~ M ~

Max's school studied "muh" during and after the christmas weeks (oh man, now I'm giving away how behind I am!) They did a lot of different stuff for M, and I probably only captured a small part of it. Here we go.
They talked about mushrooms, mammals, moose, mice, mountain lions and monkeys.

This is a mammal that he brought home to me. It's a giraffe in case you can't tell.

They did a lot of art projects, and here are a few of them:
"Mixing Colors" by Max


"Mosiac Art"


"Edible Marshmallow art" This is one of my favorites!!! He was so proud of it.






I hardly got any of the snacks written down, but they did have mangos, mozzarella cheese with apples, meatballs, muffins and mushrooms with rice. Yum. I wish I would've gotten to eat all of those snacks.

We're sure going to miss this great school when it's time to move!

~ L ~

Welcome to Luh week at Max's cool school.
The kids got to eat some seriously cool stuff during luh week, such as, Lil Smokies (you know, those yummy little sausages?), lettuce and cucumber salad, linseltorte (some kind of German cake that Kris and I have never heard of), lentils with rice (I don't think I've ever actually eaten lentils, have you?), leftover fruit and l-ast but not l-east, leeks. After Max told me they had eaten leeks I realized that not only had I not ever eaten a leek that I was aware of, but I didn't even know what they looked like! Coincidentally, right about then a bloggy friend posted a yummy looking potato leek soup recipe. I went to the store, found some leeks and we had the soup for dinner that week. It was good! I had no idea that leeks had such a strong and interesting flavor.
See, so it's not only Max learning from his school, we're all participating.
Here's a luh-vely work of art created during luh week. It's a leopard in case you can't tell.


Thanks for stopping in.....

and oh! I almost forgot! Here's the boy wearing the super-cool lei they made during luh week. It makes me want to go to Hawaii. But then again, it doesn't take much to make me wish for Hawaii.

~ K ~

A quick glimpse into Kuh week at Max's wondrous school.
For snacks among other things they ate:
Kiwis
Kale
Polish Kielbasa Sausages
and Kohlrabi

Wow. I just can't imagine how they got the kids to eat kohlrabi. I'm lucky I even know what it is, I don't think I've ever eaten it? Anybody out there ever snacked on kohlrabi? I have eaten kale, but only once. It was pretty good.

My favorite thing they talked about that week was Komodo Dragons. You know, those crazy huge endangered species that live in Asia somewhere?
I was quizzing him about the dragons and I asked him what they eat. He told me very matter-of-factly, "They eat other komodo dragons!" So I figured that was just him being a little silly weirdo. I just laughed and told Kris about it later.
Today however, I looked up komodo dragons online and learned that in fact they are carnivores, and in fact they do sometimes eat smaller komodo dragons!!!
So now I've learned my lesson... next time he tells me something like a snake is a mammal, or a bear lays eggs or that Land Grovers live mainly in South America and they're mammals I'm going to go and double check it before I tell him he's wrong! He's a smart little goofball. It's fun that he gets to teach me stuff sometimes. BUT he did tell me that Komodo dragons are warm-blooded though, and I know that's not true. I checked into it!

••• I & J •••

I guess that really should be pronouced Iyuh and Juh--in Purple Dragon speak.
I did a deplorable job of keeping track of what happened during I and J weeks. The only snack I can remember is ice cream. That's pretty obvious, isn't it? Sorry. I promise I'll make up for it during Kuh week.
Anyway, here are a couple of the fun projects that the kids did during these weeks.
A jack-in-the-box (which was a big hit with Max) and an igloo:
An indian headdress (yes this looks VERY similar to the thanksgiving week indian headband, but I promise, it's different):
And last but certainly not least, here's an awesome picture of a Jaguar. I love it:
Pretty cool stuff. J was always his favorite letter when he was small so I think he had a good time.
Back with kuh kuh kuh week soon, stay tuned......

--Huh huh and a Walk Home From School--

Max learned about huh (the letter H) last week. Or wait, I guess it was the week before last. His teacher somehow made a deal with the calendar and got Halloween scheduled during Huh week. They had a great time on Halloween and carved pumpkins and made finger puppet ghosts and even got sent home with a couple of treats.
Besides that during huh week they got to talk about hamsters, hippos and horses. One of the teachers brought in her pet hamster for the kids to observe. That was really exciting for the kids, probably not so much for the hamster.
They ate hummus (really??) honeydew melon and havarta (sp?) cheese. I've never heard of havarta cheese, and in fact it could be something entirely different, like humbolt cheese or something. All I know is that it started with H!
And would you join us for a walk home from school?
Here's Max at the end of our street, ready to sprint. He's been into running or skipping or galloping home lately. This is a run.
There's a house halfway down the street where the yard is lined with big rocks. Max has to walk along the rocks every time we go to or from school. I usually hold his hand so there are no crashes.
After the rocks we visit the dog that lives two houses down from us. Her name is Galaxy and she's very very cute. I scratch her ears and she gives Max a kiss on the hand.
Then we head home. The biggest challenge for me is keeping Max on the sidewalk and off of people's lawns and front porches. He's making good progress though and we usually really enjoy our strolls to and from school.
We made it!! Here's Max on our front porch steps holding a "glass art" project from Guh week.
Thanks for walking home with us!

