Thursday, February 24, 2022

Our Golden Child

...the one where Nolan is deemed to be our Golden Child.

The girls have been working through Sonlight Curriculum's Career and College Planning kit as we explore options for their future. Larry Burkett's, "Finding the Career that Fits You," and Lee Binz', "The Home Scholar's Guide to College Admission and Scholarships" form the foundation of this 1/2 credit course. Michael and I have been impressed by the solid info provided.  As we look ahead to the SAT we discussed adding College Prep Genius to the mix. College Prep Genius was the foundation of Nolan's "Post-Secondary Prep" credit. As we all talked around the table last week, we realized there are solid test taking strategies Nolan learned from College Prep Genius which continue to benefit him. The girls' course is more well-rounded but adding this aspect will make it even stronger. The ILP I'd written included SAT prep in the description so it would be easy to add College Prep.  They are both finishing other course work; it seemed doable to add this to their school load.

 In our February discussion with our IDEA contact teacher, she brought up adding College Prep Genius for the girls. Confirmation. We set about adding this to their workload, never guessing it would result in Nolan being titled the "Golden Child."
Golden Child of the Week 

Years back I handed the link to Nolan. He registered, downloaded the material, and completed the course. He remembers enough of the course to motivate us to use it again. We switched to the Sonlight course with Alex as the focus is more on exploring the student's strengths, interests, personality and matching that to various careers, than simply taking the SAT. It is from a solid Christian perspective and so we, rather than IDEA, purchased it.  I added the previous bit lest one thinks IDEA paid for Christian curriculum. ::snort:: 

We were homeschooling more kids when Nolan took College Prep Genius. This year we are down to 2 students. I have been investing more time in the career/college prep process with the girls. Wednesday afternoon found both girls upstairs with their laptops. I gave them the link and instructed them to register for College Prep Genius. 

I swear the devil entered their laptops. TWO HOURS LATER we finally had both girls registered, paid for and we fully expected to cruise through the course.  Stacia made a witty quip about 12 hours of school. I apologized for adding 2 hours to the day but expressed puzzlement as "Nolan simply registered," and we have no memory of a 2 hour ordeal. 
Totally staged photo of Stacia and Allie

Today, it was time to begin the program. Stacia came upstairs and complained she couldn't find the lessons. I helped her find her starting spot. I also discussed with Nolan his memories of the course. 

Allie came up later and commented there were 13 videos in lesson 1 and she needed to print some booklets. 

Stacia came up and informed me she needed to print out a workbook. 

At dinner College Prep came up. Allie said she spent three hours on lesson 1. Stacia spent two hours on the same material. A bit of motherly investigating revealed Stacia realized she could take the quizzes and skipped the later videos. Um...the course's purpose IS to teach one how to quickly navigate the SAT. We couldn't fault her strategy, though Allie was slightly indignant. ::snort:: 

At this point we were all laughing. I AGAIN noted I was surprised this was so hard. NOLAN simply registered himself and took the course. He read the booklets in his ereader. I didn't remember grousing, 15 books to print, or hours long sessions. 

Allie quipped, "NOLAN is the Golden child."  ::snort::

I responded, "He is certainly the Golden child of the week." One thing led to another, and we officially awarded Nolan the title. There is talk of adding a section to the downstairs bulletin board to honor the child of the week. We laughed until we cried. 

In the process we remembered Nolan had a LIGHT senior year. When we registered with IDEA, we were told he had too many credits. He was missing health and Alaska history and had to take a senior year rather than graduating early. We added in the college prep and a couple of business courses.  He did a lesson a WEEK rather than a lesson a day. He never complained about the pace, I assumed the course was set up by days...I think we have the kinks worked out now. 

Shew. The challenge was unexpected, but it led to merriment and lively dinner talk around the table!