4 years/1 year, 10 months.

Thanks Granddad, for the beautiful copy of The Lion and the Mouse!  Both boys love it and particularly like that there aren't any words, so they can provide appropriate roars and squeaks throughout.

Note that Graham and Connor are both wearing their batman shirts and capes.  Each requests his shirt if the other is wearing one.  Thank you Aislinn and Sam for giving us both of these!

Therese's e-mail of the week, entitled "Things That Fly":

Dear Mamas and Papas,

We began our week by asking the children to think of things that fly.
We made an impressive list. There was quite a lively debate over
whether or not Spiderman flies, with one person giving a detailed
description of how he builds a staircase made of webs. All agreed that
Batman indeed flies.

We went to the table and made paper airplanes. We tried. And tried.
Some help was needed. We all flew our planes off the stage and then
flew around the big room playing lots of other things.

Tuesday, after reading Why Can't I Can Fly, we made our own paper
butterfly wings. We listened to  s l o w  and quick music and
fluttered and flew around the big room. We used our sense of sound to
listen and our sense of sight to watch where other butterflies were so
as not to crash into each other.

We looked for a picture of a parachute in our books. After locating
one, we went into the big room to play a special parachute game. It
involves a giant parachute. We practiced our listening skills again
while we sang songs and went under and over the parachute. We sang
songs, tossed some of the quiet time animals in the parachute, and
took turns getting in the middle. Plenty of giggling.

We have been successfully working on the new puzzles. The students are
focused and determined to figure them out. Cooperation, sharing, turn
taking and negotiating skills have been witnessed. Can I get a
witness? Got one.

After reading You Look Ridiculous Said The Rhinoceros To The
Hippopotamus, and The Mixed Up Chameleon, we compared the two. There
were similarities and differences. Each  animal learns that being
himself is best.

While some people did capoeira with Gabriel, others played with
Tangrams, working on color and shape recognition, as well as counting
and one-to-one correspondence.

Friday we made airplanes out of recycled toilet paper rolls. We
painted them gold, silver or copper. Everyone in our class said they
have flown in planes, everyone but one. We looked at the globe and
decided if we wanted to go to South America we would have to fly,
although some wondered if we could swim.

Next week: simple machines.

Have a restful weekend,
Therese

4 years/1 year, 10 months.

Connor may have rejected the peanut chicken lettuce wraps I attempted to serve him for dinner, but he was very enthusiastic about flying an airplane into the leftover lettuce in the salad spinner.

4 years/1 year, 10 months.

Graham snuck in one last story with Uncle John before he had to hit the road.  10+ readings of Bread and Jam for Frances (thank you Granddad!) seem to have an effect--Graham is strangely disinterested in his previous favorite, PB&J, and willing to venture out into more exotic fare such as turkey, cheese & avocado.

Thank you Granddad and Uncle John for coming to visit us, and for doing so much babysitting and handyman work in arctic temperatures while on "vacation."  It was great to see you both and we hope you will come back soon!

4 years/1 year, 10 months.

Graham and Uncle John came up with a pass/block sort of game at the NYKC this morning which kept them busy for the entire open play time.  Graham has figured out that Uncle John is much more fun and willing to play/read/listen than anyone else around here.  When we told him that John has to go home tomorrow, he burst into tears.  Never leave, Uncle John!

4 years/1 year, 10 months.

In case a week of Granddad wasn't enough, Uncle John arrived for a visit today!

4 years/1 year, 10 months.

That may look like an ordinary pile of sofa pillows, but it is actually a dinosaur cave occupied by an exhilaratingly terrifying Stegosaurus which Granddad brought for the boys.

4 years/1 year, 9 months.

Off to the sledding hills with Granddad!  Graham learned some valuable lessons about how sledding by yourself is fun but if you want to really go fast, it's helpful to get some additional weight in the sled.  Connor had a blast sledding but realized his hands were cold as we left the park and made sure we knew he wasn't happy about it.

4 years/1 year, 9 months.

Watch out, Connor!  T-Rex is coming for you!

Today, we took Granddad on a field trip to the Natural History Museum and everyone's favorite burger joint, Shake Shack, before heading home to assemble the robot duck Michael and Mona gave Graham for his birthday.

4 years/1 year, 9 months.

