A STAAR Celebration!

Hellooooo, peeps, from the flip side of a really raucous and celebratory night at our casa!

Last night, we hosted a gaggle of the girlies’ friends for a much-needed round of letting off steam.

It was really just a massive, diversionary tactic to take the kiddos’ minds of the standardized testing they’ve been enduring the past few weeks, and man oh man did it work like a charm!

I give you…a table full of cutie pie crazies (with all the stinking adorable faces redacted, ha. Just use your imagination.)

So. To rewind a bit.

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that kiddos the world over, have to suffer through standardized testing. 

Here in Texas, it’s called STAAR (State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness), and it begins in 3rd grade, with two separate tests—reading and math—now spaced apart by a couple of weeks.

Then in 5th grade, it ramps up to three tests (reading, math and science), and then, at some point, in middle school, social studies gets thrown into the mix.

Welp.

Considering teachers are judged by the passing rate of their students, and schools are judged by the passing rate of their students, and school ratings and funding all factor into this hoopla…testing is a really big deal.

It’s also a really big stress trigger, even for the sturdiest of students.

We were “fortunate” that pandemic life threw a loop in state standardized testing across the country (and probably, the world), so Chica wasn’t subjected to STAAR testing in 3rd grade. Nobody was. So last year was actually our first household experience.

Chica is an excellent student, and there was no cause for concern, but, even so, she was quite worried leading up to the tests.

On one hand, the teachers and the school do their collective best to alleviate this stress on behalf of the students, and to promote encouraging vibes and the right kind of emotional preparation.

But on the other hand…with such a ginormous emphasis placed on this STAAR testing, it’s impossible for the kiddos not to absorb the associated anxiety by osmosis. And it’s really not a great thing.

Fast forward to this year, and my Chicklet marking her 3rd grade milestone of sitting her first STAAR exam. 

Just a couple weeks prior to the first exam, at the close of the 3rd nine weeks, my rockstar, awesomesauce, beloved middle-born actually received an award at school! For her incredible reading growth this year (related to some lower-key benchmark testing the school conducts several times a year).

Chicklet received this award from the Principal, had her photograph placed on a wall of honor, and told her teacher that I would cry happy tears and squeeze her and yell (with excitement, ha), when I found out. And she was absolutely correct!

For those of you who’ve followed along with Chicklet’s path toward dyslexia intervention, and have celebrated her many, massive successes right along with me, you know how much this award meant to her—and to me.

It was a tear-jerker, hands down.

My girl is now in the freaking 94th percentile, nationwide, for reading, and…UGH. I just have no words for that kind of monumental growth.

And I really can’t type much more about it, or I’ll start bawling (again), and get distracted for this post!



Anywho.

Circling this all back around to STAAR testing…

Needless to say, with those kind of unbelievable reading scores, I had every confidence in my girl as she headed into this ominous state testing. But Chicklet, herself, was full of anxiety.

She spent many nights crying as she went to bed, fearful about the test, worrying about doing poorly, and just anxious about the whole thing in a way that made my heart break.

I did my best to soothe her concerns and boost her self-esteem, and remind her how very little any of this standardized testing mattered in the grand scheme of things, but…kiddos are delicate with these kinds of things, and it’s hard to haul them up and out of an anxious place sometimes.

Eventually, the day of the reading test came. My girl cried on her way to school, was wiping her tears at drop off and it absolutely broke my heart.

But at least it was OVER by the end of that day. We celebrated. We went to the bookstore. We snuggled and watched a movie. And breathed a sigh of relief that it was over…

At least for a couple weeks.

Alas…last weekend, the anxiety crept back in over the second half of testing, and it brought the dark, terrible storm cloud of MATH along with it, and Chicklet’s concerns were magnified many times over, compared to reading.

In fact, when she confessed to me, through tears (again) one night, that she felt she’d get every question wrong, that everyone would know, that she wanted to skip school and never take STAAR testing again, it pretty much gutted me. 

No child should have those kind of worries over testing, especially at such a young age.

Worse, still, Chicklet had it in her mind (based on misinformation, obviously) that if she failed the Math STAAR, she wouldn’t be allowed to have recess next year, but instead, would face additional school work and tutoring.

Just…ugh.

It was very, very heartbreaking to talk her through these concerns. More so, because my girl is in a stage of finding math very difficult, as her dyslexia is coming to play in very complicated ways with number transposing, and challenges with multiplications timetables, and all sorts of things that just wreck her confidence.

So.

Now that I’ve bummed us all out, recounting this whole background story, lemme tell you what I did in the moment.

Sitting by Chicklet’s bed, rubbing her hair as she cried through her concerns, I realized I needed a diversion. 

A BIG ONE.

And since my girl loves socialization of any kind in a major way, I decided to offer up…a party.

To be thrown on the evening STAAR testing was over. 

And Chicklet immediately lit up at the idea, and it was just the thing to detour her mind just enough to actually fall asleep that night.

Once she was calmed down, I immediately starting burning up my phone, contacting parents of some of Chicklet’s closest friends and setting things in motion, and—bless them all—they were eager and excited and all for this diversionary plan on behalf of our beautiful gaggle of girlies.

By the time all was said and done, I threw some of Chica’s friend into the mix, as well (because if you’re throwing a party, you might as well make it count). And every time each of the girlies would start to worry about testing, I would steer their attention toward the party instead, and it helped, tremendously.

We made plans to bake sugar cookies from scratch, get rowdy with the bouncy house, eat bunches of pizza and sugar, do some crafts, and just let these kiddos be KIDDOS.

And, boy, did they!

Little Man was around for a bit of it, until Daddy scooped him up for some fun time at the driving range, and our house just generally let loose and spent some VERY happy time with friends.

In fact, the evening was such a success that I fear I’ve started a new tradition, ha. But if that’s what it takes to give my kiddos something positive to look forward to, on the flip side of testing, I’ll do it. A million times over.

So, now…some pics!

Look! A sneak peek of a tiny bit of ongoing patio refresh! The kiddos have been enjoying it so much they wanted to dine outdoors. Much more in a later post. :)

Pics in groups settings when I don’t want to show kiddos’ faces are really hard to share, so just trust me when I say the joy was ABUNDANT.

And at the end of the night, when Chicklet was climbing into bed, she hugged me, told me she loved me, and that it was the best party ever. :)

Not gonna lie, peeps. These past few weeks have been so jam packed I’m pretty exhausted! And today, I was hoping for a slightly slower pace and by 7:20 a.m., I was already getting texts requesting some help up at school again for some teacher appreciation activities. So…off I went. Oye.

But we’re so close! Only THREE WEEKS left of school, and they’re going to be doozies, but it’s memories, peeps. Memories.

Okay…more mañana.

Until then: HAPPY ALMOST WEEKEND, peeps!

Over and out.