Team and Family Math Night

Each quarter at Chance's school there is a Team and Family night each with a different theme. This quarter's theme was Math. We learned about how they are teaching math to the kids, we got to play all the math games (Chance really enjoyed teaching them to us) and we learned the things he will need to know in the future for his next assessment. He is well above where he needs to be. They are expecting the kids to be able to do basic addition and subtraction by the time they finish Kindergarten and Chance is already doing that so, we aren't really worried. Right now our job is to stay engaged and keep him interested without pushing him too hard. In the first quarter they tested all the kids to see how high they could count unassisted. Chance got all the way to 65. He will be tested again on this before the Christmas break, he's sure he will get to 100 because we have started reading the classic I Can Count to 100 Can You? again. I didn't take many pictures but I am so proud of how well Chance is doing in school. He is near the top in all his assessments and his teachers tell us he is a social butterfly with lots of friends which we see every time we visit his class. He is happy about the weekend but still excited to go to school each day and always has lots to say at the end of each day. He get's 5 and 6 stars every day and does his homework early so he doesn't have anything to do later in the week. I couldn't ask for anything better. I know it's just kindergarten and there will be tough school days ahead but if he can keep up with and build on the good school habits he is starting now he will be just fine.

Merry Christmas Time

It's Christmas time in the house. We kept with our tradition of having a non-traditional tree this year. It's a real live little Norfolk Island Pine. We sat it up on a desk, decorated it and we all love it. The lights are simple but beautiful. I am going to start operation wrap some of Chance's presents tomorrow I think.

Renaissance Fair

Today we went to the local Renaissance Fair. It was about an hour drive but it was the best Renn Fair I have ever been to. There were tons of shops with all sorts of fun things to look at and cool things to do.  We went through a Dungeon and Chance went through a maze.  We saw jousting and duels and a medieval comedy show and juggling and the royal parade. It was warm enough for short sleeves and we ran into a couple friends from the playgroup while we were there. We all had tons of fun.

One of the most fun things for Chance and what seemed to me like a really cool experience was when Chance got a mini archery lesson and got to shoot 8 arrows. He even got one to stick in the target.  He really likes archery, we watched as much of it as we could during the Olympics and he really enjoyed the Hunger Games movie, Robin Hood and the tv show Arrow.  He keeps asking for us to take him somewhere to shoot real arrows so now maybe I should look into that.



pic #1 : Chance getting his mini archery lesson. pic #2: Chance setting up his arrow. See the blue arrow in the hay bale? The one just in the target? Chance shot that one.

Jello Oranges

I saw something on Pintrest recently and though it was too fun and too easy not to try. You cut an Orange in half then eat out the inside making sure to get it all clean. Make some Jello then use the Orange halves as bowls to pour the Jello into and then let it set in the Fridge. Take it out, cut it in slices and enjoy.

He's A Robot

Chance's has been playing in the boxes that the new bed was packed in (aren't the boxes the best part?) At his request Scott turned this one into a Robot suit.

Found Objects Collage

For the past few months we have been collecting little things that we find on our walks to and from school in order to make a found objects collage. We finally found enough stuff to make something nice so we sat down this weekend and made our collage. Chance did all the design and then he ran the hot glue gun while I stuck the pieces on where his design indicated. It was a lot of fun and the finished product is really nice and is now sitting in his room. I hope to hang it up soon.

Chance Drawings 6

We were setting up to carve pumpkins yesterday and Chance drew this picture.  It is a house on fire with two firetrucks putting water on the fire and smoke.  Just the day before we saw a house on fire with fire trucks on the way home from the Children's Book Festival.

Fete Marigny

Yesterday we went to the first annual Fete Marigny in Washington Square Park. A celebration of French culture and heritage of the Marigny (the neighborhood we live in). There was art, crafts, music, food a guy on a unicycle and great kids activities.
The weather was wonderful so we stayed for quite a while listening to music, eating crepes and letting Chance create art to take home.
  He has really gotten into drawing and painting recently, he has always liked painting but until recently was not into drawing at all and really not interested in crafts too much either. Now though he wants to draw, paint or craft at every opportunity. At the Fete there was a station set up for water coloring where Chance made two wonderful works of art.
  I love how he takes him time to really feel the art and decide what he wants to put where instead of just jumping in all little kid crazy like. He also did a coloring page of a sketch of one of the actual houses on Royal Street. He took his time getting it just right. When he finishes he is very proud of his work and we are very proud of the detail and attention he gives each of his pieces. We all played Escargot too. Which is a French game a lot like hopscotch but the numbers go around in a spiral like a snail instead of in a straight line. It is harder than it looks.
  Here are his two finished water colors.

