My Vacation with the Testing Grandma!

posted by Karen Quinn, The Testing Mom - January 24th, 2017

Panama Canal and Analogies

I’m on vacation right now, on a ship that’s going through the Panama Canal today.  And this got me thinking about analogies.  Why analogies?  These are on almost every test young children take, whether it is an intelligence test like the CogAT, OLSAT, or NNAT, or achievement tests like the Common Core, any state test or the ITBS.  Educators have decided that analogies matter and kids need to master them.

Analogies are SO IMPORTANT!  

Analogies are about making connections between seemingly unrelated things. Hat is to head as hand is to glove.  Tall is to short as up is to down.  Testing Mom is to the Panama Canal as…well, you get the picture.  Brighter children are able to make connections between things.  That’s why it’s important to help your child make connections to their lives when you read them a book.  For instance, if you read your child Danny and the Dinosaur, you might want to talk about the trip you and your child took to the Natural History Museum and how that might have been similar to Danny’s trip.

Here’s What I Saw on My Trip…

Immediately I saw an analogy between TestingMom.com and the Panama Canal.  The Panama Canal was built to create a short cut for ships.  By cruising straight through the 51-mile Canal, ships can do in 9 hours what it would otherwise take weeks to accomplish – an 8,000-mile journey around South America’s Cape Horn.  Not only that, the weather around Cape Horn can be treacherous, so a shortcut through the Canal avoids that as well.  [My mother was once on a ship that hit that awful weather in Cape Horn – they had to turn back because so many passengers were injured – broken bones, bruise and scrapes].  In the Canal, ships are raised and lowered 85 feet in a series of lock steps  – tools that were designed to move ships safely and easily through the Canal between 2 oceans.

That’s what TestingMom.com is, of course.  A shortcut you can take to prepare your child for an important test.  We have created for you a series of tools (practice questions, games and activities) you can use that makes test prep fun and easy for your child – tools that gets youngsters through to the other side of the test easily and unscathed, avoiding treacherous waters!

It can be expensive to go through the Panama Canal – our ship is paying $115,000.  The largest ships pay tolls close to $1,000,000.  The smallest toll was 36 cents paid by a man who swam the canal in 1928.  TestingMom.com is on the less expensive side – a year of TestingMom.com costs less than  one test tutoring session in most markets.

Time with My Mom AKA The Testing Grandma

Here I am with my mom (aka The Testing Grandma!)

Here’s one more analogy for you.  When I was checking in for my flight to Panama, the reservation agent asked me what country I was most looking forward to seeing on my cruise.  I told her it wasn’t a country I was looking forward to seeing, it was a person – my Mom (aka The Testing Grandma) whom I was meeting.  It didn’t really matter to me where the ship was going, as long as I got to spend time with my mother.  I’m so grateful for her.  She has always been there for me in every way.  In fact, it was my mom (a PhD in early childhood education) who told me how to help my son, Sam, when he scored on the 37^th percentile on his first placement test.  With her guidance, I was able to raise Sam’s score to the 94^th percentile, and get him into our first choice school.  She was the “Testing Mom” in my life.

By using our program, I know that you will become the “Testing Mom” or “Testing Dad” in your child’s life!