6 years, 2 months/4 years.

We hiked Bear Mountain!  We took the Anthony's Nose trail to the summit (2.6 miles).  The boys were excellent trail guides--enthusiastically pointing out every. single. blaze. --and would have happily played in the stream at the base of the mountain for a long time if we hadn't needed to hurry home for Gil's birthday party.

6 years, 2 months/4 years.

Worm hunters and kite flyers.

6 years, 2 months/4 years.

Graham reads himself to sleep most nights.  He is reading chapter books now---the Magic Treehouse series, the Boxcar Children series, and Roald Dahl.

6 years, 2 months/4 years.

Connor is basically an expert on his bike already.  

6 years, 2 months/4 years.

Connor's birthday party was sandwiched between t-ball and little league games, with a side of Grammy's last day in Brooklyn.  It was such a packed day that Graham fell asleep during dinner at a Chinese restaurant.  The games went well and Connor had a fantastic time at his party, though, so the day was a success!  Thanks for a great visit, Grammy!

6 years, 2 months/4 years.

Party prep time!  The boys and Grammy stuffed Connor's goody bags this afternoon.

Therese's e-mail of the week, entitled "The big bad pig":

Hi everyone,

We began Wednesday with the children retelling the story of The Big
Bad Pig and the Three Little Wolves. Then we acted it out. The
children chose characters, huffed and puffed, and in the end, made
friends with the big bad pig.

While in the yard we discovered our tree had new leaves, our bulbs
planted in the fall had bloomed, and several sleeping snails that were
woken.

Alex came from the Brooklyn Conservatory, and drums were heard
emanating from the big room. She said the children did great! While
some children were making music, the others were beginning
storytelling. We talked about how stories usually begin and how we
could use animals as characters. We identified who the characters are
in several books we've read. One group created a tale involving a
dragon whose head was chopped off and given a shark head. The story
ended with cupcakes and cake for dinner. The other children told a
story about a turtle that surfed in California, narrowly escaping a
cheetah that tried to eat him because he thought the turtle was a
rock. This story ended with the turtle going to his mom and dad's
house.

We wrote a story with the whole class too. They titled it The Legend
of the Lost Treasure. The children were excited to act it out. There
was lots of (pretend) fighting, and a newborn baby dragon who found a
toy.

While story-writing, we are exercising listening and language skills,
analytical thinking, and pre-writing skills. It is empowering for the
children to create the stories and take charge of the characters who
regularly die but have miraculous recoveries and magical powers
transforming them into other beings or turning them invisible. When
acting, they get to chose to be a character or an audience member, or
practice pretend fighting, running in place, or how to die, among
other things. It's a struggle to hear the narrator sometimes because
the actors have a hard time listening while in character.

Next week: more writing and dinosaurs.

See you Monday,
Therese

6 years, 2 months/4 years.

Happy birthday Connor!  I can't believe the silliest, most good-natured, up-for-anything, do-you-want-to-try-my-ice-cream kid in the world is 4 years old!  You make us laugh constantly--especially when when we are trying to be stern and get you in trouble but can't due to the insanely cute grins you flash--, would follow your big brother anywhere, are fascinated by the natural world, from dinosaurs to earth worms, roll with the big kids but are kind to and include the little ones, and run like the flash.  Never change, buddy!

6 years, 2 months/3 years, 11 months.

Grammy's house came with a very large and friendly dog, Quincy.  The boys had a great time taking her for a walk and can't wait for more dog time with Abby this summer.

6 years, 2 months/3 years, 11 months.

Happy Easter!  We opened up Easter baskets (new lunch boxes for everyone!), conducted an egg hunt in our apartment, ate a fancy-ish breakfast (sausage, egg, and cheese casserole...sometimes it goes over well, sometimes not.  Today it did.), and went to the park for the OFNS egg hunt, where the boys ate their weight in foil-wrapped chocolate.  Connor also ate 2 hard boiled eggs, which hopefully had a fairly unbroken cold chain to the park.  Graham was a very good friend and shared some of his eggs with a late arrival to the egg hunt.

6 years, 2 months/3 years, 11 months.

Easter preparation!  Grammy supervised nest-making and egg-dying.  No die was spilled and nearly all eggs emerged without the spider pattern that characterizes excess enthusiasm.  Looks like we're ready for the Easter bunny.

6 years, 2 months/3 years, 11 months.

Grammy arrived just in time to walk Graham to his first "away" sleepover, at Lily's house for her birthday.  He doesn't seem the slightest bit nervous about being away from home.  Back at our house, Connor insisted on sleeping in Graham's room in his absence.  Looking forward to a great visit with Grammy!

6 years, 2 months/3 years, 11 months.

Apparently nature camp from 9 am - 4 pm wasn't enough outdoor time for the boys, who insisted on going to the nature park for some serious dam construction work before going home.

6 years, 2 months/3 years, 11 months.

This week is spring break in Brooklyn, so the boys are doing Brooklyn Nature Days all week.  The camp is 9-4, 100% outdoors, and seems to have tuckered out one kid but left the other ready for more today.

6 years, 1 months/3 years, 11 months.

This day of park adventures was fueled in large part by two giant ice cream sandwiches from The Good Batch.

6 years, 1 month/3 years, 11 months.

Baseball, t-ball, and Freya's goodbye party!  We did some batting practice with Graham and now he's making contact with the ball very consistently.

Freya's family is moving back to London.  Bon voyage, Barry, Kay, Freya, and Rocco!  We will miss you all!  Connor will especially miss playing kitty family with Freya.  xxx

Therese's e-mail of the week, entitled "Books, bookmarks, and book making":

Hi All,

We began our week with a family share. Lilly's granny came in and read
a Frog and Toad story. We listen to some Frog and Toad story tapes, so
the children were excited to hear a new one. After the story, Nora
handed out bookmarks for the children to decorate.

We reread Pepito the Brave Bird and acted out the story. The children
chose to be either a character or an audience member. They ran,
hopped, swam, burrowed, and climbed at all the right times. Pepito's
brothers and sisters were happy when he returned home safely, and off
they all flew.

Kay came in for a family share and read two books about London. Both
books had animals. Some children said they were going to visit Freya
in London for a play date. We had yummy muffins after and left only
crumbs.

We read Buds and talked about the budding flowers on our tree. When we
went outside, some children found fallen flowers which we dissected.
They were similar to the ones we had read about in the book. We found
worms, baby snails, and a baby centipede. We also took our spring tree
picture.

Thursday everyone drew with oil pastels and then watercolors. We
assembled our pictures into a book for Freya to take to London with
her. Nelson also had a super cute book made for Freya for helping him
with his school project in the fall. We read them both during circle.

When we return from Spring Break, we will act out a few more books and
begin writing some stories of our own.

We will miss you, Freya, Rocco, Kay, and Barry!

Have a long good break,
Therese