Father and Son

Walked into the front of the house the other day to find Scott and Chance playing a game on the iPad like this:

Water Balloon Playdate

Last weekend we got together with the other kids in our playgroup for a water balloon fight playdate. I pre-filled a few before we left the house and then we filled a LOT more after we arrived at the park. At the park the parents put together an assembly line to get more balloons filled fast near the end we were getting pretty good. We had three rounds of water balloon fight. It took us that long to get some good rules together so all the balloons weren't gone in ten seconds
In the end round 3 lasted all of 2 minutes and 3 seconds but the kids had tons of fun. These action pictures are from that round three. You can see the smiles on all their faces. Chance is in the center of these shots throwing a balloon in Octavian's direction. He came pretty close but one of the fun things about this little kid water balloon fight was because they can't throw them very hard most of the balloons bounced off the kids and broke on the ground.

School Videos

This first video is a little concert Chance put on for us before school one morning not long ago:
This next one I took while we were waiting for celebration to start. His class reading Goldilocks and the three Bears: And here is Chance (he's in the middle row) and his class dancing. They play the song on the stereo the lyrics tell the kids what activity to do and then they have to freeze when the music stops:

Chance Drawings 5

Every Monday Chance brings home a three or four page booklet that he draws and writes himself. It's theme is always what they were reading in class that week. Can you tell what he learned about last week? They are reading Knights at Dawn, the second book in the Magic Treehouse series. Here at home we have checked out a lot of books on castles and knights and the middle ages in general from the library. Each Magic Treehouse book has a nonfiction book that goes along with the fiction title. So they are reading the fiction title at school and we are reading the nonfiction book at home.

Chance Drawings 4

I don't know why Chance has to go to the bathroom every time I am in there but here is another drawing he slipped under the door to me the other day.

Armstrong Park Celebration

Last Friday at celebration we walked with Chance's class down to Armstrong Park. It was super cute with the whole class walking in a line singing little songs they learned in school. After we arrived at the park all the kids ate Popsicles and had some snack crackers. Really tasty one by the way. Here is Chance and his classmate playing popcicle swords:

Chance just enjoying his popcicles:

After everyone finished their snacks we walked around the park, looking at the sculptures walking over the bridges and investigating the park. Chance's class sitting on the steps at the park: At the end all the kids got some free time to run around and play then we all walked back to the school. Hanging out for celebration is so much fun. I love getting to see him interacting with his teachers and classmates. Also, he usually ends up getting out of school a little early since we are already there to take him home. it's a win/win/win.

Studying and New Desk

Chance was always interested in reading and writing but since he started school he has been extra into both. Everyday he is drawing and writing notes as soon as he gets home from school and on weekends. The fridge is full of wonderful drawings and sweet notes that he has written recently. Between this and his homework we knew it was time to get him a desk. Luckily we found this awesome old school desk for a great price at an antique shop. Also, I just snapped this photo of him reading his Knuffle Bunny book in bed.

First Fieldtrip

Last week Chance had his first fieldtrip ever! how exciting is that? I am super excited about it and so was Chance. For the last five weeks of school the Kindergarten classes had been studying fairy tales and so at the end the section they took a trip to Storyland and I volunteered to chaperone. Chance was as excited about riding the bus as he was about going to storyland it seemed.
Storyland is a pretty neat place in City Park, a play area build around fairy tale stories. It was great because we could play and find the characters from the stories they had just been studying.
I had a group of three kids in my care for the trip and they were great. if you look in the previous picture That is my group, Renai on the slide, then Chance of course and Leah behind him. Chance and Leah are good friends in school, more on that later.
 Above L-R: Chance, Leah, Renai
The kids had a great time playing and to fuel all that play we had to stop for lunch. We all sat down together and ate the great lunch that the school packed for us. I have been so interested to see what the school gives Chance for lunch I was really happy to get the opportunity to see for myself. (ham and cheese sandwich, carrot sticks with Italian dressing, a peach, grape juice and animal crackers fyi) So we have heard a lot about Leah recently, Chance and Leah have become good friends in school even his teachers say they stick together during class. Chance talks about her a lot when he comes home, she is in a lot of his stories. One day last week Chance pulled this little bead out of his pocket and said is was a gift from Leah.

