Our Kinder Graduate

We have completed KINDERGARTEN!!!

It such an exciting and bitter-sweet moment.  Excited to begin the next chapter in our lives, First Grade.  Just don't like how fast time has flown by, they grow up so fast.  

Completed our first year of homeschool using My Father's World God's Creation from A to Z Kindergarten Curriculum.



Not in the picture but Kanani wants to be a Veterinarian when she grows up.  Got this cute idea from Make and Takes blog.

We went to Olive Garden to celebrate Kanani's achievement in completing Kindergarten, her favorite restaurant.

On her birthday we threw a small celebration with our family to celebrate her graduation.  We also celebrated her and her brother's birthday (they share the same birth day).  Celebrated their birthdays the Saturday before their actual birthdays.

Bought some decor to help make her celebration special.

Photo Ops Pics with the family

Taking pics with daddy, we are so proud of her and all her hard work.

Got this graduation card made for our special princess to give out to our family.

We love our princess and can't wait to see what other things God has in store for her.

Fun with Math

It has been such a busy month this beautiful month of April.  First we finished our Kindergarten school year, Kanani graduated!  Then we celebrated the kids birthdays.  Both have their birthdays on the same day, Kanani turned 6 and Dartanian 2.  My babies are growing up so fast.  These weeks after finishing K we have just been taking it easy before starting 1st grade in May.  

BUCKETS

Buckets:  
     Top Row--ABC, Projects, Matching
     Second Row--Small books, Word (spelling), Small Puzzles
     Third Row--Math, Games, Stencils, Magnets
     Fourth Row--Lace & Trace, Geoboards, Bingo

Kanani went and picked a bucket for us to do together.  She decided to pick the MATH bucket.  I was quite surprised but very happy she picked something educational.  

The first game we played was Fruits & Numbers Domino Game.  She has to count the fruits and match the correct numbers with it.  We just realized we are missing the number 13 card, but we had fun almost completing it.  Got this game at Dollar Tree.

Another game is a matching game I bought from AVON Tiny Tillia.  You can use in the bath tub, but the kids always play with it on the floor.  Kanani was trying to teach Dartanian how to match and build the animals.

A very fun and easy activity to put together is the matching egg game.  I wrote out the numbers 1-10 on the bottom of some plastic eggs and then drew some dots of the top of the eggs.  I tired not to match the same color for the top and bottom of the eggs so she would have to actually work a little to match them.  

Our frogs are numbered from 0-9 but we also make a 10 with them.  She has to put the correct number of flies under the number written on the frog.

Here is another counting game from 1-10.  I would call out a number and she would place the correct number of beads under the number.

We used plastic astronauts to place under the numbers.  But with this game we actually counted backwards, which seemed fitting since they are astronauts.

Dartanian really enjoyed this activity.  We were very surprised to see him match the numbers with the correct ones.  I actually have a couple of videos of him doing it but for some reason it won't download.  Love the activities we can all do together.  Kanani is such a wonderful sister to Dartanian, she has such patience with him.  

Made this clothes pin number match 1-10 wheel awhile ago when Kanani was in Pre-K.  Its always a fun activity for her to review counting and colors.  Dartanian of course wanted to join her in trying to match the pins.

For the kids birthdays their theme was Paw Patrol.  One of their gifts was a pack of Jumbo Playing Cards.  Kanani loves the game Goldfish so of course that's what we ended up playing.  

It has been a wonderful day learning and playing all sorts of Math games.

Making learning fun!

GOD BLESS!

Butterfly Garden Experience

BUTTERFLY GARDEN

PAINTED LADY BUTTERFLIES 

DO NOT BE CONFORMED TO THIS WORLD!

2 Corinthians 5:17
     ~Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Romans 12: 2
     ~Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

We must let go of the past and let God be in charge of our present and future.  

LESSONS A BUTTERFLY CAN TEACH US

Butterfly Lessons (the link I found these lessons on)

Today a caterpillar - tomorrow a butterfly.  Don't lose hope because you never know what tomorrow will bring.

When you feel that you're about to fail, it might actually be that you're about to fly.

The struggle you are in today is developing the strength you need for tomorrow.  Don't give up.

Like a butterfly evolving, we must love each stage we pass through.

DAY 1

We were so excited to open the mail box and find our Caterpillars. Waited for so long for the weather to be just right to get our garden started.  

Pulled out our butterfly figures for her to observe and the butterfly life cycle.

DAY 3

Here are our cute caterpillars 



DAY 6

Can't believe how fast they have already grown 

DAY 8

So much silk from the caterpillars in the cup 

DAY 9 

They are starting to prepare themselves for the chrysalis stage 

DAY 10 

Some have already started working on their chrysalis 

DAY 11

All in their chrysalis 

DAY 13

Today was transfer day from the cup to the enclosure  

DAY 15 

Here is a closer look at them in the enclosure, they seem a bit bigger 

DAY 19

Today when we woke up and saw two of our butterflies had emerged out of their chrysalis's.  

First there were two that had emerged, it was so exciting and the best way to start off the month of April.

Approximately an hour and 15 minutes later another butterfly had emerged.

We stepped out for a couple of minutes and when we came back there was another butterfly that had emerged.  Now we have one more left to emerge.

The butterflies that have emerged have been pretty active drying off their wings.  

Kanani and Dartanian have enjoyed every step of the butterflies life cycle.

DAY 20

Finally the fifth butterfly has emerged. 

Love seeing Kanani tell her grandmother all about the butterflies life cycle.  It shows how much she has learned through this experience.  

Day 22

Today was release day for our beautiful butterflies.  It was a bitter sweet moment, we pray for safe travels for all 5 of them.

Such a wonderful experience to be able to hold each one on our hands before they flew away.  Our last goodbyes.

One of the butterflies didn't seem to want to leave.  I believe it was very content sitting on the orange and drinking from it.  Placed the orange on top of a top of our table outside so we could get a better look of it's long tongue.  It was so neat to watch it eat up close or drink.  Once it was ready to fly it flew around us several times, landed in our yard for Dartanian and Kanani to see it one last time then flew away.  

Got to say this has been a wonderful experience, we have decided to buy more caterpillars to do this garden all over again.  Love being able to watch the transformation every step of the way.  

Here is the link to the butterfly unit we did with My Father's World: Unit 21: Butterfly Unit

GOD BLESS!