First standardized test

Today Nadia took her first standardized test, the Terra Nova. Most homeschoolers in the US aren't required to take these tests, but it's one of the rules in Pennsylvania, and part of the reason Pennsylvania is ranked number #2 in the list of states with the worst homeschooling laws. New York claims the #1 spot. In our state homeschoolers are supposed to take a test in grades 3, 5, and 8. I paid $50 for her to take the test at Camp Susque today. In two years Ian and Nadia will both need to take a standardized test. I didn't file any paperwork for homeschooling Nadia until last summer in preparation for starting third grade with her, but I'll need to start the process with Ian this summer prior to second grade for him because he'll turn eight (the magic number in PA) during second grade since he has a December birthday. I feel confident that Nadia is on target or ahead depending on which subject we are talking about, but I have no idea how she'll do on the test, particularly since she's not accustomed to taking tests. Hopefully I'll be pleased when I see her results. I am so repulsed by how much time is spent in public schools preparing children to take the state test, that I just couldn't bring myself to spend more than a few minutes discussing some general test taking strategies with Nadia.

Since they allowed four hours for the testing today, I made plans to carpool with another mom so that the boys and I didn't have to stay up there the whole time. Allison dropped Melanie off at our house at 8:15 and we left around 8:45. I let the boys play on the playground up there for a little and then we came home. We made one stop on the way home to get some tickets to see a show later this month in Williamsport. Usually I order all tickets online, but I needed to do this one in person because the kids were getting free tickets if I bought one for myself. It's a beautiful day outside, which makes the weather forecast of 1-3 inches of snow tomorrow seem a bit out of place, but that's what the weather can be like in March - spring one day and winter the for next.

One thing on my heart lately has been one of the kids we've sponsored for almost six years - Manu Mohanan who lives in India. Unfortunately the government of India has broken ties with the vast majority of NGO's working in the country, and Compassion was one of the latest casualties. He's one of 145,000 children who are losing their sponsors effective March 15. Manu is 12 years old. I picked him because his birthday is December 12 like Ian. Every time I think about it I feel like crying. I hope that the partners in India who have been working with these 145,000 children will find a way to keep helping them even though the money from Compassion has come to an end. Compassion has been working in India for more than forty years. I also am praying that the Lord will guide us as we select another child to sponsor in place of Manu.

Speaking of tugging on my heart strings, this week I read the book, A Thousand Miles to Freedom: My Escape from North Korea. It's heartbreaking to know what the people of North Korea have been enduring for decades and that their plight is still so miserable. Speaking of first world problems that are so utterly unimportant compared to the struggles people face in communist dictatorships, I think I have finally resolved the last issues related to switching what bank account is used for all our automatic bill payments. The bank I had used since 2004 wasn't the best choice now that Paul works for the family business. Almost all the changes went through smoothly and there were quite a few - charitable donations, utility bills, credit card bills, mortgage, etc. There were two that involved a glitch. The natural gas company decided to charge BOTH bank accounts (old and new) in January and February. I called last month and tried to straighten it out, but I called again today and I think as of today they will only deduct the payment from the new account.

The other one was a much bigger headache. Our chase credit cards made the switch without a problem, but our Citi credit card company decided last month to deduct the payment from the bank account I had deleted from the account a few months ago, and there wasn't enough money in the account because I was in the process of closing the account and no money had been deposited in it since Paul's last check from Bucknell in August. If I hadn't driven out to Bloomsburg (in other words drove for one hour just to give the bank a check from our other account), the fees would have totaled $187 because of Citi's error. As it is we were charged $42 by the bank and $25 by Citi. Today I convinced Citi to remove their $25 fee. It's bad enough we have to pay the bank $42 because of their error, but it's beyond ridiculous that we should be expected to pay $25 to them because of a glitch in their system. Needless to say I am not a fan of Citi credit cards at the moment. It's a shame because the credit card gave 2% cash rebate on everything, which is better than most credit cards, but at the moment we're just using our Chase credit cards because I have no faith in the customer service of Citi. I'm grateful though that at least I won the battle over the $25 fee today. I don't want to add up how much time I have spent on the phone or emailing with Citi over the past few weeks. On the other hand I got $15 yesterday for completing a survey with 1800contacts, which was nice. "Easy come, easy go" as they say! Paul had a tire blow out early on Tuesday morning. We were very thankful that it didn't result in an accident because it was still dark outside when he had to change the tire. Today he went to Sears and got four new tires. We were expecting to spend about $500 on his tires this  (and that's what happened today), but then they said he also needs new brakes. I need to up the car repair line item in our budget. It's been quite a few years since we put brakes on a car so I'm not even sure how much that will cost when he takes care of that.