The first final is over

Christian did a stellar job on his first final, Western Civilization I.  Kelly has her first final this afternoon for her American Literature I class.  There is a weekend and two days left before they finish their first semester.  The grades are not in yet, but their Dad is very, very happy with how well they made the transition from homeschool to college.  The Biology and Calculus classes were hard, but they both did well.  Calculus required a couple of hours per day of study outside of class.  They both wrote significant research papers for their liberal arts classes, participated actively with the other students in and out of class, had a least one very good teacher and one not-so-good teacher, made new friends, and thoroughly enjoyed themselves in spite of some periods of suffering and angst.

Christian said he will probably take another golf PE class when he gets to a four year college.  He did not have a lot of great instruction in the class, but could see that it would be a lot of fun to play with his cousin Lauro or his buddies in Oregon.  Kelly took a volleyball class and learned a LOT.  They played a lot of games, so she got a lot of experience and learned how to play the game correctly.  She would take another volleyball class next semester if it were offered, but will have to wait until she gets to a four year college because Wake Tech does not offer one.  Next semester Kelly will take a fitness class for PE and Christian will take the volleyball class.

Next semester will be a new challenge.  Now that they have shown they can perform at the college level, we will kick up the number of hours next semester from 12 hours to somewhere in the 15-17 hour range.  Kelly and Christian will take Integral Calculus and Art Appreciation together.  Both of them have a public speaking class, but will take it at different times.  We will talk about all that a little later.  The challenge at this point is to transition from taking a light, but full load of classes up to a normal to heavy load of classes.  I think their study skills and time management skills have improved to the point where they can handle it well.  In addition, they know their way around the school, have some friends, and know more about what to expect at the college level.