care for standardize testing, because they can at time don't show a child's true measure of knowledge. This is especially true if the child does not test well. Some people know matter how bright they are never do well on test.

Thankfully I live in state that does NOT require me to use standardize testing. This was done purely for our own knowledge.