Happy Valentine's Day!  Thanks for the Yoda card, Nana!  Graham had a great time figuring out how to fold him together.

Connor caught the Star Wars bug too--he can make Chewbacca, R2D2 and Darth Vader sounds, and has a special robot shuffle for R2D2.

4 years/1 year, 9 months.

After blasting off to the moon with his school friends in the morning, Graham held court with the ladies at the big kid table while Connor hung with the little ones at the baby table during our Friday afternoon playdate.  Graham has spent so much time with these "Frozen"-loving girls that he knows the words to "Let It Go" despite never having seen the movie.

Therese's e-mail of the week:

Hi all you,

This week we worked on our space craft. The class decided they wanted to paint it white like the ones pictured in our books. We also painted our oxygen tanks white and our oxygen helmets. We practiced blasting off.

Everyone chose a color to use for their flag to plant in the moon when we got there. They taped their flags to tiny flag poles. We went to the moon and back several times. We examined one moon rock.

Six sleepers Wednesday. Four and five other days. Quiet time remains quiet.

Two people asked if we were really going to the moon. Several people answered that we would just be pretending. Our astronauts asked if we could go in a real rocket ship? We talked about the years of training astronauts have to do to prepare to ride in a real rocket ship. Maybe some of our students will be space explorers. We'll see.

Our blast off was successful. Although we had to start the countdown over because we almost took off without the astronauts! After our trip to the moon we ate real astronaut freeze dried ice cream for snacks. It was a hit!

When we return from break we will continue studying things that fly. It will lead us into our simple machine and vehicle unit.

Have a fantastic break,
Therese

4 years/1 year, 9 months.

Happy 4th birthday, Graham!  We love you so much!  Graham has been asking for an ice cream cake for months, but when it came time to go to the store for the ingredients, he insisted that he wanted a monster cake, which, as it turns out, is a regular cake covered with m&ms.

Graham's stats at age 4: 38.8" (19%) and 35 lb (42%).

3 years, 11 months/1 year, 9 months.

Party time!  Graham invited his school friends and his nearest & dearest to celebrate his birthday with him at Carmelo the Science Fellow's Cosmic Cove.  He and his buddies yukked it up with Carmelo while holding a skink, gerbil, rabbit, and snake, then did a couple science experiments, and wrapped up with pizza and cake.  Graham had a fever the day before and after the party, but somehow pulled himself together and had a great time on the day-of.

Thank you Grammy, Nana, Aunt Emily, and Molly for coming to the party!  And thank you Nana for the dinosaur cake, which Graham loved!

Therese's e-mail of the week:

Hi Everyone,

Monday we used our fine motor skills, focus and determination to make Mars. We practiced stringing on our cardboard animals first because it was similar to how we used string to make Mars red. We pushed the red string through mesh wire, formed it into a ball, and then wrapped more around and around. We painted the planet red. With string.

We also made Venus and Jupiter. Venus involved purple feathers. To create Jupiter we gently wrapped wire around a balloon. The original plan was to remove the balloon, leaving the wire globe. The children came up with several ideas of how to remove the balloon; untie the knot and let the air out, take the wire off, or pop it by poking it with a pin. However, everyone opposed popping the balloon so we left it. One person said it was scary to pop a balloon but most were just simply saddened at the idea of popping a balloon on purpose. How absurd.

We hung our "black hole" lamp and sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to it.

We made Saturn by twisting together orange and yellow pipe cleaners. The rings are three colors. We made Uranus by wrapping blue twine around and around our hands and filling a wire mesh ball. We added many blue moons. Neptune we created by simply squishing green cellophane and taping it into a ball. And then we made two more tiny planets to complete our solar system.  That's a lot of planets in a small inner space!

Friday we mixed and made moon cakes and Venus eggs. And then we ate them. Who knew moon cakes were so delectable.

Next week we begin building our spaceship. We're outa here! The parents, grandparents, babysitters etc. are welcomed to join us for BLAST OFF! Friday morning at promptly 9:25am we are departing to the moon.

It should only take us about 15 minutes to go to the moon and back.

Have a full (moon) weekend,
Therese

3 years, 11 months/1 year, 9 months.

Grammy came for a visit, bring her endless patience and good spirits with her!  We didn't give her a heads up that she would be met by two sick grandchildren--sorry Grammy!