"Can I take a test please?"

Honestly, both the older children asked to take a test today.

I had taken out the old Saxon placement test for grades K-3 just to see what Baby Girl knows and what she doesn't.  Tests are for information, not pass/fail around here.  Both the kids and I think they are fun.

Baby Girl knows plenty for her age, and it is good to see where the gaps were.  I think we will be playing with more graphs and more shapes in the future.

The test happened to be the same one I gave Little Man in 09.  I retested him just to see how much he has learned since then.  It was great fun for both of us. He apparently needs practice in clocks, money, thermometers, and graphs.  All fun things we will be working on.

Since Princess asked I gave her the first section of the Saxon middle grades placement test (I printed it two years ago, along with others, no idea how much it has changed?)

She enjoyed sitting in my lap answering the questions, I gave her a chance to do each on her own, then I walked her through how to do anything she got wrong.  She needs plenty of work on division, and a better memory of multiplication tables.  Sadly she doesn't really enjoy TimezAttack anymore, so we need to find a new game for her.

It did bring up the old question I keep having.  When she is done with Singapore 3, should I use the Saxon 5/4 or should I find something to help bolster her basic skills?  (Right now she is doing Aleks.com, but it wont last long and we can't afford it past the free trial)

I really wasn't sure what to do for Dude, he wanted a test, but redoing the Saxon stuff seemed like a waste of our time.  I  was thinking all afternoon, and I finally hit upon a good idea.  SAT test prep questions!  They would be challenging for sure, and hopefully free.  I tried this site clicked the math section and apparently he is able to get all the questions right...on the second try.  I told him that meant he wasn't able to go to college yet.

Sadly the test wont help me learn what to work on with him, mostly because I didn't know the answers to 6 of the questions (out of 7).  Though my best guess is a bit of geometry is in order.  Did you know the sum of any two sides of a triangle must be longer than the third?  I didn't.