5 years, 9 months/3 years, 7 months.

Graham's class is working on art and story-telling.  We were pretty impressed with Graham's ambitions until we got some hints that this profession had been suggested to him by his assistant teacher.  Still, great artwork and kindergarten spelling!

5 years, 9 months/3 years, 7 months.

Graham wrapped up the long weekend with Kaiden's ghostbuster-themed birthday party.  This is Graham's stay-puft marshmallow man.

5 years, 9 months/3 years, 7 months.

Graham, Connor, and Hazel burned off their pumpkin pie with a huge leaf fight outside of the Prospect Park Zoo.  Oh, and we saw some animals too.

The boys are having the greatest time hosting Hazel who is, as far as they are concerned, a multi-night sleepover buddy.  They definitely have their game faces on...Graham in particular is really pulling out the charm.

5 years, 9 months/3 years, 7 months.

Apryl, Adam, and Hazel are here for our 6th (?) annual Thanksgiving feast!  After taking a multi-year break on cooking due to some small but energetic 2-legged complications, we successfully prepared a turkey & sides this year.  Maybe next year we'll tackle desserts.  We are very thankful for such good friends and adore watching our children develop their own relationship.  Cheers!

Therese's e-mail of the week, entitled "Feast fun":

Hi families,

This week we mashed, mixed, boiled, and baked. The children counted and washed potatoes. They poured, stirred, and scooped corn bread mix into muffin tins. Wednesday we decorated our table for the feast. People drew whales with many legs, a plate, flowers, and a mama giant and baby giant. Then someone said there's no such thing as a baby giant because it is a giant already.

We played in the yard while waiting for marshmallows to melt. As parents and grandparents arrived we sang Way Down Yonder By The Cherry Tree. Everyone hung their family picture cherries on the tree and shared the delicious feast.

Thank you all for bringing such yummy fixins.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

5 years, 9 months/3 years, 6 months.

Some major developmental jumps must take place at 5 and 3/4 years.  Graham started swimming last week, and learned to ride his bike this week!

We've practiced biking without training wheels a few other times, but today was the first time it clicked for Graham.  He can't start or turn on his own, but he can stop and go straight all the way across the playground!  After some false starts, he managed to stop talking long enough to figure out how to correct his balance and keep pedaling!

Therese's e-mail of the week, entitled "Cherry berry and better butter":

Dear parents,

We began our week mixing paint and powder to get a redder red for our
cherries. Everyone painted their cherries for our family tree and then
used hand-eye coordination to add the stems. We used pipe cleaners to
weave through the hole and twisted to keep them from falling off.

Everyone glued their family pictures in preparation for adding them to
our growing tree.

We will add them to the tree on Wednesday before serving up our family
feast. The feast will begin promptly at 11:15am Wednesday November
23rd. As you arrive, you can hang your family's cherry on the tree,
help yourselves to the feast, and eat, drink, and be cherry!

Yoga with Jovan was quiet, loud for a moment, then quiet again.
Children were seen standing still, sitting even stiller, and lying as
still as the night.

Heather came in to work with half the class while others were in yoga.
She had the children look in the mirror for shapes in our faces.
People saw circles, squares, curvy lines, and straight lines. We
started with circles, or dark filled-in areas, or many zig-zagging
lines across the paper. Everyone looked different. The portraits are
hanging by the cubbies.

Friday we made butter. We started with heavy cream and several small
containers. We shook our sillies out, we shook them high, we shook
them low, we danced while we shook and in the end, we had butter. The
children predicted how long it would take. Guesses were: fifty times,
five hundred and fifty minutes, fourteen minutes, ten times, eighteen
minutes, two hours, and fifty hundred times. It took twenty-four
minutes!

It is always a pleasure to get to talk to you all about the progress
of your offspring during the conferences. Your kids are super and
superb.

See you at the open house!

5 years, 9 months/3 years, 6 months.

