school snippets

It would take ages-times-infinity to extoll the virtues of Josephine's preschool and describe the depth of her enjoyment of the morning program she's been going to on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  It's been such a blessing and revealed interesting new facets of her personality that we weren't aware of.

While not a high pressure instructional type of program, it is still very involved; chapel, music class, spanish class, playground time, and lots and lots of art.  Lots of art.  Her teachers are bottomless pits of creativity, and the centers they have set up upon arrival always impress me.  As do their energy levels.  I would NEVER attempt to replicate the activities they do-- not even with just my one child-- and they do it while herding ten.

The week or two they spent on dinosaurs made a notable impression on Josephine.  She came home singing a song about dinosaurs chewing up their food and spitting out seeds, replete with hand motions and an enthusiastic "BLEH!!!"  Soon thereafter, breakfast one morning revealed a dinosaur:   

I was amused enough with her food play to take a picture of the brontosaurus bust, so while I had the camera out, I asked her to sing the song.  You can watch it here on youtube by clicking this sentence.

You've already seen some of her classmates because they came to her family/school birthday party, but here's an excellent group shot that Leah's mom took right before their classroom Easter egg hunt:  

Leah is second from the right and one of Josephine's highly discussed friends, ever since we went to her birthday party in February.  Leah turning three:

I feel like I should note that the kids had their portrait session the same day as the egg hunt, so they're all looking pretty cute here.  Of course, they're always adorable, but maybe slightly less preppy on the average day.  Like I said, they do a lot of art.  Josephine, for one, normally goes in something like brown pants and an old t-shirt, but on this special day, the teachers swore they wouldn't paint anything.  :-)

Here's a scanned copy of her school portrait:

Note to any matriarchs presently entering advanced stages of hyperventilation:  I'm not super-crazy about this picture, but Sean decided you all needed one, so my compromise was purchasing wallet-size.  :-)  So you can thank him that you have one and curse me if you wish yours was bigger.  If you haven't already gotten one, you have one on the way or about to be mailed, I promise.  (you may also feel free to send a reminder)

Today was her last day, so in addition to bringing home a pile of her artwork a mile high, I also decided it'd be good to bring home a picture of her beloved teachers, Ms. Arline (left) and Ms. Becca (right).  They've been so wonderful to her.  It's a joy dropping her off and watching her run up enthusiastically to them for a hug and warm greeting.

We're hopeful there'll be an opening when we return from NY in early 2013, so she can start back, but at the very least, we're grateful for this last season that she got to spend there!