Testing, Testing, 123 (ABC)

I had the most fun last night! I gave each of the children a placement test in math to see where they are and what I need to get started and it was a comedy skit! Ted did great but you could see that it was a boy taking the test. I put 8 pennies in a line and asked him to make a row just like it. He asked if he could do it his way and I told him to do what he thought was right and he put 8 pennies in a triangle. When I asked him if that was the same as mine he admitted it wasn't and fixed it but I could tell he liked his triangle better. Miriam was very advanced but hesitant. I can see that she doesn't trust herself as much as she should. Dorothy was great! I showed her a penny, a nickel, and a dime and asked what the penny was. She said penny, then I asked about the nickel and she said (without skiping a beat) a coin. Hard to mess with that logic. Then I put 6 pennies, 2 nickels and 4 dimes in a pile and asked her to sort them. She put the dimes in a pile, the nickels in a pile and 4 of the pennies in one pile and the other 2 in another. I thought she put the pennies to match the other 2 coins piles but when I asked why she divided up the pennies she looked at me like I was slow and informed me that the 2 of them were not shiny. By now Gordon was on the floor laughing and poor Dorothy was looking very confused. I quickly told her dad was reading something funny and praised her good thinking. Then I finished up with Rachel. I put 8 pennies in a row and asked her to make one just like it. She did very well but got a little off track at the end and used 9 pennies. I had her count my row and then hers and she agreed they were not the same. I then told her to fix it and she promptly put another penny in my row. Obviously hers was not the problem. I can see that I have my work cut out for me. I have kids that are very smart but have different styles of learning and for the most part have well developed egos. laugh, laugh, laugh
I can't tell you how good it felt to see the excitement on their faces as we worked together. It boosted my ego this morning when Teddy asked me if we could take another test today. Miriam chimed right in and said she wanted to do it again too. After breakfast Dorothy and Rachel used the coins and shapes and other supplies to "test" each other.
Unfortunately all is not well. Rachel has the sniffles and apparently was sneaking sips of my sprite because now I am sick. Also, Dorothy is sniffling so we are a mess. Oh, well, its not so bad. I have too much good stuff to worry about the rest of it.