Ezra

It was picture day at Aveson today, which was exciting (for me) because it’s the first real individual school picture for Ezra. They asked for parents to stay to help organize the kids, so I did, and I got a couple of shots of the chaos of trying to get the kids ready for a group shot. First they did group still shots, then they videotaped the kids doing their “Fall Song,” and then they moved on to individual picture.

From total chaos …

to order in about 15 minutes. Aren’t they cute? Too bad Ezra’s kind of tucked behind the kid in front of him.

Here’s the video. I was shocked and delighted that Ezra was singing!

… of an Aveson kindergartner. Well, not a day, exactly, but I got a look at what their days look like with a two-hour volunteer shift in Ezra’s class today. His teacher was out for professional development, so they asked parents to come in to give the substitute a hand. I was thrilled to see what actually goes on there — it’s very weird going from a co-op preschool to elementary school where it’s not parent-participation driven. In the time I was there, they read a book and talked about the days of the week and months of the year, as well as what day it was. Then they did “centers” (Ezra’s favorite thing to do) where there are several tables set up with activities and the kids get to choose which activity they want to do. Today, there was a castle to play with, blocks, little dinosaurs to count, pattern blocks, a playhouse, a drawing table, a library area, and some wooden food to cut. Time at each center is about ten minutes and then they switch. This is the math and projects time and I left at 10:00 when they were headed to snack. Ezra tells me they have PE and then they go to the other teacher’s class for literacy centers.

I loved seeing what they do and how the class is set up. And I’m thrilled all over again that we ended up at Aveson.

Here’s a couple of shots while Ezra was at the drawing table.

The Kindergartners at Aveson have time each day for Writer’s Workshop and the kids love it. Even Ezra, who barely wrote his name until this summer, is very proud of his authorship. The school encourages writing without regard to spelling — and asks that parents don’t correct the kids’ spelling either. Correct spelling will come; the point now is to get them writing. And it works. Ezra used to be very self-conscious of his writing (both spelling and how his letters look) but that is no longer the case.

We had our first goal-setting conference with his teacher this week and we got to bring home his first book. Here it is. My favorite is “KONPOST” with the picture of our compost bin. The “TNT” is pretty good, too. He’s definitely in a Road Runner and Coyote phase, so there’s lots of dynamite exploding. The day he wrote “dynamite exploding” (however creatively) he was so excited. He rarely gives me any details of his school day (without a lot of prodding) but that day he couldn’t wait to tell me.

Ezra and Bruce (along with Bob, Vanessa and Thomas) took a backpacking trip over the weekend. It’s not Ezra’s first (we took one before Finn was born) but it’s the first he’ll remember. They drove to Palm Springs and took the tram up to Mount San Jacinto State Park and Wilderness. They hiked a little over two miles before they set up camp.

Ezra had been really sick the day before and was pretty tired on the hike, but Bruce says he was quite a trooper. They’d attempted to take a stroller (anticipating that it would be helpful to carry either extra stuff or Ezra if he got tired) but found out there are no wheels allowed in the wilderness and had to leave it at the tram station.

After a brief rest once reaching camp, Ezra was back to almost normal speed and was climbing rocks and playing with Thomas.

They had dinner and got ready to hit the hay.

All in all, I think it was a good introduction to backpacking. Ezra said it was “too much walking” but he also said he had a good time. I definitely breathed a sigh of relief when they arrived home safely.

Right here on the couch.

After having a bout of nausea in the middle of the night and waking up this morning with no energy and a slight fever, Ezra had his first sick day home from Kindergarten. Good thing, as the nausea returned at about 11:00. He has literally spent all but about 15 minutes of the day on the couch and took a good two-hour nap. Poor little guy; I hope he’s better tomorrow.

At least Batman’s here to help.

Sometimes these Moision boys can be so sweet. This week at school, Ezra made a painting that was all orange. When he was showing it to us this morning, he said he knew that orange was Finn’s favorite color and he wanted to give the painting to Finn. So, he cut off the part of the painting where he had written Ezra and wrote Finn instead. We hung it up on the wall by Finn’s bed. Finn was thrilled.