The Miller family takes on the Great White Way!  After listening to the soundtrack for a few months in preparation, we took the boys to the "Lion King" this afternoon.  We needed to do a little shushing and question-answering, and Connor got wiggly during the last half-hour or so, but over all they were great and seemed engrossed in the story.  Next up: "Waiting for Godot."  Thank you Will for getting the tickets!

Therese's e-mail of the day, entitled "We are family tree":

Hi all,

Monday we glued our leaves to our tree branches. The children
strengthened their hand muscles squeezing lots of glue. We glued felt
and paper leaves, red, yellow, and orange leaves, snowy and dead
leaves. Every single leaf was different.

We voted on which kind of fruit to hang on our tree. The children made
a list of trees they know and we narrowed it down to three. Everyone
wrote their vote using the color of the fruits: red for cherry, orange
for peach, and green for pear. One of the fruits got no votes.

Pastor Meeter took us on a tour of Old First Church. We got to see
parts of the church we don't use. We counted the windows in Pastor
Meeter's office, examined the stained glass windows, looked at
patterns on the ceiling, climbed many stairs, saw the pastor's robes,
and listened to the wind of the organ pipes.

Please oh please, if you haven't already, bring in your family
photographs. We need them for our fruit tree.

Thank you and have a calm weekend,
Therese

5 years, 8 months/3 years, 6 months.

That blue-capped shark in the middle of the pool, completely unsupported, is Graham!  He swam nearly the whole width of the pool by himself today!

5 years, 8 months/3 years, 6 months.

Look who can (kinda) write his name!  

5 years, 8 months/3 years, 6 months.

After school, the kids immediately tied on ninja headbands/crowns and transformed the living room into an obstacle course.  

5 years, 8 months/3 years, 6 months.

Nana came to visit!  Nana got here on Saturday, just in time to watch the Penguins soccer game.  On Sunday morning, we got to our marathon viewing spot a few minutes before the runners started coming.  The boys did their own races up the block (walk backwards to the 2nd tree, do 5 jumping jacks, run back) and only collided with a couple passers-by.  Everybody wins!

Therese's e-mail of the week, entitled "A family tree grows":

Dear parents,

Halloween was super exciting. After eating our witch's hair, eyes,
nose, ears, and teeth for snacks, we read two Halloween books. We made
a list of what to expect when we begin yoga. When we finished we
decided to play Ghost Ghost Pumpkin (instead of Duck Duck Goose) in
the big room. We also played Red Light Green Light but called it
Pumpkin Go, Jack o' lantern Stop!

Yoga with Joleen went off without a hitch. While half the class posed
in the big room, the rest of us worked on making branches for our
family tree. The children worked in pairs to twist and squeeze long
pieces of butcher paper. They said tree branches are long, skinny,
crooked lines, or short and fat. When we peeped in the big room during
yoga we saw people hopping, standing still, and sitting quietly.

Everyone practiced using scissors to cut fabric and paper for the bark
of our tree. The fabric is much harder to cut but some children
succeeded. We used brown paint and potato stamps to decorate our tree
trunk. We also worked in two groups to glue all the fabric and paper
bark to the trunk. We talked about bark protecting the tree and what
animals might eat it. The tree is growing between the cubbies and
classroom. We read Leo Lionni's A Busy Year about a tree's seasons and
her two nice mice friends.

We read Leaves! Leaves! Leaves! also about the four seasons of a
tree's leaves. We compared leaves from our yard with leaves in the
book and found similarities. During circle everyone had a turn to
match leaves from our yard into like piles. Great observers!

Next week we will vote on what kind of fruit to grow on our tree.

Climb a tree,
Therese

5 years, 8 months/3 years, 6 months.

Graham took Will to Family Friday this morning, where K-114 reenacted caps for sale and Graham made a certain celebrity parent laugh.

5 years, 8 months/3 years, 6 months.

Talking shop with FDNY Lt. McComiskey.

5 years, 8 months/3 years, 6 months.

The boys graduated from the "pike" to "eel" level of swim class!  Graham's advancement was merit-based; Connor's by hook or by crook.  No more swimmies!