Princess Elena Bane Pictures

Hi guys! Here's pictures from Princess Elena Bane's rockin' birthday party today at Ramsey Park. Happy Birthday Elena!!!!

Elena's Birthday Party

Last Friday

This is a little (lot!) delayed post about last friday. I've been amazed at the positive vibe in the class this fall. Either all the kids miraculously matured over the summer break or Natasha's magical coins are doing their magic or it's the positive energy and the enthusiasm that she brings to the class. Whatever the reason, it is a true pleasure to see the kids so engaged and actually taking pride in being nice.
I did not witness any crying or tantrums. The new kids in the class have adjusted so well and so quickly.
For snackwe had the absolute favorite of all times Veggie booty. There was also frozen blueberries and soy milk. We all enjoyed becoming bluberry monsters and admired our very blue mouths and fingers in the mirrors for some time. I'm experiencing a camera malfunction so there are no pictures to show fo this.
The art activity involved paints and straw and then folding the paper to make a pattern and guessing what the pattern was.
Mr. Craig brought Howdy the cowboy and a racoon hat that scared a few of our friends but they recovered pretty quickly. He also brought a string instrument that kids took turn playing.
I had a fantastic time and am looking forward to the next parent helper day.

Hi everyone! I was the parent helper this morning, and it was super fun. Natasha has amazing patience and enthusiasm -she's an inspiration to me. It was so much fun to meet the new friends and see the new class dynamics. In circle time, we read the Berenstain Bears Go to School, which was all about Sister Bear starting kindergarten. Center time was a total madhouse, with lots of dressing up and clacking around in shoes. Zaye, Caleb and Sophie showed exceptional puzzle skills. 

We had bagels, cream cheese, peanut butter and juice for snack, which the kids seemed to like (several just ate blobs of cream cheese off of their placemats). After snack, we went outside for playground time, then on a nature walk to the Littlefield House where each child picked up a leaf. When we got back to the classroom, we traced the leaves onto colored construction paper and then used - SCISSORS - to cut them out! Some kids were totally into the scissors, and some weren't that interested. Tiago did a really good job with scissor control. Peter drew some awesome monsters. Laney traced her hand. Jocelyn did an amazing leaf and then did a cool sunflower.

First Days

Hello fellow coop mamas - I just wanted to fill you in a little on the first two days and share some photos before I crash. Overall, I think the first couple of days have been good. Only one tricky spot which came at the end of day one when I was trying to coordinate mats and which child was going where at the end of the day - but problem solved on Tuesday. The kids have been playing well together. The dress up brigade,with Emma as their leader (Ava, Jocelyn, Elena, Sophie, Emma and at times Anjali and Reva) have been dancing and pretending up a storm. As far as other pretending goes, Santi was a cat today and he managed to do some cartwheels. Laney has been the "mommy" to Elena two days stright now and Tiago was a fireman. Peter and Zaye are still finding their niche but Peter has taken to the animals and the dollhouse. Zaye is quite fond of books. Sophie is a puzzle wiz. Santi and Tiago have become sticker and stamp crazy (spiderman in case anyone wants to bring extras in). Reva is learning how to take pictures (the one of Anjali is taken by her). I have started measuring everyone for the "watch me grow wall "(hence the solo photos). The room is not quite finished, but I will put the finishing touches on this weekend after we unpack our house. Also, look for our September newsletter by Monday. Hmmm, anything else?...Jocelyn is our in-house artist always creating something. Caleb could listen to books on the reading rug the entire day and not move, if I let him. Sophie and Santi both earned a "magical coin" for the treaure box for helping their friends open the string cheese without anyone asking. Anjali and Ava graciously showed the class some yoga moves to transition into nap time. Ava and Zaye are the our biggest coposition book fans, writing whenever the have moment. A big thanks to Lin and Kim who co-oped the first two days, it was a treat to work with you both. Until next time, Natasha

Last Day of 2's!

Does anyone know if the kids are doing anything special for their last day (Monday, August 18)? I'm debating about whether to send Emma to her grandparents the weekend before, or to wait until Monday evening.

Correct email address

Hey All,
I just sent out a mass email to the future 3's class parents however I am not sure that I have everyones correct e-mail address. If you and/or your spouse do not receive something from me by Monday evening will you please forward your current email address to me natashaulack@yahoo.com Thank you so much. I am trying like crazy to get everything together before I leave on Thursday...Ahhhhhh.

Terrific 2's Fieldtrip

We had a great time on Tuesday visiting the Nature & Science Center despite Lynn and Gunjan having to load 9 carseats into the UUMC van! Our little friends managed to survive the 100 degree heat and stay in good spirits - they looked at fossils and bones, had a snack, saw the rescued animals and dug for dinosaur bones. The stuffed egrets and other birds were a little confusing for the kids "Are they alive?" When are they going to walk?"" Why are they stuffed?" Taxidermy is difficult to understand apparently. Posing for a class photo was an adventure - like herding cats!! Gunjan, Lynn, Chris & I survived the heat too and enjoyed Santi's owl song on the way back to the ECC "hooooooooooo, hooooooooo, hooooooooo, hoooooooo".
Enjoy the pictures and thanks to Angela for getting us out and about - it was so fun!

