Yesterday I officially registered Gabriel for PA Cyber's 4 yr old Kindergarten. I've never been a fan of cyber or home schools until I was watching PCN one night and they were looking indepth into PA Cyber. It's actually a pretty decent program... except for the whole not being in the classroom and with peers issue. Don't get me wrong, although I am actually seeing the benefit to cyber school, I'm not going to be pulling Dylan and Cam out of school and homeschooling them. It will actually work wonderfully for Gabriel next year though. G is too young for elementary school anyway so it's not like I'm pulling him away from 'real school'. Now that D and C will be in school all day long I have to find more activities to fill our days when I'm home with G. I usually spend lots of money on activity books, arts/crafts supplies, day trips etc. Then I realized that PA Cyber starts kids in Early Kindergarten at age 4.... and it's all FREE. He'll get his own laptop, scanner, printer, activity books, art supplies, counting blocks, wooden magnetic calendar, flash cards, web learning games, science projects, books etc. Not to mention they pay $50/mo for our internet access, they pay up to $75 for his sports (soccer etc) and they pay for several field trips/art classes etc. It's a no-brainer! Why would I NOT take advantage of what they are willing to give us for free. I am only planning on doing this for Early K and then he'll go to Red Mill next year. It's also cool because they have an actual kindergarten classroom that he can attend whenever he wants. He can go 0-5 days a week, full day or half day, a.m or afternoon.... or even just for certain classes. Which means that I have a place to take him, for free, to have a regular school environment and make friends and play (and so that I can get some time to work) - while still getting to do a ton of awesome school stuff at home and learn all the things he's itching to learn. Yesterday Cameron and I were reading a book and just for the heck of it I said "Gabriel, can you read this?" .....and he started reading the book!!! Not only did it shock Chan and I, but I think Gabriel was shocked himself. He didn't know he could read. Pretty good for only turning 4 less than a month ago. Anyway, we're excitedly awaiting all his supplies to arrive at our doorstep.
All 5 of us have been busy with VBS this week. Chan and I volunteered again to be crew leaders. There have been approx. 230 kids there each night at the church!! It's always an awesome experience. One of the little boys in my group looks exactly like Gabriel. It's so freaky! The other day I saw him at the end of the hallway in church and my first thought was (and I'm not making this up or exaggerating) is "What is Gabriel doing upstairs?" My second thought was "I don't recognize that shirt." My third thought was "Holy crap! That's not my kid!" The only difference is that he's 6, not 4. He's basically Gabriel in the near future. What's even freakier is that Chan is facebook friends with his dad and showed me some pics of this boy when he was Gabriel's age. See below (click to enlarge). To top it off, he's the youngest of 3 boys too.
Maybe the pictures wont do justice if you haven't seen him in person, but it's not just the looks... it's his mannerisms, movements, facial expressions, eyes. Everything!
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