Ice Cream Sundae Celebration

Every friday at Chance's school they have what is called celebration. Parents can come for the last hour of school and we bring treats or celebrate holidays or sometimes we will take walking trips through the Quarter to historical places and galleries for fun. This is a great time to see what is going on in the classroom and to spend some time with Chance in class. This first celebration was last friday and it was an ice cream sundae celebration. The parents all contributed something and I got to head up the sprinkle station. When Chance came by he was so cute like he didn't know what to do since we were blurring the line between mommy time and classroom time. I may or may not have given him an extra shake of sprinkles. When I first showed up they were all standing on their big carpet (where they each have their own square, that they are supposed to stay in) singing a little song it was super cute. After that we all ate ice cream sundaes and then all the kids went back to the carpet and Mrs. Gidney read a book for some end of day story time. While Chance was listening to the story I took a moment to sneak around the room and snap some pictures of his artwork hanging on the walls. I am so looking forward to the celebration coming up tomorrow, we are all bringing different types of muffins to celebration. The muffins go along with the story they have been studying all week. Have I mentioned that they are studying fairy tales for the first five weeks of school? I am not sure if I have or not but they are, last week was 3 billy goats gruff and this week is Little Red Riding Hood.

Chance Drawing 3

The other day I was in the bathroom and I could hear Chance just outside the door doing something. When I stepped out there he was doing a little dance. He handed me this picture then ran in the bathroom and shut the door. Hilarious.

Walking to School

We walk to and from school each day as long as the weather is good. I thought it would get old after a while, that it would get too tiring or something, like the novelty would wear off but turns out I love it and I think Chance does too. It is great being able to talk to him about school and whatever else comes to mind as well as seeing people and lots of other interesting things along the way. Yesterday on the way home from school we spotted this caterpillar crawling up a tree in a car we would miss things like the coffee shop and this little guy.

Stopping by the Coffee Shop

Yesterday we stopped at a coffee shop on the way home from school. Chance had a hard decision to make between chocolate milk or a chocolate chip cookie. He chose the cookie and I ordered an iced mocha then we sat down for a while and talked while we ate, drank and looked over his folder. I love that we live in a place that we can do things like this on the way to and from school. It was great sitting in the coffee shop just hanging out with Chance. Since I got a kinda sad looking face in the first picture I asked for a happy face and this is photo below is what I got.

Learning New Songs

Yesterday Chance came home from school singing a new song about bananas so we made this little video to show all of you.

 This first song is the new one:
Peel Bananas, Peel, Peel, Bananas
Peel Bananas, Peel, Peel, Bananas
Go Bananas, Go, Go Bananas
Go Bananas, Go, Go Bananas


The second song is one he learned last week:
10 horses came to town
5 were black and 5 were brown
they galloped up
they galloped down
they galloped out of town I cleaned out the videos from my phone and there were actually quite a few videos that I hadn't uploaded to youtube and so haven't shared here. You can check them out by heading over to my youtube account http://www.youtube.com/user/qemorio/videos

Chance Drawing 2

Here is another drawing by Chance. He did this one the other day after he got home from school.  For the first five weeks of school they will be studying (not sure if that is the right word) fairy tales.  This week they are reading The Three Billy Goats Gruff. They acted it out and his teacher sent a note home on his weekly report saying he did a great job acting. They used puppets on another day and drew pictures of their favorite part of the story on another.
You can see the three billy goats going over the bridge and the Troll underneath in the lower right hand corner of this drawing. There is a fan in the middle/left. He wrote the words 'good' and 'by Chance' without any help. He has been writing word bubbles like a comic book on a bunch of his pictures. In this one the letter 'O' is saying "We do D" (though the W is an M) and the 'D' is saying "We Do ?" I am not sure what the other two little yellow things are.

Chance Starts School

So on August 7th nearly two weeks ago now Chance started school. He is officially a Kindergartener. he was way more prepared than I was. He got up before the alarm went off (7am), got himself dressed in his uniform and proceeded to play a concert on his little piano:



After his concert and I packed him a few snacks (he will be eating breakfast and lunch at school) and made him a pop tart (his choice for quick breakfast snack) We had timed out how long it takes to walk to the school (23 minutes) so we made sure we left a little early for the first day and took off for the first day of school.




Chance looked so cute walking to school with his backpack on in his little uniform. The walk to school isn't that bad as a matter of fact it is a great time to get to talk to Chance about all kinds of interesting things.





When we got to school All the Kindergarten classes (there are four) were lining up by class in the little courtyard just outside the kindergarten hallway.  We found Chance's teachers and then gave him a big hug before he got in line with his class.




His teacher Mrs. Gidney gave him a sticker with his name on it. There were no tears from us or from Chance he was very brave standing in line by himself, well with his other classmates, waiting and then walking into the building with his class.  Scott and I waited just outside the gate watching him till he went inside.




We picked him up after school, he was in a good mood and seemed to enjoy his first day so even though it was really hard to spend the day without him and to go from being the one who makes all the rules and is always there to help him to having to trust teachers we barely know it makes it that much easier when he comes home having had a good day.




This last picture was actually taken on his second day at school which we also stayed just outside the gate waiting to watch him walk into school. He is so strong and confident with himself he turned around and blew us a kiss while he was going into the building. I love that little guy.