Week 3 at Aveson went swimmingly — Ezra showed no signs of stress (nightmares, accidents, sleepwalking, etc.) like he had in Week 2 and he reported that he had a super day at each pickup. He’s starting to talk about other kids he’s meeting and loves his teachers. There was a dining night out fundraiser on Wednesday night which was well attended, and it was fun to walk through the restaurant and hear a couple of kids say, “Hey, that’s Ezra!” He’s a little clueless, but was very happy to see everyone. And he ran right up to his teachers and told them all about the paper airplane he and Bruce had made earlier in the day.

After school today he asked if we could go get ice cream because it was so hot (95 degrees according to the thermometer in my car). I thought it was a great idea so we went to the Baskin Robbins in Hastings Ranch. The boys got clown cones and had a messy, grand time.

Ezra started Kindergarten in earnest yesterday at Aveson School of Leaders (a K-5 charter school in Altadena). All four of us went to school on his first day, as parents were invited to stay for a while to help the kids adjust. Ezra knows a few kids going there — three from Cottage and one from his summer school class at Hamilton. The boy from Hamilton is in Ezra’s class and they quickly got reacquainted. It’s hard to get information from him on how the day went, but he seemed to have a good time. At any rate, he was filthy and tired when I picked him up at 2:45, but he had eaten his whole lunch, which seem like the signs of a pretty good day. Here’s a slideshow of the pictures I took, including our celebratory after-school cupcake at Polkatots.

Last night I sat down for our regular book time with Ezra and Finn, but something extraordinary happened. After we’d finished Ezra’s first pick (the godawful Smash Crash book that they love) and Finn’s pick (Dr. Seuss’s ABC), Ezra picked a second book, Hop on Pop. And then the craziness began — he proceeded to read it by himself! He has surprised me in the past by reading a few words here and there, but this time he read a good three-quarters of the book before he asked me to finish it. I was nearly moved to tears and he was pretty excited (and, I think, surprised) himself!

Ezra got into Aveson! Kindergarten, here we come.

Ezra and Finn finished up their summer school sessions at Hamilton and Cottage today, which means a little over two weeks before we leave for Belize. Yay! Anyway, yesterday was an open house of sorts at Hamilton where Bruce and I got to see what Ezra and his class had been up to these last five weeks. It was fun to see his artwork on the walls and his drawings and writings in his various journals. His teacher told me that he’s writing more now, which is good because writing letters is not an easy task for him.

Here’s a shot of all the stuff we got to take home.

And this vase.

Ezra and Finn are very interested in the planets and we have glow-in-the-dark planets hanging from the ceiling in their room. After putting them to bed the other night, Ezra stopped me before I left the room and said, “Mommy, could you point to the planet where the rovers land?” “Sure,” I said, and I pointed to Mars. Ezra said, “You’re right!” It was then that I realized that he wasn’t asking me, he was testing me. At least I passed.

Ezra came running in from the backyard last week to show me the latest treasure he’d found. Usually, he digs up rocks, dirt clods, and other stuff that’s exciting to a five year old. But this time, he found something that even I could appreciate — a little toy army man that looks to be quite old. It’s metal and the arm (and gun) swivel, and Ezra rushed inside to wash it off. The next day I decided to take some pictures of it and when I was having trouble getting the right lighting, Ezra got a flashlight to help out.

It’s hard to tell how big he is from the photo but he’s probably an inch and a half or two inches tall max. I’d measure him so I could be more accurate, but I have no idea where Ezra put him.

Yesterday I took the boys to lunch at Islands, and Ezra jumped right and did one of the puzzles on the kids menu.

He quickly figured out which pictures were matching and put a red X over the ones that didn’t match and a green check mark over the ones that did. The last time we were there, probably a month or two ago, he wanted to do this puzzle, but was easily frustrated by trying to make the Xs and asked me to do it for him. I was so proud of him that this time he made the marks by himself, I was ready to burst! Woot!