We took Alex to San Francisco and we ate at a themed restaurant.
He ate dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets.
Alex then bit the head off a dinosaur and then said...
"This dinosaur is extinct"...and then laughed.
He is so funny.
We often took long trips.
Alex loved to use an educational toy along the way.
We visited an amusement park designed for children.
Alex took soccer briefly.
We got a Wii.
Alex played Wii bowling for a while...
but he really was never in to video games.
He liked educational videos much more.
I started teaching how to exercise.
Alex visited Shikoku Japan with his mother when he was 6 years old.
They went to my wife's mother and father's home for a couple of weeks.
Alex loved the fruit drinks with actual fruit in them.
My wife is from a small fishing village on Shikoku.
My mother is from Kyushu, Japan.
This makes me half Japanese...
and makes Alex 3/4 Japanese.
Alex insisted on being a math teacher for Halloween.
This was the last time Alex celebrated Halloween.
He thought it was for children :)
Although my wife had homeschooled Alex before he even went to preschool...
he was so advanced at his elementary school...
they soon ran out of things to teach him.
In preschool...
the teachers used him to read books to the others.
He was also able to rapidly calculate random three digit double tiered numbers in his head...
faster than we could find the answer using a calculator.
They skipped him after kindergarten to the second grade.
In the third grade...
he was too advanced for their math...
so, they sent him to the library so he could take an online math class.
He took intro to Algebra...
and he finished a year's course in three months.
The above picture is of Alex studying after school...
as he had always done...
but it was advanced work.
We always tried to keep him ahead of the curve...
and so...
in most things...
he was 5 years ahead of his peers.
In the fourth grade...
they couldn't teach him math at the elementary school...
so they had him go to the middle school to take Algebra with the 8th graders...
and he was getting perfect scores there...
and so...
before the 4th grade ended...
the school notified us that they couldn't teach him anything more...
and that he was too young to be sent to the high school...
and so...
they recommended that we homeschool him full time.
We agreed...
as Alex was getting bored at his elementary school.
Alex loved reading.
He is reading as he snacks at home.
As there were special schools in Nevada that took very young children who were
exceptionally advanced.
We went to a special child psychologist in Laguna Beach who specialized
in IQ testing exceptionally gifted children.
Alex was still in the fourth grade when he tested.
Alex's scores astounded even the psychologist.
Alex's scores on every subject was very high...
even for exceptionally gifted children...
especially in math.
This qualified him to apply for the Davidson Academy Young Scholars program.
Alex was later granted it...
and he became a Davidson Academy Young Scholar in the fourth grade.
We stopped off at Pismo Beach to celebrate.
We would home school him for another two years...
where upon I fully retired at 51 years old so we could
take advantage of the educational opportunities not available where we lived at the time.
Alex loved long trips because he could study on his laptop on the way
(he had taught himself to type correctly using an online course...
in one week).
So long as he could study...
he was happy.
Alex's mother had sought out all available educational programs...
as well as tests for him to take...
as well as intellectual competitions.
Alex took one specially proctored test
for the Johns Hopkins University Institute for Talented Youth.
It was a test which demanded a high IQ test to enter...
and then they were ranked.
We had traveled to LA for the West coast results...
and Alex had not only taken top scores in Quantitative Reasoning...
but in Qualitative Reasoning.
Alex with another recipient for the West Coast...
but we wouldn't find out until later how well he had fared nationally.
A news paper reporter was there for this occasion.
Alex would later receive his grand award in the mail...
after we had moved to Nevada.
Alex loved Science museums.
Alex with one of his cousins...
he used to read books to her when he was in Kindergarten.
Alex loved his homeschooling programs.
He could advance himself at his speed instead of being bored.
Alex in front of our old home in California.
He is holding up a riding toy we got for him in Laguna Beach.
After Alex's studies...
he loved watching educational videos and programs in his room.
Alex reading in his library.
His mother kept his books stocked up with all his favorite subjects
and fun books.
He would often just stay and read his books for hours at a time.
His library had its own bathroom...
so he often would spend much of the day there...
reading to his heart's delight.
This was the view from his library.
I kept up Alex's exercise program.
Alex at more educational museums.
Alex also took Karate.
Alex kept advancing in his math using math programs
at home just after the fourth grade.
We went on a day trip to my old elementary school.
After we came back from Japan when I was 6 years old (1966)...
we settled in Santa Clara (part of Silicon Valley before it became Silicon Valley).
My father worked for Lockheed...
and then went to work at Ames Research Center (the Blue Cube)...
and Santa Clara was just beginning to grow...
yet had a rural charm with plentiful amounts of country around it...
including a nearby river, orchards and planted fields.
As part of our home schooling...
we took Alex on outings to teach him about the great outdoors.
We are going on our first camping trip in Calaveras Big Trees national park.
As part of Alex's homeschooling...
I tried to teach him various sports as well.
One of my favorite photos with Alex.
He was affectionate and so pure hearted.
We went on a steam locomotive through forested hills on one outing.
We also took Alex to various other places.
This was at Santa Cruz pier.
It was my favorite place to relax when I was going to university.
San Francisco was another favorite spot for our outings.
We are headed to Sausalito.
Alex and I thumb wrestling in Sausalito.
We are overlooking the San Francisco skyline from across the bay.
This would be our last visit to San Francisco for a while...
as we were soon to depart to Reno, Nevada to give Alex abundant opportunities
for his education.
We were especially interested in the University of Nevada, Reno for Alex...
as they took exceptional young children there if they qualified.
This was our first home in Reno.
Alex was still 10 years old...
but he would turn 11 in a little over one month after arriving here.
Our home was in the mountains above Reno...
and at an elevation of over 1 mile.
We went to frequent trips to the surrounding areas...
including Lake Tahoe...
which was under a one hour drive from home.
Before Alex began the 6th grade...
he started studying for his SATs.
Alex loved to drink hot cocoa out of his math cup.
Alex still loved riding his riding toy (called Turtle).
The skies in Reno were frequently filled with luminescent pinks...
yellows, reds, and even blues...occurring during sunrises and sunsets.
We were at a neighborhood park near sunset.
I had bought this dragon for my wife...
as not only is she a dragon...
but Alex is a golden dragon (he was born in November of 2000).
Our first snow in Reno, Nevada.
Alex would soon be 11 years old.
