Wonder World Classroom

Last weekend we had the opportunity to let Bri learn about Hawaiian culture. My husband is Hawaiian, and we'd always wanted to start exposing her to that side of her culture. What more fun way than to go to a luau? Our complex here hosted the shindig, and to help prepare we had Brianna watch her dad practice for his fire dance, and he taught her and I a keiki's (child's) game called poi balls. The day before, we visited the luau aisle of our local party center and let her pick out components for her "authentic" costume. As a tie-in, she asked to watch Disney's Lilo and Stitch.


The luau had Hawaiian food, and a hula teacher was on hand to teach guests the bora bora, which Bri just loved. Her grandmother is a old-school hula instructor who speaks fluent Hawaiian, and I wish we lived close enough for her to really glean that knowledge...perhaps someday. We will of course add to and expand her knowledge of Hawaii as she gets older, but this was a nice start for a 4-year-old.

Bri got to watch her father participate in an impressive cultural activity--the blur you see here is all my camera could catch of his after-dark fire dance performance. Plus it was a great opportunity for her to mingle with people of all ages and play games while learning, too, between a hula hoop contest, hula bowling, and water balloon toss (a great experiment in cause and effect!).


Who says homeschool kids don't get "socialized?"