A Quick Update Before I Must Depart Once More...

Well I guess this has been a relatively light month for my blogging. Not much to say for it, I mean, it isn't exactly as if the month has been any less noteworthy, I just haven't had much time to devote to it. I've worked a pretty good bit of overtime lately, of course. Oddly, the evenings that I've expected to be “easy” have been directly and proportionately opposite. Friday was a good example of that – we expected to do about 4,900 orders – an easy night. Sure, we did about that number, but I was still there over an hour of overtime. Why? Because other people fail. Yeah, that's pretty much all I have to say about that right now...

I've also spent a lot more of my free time in the evenings this month playing games on the computer, Civilization V in particular. I've always been a huge fan of the Civ franchise, and while I've really enjoyed the game, I must admit my disappointment in just how resource-hungry each new Civ installment has been. I have a quad-core PC with 4 gigs of ram and I'm crashing in the end-game on large maps with the graphics settings set way low. Ridiculous. In any event, I'm learning the new game and I actually like some of the more drastic changes they made to how military units behave.

In other news: Dalton's schooling has progressed nicely. This morning I logged in and found that he is officially out of Kindergarten Language Arts and Phonics – both replaced with first grade materials. I'm sure we'll be seeing some new materials in the mail as well before too long. Assuming a slight slow-down in his speed (due to more challenging materials), I expect he'll still finish both before the end of the Kindergarten school year in June (even though the end dates projected by the school are at the end of July).

As for his History class, we have finished the Africa unit and, today, started South America. In Africa, the focus was not on specific countries, but on the different geographical regions instead. South America looks to be set up similarly, with only one lesson focusing on a specific country, Brazil. Antarctica follows before we finally see our own continent and begin a series of nine units focusing on everything from native American tribes, the colonization period, U.S. independence, and civil rights.

Lessons completed so far have focused on the following regions/countries:

Well, I have to start readying myself for work so, once again, if I had something more to say I'd not have the time to say it. Another time, perhaps.

Dalton's Continued Progress

Today we finished the Asia unit of Dalton's history class, focusing on the Arabian Peninsula and the countries of Japan, China, and India. As an added bonus, I developed a lesson on The Philippines so as to increase the unit's scope.

Today's lesson was focused on the Arabian Peninsula, with emphasis on Saudi Arabia in particular. I think seeing this lesson on the plan was one of the reasons I decided to add The Philippines-- I mean, I don't mind him learning about other countries but I guess I didn't really want too much focus on countries I consider “enemies” of the United States. Oh, and no, I didn't express that opinion to Dalton, at least not in the context of the lesson (he knows I don't like buying goods made in China, but not why, nor does he really care I suppose).

Finally, today's lesson closed with a review on the entire Asia unit. Tomorrow he goes on to Africa, starting with the Sahara. Below I have included his “Progress” meters for each class.

With Social Studies completed, I will be focusing on Science two days a week – possibly three if I can get the energy and time to do it. Trying to not get over my head though since I still have to have time to get ready for work every morning. I'm hopeful take taking on Science will give my wife the time she needs to handle the remaining four classes while not over-extending herself during her pregnancy... but I do expect at some point I'll need to take on a little more to help out... we'll see.

Anyway, just wanted to share his progress.

Maybe my child is a Genius?

Maybe not, but I wouldn't be surprised if he's close. Home schooling him was definitely the right choice. Yeah, I need to brag a little...

First, as for his progress in Kindergarten, he has nearly completed both Phonics and Social Studies, has over 50% of his math course completed and has made solid progress in every other area.

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Of course, as he's doing all of the above, he also took an assessment designed to compare Kindergarten students in the K12 organization to determine where each is at, developmentally, relative to one another. This test focused on counting, quantities, and numbers in general. Dalton measured “Well Above Average” in each category, the chart making it appear that he may, in fact, by the highest-scored student in two of the four (although I cannot prove that exactly, I feels good to say it anyway).

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Also, as a result of his being enrolled as “full day” Kindergarten, he has Social Studies and History classes that would otherwise not be presented to him at his age. The Social Studies class was intended, as far as I can tell, to be a once-weekly class, but Dalton has done at least two classes weekly, sometimes three. The lessons have focused on things such as the Pledge of Allegiance, the symbols of the United States (such as flags), National Holidays, and basic cultural diversity. These have all been areas of familiarity for Dalton, and each lesson has taken about 20 minutes as opposed to the 45 minutes the school expected them to take.

The History class has so-far focused on defining certain constructs such as the Cardinal Directions, the difference between continents and countries, and is taking him on an imaginary journey to each continent and through various countries on each. In this class, he has studied Australia and Europe, and is starting the Asia unit this week.

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In Europe, he “visited” eight different countries, learning about certain landmarks such as the Eifel Tower and Big Ben, and has completed various little art projects and read stories relevant to the culture of each.

So anyway, I simply wanted to display my son's achievements a little. I don't know for sure, but I doubt there are all that many 5 year old's running around talking about Italy or The Star Spangled Banner, and his test scores are clearly above what a regular public school would expect of him. I'm not sure how much of this is the result of decent parenting or just because he's simply freaking smart as hell... but we're going to keep doing what we're doing because it seems to work.

Hickersonia Elementary Opens

Well, our son started Kindergarten on Monday, albeit officially school doesn't begin until tomorrow. So far, he and I have focused on handwriting, social studies, and history courses – things I feel relatively confident I can at least help with. His mother will be working with him on reading, language arts, and math. There will also be a science course, although I'm not sure how we'll do that class yet since I can get into it but I may just not have time every day.

This home schooling program through K-12 is pretty interesting, for those who might be interested in that sort of thing. I never really thought it could be made easy enough for parents to handle, but it looks like they did a better job than I could have anticipated. I particularly like the “Study Island” program they have because I can set him up on it in the morning for 20 or so minutes while I get my coffee started and try to wake myself up enough for the other lessons. Hey, I gotta have my caffeine you know!

Of course, school starts while work is pounding me with overtime, but I guess I can't have it easy or I'd be cheating or something...