Santa Rosa Academy Hosts its First Annual Kite and Picnic Day

Students at Santa Rosa Academy soared to greater heights on March 17, when the school hosted its first annual Kite and Picnic Day for its independent study students.

The event was hosted for students in kindergarten through fifth grade and aimed to give the students a chance to socialize with other home-schooled children at the academy.

“We did this for the kids on our Red Track program,” said Ted Badillo, Santa Rosa Academy teacher for the K-5 Red track. “Those are the full home-schooled students. We wanted to give them and their families an event where they can socialize with other students in the home-schooled program.”

Badillo said that the event was very successful. In addition to having a high family attendance, the students really enjoyed flying the kites, which included an array of ships, animals and other whimsical designs.

“My goal was to get at least 25 kites in the air,” said Badillo. “But we had over 40. It was a good experience for the kids to spend time with family and do something that is relatively easy and fun to do.”

Santa Rosa Academy plans on creating more events like the Kite and Picnic Day to get students involved, especially the students who are home-schooled. Badillo said Santa Rosa hopes to put on more events to help students interact with one another outside of the classroom or home.

“We’re in the early stages of creating these types of events,” said Badillo. “Initially we were concerned about having enough socializing activities for the kids, parents and teachers but we’re lucky though to have very proactive parents who love to participate and help with our activities.”

The Kite and Picnic Day is just one of many events planned for the year. Badillo said that he and the academy’s staff want to create events that not only have a socializing aspect, but to further instill the lessons their students are learning in class.

“Events like this … are all standard based,” said Badillo. “They’re related to the scope and sequence we are teaching in class, so there is a socializing as well as academic aspect to our events.”

School officials hope to host events like the Kite and Picnic Day for home-schooled students at least twice a month. Badillo said students on the Red Track meet with him and other teachers once a week, but the school wants its home-schooled students to meet more often and get to know each other.