May 29, 2014: End of Season Part II

Although I'm not attaching the video, here a few pictures from Liam's piano recital.  He did great playing four songs from memory "When the Saints Go Marching In", "Cuckoo", "Ping Pong" and "Kookaburra".   He practiced almost every day for the past year and I was so proud!  He's taking a break for the summer, but we hope to start back up in the fall.  Here is he getting his certificate...

 His cheering section...

 With his instructor Ms. Robin...

(Slightly TMI) Something that I have to admit I'm not sorry to see come to an end this month...pumping!  And all the sterilizing, washing, air-drying, space-taking, tote-lugging that goes with it...

Finally, today was the end of our school year and officially Liam's last day of preschool and wearing a uniform-tear :(.   I need to mention the parent/teacher conferences this year.  Here's the summary of what their teachers said-
Nora:
she has become very attached to her head teacher and they had to start weaning her so she would go to other teachers.  she loves climbing up the soft inclines and stair in the room.  she pulls up on everything and has an "incident" report about once a week for falling while trying to cruise (nothing serious thank goodness!).  she now eats a few bites of the school lunch but still has cereal, banana, and yogurt almost every day.  her bestie is a little girl named Tavishi.  she loves finger painting, singing in circle time, and playing with the musical instruments and balls.

Bryn:
very social, a friend to everyone in her class.  always has kids fighting to sit next to her and play with her although her bestie is Ashadia. she loves pretending to be the “coach” at recess, calls out drills to kids.  great eater and they sit her with the poor eaters because bryn will tell them to “try just one bite”.  she loves her sensorial work and working with her hands.  she works well independently once they give her a task.  she still naps every day! most favorite activity is painting and she asks to paint first thing every morning…will make a pouty face if it’s not a painting day but is always very agreeable and happy.  she's our little birdie, telling us about what everyone said or did in her class that day.  however I know this works both ways, so I'm sure they here all about what goes on at home :)

Liam:
they just gushed so much I couldn’t catch it all…he’s so social, a great friend to classmates.  he always stops when someone is hurt to ask if they are okay.  when a little child was waiting for help on his work and both teachers were busy liam said “i’ll help you fix it” (his teacher remembered because she looked up and thought only liam would speak like that).  he’s a “lesson giver” which means he’s assigned to teach a younger child a certain lesson each day.  he’s also a “buddy reader” and if the teachers need a break, he reads a book to the whole class.  she says he has great attention span and works longer than other kids on projects.  right now he is doing a map of south america, a color diagram of the organs of the body, learning masculine v feminine, greater than/less than/equal to, making flags for each country, and counting in groups (by 2s up to  by 7s…I don’t know that I could count very far by 7s!)  His teacher said math comes so easily to him although he loves geography and anatomy.  She says he is so special because he truly “loves to learn” and nothing is ever a task for him because he enjoys it so much.  One day he walked in and said “I’ve got so many projects to get done, I don’t know where to start…it’s going to be a busy day!” which the teachers thought was hilarious.  then she told me at nap time when all the other kids sleep, liam sits at the table while his teachers eat and talks to them.  they know about everything, his family, his cousins, where everyone lives, what we are all interested in, what he does on days he’s not there, his playgroup, his travels, his interests at home.  he tells them about math games and wrestling and back yard soccer with daddy and many of his stories start with “me and my dad”.  

All the teachers sang their praises as happy, kind, well-mannered kids and Nick and I could not be more proud!!  I can't believe how they have changed this school year but their picture from today and last Sept sure do show it...

Liam is heading to Kindergarten and Bryn will start in the primary class this fall.  And even though she's still in the infant class, Nora is also growing up too fast.  Only makes me want to really enjoy this summer together and all these memories with my little-big kids!