Kuh, Duh, Eh, Fuh and Guh

Hi everybody!
I have had a hard time keeping up with what Max has been learning at school because we've been traveling so much. Starting in mid-September either Kris or I have been out of town at any given time. This week is one of the first where we'll all be at home at the same time.
So we're behind on our report of what letters Max has learned. So we're doing something revolutionary to catch up. A cool video!! Below you will get to hear some of what Max has learned in the last few weeks. And you'll get to see him cheesing at the camera. What could be better?

I do have a couple of notes here though. Mostly about duh. On Duh week they learned about dogs and dinos and deer and dolphins (he told me later that day that dolphins eat "squids and shrimps") They ate dried apricots, dried pineapples and dried cranberries as well as deviled eggs (which Max LOVES) and doughnuts.
For Eh one day they had fried eggplant (did they seriously eat that??) and they talked about elections. We missed most of the Eh week.
This week is Guh and they've talked about geckos and goats and giraffes. Today for a snack they ate guacamole and chips! Yum! I wish I got guacamole and chips at my school.
The most impressive thing he's learned lately though is Russian. Yes, they're learning Russian at Max's school because the lady that runs the school, Miss Meela, is Russian. He's doing great and he keeps telling me random words. Today when I picked him up from school he went through a whole bunch of cards with pictures on them and told me what they were in Russian. I'm very impressed! So please witness for yourself.

Thanks for visiting! And dassvidanya (wow, can you tell that I don't speak Russian?)

Big B, Little b, what begins with B?

Time for another installment of the alphabet, better know as What Max Learned at School.
We're a little behind because of traveling, but bear with us if you can while we try to catch up.
Max had two weeks of learning about Buh-the sound of letter B. At his school they don't talk about letters by their names, but by their sounds.
So, it was all about the buhs.
Here is a picture of the board at school. Click to see a larger image. It's covered with Buh things. I especially like the buh-buh-beard and the buh-buh-bug, which actually I was just told by Max is a beetle! Wow, I obviously haven't been to preschool in a while.



Sometimes it's a little embarrassing because I can't always identify everything on the board. Well, usually I can, but sometimes when put on the spot I can't always think of what the picture is representing that fits with the letter.




They went backpacking one day, walking down to the park that is just down the street to play on the toys and picnic eating bologna sandwiches. Among other things they talked about birds and bugs and bears and bats and beetles and butterflies. They heard the story of the Bremen Town Musicians and learned some Russian words that went along with it.
One day they made bead necklaces. I thought Max's turned out really cool. I liked his bead choices. I thought that maybe he'd made it for me to wear, but no, unfortunately he wouldn't let me wear it.




I'm not sure why these pictures ended up being shirtless--he usually does insist on wearing a shirt. I was just thinking we'd seen a few too many striped shirt pictures on the blog, and that day he was wearing a *surprise* striped shirt. So whatever.

What snacks did they eat during the Buh weeks you're wondering? Well among others, they ate: bleu cheese, brie cheese, broccoli, bagels, brussel sprouts (I say to that buh-buh-blah), blueberries, blackberries and beets (again, I say buh-buh-blech!!).

They made bean bags one day, that turned out great, and another day they did some blot art. His ended up looking very much like a bat to me, appropriately.


So the buhs turned out to be fun. Our biggest school challenge with Max right now is coloring. He really has no interest in coloring, especially not in staying inside the lines of anything. So we're working on that. So far no progress, but I'm sure eventually we can learn how to make it fun. Or at least that's my hope.
Stay tuned for the next installment.

Big A little a, what begins with A??

Most of you know that Max goes to preschool. He loves it. We have this great little school just a block away from our house called the Purple Dragon. He started going there a couple of months ago. It's a small school with no more than about 40 kids at any one time. The lady that runs it is very serious about learning, but so far she's done a great job combining learning and fun. He brought home a different art project every day during the summer.
Now that it's fall they've started in on their curriculum. For the kids Max's age it's the sounds in the alphabet.
Last week was A. Or aaahhhh I guess. They talked about apples and alligators and anteaters. They have a big bulletin board up on the wall of the school which has a big A and a little a in the middle, and then quite a few pictures pinned up illustrating a words. I took a quick look and saw an armadillo, a picture of the apostles, a big pile of aluminum, alligators, etc., etc....It's great.
Here's a picture of Max with his Aquarium he created during the week.

They eat snacks that fit in with the sound of the week too. Last week they ate acorn squash (Max supposedly asked for 2nds), asparagus and apples.
One day they talked about anteaters, which made Max happy since he has an anteater, which he loves.

Did you know that anteaters' tongues can be two feet long??


So that's the letter A. And remember, there's a difference between alligators and crocodiles. We don't mix them up at the Purple Dragon.