Tuesday, December 17, 2013

The Mystery Keeper Fourth and Fifth Grade+NASCAR Charlotte test

I'll focus mostly on my fourth and fifth grade years with the other a bit at the end.

In fourth grade, I had the teacher I had reading with the previous year. I'd never had a man teacher outside summer school and specials and he never had a kid with an aide before. We were nervous, but it turned out fine.  I was a little bit friends with a new girl named Ashley, which was all I had in the friend department that year. My old friends were in other classes.  This was my first year as Tinky Winky for Halloween, as I discovered him and the other Teletubbies through a kid magazine I read that summer.   I had to take a state English test in January and bit my fingernail bad the night before because I was nervous.  I also had a state math test in the spring. I started flute lessons this year and the day I got my flute I ran to the bus home with it.  It fell out of the case and was a bit dented. I had in school lessons as summer lessons. I was in swimming lessons, which I started at seven and summer library programs at two nearby libraries which I started the previous summer.  At some point before I started fifth grade, we found out my aunt was planning to marry a man she met after getting home from a family reunion at a near to me camp the previous summer.  Though she lives in Louisiana, we had to go as she expected us.  My parents were also asked to allow me to be studied at Yale by Dr. Fred Volkmar.

In fifth grade, I had a lot going on in my life. I had my first grade friend Rockie come back in my life as we were classmates again that year.  That October, we flew to Louisiana with American Airlines for my aunt's wedding. My aunt's quite a bit older than my dad, about twelve years.It felt like summer there and we swam in the outdoor pool at the new hotel we stayed at. I met her son, on the trip for the first time in my life.   My cousin I never knew fathered his first child as young man, probably just out of college age.  She was eight and her little sister was on the verge of three.  I was less than a month short of ten, so I could play with the older girl.   She showed me where they kept their balls and we played with at least one.  We went to an alligator farm, my family and hers. I had to hold my littler cousin when we got our picture taken with a taped mouthed baby gator.  She was probably scared of it.  One thing about Louisiana that's not so nice is fire ants.  I had to step over some once since I didn't see their hill until I was right up to it.   Another thing is my mom could understand the people sometimes, but some were too drawn out. My older little cousin was interested in my precomputer which I brought on the trip, as well as some books.  I noticed her Southern accent particularly when she said the letter "y", while spelling her name.  I wrote her name on my precomputer and she told me how to spell it.   She and her sister have Facebook now and I'm friends with her. Maybe her sister doesn't remember me, since she was so little when we met.  Not too long  after we got home, I was Tinky Winky again for Halloween.

In November, I turned ten and a few weeks later, we went to Yale. We stayed in a hotel in New Haven. I was tested and observed there. Before we went there, I was scared and said "Eeek!", which became a parental nickname for me. My mom still calls me that sometimes. I had to tell a story based on pictures in a book. I remember it had a frog that though a bee was a butterfly in it. One day, a man tested me and the next day it was a woman.  The day the man tested me I hid under a table when he left the room and then made cow horns with my fingers since I had a cow book.  They tried to call it devil horns, which was similar to another occurrence in my life my mom told me about. I said something about goose bumps and that was taken as a reference to Goosebumps books and I don't read scary stories. On the way home, we spent the night with my aunt in Connecticut. Shortly after we got home, I started in a girl's club at a local church after we got home since they said I needed to be in one. I went on a camping retreat with the club in June and my mom went since she started helping after the other helper moved away. I did the same activities as the previous summer plus a special needs camp week the church with girl's club paid and math lessons since my mom could no longer supplement my school math.  She could still do Hooked on Phonics (Power Builders was the part I was on at this time), but I was beyond Hooked on Math and her math skills. I'd done these since 4. We attended evening services at the church, plus my mom went there with me when she needed a Sunday off from Sunday school teaching at our main church at the time. Sometimes she took her Sunday off at the church I had religious ed at for continuity from there and the children's church. Our main church at the time had a nursery church for 9 months until the start of kindergarten, which my parents helped with. I was their little helper, since I passed out snack as well as get out and pick up the toys. I broke up a fight between two little girls fighting over a doll. I gave one another doll to play with.  In August, the club did an overnight tent camping experience, which was hard for me due to my inexperience at camping. I was nervous about middle school. I'll tell about middle school next week.  I think Shyloh died in this time span somewhere after someone hit her. She had little traffic savvy.

NASCAR did a test at Charlotte last week and had mock races .In addition, to the  five "races", they had single car runs and tested spoilers. Thirty drivers tested including Joey Logano, my second-favorite. Kevin Harvick and  Kyle Larson had the fastest laps.

2 comments:

  1. It is interesting to hear your recollections of testing. All of my kiddos have had assessments and testing enough that I wonder if they think all kids do it.

    That's cool that you were Tinky Winky. He's cute.

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  2. I also had tests at school with the psychologist. IQ tests I think and they said I had low performance, but my verbal was higher. I had good grades as a kids, generally.

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