A blog for anyone who needs to know they are not alone in raising a bipolar child.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Mathnasium Testing and Verdict
Caroline had a math assessment done at Mathnasium yesterday, and let's just say that she shouldn't be taking Algebra I right now. Sigh. Her math learning disability evidenced itself in every problem. She can't remember any of her pre-Algebra skills!!! And she has had two years of pre-Algebra!!! She could do the basic algebra equations because that is what she is working on right now. But she can't remember how to turn decimals into percentages and her word problem skills were dismal! So this means that we have to go back to a seventh grade math level again in tutoring. Knowing how poor her long term memory was when Learning RX tested her in October, we aren't surprised, just saddened. Algebra may not be something she will finish this year before school starts in the fall. In which case she may be doing some summer school in high school so she can get the four years of math that she needs to go to college. And it is quite obvious now that she can never take a break from math in the summer. She will need the constant reinforcement to not lose any ground she has made. The hard part is that her 14 year old 8th grade younger sister is flying through Algebra this year, and Caroline is in the 9th grade and is turning 16 next week and can't get beyond pre-Algebra. :(
Ick! Algebra. The bane of my existence in high school! My dd has a lot of trouble with word problems, too. She also does dismally on standardized tests. The GOOD thing (have to look for those) about her needing to do schoolwork during the summer is the fact that she will maintain structure in her life and keep the neurons firing. Too much down time can be a bad thing.
ReplyDeleteYou are a good mom for getting her checked out! Hugs!
I have a nine year old son with bipolar disorder (amongst other things) and I too am homeschooling him. His struggles are in reading. It is so hard to encourage him to do it, when it is so very hard for him. I have a five year old who is almost passing his brother up with reading. It is really hard to not make my oldest feel shamed, while still praising the acadmic achievements of my little guy! It is no easy path to take. I'm just glad I'm not the only one. Sometimes it certainly does feel that way.
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain, my son is failing every math test right now. He just can't get through the steps, as a result, he just quits and refuses to do the work. Now they only see a problem with behavior, not recognizing that his brain is struggling with doing math, resulting in bad behavior. Grrrr..
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments. It takes a village to raise these kids sometimes!
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