Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Meap Week - Planning Doesn't Always Work

Today marks the second week of a little something - something that the State of Michigan calls MEAP Week. 

In a nutshell, the acronym means a whole of standardized testing in a range of subjects to determine how well the school/teachers have been teaching.

Going in, I explain to both of my girls that this is not a test for a grade on their report cards but more of a chance to see how much they have learned from last year.  Since I am not concerned about how well they do, my girls should not be overly concerned either.  By using this line of reasoning, my hope is that they remain calm, cool and relaxed during the 2-4 hour testing time (each daughters exam length varies by grade - with older children testing for longer periods).

It works, a little.

But not enough.

Blood sugars sky rocket and then, go a bit higher when the girls' see the upward trending numbers.  It's a circular problem in which apprehension, nerves and anxiety chase each other around.

And with a hefty dose of insulin before starting the test (hoping to bring blood sugars back down), ultimately the next worry is watching Sigums arrow point downwards and blood sugars crashing. 

It stinks!

This year was a little easier for oldest daughter than in the past.  I have no scientific reasoning of why this might be.  Maturity?  Redundancy? Or maybe a little bit of mom's easy-breezy attitude rubbed off this time. 

In any case, the worry is what will happen for those standardized tests in the future?

The big ones with scary letters... ACT and SAT?

I hope that our training on handling the MEAP makes it a bit easier.  Still, the worry is there.  How will our girls manage those tests? 

Any ideas?  Send them on over.  We can all benefit from a little bit of future planning!

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