Black Belt

He tested two weeks ago before school started. He did so well remembering the required 8 senior level forms, the 50-step hand technique and breaking 4 boards with his hand and jumping over 5 children to break a board with his foot!  He will get the actual belt after the results are sent to South Korea and eveything is correctly documented!

First Day on the playground

She was so happy to play before school started. She said the playground has no monkey bars. I said not every student can hang and flip like you.

Second grade & Kinder

Jedadiah is full of advice and encouragement for his sister who is starting in Kindergarten. He didn't want to go to school, but was fine when we got to school. His said his second grade teacher speaks English and Spanish, so that made him happy!

Lining up

He is hiding his face, but he is in line to go into the second grade classroom but his buddy. They are happy to be in the same classroom this year.

Treasure Box

This is was she selected from the treasure box for having such great behavior and earning "Morado" on the behavior chart.

A New School Year "Morado"

Well after a year of not writing, I have decided to pick up the "pen" once again. This year my son is in second grade, and my daughter has started Kindergarten. I didnt' write last year, because I could never figure out how to retrieve the photos from my mobile device. So, I don't know how many pictures I will be able to post this year, but I will keep trying to solve the problem. She came home yesterday with lots of stories to tell. Girls tend to me more vocal than boys, so I thought I should write down what she shares with me. She said that in kindergarten, students don't have time to go to the bathroom. So, she didn't go all day long. I told her that she can ask her teacher if she needs to go potty, and Sra. Oliver will allow her to go. Also, she came home with a full lunch pail...minus her bag of cherries. She thought lunch time was snack time, and she left her lunch box in the classroom. When she entered the cafeteria some one asked her if she had money. She said no, but was given some pizza and some fruit. She thought that was awesome. I reminded her this morning to take her lunch pail to the cafeteria. She said that she learned the Spanish alphabet and the numbers from 1 to 5 and then proceeded to say the numbers in Spanish. When I picked her up yesterday afternoon, she was holding a large Hello Kitty Stuffed Animal. I must have looked confused, so the teacher said to me "Morado". This means that Samara was well behaved and moved her name up from Verde to Morado, and she could select a treasure from the box. I couldn't believe my little girl earned Morado on the very first day of school! WOW....now I owe her a trip to Taget so she can pick a small reward too.

We have had a busy summer. 
I tried my best to provide plenty of opportunities for him to have fun this summer.  I wanted him to feel like he had down time and time to relax.  So we went to the beach several times, Sea World, China Town, LA Zoo, the movies (Brave and Chimpanzee), the skateboard park (many times in two different states), river rafting, took a road trip, lots of swimming,  several birthday/bbq parties, attended gymnastics practice (12 hours a week), went to the XGames in LA and watched the Skateboard Vert. Finals,  earned a Junior Black Belt in Taekwondo and watched lots of episodes of Jackie Chan Adventures and Kickin' It on Netflix.
 In the midst of all the fun, we still attended a summer dual immersion program for five weeks with six hours of instruction.  The instructor, Sra. Soto, did an outstanding job preparing the students for first grade while reviewing what they had learned in kindergarten.  She also emphasized writing and how to use time markers.
First grade starts next Wednesday, so more adventures will be written in the forthcoming weeks and months!