A month ago, high school enrollment letters were issued and we met our goal. We sluffed off 5th grade (step 1) and then started in earnest with test prep at the end of 5th grade. While my current 5th grader refused my offer to blow off 5th grade, he's starting the program today whether he wants to or not.
Today we kicked off the long slow ramp up to the high school selection process. There is a lot of work to do now (end of 5th grade) until game time (middle of 7th grade). Yes, I know how to do high stakes testing on demand with little to no preparation. However, I can't type that fast. It will take me at least 2 years. In addition, growing the core cognitive skills that are needed in high school is much more important than passing a test, and growing cognitive skills takes longer than faking them on a test.
In this issue, I'm closing out 8th grade (data point number one) and getting organized the soft topics like projects, activities and chores, while I gear up for 6th and 7th grade (data point number two). I'm older and wiser now by 3 years. So it's not just about test prep anymore. In the next two years I also want to answer the question, What will it take now so that my future high school child excels academically and socially, in a high pressure environment, and has enough other material on his high school CV to prove that he didn't have to spend all of his time on the AP course load?
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