4 years, 7 months/2 years, 5 months.

4 years, 7 months/2 years, 5 months.

Pelé Miller scored his first goal today!  Graham came out on fire for the first period of his game and seemed to have learned to steal, dribble, and score in his sleep.  He lost his touch later on, but not before scoring 3 goals.

4 years, 7 months/2 years, 5 months.

Thank you, Nana, for buying us a delicious shake shack dinner tonight (with Will's birthday gift card)!  The boys and I met Will after work for some burgers, fries, milk/beer, and of course an ice-cream treat.  Graham can scarf down a burger amazingly quickly...I think we need to start ordering 4 rather than 3.

Therese's e-mail of the week, entitled, "All About Me":

Hi everyone,

We are beginning our year with an All About Me unit. It consists of
learning about how we are alike and how we are different. We noticed
we all have two eyes and ten fingers and hair, but our hair is all
kinds of different.

We have been singing Head, Shoulders, Knees And Toes and read My
Amazing Body. We felt for our heartbeats, felt our chests while
filling our lungs with air, and looked for our veins in our arms.

Someone told us about her mama accidentally cutting her finger and
blood coming out. Several people then said their moms had also cut
themselves. (Please be careful mamas!)

We took turns measuring everyone on our We Are Growing chart. You can
see it on the back of the teacher's bathroom door. Then we lined up by
height to go outside and play.

We read Follow The Line, and traced everyone's hands while counting
their fingers. We used our fingers and fine motor skills to grasp
crayons and color our hand prints all the colors of the rainbow. We
sang Open, Shut Them and Where Is Thumbkin? We also read lots of
Nursery rhymes including This Little Piggy.

Everyone made a hand print using paint and paper. We read Is It Red?
Is It Yellow? Is It Blue? We talked about the new season and what will
soon happen to the leaves. Last week we took a group picture under our
tree in the yard. We will document the seasons by photographing it and
watching it change. People recalled that the leaves are still green
though we are three days into fall. Someone told us that it would
begin to get cold and another remembered when she sat on snow one
time.

We have been having 5-7 sleepers during quiet time. Half of the class
has already made it into the Quiet Book.

Next week we will do more tracing, create a foot print mural, and feel
textures with our toes.

Have a great fall-ish weekend,
Therese

4 years, 7 months/2 years, 5 months.

Not to be thwarted by a school holiday, Graham and Lulu met for two play dates today.  Graham wears his glow-in-the-dark skeleton sweatshirt non-stop during the day and his glow-in-the-dark skeleton jams (thank you Grammy!) non-stop during the night.  The highlight of his evening is the daily "skeleton dance" which happens in Connor's room with the lights out.

4 years, 7 months/2 years, 5 months.

4 years, 7 months/2 years, 5 months.

After a little hide & seek in the gym locker room, the boys watched a children's theater show and then Connor got his lovely locks snipped.  First time at the barber shop!  He looked pretty concerned at times but was very well-behaved and very happy with the lollipop he got after the cut.

The show was called "Stand Clear of the Closing Doors" and was about the NYC subway system.  Graham provided color commentary about the different trains..."The 4 train is a terrible train!," etc.   We're definitely raising city kids.

4 years, 7 months/2 years, 4 months.

Graham's first day of soccer!  His league is coached by volunteers and the kids play 3-on-3, no keeping score, in 5-minute "halves" until everyone is tired.

Connor isn't old enough for such a formal athletic experience, but he is very good at scaling daddies.

4 years, 7 months/2 years, 4 months.

Friday funday!  Connor and I went to the beach, where we spent most of our time making cakes out of sand and shells and singing happy birthday to each other.  Graham must be liking school because when I told him Connor and I were going to the beach, he said that he'd rather go to school.

Therese's e-mail of the week:

Hi moms and dads,

This week we played Simon Says, and Simon said shaving cream. We did
that first thing Wednesday morning. The next day we added food color
to make pink, green, yellow, and purple. And blue. People drew,
squished, and scratched in the foam. Simon also told us to march, hop
on one foot, stand up, sit down, and hold the rail when walking down
the stairs.

We read Will I Have A Friend?, and sang Make New Friends But Keep The
Old.  We are singing the Good Morning song while people hang their
names on our attendance chart. We are still learning each other's
names by singing several name songs: Way Down Yonder By The Apple
Tree, Willoughby Wallaby Woo, and What's Your Name.

Everyone is also working on name recognition. Often the first word
children read is their name. We are reading our names on the
attendance chart, our placemats, and our paintings. The children also
will begin to recognize classmates' names. We are also singing the
ABCs and looking for letters in our names and in books.

