STAAR WARS...........May the Scores Be With You!

One of the advantages my children had by being in Private School was not having to worry about State Testing.  Now both are in Public School and Andrew just took his first two this past week and Anna will take hers starting next year.

Andrew understandably has been stressed and worried about not passing these test.  He started to have stomach issues a couple of weeks ago.  What we thought was a virus, I soon discovered was stress.  Poor kid!  Last Friday he told me, "I am nervous about Tuesday."  I figured that it was time to plan a fun weekend to help get his mind off the test.

Anna had a free meal at CiCi's so I took the kids into San Antonio for lunch while Alan had a track meet.  We then went to a local teacher store to laminate some music games I created and put together to help fifth grade be ready for Middle School Choir or Band.  After that, we went to see "Gods Not Dead." Andrew had been asking to see it for several weeks.  After that, we went to HEB to shop and then headed back home.

I kept reassuring Andrew by telling him he is smart enough and has had a good foundation from great teachers at WCS and just use the strategies for test taking.

Andrew requested eggs, bacon and fruit for his breakfast.......I decided to take it a step or two further.  Tuesday morning, I got up extra early and had already had a blue table cloth, cloth napkins, my china and nice glasses on the table.  I used our dimmer and dimmed the dining room lights, turned on some soft music that my mother in law introduced me to and put lavender essential oil in a spa mist humidifier to keep him relaxed.  Breakfast was made and I met Andrew in the hallway and escorted him to his seat.  While he waited for his iced tea and food, he read all of the scattered notes all over the table with positive messages and bible verses on them.

I repeated the same process Wednesday morning.  Normally I have the kids pack their own lunch but on testing day, I pack it and sneak a note in their lunch.  Andrew almost wished testing was everyday.  He loved the extra pampering. 

Another perk was I was assigned to the fourth and fifth grade hall as the certified teacher for that hallway. All of the fifth graders were pretty nervous so I did the high five and "do a good job" as they walked into their assigned rooms. For the next four hours I would walk up and down the hall to check on teachers and see the progress of the students and report any problems to our test coordinator.  I would say prayers for Andrew.  It made me feel a little more at ease knowing I was just a few feet away.

Wednesday when it was all over, I took the kids to Sonic for a celebration dinner and they played on the playground and bounce house that Sonic has.

Now Anna is planning her STAAR breakfast meal, and what table cloth she wants for next year.  She wanted to make sure that I was going to do the same for her.  I think she enjoyed the breakfast meal almost as much as Andrew.  Andrew has one more test which is in Science at the end of the month.  I suppose I will be doing this all over again, but it is worth it.