Karl

Oh, what a joyful week that past last week. Along with spending so much time around water in the form of lakes, rivers, rock pools, waterfalls and the beach we have been wash with The Word too. Yes, we have spent the week at Capernwray Bible School for their Refresh 2010 conference with the theme: 'How is your soul? - Reflections from the Psalms'.

Whilst in Canberra I could not pass up the opportunity to see 'Masterpieces from Paris' an exhibition of 112 post-impressionist art pieces that will knock your socks off.

So, whilst in Canberra we thought we'd throw down the gauntlet with an unfamiliar indoor rock climbing wall. With William to young and me too pregnant to belay, leaving Michael out also we threw the challenge to Karl and Peter. Both did their best and we couldn't be prouder of each of them.

Karl is not certain with heights. He has a healthy fear and has not yet learned how to trust the rope or the person controlling them. He strived for his best and achieved it.

Just a place-marker to say that we were in Canberra from 2-9 January 2010. More about that later as it is late now. Lest to say we had a great, relaxing time!

Today I stumbled across a web site which has suggestions for how kids can make money. I have never been so scared to share a web site with my children before. Across a number of articles there are several suggestions that a great idea for kids to make money is for them to take unwanted or unused toys and sell them on eBay.

For a long time now we have known that Karl was a Visual-Spatial learner and it has only been in the last 6 months that it has come to my attention how dominant this trait is in him. His natural strengths in Mathematics have shone through with his now having completed the Math U See Alpha curriculum and eagerly awaiting my finally ordering Beta for him.

This blog post is by special request for my sister who asked that we document this little learning story for her.

Karl has always been termed in-house as our 'bright spark' as he showed his academic gifting from a very young age. One of those demonstrations was reading which started in a 'by association' format by associating ingredients in recipes with food stuffs, and copyright 'warning' messages on DVDs with child safety 'warning' messages on nappy bucket lids with 'warning' signs on the emergency exit doors on warehousing.

Four drowned rats, four drowned rats,
See how they run, see how they run,
The ran their tails through the pouring rain,
Got so cold they no longer felt pain,
Would you believe they'd do it again?
Four drowned rats, four drowned rats.

Yes, it was wet to say the least in the Adelaide Hills today. We had an impromptu home education activity involving Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens today but with the inclement weather I was not surprised to see an email saying, 'In view of the wet weather it is unlikely that the walk will take place this afternoon. Please feel free to go along if you wish to but chances are many families will stay home in the warm!!!'

After spending the morning at the dentist, the boys were busting to get out so we chanced it and as the only family to arrive at the lower carpark we took what must of been the shortest walk ever in light rain, only to get caught out my a massive deluge that gave us no choice but to run back to the car.

Being the glutton for punishment that I was, and with consideration that the boys had not yet eaten lunch as a result of a fluoride treatment to their teeth, we decided to head to the restaurant at the end of Waterfall Gully Road for a sit down lunch with a view to taking a short trip to the top of the waterfall to burn off some excess energy. After eating lunch there was a break to lighter rain which lasted most of our little exploration but again, drenched us in the final minutes as we headed to the car before heading home as four drowned rats.

I guess it is all worth it for a hot bath or shower when we got home. In spite of the lousy weather I can guarantee we all had an awesome day! :)

Dually titled 'In a class of their own' and 'Parents opt out of school system' the Advertiser has run the article featuring Karl's images prominently on page 19. Beverley Paine takes centre stage, of course, as her skills and experience are renowned in the South Australian home schooling community.

Well, it appears that we have scored our five minutes of home education fame. Earlier today Tate, a News Ltd photographer, was welcomed, climbed upon, had faces pulled at him, was laughed at and somewhere in there, was actually able to take a few photographs of Karl amongst the chaos that my boys can create on demand.

Why? Well I guess you will need to read the Advertiser this week!