First Days

First day of Kindergarten

She's in Kindergarten!!! Livi was really excited to be back at school. She lucked out with an awesome teacher she loved right away, with the added bonus of having the same wonderful teaching assistant from last year. She has a few friends in her class from last year as well, and is already taking about new ones. Here she is on her way to her first day…











And at the end of the day on Friday after a "beauty salon" makeover. We did nails, hair, and make-up (as requested). The poses and outfit? Pure Liv!

Oscar and I also started our first week of homeschooling last week, since we'll be following Livi's school schedule. Our first day was awesome, and our second was great but not quite as awesome as the first. :) We both have our work cut out for us! Oscar can be very hard on himself and even with just the two of us, gets very upset when he doesn't get something right (esp. in math since he feels very confident in that subject). I also realized I have a long way to go before I figure out exactly what our school day is going to look like. Balancing hands-on activities with traditional school work, while trying to keep it as much fun as possible will be the challenge!

A few pics from our first week:

defying gravity in a space capsule at the Infinity Science Center

trying his hand at flying

Scientist Oscar classifies animals by how likely they are to attack you

Visiting his favorite animal a the zoo, the Gaboon pit viper

Having Oscar at home, I'm feeling more than ever the need for a plan every day, including after school. We've finally settled on our activities, and Oscar is going to stick with the gymnastics team. With practice twice a week, 2-hours a practice, it will really help to keep him active and keep those peer interactions going. He's also taking swimming lessons to learn the different strokes, and will have a few activities with the homeschool community during the school day (more on that in another post).

Monday is open once we pick up Livi, so I decided to make that an "artsy afternoon." The name has stuck and last week we did some stop motion videos that both the kids really got into. They both had fun creating their unique visions and were very proud of the results:

Livi's stop-motion:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abUrM7mKC7o

Oscar's stop-motion:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-hSjhQE77g