It was a lovely summer!

Ethan has transferred to a year-round school this year: he starts school about August 1 and ends school approximately June 30, with 3 3-week vacations during the year. (The 1st is coming up next week and he and I are taking a road trip touring California Missions and ending up at Disneyland!) Next year he will only have about 4 weeks off for summer. That seems too short! It’s impossible to do all the wonderful things summer allows in 4 weeks!

But this past year his last day of school was on the traditional school schedule, so he was done by mid-June. I now believe that 6 weeks off is the perfect amount of summer vacation!

A couple weeks of nothing, a week of camp and some family trips. Enough time for a diverse experience but not enough time to get bored.

Some of our adventures:

- we went camping in the redwoods with the preschool again. Beautiful June weather, days creek-walking, skipping stones, hiking, San Gregorio beach and then oops! some wasps built a nest 4 feet from the entrance of our tent on the last day! 7 stings for mom!

- E & J went to Berkeley Chess School camp (their choice) and spent the week with Grandma & Grandpa

- we spent 9 days in the northeast with Bapu, Susu and Abigail plus a side trip to see Peter, Oliver, Aunt Susie and Uncle Doug and Cousins Andy & Zoe. Parks, hikes, the flu, a family reunion (my husband’s family without my husband…. ), Westport beach, subway rides, seeing Twin Tower re-build from underneath, losing Matthew at the Penn Station PATH platform, eating Manhattan pizza, Metropolitan Museum of Art and a Yonkers kosher deli with Nana & Shana – clearly this is a blog of is own

- a week or two OFF with friends, trips to Coyote Point and hanging around the house

- visits from Claire Bear, Henry & Darcie and The Kent Family

- Peters/Adragna Family Reunion in Tahoe North Shore with 30 people in a cabin, lots of love and not too much complaining, tubing down the Truckee (picking fights with water-gun yielding teens and Matthew getting the best of them, Glen falling out of the raft!), me finding a musical to rehearse with across the street, beach, art fair, motor boat and water skiing, no talent show! Clearly, another separate blog.

Anyway, I meant to blog it as we went along. It was a lovely lovely summer.

This is a post to our PTA President Ed Coady. He is the MAN. But in a good way.

It is SOO NIIIICE to not have to be dropping off or picking up a kid every 3 hours. Heaven!

We have a fantastic summer planned. We started off the evening of the last day of school with a family picnic potluck in the park with a bunch of friends. Now we’re enjoying a few days of friends and relaxing before we leave Glen in San Mateo and go off to a camping trip in the redwoods, near the beach.

We finally bought our own tent instead of borrowing Grandpa Jim’s, so we practiced setting it up in our yard yesterday and slept in it last night. Jared was very nervous about possible raccoon attacks but I convinced him to stay with me and his not-at-all-nervous-but-giggling brothers. Glen can’t take sleeping on the ground with his bad back, but it suited the rest of us just fine!

Something about sleeping in a tent – we all wake up at 6 a.m.

Grandpa Jim, we will still need to borrow sleeping bags!!!

Ah summer! We have so many fun things planned, with just the right mix of nothingness.

Reading Now

Ethan is reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.

Jared is reading the Captain Underpants series.

Matthew’s favorite read these days is Tony Diterlizzi’s picture book version of the famous Spider and the Fly by Mary Ann Howitt.

I’m on an Ian McEwan kick.

Favorite YouTubes

Tribute to John Williams: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk5_OSsawz4

Ethan, Grace and Sophia in the Laurel Talent Show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np9mj8sDcyE&feature=channel_page

Favorite Songs

Matthew: Oats and beans and barley grow, Raffi and Weird Al Yankovich’s The Saga Begins about Star Wars

Katie: Been listening to Sunday in the Park with George and 101 in the Shade

Ethan:  Bombs over Baghdad, Outkast

Glen: Death Letter, White Stripes

Jared: “I dunno”

Pic by Sue Exley at graduation

Matthew and I graduated from preschool yesterday!

Matthew is moving on to kindergarten after 2.5 years at Carlmont Parents Nursery School (where Glen worked with Irene Carvajal to redesign the Website. They made the templates I populated all the content).

6 years in a row for me of working at the school at least once a week, doing a family job, attending night meetings. 6 years in a row of a strong community around us, people who share our values, family potlucks, picnics and concerts and being able to always find a playdate.

I’m really happy that we made the commitment to this school and to El Cerrito Preschool Cooperative before that. It was a lot of work, but it was worth it.

The PTA Board at Laurel always has at least one former CPNS parent on it. Next year it will be me and Ed Coady.

Anyway – more about MATTHEW! He wanted a pair of crocs, those rubbery, flimsy sandals which can be worn in water. I bought him a pair but said I would return them if he wasn’t good during graduation. He was SO GOOD! He sat quietly at attention the entire time. I was SO PROUD of him! I couldn’t believe it.

I guess he really is ready to move on to kindergarten. He thinks he is. He seems to think it starts any day now! Maybe today!

Red is gum drops, fire and red peper.

Oranges is oronges, lion scin and oreng juse.

Yellow is lemen heds, lemens and lemenad.

Green is money, grass and frogs.

Blue is the sky, blue berries and a pool.

Purple is graps, eggplant and medeicine.

She makes me food

and puts me in a better mood.

