Sometimes that boy really impresses me...

We're currently reading Understood Betsy for school (probably my favorite book so far!). In the chapter we read today, an older aunt is explaining how a sundial works to a little girl who had never heard of such a thing. The aunt comments that "sometimes it seems to me that every time a new piece of machinery comes into the door some of our wits fly out at the window!" I stopped and asked Gavin what he thought that might mean (not really thinking he would have caught the intended meaning)...

"I think it means that every time someone invents a new machine that can do things all by itself, instead of a person doing it, we lose some of our skills and ability to do that thing." He went on to give me the example of the dishwasher and how people used to have to take their dishes down to the creek to scrub them. :)

I'm pretty proud of that boy! :)

Butter making!

We're reading Understood Betsy for Gavin's school right now, and after reading how butter was made in the olden days, we decided to try it for ourselves!

It was actually much easier than I had anticipated (I thought we might be shaking our little jars for hours...) and it turned out great! The kids loved watching the cream change from liquid, to whipped cream, and then suddenly separating into buttermilk and butter! We all enjoyed some of the fresh butter on some fresh bread this afternoon! Yummy!

Back to school...sort of!

It's that time of year again - the leaves start turning, the weather becomes cooler, and the kids get ready for back to school time.

This year is a little different at the Clarks - the leaves are definitely turning (in fact, some were turning way back in July, what was that all about?), the weather bears little resemblance to the 30 degree temperatures we had just a few weeks ago...but Gavin's not going back to school so much as he's going to our dining room table! :)

After a lot of prayer and discussion, we've decided that for now, we will be teaching Gavin at home. He had a great experience for Junior Kindergarten and Kindergarten at our local Catholic school, but we feel that for this time in our family, God is calling us to homeschool the kids.

Gavin has been really excited over the summer about starting school, and when our box finally arrived (we ordered curriculum from a company down in the States), we were thrilled to experience our first 'Box Day'! The curriculum we are mainly using is a 'learning through literature' program, so we get to enjoy all sorts of good books together.

'THE BOX' - we had fun tracking its progress online while it made its way here!

We lost Gavin as soon as we opened the box! I thought he would help unpack it and look at all the books, but nope, he grabbed the book right on top and off he went. ;)

Abby was my box unpacking helper.

Oh-0h...both of my helpers have deserted me in favor of the books!

All our goodies laid out on the floor (and then quickly put up on the table before Rach got up!)

We started school the last week in August - Gavin was really excited and we thought there was no reason to wait until the public schools started! We're almost three weeks in and having a great time so far. Gavin is a very eager learner and I love watching his brain figure things out and seeing his excitement learning about our world. We've already gone on one fieldtrip with the Grande Prairie and area homeschool fieldtrip group, and at their meeting last night I signed us up for a few more, so there are lots of exciting things to come! (And hopefully some trips to Edmonton too since we don't have to work around school!)

Picture time!

Abby and Gavin playing 'Spy Kids' (or that's what they told me they were doing!)

Gavin getting his 'Mr. Independent' award at school on Thursday (for 'taking responsibility to advance his own learning') - he was so proud!

Gavin's idea for snack yesterday - it's an Easter bunny!

Gavin's elephant project he did at school (they worked together with their grade six reading buddies)

This is the picture we have on our desktop right now - her eyes follow you! It's actually kind of freaky at night because it looks like you could reach out and touch her...

First day of kindergarten

Gavin started his first day of kindergarten today! Out here kindergarten is full days two (and sometimes three) days a week - it's not worth bussing the country kids in for just a half a day at a time. Gavin will be going Tuesdays and Thursdays and more or less every second Friday.

Gavin's going to the local Catholic school, which is also where he went to half-day Junior Kindergarten last year. The Jr K and Kindergarten share the same classroom with the same two teachers, so everything was pretty familiar to Gavin this morning - just a new spot on the bootrack for his shoes, and a different cubby in the classroom. :)

The Tuesday/Thursday kindergarten class this year is ALL boys! There were only about six girls in total registered for kindergarten, and rather than split them up three and three (which usually ends up with two kids pairing up and the one being left out) the teachers decided to try putting all the girls in one group and leaving the Tuesday/Thursday as all boys. We'll see if they regret that decision!! ;) I think there's about 15 kids in his class - that's a lot of five year-old boys!

I asked Gavin what his favorite part of the day was, and his answer was "my favorite part was getting to stay for the afternoon too!"

Song cows, dead batteries, and little Joseph

Today was Gavin's Christmas program at school - Greg went to the afternoon version and I got a babysitter and went tonight. It was fun to go to our first school Christmas concert!

The play was about a Christmas talent show taking place in a barn along with a bunch of animals, including 'song cows,' who apparently sing wonderful songs that only other cows and Santa can understand. Whatever. ;) Gavin's class did a great job acting out the Christmas story as his teacher read, and then sang a version of 'Happy Birthday' to baby Jesus.

Greg videotaped the performance this afternoon - but it's not a digital camcorder, so I can't post any of it here. I brought our digital camera that does movies tonight, and even remembered to put new batteries in before I left, but I think I need a refund on those batteries because they were dead almost as soon as I turned it on! I was pretty disappointed, and now you are too because it means we have no video or pictures to show you! I'll try to convince Gavin to put his Joseph costume on again tomorrow so I can at least have a picture of it for the scrapbook, though.

Gavin did an excellent job and he was so cute looking for me in the crowd tonight to wave to me. When he got in line to sing their song, you could hear him ask 'where's my mom?' :) Now, if he's still doing that five or ten years from now...

Clarks in the news!

Gavin's had his first taste of fame at the tender age of four! :) A couple of weeks ago on the day we went to his school to meet his teacher, a photographer was there taking several pictures of Gavin as he looked around his classroom. A couple of days later, a friend called to let us know that she had seen Gavin in the newspaper! (As a funny side story, I think I just assumed that the photographer was with the school and that they must take pictures of all the new students. I gave him Gavin's name and age, but on the way home, Greg asked who the man was taking pictures and suddenly I was embarrassed to say that I didn't know! I was kind of glad to hear that Gavin's picture was in the paper so I knew forsure who the man taking pictures of my son was!)

PLEASE excuse the awful grammar (and spelling, clearly the Grande Prairie Herald-Tribune can't afford luxuries like perhaps a spell checker??). Oh, and on a photographic note, I really think a newspaper photographer should either set the white balance correctly for the flourescent lights, or adjust it before printing - it's all lime green instead of white!

It was pretty neat to see Gavin in the paper, and we're definitely keeping the clipping for his scrapbook!

School days

Well, Gavin went off to his first day of school on Friday. He is attending a Junior Kindergarten speech and language program at St. Mary's Catholic School here in Beaverlodge. It is four mornings a week, and the Jr. K kids are in the same class with the Kindergarten kids (who attend two full days a week). For a few minutes each morning each child has their own time with the speech therapist and then the rest of the time they get to do fun kindergarten things!

Gavin was easy to leave at school (I think because of all the church things he's been involved in, he is definitely not one to cry and not want us to leave), which made it easier on mommy! Greg picked him up from his first day and it sounded like Gavin had a lot of fun, and he "didn't even have to sit in the time-out chair!" (One day down, 179 to go...) ;)

Here's Gavin on his way to his very first day of school!