Sunday, April 26, 2009

Too Long!

Oh, it has been too long since I posted. We're still schooling (obviously) and some days are great, others...not so much. Reading. READING! We're still working on the reading. Some days I think we're just about to crest the hill, we roll back down it. I know it will happen, but I wish it would be sooner rather than later.
Indy is amazing at math. We've already moved on to 2nd grade math. He takes forever because he likes to talk and he's meticulous about getting the answers right, but he can do it. He has a friend in 2nd grade (closing in on 3rd) at the local PS, and he's doing more complicated math than she is. He can even do simple multiplication in his head. He's 6! He can do math faster in his head than on paper. I think having to write it down slows him up. Isn't that funny? He's also great with math concepts, like odds/evens, greater than/less than/equal to, length and capacity. Telling time on a real clock (not digital) is almost second nature to him.
Vocabulary is another area where he excels. His vocabulary is astounding. People cannot believe how many words he knows and how well he uses them. His talk is peppered with words that most 6 year old's wouldn't use: predict (or prediction), manufacture, investigation, catastrophic, congeal, fluctuating, contagious, complication, situation, centralized, extraordinary, epicenter, indigenous, and thousands of others. He asks me daily what words mean, words he's heard someone use or heard on TV, and then makes is a point to use them throughout the day.
He's got a phenomenal (one of his favorite words) memory. The boy forgets nothing. He'll tell me he doesn't remember something, but that's just him being lazy (a problem I have with him), but when I tell him he can't do something fun until he answers my questions, he "suddenly" remembers the answer. He usually answers verbatim from what I've read to him. It's pretty impressive. He remembers things I don't and I'm the one reading them. Once he starts to read (please, let it be soon) I don't think there will be any stopping. He loves to be read to and takes great pleasure in picking out words he recognizes.
He started violin lessons this past week. It was so flipping cute! He's very excited and has an ear for music. He gets that from M, who was a music major in college. I walks around the house humming classical music. Isn't that funny? I probably have one of only a handful of 6 year old's who walks around humming Beethoven's 5th, The 1812 Overture, Fur Elise, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, or Greig from Pyre Gynt. It's pretty funny when he does it in public, because he gets a lot of stares.
Overall, I'm incredibly proud of how well he's done this year. We're taking the month of June off (we'll be in the States), but will start up with 2nd grade after the 4th of July. I'm going in a new direction next year, but I'll talk about that later. And I'll try to update more often.