She whistles to songs I like

and encourages me to ride my bike.

* * *

You’re the best

and always will be,

I love you and you love me.

I would still love you if you were in my hair.

I would never ever care

even if you were a bear.

* * *

Kneener! Kneener! Kneener!

Please join us to celebrate Jared’s 7th birthday!

Lipka yoyo expert Glen will display some tricks and try to teach a few. We will provide yoyos for all children who have rsvp’d over age 5, but feel free to bring your own as well!

A light lunch and - of course – cake will be served

Families of invitees are welcome to stay and enjoy time at the park with us.

Rainy Day Plans: Bring your rain boots and jacket! We’ll go for it! I sure hope yoyos work wet!

Everyone rsvp’d and almost everyone came!!! We had a lot of people! I think the dads enjoyed the yoyos more than the 1st graders though. Developmentally, yoyos are probably a better 3rd grade party.

The Hidden Parks, East and West Hillsdale, are just perfect for parties. They are a decent size and the entire park is visible, so parents can socialize while kids play. They’re also pretty sparsely used generally. The hitch of no bathrooms is solved when your house is down the block! The park serves many ages well because big kids can play soccer or football, while little kids enjoy the sand and slide and 1st graders can enjoy it all!

It was starting to rain 30 minutes after the party was supposed to end and people were still hanging out! And that’s with no alcohol served!

Grandma Penny helped so much by making half the quiches plus the salad and generally helping cleaning and shuttling and just everything. Thanks mom!

Most importantly, Jared had a terrific time. Finally a party for him with no tears and tantrums. Just smiles

Rachel Luxemburg said that if she ever said that around her grandmother, sure as shootin she’d have a pile of chores lined up for her so fast her head would spin. She learned to not say it.

Matthew lately has been saying he’s “bored” at school and he doesn’t want to go. His nursery school, Carlmont Parents Nursery School, is an amazingly rich environment:

. easel paints, chalk board and playdough always available as well as a different art project each day in the art room, not to mention creation station in the hallway.

. at least 25 costumes (all of which I had the pleasure of hanging back up on Monday when I worked Block Room), hats, shoes, accessories, board games, blocks, train sets, beads to string, puzzles, marble run, many kinds of manipulatives rotated in and out….. in the Block Room

. a music room with instruments, all kinds of recorded music, bean bags, felt boards, books and puzzles

. the snack room which includes a loft, play house and kitchen, dolls and carriages

. an amazing outside area with swings, tire swing, trees to climb, boulders to jump off, several climbing structures, grass, sand, a mud pit, balls, water play, sand toys, 3 play houses equipped with kitchens and kitchen tools, tricycles with trailers and other riding toys.

The program, except pre-k, is child-led so that the student can pick what appeals to them. At 4 years old this is generally a lot of imaginative games with friends. They move in packs. A month ago it was the Yucky Stuff Bakery, outside, where they concocted yucky bakery goods out of mud and sand and plants. The last 2 weeks it’s been a group of kitties that speak in meows and build themselves cages to sleep in.

Matthew gets along very well with lots of different playmates and engages in a variety of play.

***

I think that this rich, wonderful environment is “boring” to Matthew because he’d rather be playing on the Wii. When Ethan and Jared were 4 they played Reader Rabbit and Blue’s Clues games on the computer. I read to them for an hour at a time. We played Monopoloy Jr and Clue Jr and did puzzles together. I was more strict about screen time.

Matthew gets a lot more screen time than his brothers did and the games are more mature – not preschool learning focused. He generally has to have his arm twisted to sit and read with me and can’t really sit still for games with lots of rules or puzzles. He’s just a different kid.

However, Teacher Leslie and I think that this “boredom” is because he’d rather be playing on the Wii than doing anything else. Screen addiction! We’ve seen it before when Ethan wanted to watch muscials all day long and couldn’t be parted with Bye Bye Birdie and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Anyway, Glen and I have decided to cut screen game time down to 30 min per child per day and only on school days AFTER school. Plus some TV. It’s not an issue of activity/obesity. They get plenty of exercise and love it.

I’m reading Magic Trees of the Mind about brain development and the effects of enrichment on the brain through all stages of life. It’s a FANTASTIC book. That makes me feel REALLY guilty about Matthew’s impoverished environment. OK, not really. He’s got plenty of amazing enrichment around him.

However, I am really glad to be limiting screen time. So far, after starting this past week with 30 min tv in the a.m. while I’m getting ready for our day and Wii limited to 30 min AFTER school, it takes him about 45 minutes of whining about it and then he finds other stuff to do including reading books with mommy (!!!) and a dot-to-dot book (!!!).

I came back to my computer this morning, where I had left an IM window open and found this:

You have just sent a nudge.

You may not send a nudge that often.

You may not send a nudge that often.

You may not send a nudge that often.

Katie says:

You have just sent a nudge.

Katie says:

You may not send a nudge that often.

Katie says:

You have just sent a nudge.

Katie winks:

Play “UFO”

You may not send a nudge that often.

You may not send a nudge that often.

Katie says:You have just sent a nudge.

You may not send a nudge that often.

You may not send a nudge that often.

You may not send a nudge that often.

You may not send a nudge that often

Sorry Lindy! I swear it was one of my mischievous munchkins and not me!!!

Mischievous Munchkins