Snippets from school

 We celebrated Dr. Seuss all last week which culminated in a party on Friday with One Fish Two Fish snacks and Cat in the Hat fruit kebobs. My coworkers are the best! 

We've finished the Olympics and moved on to March Madness, but with books. Daily we've been reading two books to the kids and they have to vote on their favorite, We have brackets made of painters' tape up on the walls with photocopies of the covers of each book, so once it is full I'll get some photos for here. So far, the Sleep Book won over its competitor, Fox in Socks was in the running, and so was Marvin K Mooney. They won't all be Seuss books, but that's what we kicked it off with. 

We've had two Silly Socks days. One of the 3s came in with these socks, above, which are possibly the cutest socks I've ever seen in my life! It took him a minute to get them to hold hands, but he got it!

You can see my Mary Jane with Wonder Woman sock in the bottom left, but you can't see the cape on the back of it, alas.

 And the Olympics! BOY, did we have fun. I've never enjoyed the Winter Games more than this year. One of my coworkers made these bobsleds, above, and the skis, below, and we also had hockey games with pool noodles, ski jumps off the gym mats with pool noodle ski poles, a slalom course set up of hula hoops that the kids had to hop into from side to side on both feet, and on and on. They had a ball! We had so much gross motor time that we really saw a lot of confidence being built up, especially in kiddos we didn't expect to really get involved! It has been a very long winter of inside recess, so the chance to have something novel to try was a huge hit. 

Our kids even made "torches" from a toilet paper roll and red, orange, and yellow tissue paper, and then with that in one hand and a mini American flag in the other, got to parade through the lunchroom while the big kids chanted, "USA! USA! USA!" and the sound system played the Olympic theme. The 4s and 5s were thrilled. The 3s were dubious. All were adorable.  

The skis look a little worse for wear here, but the kids were absolutely delighted. I personally am sad that the Olympics are over and that we won't get to do it again for years! It was really neat to experience them for the first time throuigh these little kids who had no idea what the fuss was about and to then have them coming in each day asking, "what are the Olympics today?!"

Check in

 Sorry for the radio silence. The weather finally broke from the awful cold and tons of snow, so I've been sneaking in time outside in the fresh air as often as possible. We've gone on a few walks, I picked up some winter-downed sticks and even cleaned up some of every dog owner's nightmare when the snow finally melts.

I've also worn my compression sleeve faithfully daily for months to little avail. My right arm is swollen and feels almost solid and when you press on it, you leave imprints. The next post is all about the next steps there, so I won't belabor the subject. It's tight clear up into my neck and I'm not seeing much relief despite all the various exercises I've been given to do. It is what it is right now.

School is going well. These are the first Olympics our three-, four- and five year olds have experienced, so we've been having a ton of fun adapting the Games for these young kids: 

-We used wheeled, square scooters with nap time mats folded on top of them for bobsleds. One kid would sit in the middle while a partner kid would push them across the gym.  

-They stood each foot on a paper plate and skidded around the gym as speed skaters.

-We stood gymnastics mats on edge to make huge hockey goals, gave the kids pool noodles and a ball, and they played hockey. 

-They stuffed red, yellow, and orange tissue paper into toilet paper rolls as their Olympic torches, and with torch in one hand and a small American flag in the other, toured the school while the bigger students chanted, "USA! USA! USA!" to our preschoolers' great delight for Opening Ceremonies.

It's been a ball. What a great activity for the dead of winter. Thank you so much, Olympians, for all your hard work and sheer grit and, if I'm honest, the complete insanity of some of your sports!