First Day of School

This post is so overdue, but I wanted to get it up here before doing a quarter review or a new baby post. :) So, here are a few highlights from Kai's first official day of Kindergarten back in September.
Both kids got a little backpack full of new school supplies and a few surprises in them. Kai got a new calculator, a little white board, some dry erase pens, a ruler, a pencil box, and a little notebook. Kael got some chunky crayons, his own little notebook, a board book with velcro pieces to pull off and stick on, and a creation themed tot book, so that he could be included in our 2 week creation unit to start off the year. Unfortunately, almost all of the pics of them opening their surprises are too blurry to share, but here is one of Kai anyway because you can still see the excitement on his face.

After they opened all their goodies, we went over our new weekly schedule and discussed our family rules, which are:

1. Listen, and Obey your Parents!

2. Be respectful and courteous.

3. Be honest. Always tell the truth.

4. Love one another.

5. Always try your best!

6. Be helpful.

Next, Kai filled out an "All about Me" worksheet. He did most of the writing himself, which I was very impressed with. We spent most of the rest of the day just introducing ourselves to the new curricula and beginning our creation study. Here is a picture of Kai filling out his worksheet at his brand new (to him) desk, something he specifically requested. Donald spent much of the summer sanding it and chiseling the old paint off, then repainting it, complete with chalkboard paint for the front, and restaining the wood.

We finished things off by taking weights and measurements, so that we could remember how much Kai and Kael weighed and how tall they were for the first day of Kindergarten. Kael did not want to stand right in front of the growth chart for his picture, oh well. He was 31 inches tall and weighed 24 pounds.

Kai was 46 1/2 inches tall, and weighed 45 lbs. That's a five pound gain for him since the beginning of the summer!

There were a few meltdowns throughout the day, but I suppose that is to be expected when a five year old is adjusting to a new schedule and new expectations. All in all, I think he did very well, and will be excited to see what the year has in store for him.

Summer Report

This summer report is pretty late, partially because it takes so long to upload pictures to my computer and partially due to business. Anyway, better late than never..... Here are some fun learning activities that Kai did this summer.


We started off the summer early with a trip to the Wild Animal Park, where Kai fed the Lorikeets and learned the size of a gorilla's arm span. Our focus for the summer was primarily on animals, so this was a neat way to kick things off.



Next we were off to Washington, DC. Unfortunately almost all of the pictures from the trip ended up blurry, so I am only sharing a few. Kai's favorite thing was visiting Mount Vernon and learning all about George Washington. He particularly liked the film they showed before the tour and hearing about how George Washington died (strep throat).


It was raining almost the entire trip, so we weren't able to do as many things as we wanted, but of course we visited the Smithsonian. Kai's favorites were the Air and Space museum and the Natural History museum. He loved the bug exhibit at the Natural History. The butterfly room was really cool. They had all different kinds of butterflies coming out of their chrysallis, and they were flying everywhere. Kai also really enjoyed the Sea animal room and the African animal room. In the picture below, Kai is standing in front of the Wright flyer at the Air and Space museum.





Upon returning home, we all had a great day at the final big event of the year for Kai's charter school, Science day! Kai built a little electric car. He had a really fun time with it, and when we came home, he and Daddy experimented with how to make the motor stronger and faster until finally it burned out. Here is Kai holding up the fossil he found along with his little homemade lava lamp (colored oil and water). It was really hard to get a pic without his eyes closed.

We also built and launched a rocket, made a flashlight out of a battery, tinfoil, and a lightbulb, listened to a discussion about space, and mixed our own silly putty. The last activity in this very fun day was making a sun print.
Both Kai and Kael enjoyed several library story days as well as their corresponding arts and crafts projects. On this day, Kai was working on a caterpillar on a leaf craft.

Kai got in lots of big brother practice, too. He really loves his little brother. He is very helpful and patient with him, too. This picture is one of my favorites.

There was LOTS of soccer practice, too. It was a great way to make sure that he could burn off all of his extra energy a few times a week.

We did the African Savannah unit in our Winterpromise Animal Worlds curriculum. Kai loves animals, so it was pretty fun for him.. plus there were lots of crafts. Here he is making an alligator out of a toilet paper tube.

He worked on this animal puzzle quite a bit.

We finished off the African Animal unit with another trip to the Wild Animal Park...San Diego's home for African animals. It was so much fun to show him all the animals he had been learning about in person. He surprised me with several facts that he remembered, too. While on the safari tour, he told us that cheetahs were the fastest land animals. He was also able to identify the different types of giraffes and pointed out the decorative termite mounds, which the rest of us would've missed. Thankfully, we were there while Dino Mountain was open, too. So, he and Daddy went on that tour.

Stamping his dinosaur passport.




Kai also learned how to tie his shoes and worked quite a bit on improving his handwriting. We also learned about the five senses, and did a couple of activities to learn more about summer. Kai seems to have really grown and learned a lot, and I am excited to see how much growth the new school year will bring.

Now, if I can get to our First Day of School post, I will feel satisfied. :)