Elf hats

The last week of class before Winter Break brought lots of activity and goodies. Zoe's class got elf hats.

Kindergarten artwork!

I love it.

This week we got to go into school and meet the kindergarten teachers for a status check.

Status: they are both recognizing letters and numbers at a level they are expected to be at by the end of the year. Reading. Doing well.  I guess we knew that based on what we see them do at home, but it's always nice to hear it, and it's nice to visit the place they spend their day and talk to their teachers.

And see some art work.

This one was outside Roman's classroom. Roman's teacher Ms. Z said he took his time with this one. 

She says she calls him the little scientist. And this Sunday morning when Zoe crawled in our bed and turned on PBS kids, I had to thank the Wild Kratts for that. 

It's truly amazing what they can learn on tv. 

I love PBS.

And I try to tell the kids that no matter how old you are, you can always learn. I like to learn.

It's always fun to see what they pick on library day at school. We see a lot of non-fiction, a lot of books about animals. Not that we always read them (bad momma), but we try.

And I love it when they tell me about what they learned. We were all amazed that they took a look at owl pellets this fall. Ms. Z said she had a hard time dragging Roman away from it.

In the hall Roman's class also had mittens, with all different kinds of symmetrical designs on them.

Dad thought this looked like a turtle...it does!

Ms. Zoe's reindeer was hung up in her room.

We got a peak at Zoe's journal too. Every morning they can start their day by drawing and writing in their journal. This to me is most precious, and a trip down memory lane.  She started her journal with a picture of me and her visiting the Barbie House at the Mall of America. A picture of us as a family at the ice cream shop (hey, that was a few months ago, I remember that). A picture of deer in our backyard (last week!).

Tis the Season

For warm drinks

And a cat in my new comfy chair!

Wicket!

Mike decorated our tree upstairs (all fancy!) and put it in one of his 'tree boxes' that he designed.

At the library

Roman and I have a good time perusing the library when Zoe has dance class. It was a brilliant idea to put a library in the community center, and it was a brilliant idea to start making small games available for use on-site in the library.  This last time we spent 20 or so minutes with the Magnetic Match Rings game. Maybe I was more amazed by magnetic properties, or at least the floating quality. Opposites attract - oh yeah, THAT'S where it comes from.