Lost in thought

This week the school district held school wide state standard testing.  It is not a favorite among the students or the teachers.  Emma has the most difficult time with standard testing.  I assure you this is because there is nothing standard about her.  As a type A personality she fretted and whimpered about the test for days.
When the day of the test finally did arrive she had worried herself into such a state, it's amazing she got through it at all.  These days the standardized testing delivers immediate results.  Within minutes she knew her score and she was not happy.  Not anywhere even close.
 After the tears slowed and self battering stopped she settled down to work on a new plan.  She was ready to improve in the areas she didn't know or understand on the test.  Emma finds comfort in knowing there is a way to "fix" the problem.
 On this test she had problems with vocabulary building.  We have tried various plans to increase her vocabulary.  While her vocab is growing, it is not growing to her satisfaction.  Her newest plan involved these little stickers.

Rather than sign anything, she decided she would use the arrows to point to words in her books that she didn't know.  Thanks to a rather organized friend of mine, Emma just happens to have several packages of these little stickers. ( You know who you ARE!)  She took 5 stickers from one package and she tries to find five new words every time she reads.  Amazingly, it is working.  She really, really enjoys looking for new words.  We will have to see if her comprehension suffers as her vocabulary grows.  Anyway.

Every night after she reads we discuss the new words she has marked.  Last night one of the words was Absentmindedly.
 First I asked her if she recognized any words within the word.  She picked out mind.  She knew what meant.  Then I asked if there were any others.  After a pause she said, "Absent?"  Correct!
Now we were movin'.  I asked what absent meant and she said, "not present"  Then she thought some more and said, "how does that work? Your mind is not present?"
I explained it was like the time she came downstairs and couldn't remember why?  or another example would be when someone cannot find their shoes.
 
The light bulb went off!  "OH!" she exclaimed, "Like when you cannot find your keys, or your phone or your purse?"
"Exactly!" I replied.
"Hey Mom!  You are Absentminded all the time!"
Ah. yea.  Great lesson.