We read My Five Senses after using the Feely Box. We hid an object in
a box and everyone got a turn to use their sense of touch to guess the
object. This week it was something small and fuzzy. After we looked at
the object with our sense of sight, we listened to a book with our
sense of listening. It was a book about a dog and a doughnut.

In the yard we are discovering many teeny tiny snails and roly polies.
We are digging in the sandbox, all the way to the bottom, swinging up
to the trees, climbing up the jungle gym and sliding down, upside down
in some cases. There has been lots of running and some sitting and
relaxing.

We are also strengthening our hand muscles using play dough, and
working on our pre-writing skills drawing with crayons and markers.

Thanks bunches to everyone who helped do the extra cleanup and
painting. It is much appreciated and looks fantastic.

It was a short and sweet week,
Therese

4 years, 7 months/2 years, 4 months.

Connor's first day of school!  The parents sat along the edge of the classroom for an hour to help the kids adjust...Connor did not need an adjustment period.  He was very happy with the car/truck selection, and they served his favorite foods for snack--goldfish and raisins (needless to say, Connor's school is not as progressive as Graham's)!

4 years, 7 months/2 years, 4 months.

We recovered from Will's birthday party with our block party.  The bounce house was unfortunately cancelled due to predicted but absent rain, but the novelty of getting to play in the street kept everyone happy for a couple hours.  

Therese's e-mail of the week:

Dear parents,

Welcome to Old First Nursery School. And for some, welcome back! Here's looking forward to a great fun filled year of learning.

We jumped right in our first week with a splash.  Some highlights: we squished and squeezed play dough, colored our placemats, worked a few puzzles, sang the Good Morning song, played in the yard swinging and sliding, decorated our art folders, and read bunches of starting school books.

We read  among others : My Nursery School, I Like Me, Spot Starts School, A Good Day, Pig Pig Grows Up, Time To Pee!, Amelia Bedelia Goes Back To School, Wow School!, Back To School For Rotten Ralph, No David!, and always a favorite, Owl Babies.

We are already working on our fine motor skills (snapping marker lids and squeezing play dough), gross motor skills (pulling ourselves up on the swings and pushing our chairs in), social skills (learning each other's names and asking friends to play), patience (waiting our turn and listening to others), emotional skills (identifying peoples' feelings in books and taking deep breaths when needed), math skills (counting the people in our class), and just plain old learning the routine of the day.

The week sailed along fantastically. We heard stories of trips on planes, long car rides, a ten day boat ride, sand castle building, hermit crabs, a dead horseshoe crab, a dead bee, spiders, swimming, old schools, and new friends.

We are looking forward to the growth in your children we know will surely happen as the year slowly, or quickly, passes.

Thank you for the opportunity and the privilege to help build a strong foundation for the beginning of your child's education.

Sincerely,
Therese

4 years, 7 months/2 years, 4 months.

Party time!  Will's party was an unintentional progressive, starting on the roof and moving inside when the rain started.  Connor's favorite part was the cake.  May the 40th be with you, Will!

4 years, 7 months/2 years, 4 months.

Old First Nursery School's honorary classmate, Connor, took advantage of drop-off and pick-up to do a little painting and tree climbing, respectively.  One of Graham's friends, Milan, told Graham that Connor was the youngest kid at OFNS and Graham "the Corrector" Miller made sure to inform Milan that Connor has his own school.

4 years, 6 months/2 years, 4 months.

Big day today...Will turned 40 and Graham had his first day of Pre-K at OFNS!  Everyone survived their days just fine.  Graham was very excited to see his teachers and friends and didn't seem to have any jitters.  

4 years, 6 months/2 years, 4 months.

After 10 long weeks of summer vacation, Lily, Graham, and Connor were thrilled to go back to Old First Nursery School and make sure everything was ready for a new school year.

Happy birthday, Nana!  We all love and miss you!

4 years, 6 months/2 years, 4 months.

Small children, big beach.  Hopefully we'll get another good beach day or two (and a better photographer).

Happy birthday Grammy!  We wish we were still in Oregon to celebrate with you!  We love you!

4 years, 6 months/2 years, 4 months.

Back in the Brooklyn wilderness!  Graham and Connor took turns throwing a rock down the path, racing to get it, and then throw it again.

4 years, 6 months/2 years, 4 months.

Connor figured out how to pump into his own cup today.  A step towards independence (and away from sharing)!

4 years, 6 months/2 years, 4 months.

Our brave nanny, Luda, took the boys to meet Mikkel and Ella for a playground playdate this morning.  It looks like it was a happy reunion after a summer apart (Mikkel has been in Norway since early July).