Pre-Kindergarten Homework

Rai had two homework assignments this weekend:

1) Create a collection of 100 things
Rai's school is celebrating the 100th day of school this Thursday and asked that each child practice counting and create a collection of 100 things. They gave us examples like 100 pennies, 100 cheerios, or 100 popsicle sticks. I asked Rai to think of small things he could collect, and we finally decided on rocks. My mom (Obaachan) and I took Rai to the science museum this past weekend to see their dinosaur digging exhibit. The museum has an outdoor digging area where you can uncover dinosaur bones and take home anthing that fits in the palm of your hand. We managed to dig up and take home over 100 rocks. I'll post a picture later this week when Rai is ready to bring his collection to school.

2) Space Exploration Show and Tell
Each Friday, one child brings home a bucket with directions for what to bring the next week. This week, Rai was chosen to bring home the bucket and bring back any toys to relate to next week's theme: Space Exploration. Luckily, the science museum we visited last weekend had a special exhibit with an astronaut, meteorite, Sputnik (the satellite), and pictures of the sun. In the gift shop, Obaachan let Rai pick out a space toy of his choice. Although I tried to talk Rai into something he already recognized, Rai chose a collection of space toys (astronauts with jet packs, the Saturn 5 rocket, a space shuttle, the Hubble telescope, a moon rover, the Gemini capsule, and a satellite). When we got home, we watched videos for each toy and practiced remembering them. I assumed Rai would get tired and decide to only bring one or two toys, but he remembered most of them and brough them all to school today.

I'm amazed at how much Rai remembers and how curious he is. He will keep asking questions until he understands and will explain everything back to you.

Here is a short video I took this past weekend when Rai tried to learn what each toy was.

Mommy Weekend

Science Museum

Light Sabers

Digging Dinosaur Bones with Obaachan

Enjoying a Cold Day

We've had more light jacket days this month, but Rai and I had fun warming up with hot chocolate (chai for me) and a biscotti.

A few old videos

Here are a few videos I've been meaning to post:

Birthday Party

Rai had a great time at one of his best friend's birthday parties last weekend. He was still talking about the Kitty-chan (Hello Kitty) cake after school today. :-)