Ack? That's awesome, gabalyn!

DD9 got her scores back from a stupid standardized test that her teacher and school terrorized her class about for weeks. The test is easy, but she was so nervous about this that I started to worry she would mess up due to sheer anxiety. I don't have her fine-level score breakdown yet, but on the broad scale she maxed out her scores.

Ack was just sheer shock. Congrats to your daughter, um!

Hi all, newbie here. My DD9 (did I get that right - 9 yr old daughter?) just received her NWEA standardized test scores. Her Math and Reading scores both put her above the 99th percentile. Both scores would put her at about 75-80th percentile as an 11th grader.

She's already in the gifted program at school, but it's a couple of hours per week, and probably not stretching her. (When I was in 4th grade, they sent me to the library and/or principal's office to help stack books and file papers because they didn't know what to do with me once I had maxed out the material available. I don't want that to happen to her.) Is there a "start here" thread on communicating with her school to get her access to challenging material?


Also, since this is the place to shamelessly brag, she recently earned her 2nd degree Tae Kwon Do black belt and performed her spring solo piano recital.

Keep her writing! I won various poetry contests as a child and am still publishing poetry today. As you may know, though, it is not a lucrative field.

It's personally rewarding, however! Hurray for your DD, Gabalyn!

DS4 was trying to spell the word lion.

DS4: L
DD1: M (since it's after L)

DS4: I
DD1: J

DS4: O
DD1: P

DS4: N
DD1: O

It's so cute!

Cute, hellobaby! UM and HK, thanks for the kind words. UM, how fantastic is it that you are a published poet! Great encouragement for my daughter. I shared your remark with her.

There's nothing like reading poetry to inspire writing more of it, I find. There are some great children's anthologies of quality adult poetry out there. As a child, I was inspired by one called Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle.

I;m excited these days because I have noted a big resurgence in DD9's creativity, something that hasn't been seen much for months. I wonder if it's because schoolwork demands have really slacked off. In the past couple of weeks, she has written a short (funny) play, written pop song lyrics that were so convincingly, professionally love-song poppy that I was sure she was copying them down off her MP3 player (no), invented a new board game, invented a new, complicated origami (and it's cool!) and taught it to us all, and done some beautiful art. Wow!

Here are some of DD9's lyrics:

"When I was alone with you,
I could have sworn my smile could fill the world.
But then you left me there in an empty room
With nothin' to look at but a blank wall after you.

Every night I dream
About you and me walkin' away arm in arm...me and you.
But dreams--you can't make them come true.
And you left me there in an empty room
With nothin' to look at but a blank wall after you."

There were notes and scribble-outs in there that made it pretty clear she had written this herself, but I confess that I actually Googled this to see if it was plagiarized--doesn't seem to be at all.

That's terrific, UM!