Terrific 2's Fieldtrip

Co-op

I really enjoyed reading Gunjan's post about her co-op day, so I thought I would do it, too! It was nice to hear a slightly more thorough version of my kid's day than "I got wet! I fell down! I cried!"
So I was parent helper today, the highlight of which is apparently Emma getting to "call names". We had strawberry yogurt, pumpkin muffins, and apple juice for snack. Everyone was great about throwing their trash away, rinsing their cups out, and stacking them on the trays. Caleb even asked if he could dump his yogurt out and rinse that cup out, too..
We got two outside times today, both of which were with the Parents' Day Out kids (Kim's class). Most of it was spent zooming around on the tricycles and toddler trucks, or playing in the dirt, or fighting over swings. I posted some pictures here.
My favorite quote was when Laney said "My poop smells like garbanzo beans. Do you like garbanzo beans?"
Kids are awesome...

Rumor has it...

I was the parent helper in the twos today and there was a "conflict" where one of the kids was hit. Angela handled it pretty well with both the kids and took the opportunity to talk to eveyone about it and all was fine in 5 mins.

When I got back from the co-op day Maya and I were talking and she said you know what happened today, I asked what and then Maya launched into this animated narrative about how so and so punched so and so in the 2's class and the kid fell backwards and rolled over... trust me it was a very long, animated account. It's quite amazing how the incident made it to the 4s so quickly, so exaggerated and with such inventive details.... I'm sure a big part of it has to be Maya's imagination.

Other than that we did a scaled down version ice cube trasure hunt from the Let's explore website. The theme during the circle time today seemed to be animals biting the kids. It started with a how a mosquito bit Emma, then moved to a tiger biting Calum, a Shark biting Caleb and some other animals in between and ended with Anjali complaining about Maya hitting her. I think she thought somehow that fit with the general theme of the conversation.

On the field trip I think we are going to try to get the van and Natasha has volunteered Chris for the driver spot(thank you very much:-)). Angela is going to send everyone an email about it soon.

Water play was fun, as always!

Doggie Fear

We will be house-sitting for some friends for about a week, and they have a large dog. Emma's fine if he's in his crate, or facing away from her.. but as soon as he turns around or starts walking towards her, she completely freaks out. Does anyone have advice on how to help her with her fear?
My parents have an ancient dachsund, and she's the same way with her! Seriously, this dog is blind and deaf and about 7 inches tall...

Re: Field Trip

I think the Austin Nature Center sounds like a great idea! How do they coordinate transportation for the kids?

-Lin

Farmers' Market

This evening Laney is going to go the Farmers' Market at the Triangle, and show her new brother, Solomon, how she can run in the water and dance with her friends. He may or may not be awake to watch.

Field trip

Angela has been planning a field trip to Austin Nature and Science Center.
The date she has in mind is July 15th, it's a tuesday.
It's a great little spot fot the kids because it has a few animals, a dino pit and some microscopes where kids can check out fossils, rocks, snake skins and lots of other cool stuff. Also if you happen to find something cool on a trek/hike or even in your backyard a cool rock, feathers, bugs the center will trade it in for some points which you can use towards the things they have. Admission is free but they have a donation box at the door.
We will need one parent for two kids so we will need three parent volunteers.
Thoughts? Any other suggestions for field trips?

Oh Happy Day :)

Hooray! How fun :) This is so great. Thanks Gunjan, you rock sister! We're back in town now so we'll be seeing you all at school. I love you all, and thank you for being such a beautiful part of Calum's life. We love and appreciate you and your families so much! xoxoxo

Wednesday with the 2s class

I was the parent helper yesterday with the twos. We had six girls including me , Angela and one boy, Caleb:-).

We did a little dictation for father's day, played a game of sorting the animals by land, water and tree dwellers and played with some puppets. On popular demand eveyone donned their bathing suits on at 10:00, our outside time is 11:15. Spent a lot of time admiring and being happy with our bathing suits.

Snack was vanilla yogurt, pretzels and apple juice. The yogurt was a big hit.

Then we read a couple of books and danced to 'brush your teeth'. Caleb dazzled all the ladies with his dancing.

The best part of the day was outside play in the water there are some sprinklers in the swing area which are just fantastic and the pool is always great.

We all had a great time! I quote Laney when I say "it is a fun day at school today".

There are some pics here.

Thanks Gunjan! This is so great - I love the title too!

Hello!

Hello all, it's so great to see everyone trickling in. This version is just a draft version to get something rolling. Please feel free to post any suggestions on look, layout, title, pictures and also please send any cool sites that we can add to the blog.

We start the water day tomorrow. Yay! And since I'm out of work and not too keen on looking for a job before fall, I've signed up for more co-op days. I'll be the parent helper on alternate Wednesdays also.

One last thing, the girls and I are planning to go to the farmer's market around 5:00-5:30pm tomorrow. Would love to see y'all there.

just checking in

Wow! This is fantastic. Although I am not a parent helper, I'll try to share some tidbits when I see the 2's class! Thank you for doing this Gunjan. What a great space.-natasha