Our First Day of School

We started school on Monday! We keep our theme for the year a surprise from the kids until the first day. On Monday morning, we woke up and I told the boys we were going to go play some games at the park with our friends to celebrate the first day of school. We headed over to the park and just as we were learning the rules for a soccer game, a visitor showed up. He was a Royal Messenger sent from the Magical Kingdom of Books!

He read a Royal Decree summoning the kids to become Knights and Princesses and go on a year long journey searching for treasures. If all the treasures are found, they can become Kings and Queens at the end of the journey.
After the kids were all dubbed Knights and Princesses and recieved their school shirts for the year, we were off on a treasure hunt!

None of the kids knew where this treasure hunt was going to take place. It is a place we had been many times before, so I was tricky and got off at a different exit and parked in a different place than we usually do, where we took a bus instead of a tram, so Tanner was a little confused... "I see signs for Disneyland, but this isn't how we get to Disneyland."

Tanner ready for his Treasure Hunt!

We started off our Treasure Hunt at the Magical Kingdom: Disneyland! The kids received a clue, looked for a flag with a short rhyme on it, and then got their "treasure"... a ride! They found a clue in each "land" we will be studying this year: Main Street, Frontierland, Fantasyland, Adventureland, Critter Country, and Tomorrowland.

Some of our mini-Knights

We all had a great time and thought this was a fun way to introduce our theme for the year: The Magical Kingdom of Books. We are going to be reading lots of great childrens literature this year and learning about the history, science, and morals (or "treasures") that are found in the books. We organized the books we are reading into the Disneyland lands and decided to take the kids (our Knights and Princesses) on a treasure seeking journey throughout the year to make it more fun for them. Tanner is so excited about his first grade year and so am I! It will be an adventure...