Check out my guest post at Ciao Bambino!

I was thrilled when I stumbled upon The Little Travelers, a series of DVDs by a southern California woman talented in video production who homeschools her two little girls and travels extensively with them.

I am not generally a big fan of animated movies, but Disney’s new movie “Princess and the Frog,” in which they return to their traditional, classic style of animating, was surprisingly enjoyable.

I am a reader. According to my grandmother, when I was young I would set my alarm clock for 30 minutes earlier than I needed to get up for school, just so I could read. I don’t remember that, and as I am also a sleeper I can hardly believe it (though I do).
I do remember that I would stand on my bed at night and rest my book on the windowsill, where I could read by the light of the moon.
Recently, through Facebook, I heard from a person I …

Local excursion #2 of our Summer of Exploration was a slow, winding drive down the four mile, scenic route that diverts from the highway and runs along the coast, more or less, between Pāpa‘ikou and Pepe‘ekeo.
This used to be the main road, I told my 5-year-old. This is the way people used to go to get to Hilo town a long time ago, I said, and we talked about how the road is smaller and much more winding, and how they must have driven much slower than we do now.
I …

For our first official “exploration” of the summer, my mom and I took my 5-year-old daughter into Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park the other day.
First we sat on the grass on our green and blue blanket, watched and talked about the birds (as they watched and talked about us) and ate crab sushi that we brought with us.
Then we looked around in the Volcano Art Center, especially at a kids’ juried art exhibit. That was pretty neat and we discussed that maybe my daughter will want to enter it next year.
We talked …

Today is Day 2 of working outside of my home. I got a lot done yesterday, and am working on doing the same today.
I hope that in my last post I didn’t give the impression I have just been waiting for my daughter’s first five years to fly by so she’d be in kindergarten. They have been the best five years of my life, and I have so enjoyed being with her, watching her learn, playing with her.
In fact, I am a little bit mourning the loss of our …

My daughter went to her first-ever day of kindergarten today. It’s actually a sort of kindergarten orientation — two weeks of mandatory summer attendance where the kids get accustomed to their teachers, their classrooms and the routine, before jumping into school when it starts in August.
But it sure felt like real kindergarten this morning, as I walked her into that bright, cheery and busy classroom, and we put her change of clothes and sleeping blanket in her cubby, and learned where her box was for messages from the school. 
“Hi!” said …

Every Spring my three girlfriends and I meet in southern California with our seven little kids and take them all to Disneyland.

That’s where my daughter and I are right now. We spent Wednesday at Disneyland, and then on Thursday we all trooped off, drove the two cars onto a small, 3-car ferry to Balboa Island, and spent an afternoon on the beach. Then back to Disney on Friday, where we spent the day at the newer Disney attraction, California Adventure, which is built on the site of Disneyland’s former …

We learned yesterday that our daughter was accepted at Kamehameha Schools for kindergarten in the fall. 

This is huge. There are only two kindergarten classes at the Big Island campus, so they only take 20 girls and 20 boys. The application process, therefore, is very competitive and admission is far from a sure thing.
I know there are a lot more than 40 smart, talented kids on this island and I feel for every one of them whose families really wanted this opportunity for them. I wish the school could take them all.
It …