Letter from the princlipal!

Dear Mr & Mrs Cummins,                                                                       Nov, 2010

      This letter is to inform you that due to too many holiday decoration, celebrations to prepare for, fun Christmas projects to do, baking, wrapping, and the need for the Christmas tree to go where the school table and shelves are....school vacation will be held from Thanksgiving thru January 3rd!

       Instead of our usual curriculum we will be following 2010-activity-advent-calendar instead. With some adaptions for age. We will still continue to learn everyday with baking (math), books, discussions and such writing activities as writing a letter to Santa and Thank You cards.  We will also be taking lots of field trips to see such fun things as, The Enchanted Village, a seal watch boat trip with the Spineless Wonders class,  Santa at Norton Common, Christmas Lights, etc...

 Mason will continue with his piano lessons and recital and Story of the World Co-Op.

 Hope you have a wonderful vacation.

        Sincerely Yours,

       Kerryanne Cummins

     (Principal of the Cummins School)

Where did the time go?

Happy Thanksgiving to all my blogger friends!

I have missed you and have a TON of blogs I WANT to post, but just can not seem to find any time!  I have had many conversations this holiday with family and Friends about "Where did the time do"?  It seemed to me that August-now FLEW by in the blink of an eye! I barley remember the past 4 months! I try to do those life focusing things like "live in the moment", 'stop and reflect", "Stop and listen" etc....but time still flickers by! I don't want my life and my children's childhood to be a blur....anyone out there have any secrets to slowing down time? 

My friend Jannelle has one of those "fancy phones" and one of her apps is a "mind full app", so every hour a very beautiful soft gong sound comes from her phone to remind her to be mindful of what she is doing right then.....instead of thinking about impending housework, schedules, classes, appointments, dinner, etc.....as us moms tend to get bogged down with.  Unfortunately I do not have a "fancy phone" so I don't have any mindful app to keep me grounded (tho I wish I did) 

So now it is the holiday season (already!) and I find myself constantly thinking about what I need to get/make for who, what parties are coming up, what we are doing on Christmas as far as who to see when.  These things NEED to be planned and done,  but it adds more to consume my brain!  

Here is my question to you my blogger friends...

"What do you do to cope with all the "stuff" that keeps us bogged down and busy, not just during the holiday season but, for everyday life too.  How to YOU slow down time?"

-Kerry

Earth Friendly Mama's Barefoot Book Store!

As soon as I saw these books I knew they would be perfect for my family!

Some of the collections they have are:

Fun first steps

Natural Child

Travel the world

Tell me a story

and gifts!

So I signed right up to become an Ambassador to help share this unique collection of carefully crafted books and gifts to help children on their journey to becoming happy, engaged members of the global community!

They are Whimsical, Inspiring, Wholesome , Educational and Fun!

The company started with two stay at home moms right here in MA!

I am all about supporting small businesses (having one myself). These women are amazing! They give back to the global community and they are promoting a product that fosters a love of learning in children. I could go on and on about this great company, instead come check it out.

Earth Friendly Mama-Barefoot Store

School for November, 2010

I am tring to keep a journal of what we do for school each month or week if I can, so I will have a written/picture reference for writing out my end of the year review, and for when James is older. So here is a run thru for November;

Halloween Candy Sort!

If you cant beat em, join em! Yes he counted out and sorted ALL his candy!

When I rolled up the rug to move it out of the way, They decided it would make a great balance beam, They also learned that if one stands on the other end, it knocks of the person balancing!

Fun with friends and play dough

A and J working with the bead stair...accually J was just watching!

Save By The Bay class...Salt Water Marsh lesson

In the mud with his teacher

The boys were playing a pumpkin matching game Mason cut out of his High Five magazine

Magnetic Mosaic, color/number matching and fine motor skills

H and J having fun play time

These next pitcures are of our school shelves:

Physical Science:

Invertabrate cards

Ridgitity Tray

Magnitism

A and M sort items that are magnetic or non-magnetic

Head phones and electric toothbrush use a magnet to run the motors.

Metal paper clips are magnetic and fun to play with too!

strapping a magnet to a toy car, they used the negative force of the magnet to push the cars along.

The little ones sort magnets with Janelle after the big kids are done with them.

Making a compass!

Mason rubs a needle on a magnet

On the tray;

 compass,magnet,direction cards, cork, needle, tape, and bowl of water

After taping the magnetized needle to the cork, mason watches as if floats around to find north!

Next we did Reflect and Refract Light

Making a rainbow refracts light thru a prism.

Refracted light

Reflected Light

History

Writing

Cursive Practice

Geography

Mason was making a treasure map for me to find the treasure in the box he hide in the yard. 

Practical Life Skills:

I moved their play sink (that I got from a friend's mom that worked at a Montessori school!) down stairs, I put small sponges, pump soap, towel and aprons for them to wash their own dishes.

I put their dishes, cups, utensils, wash cloths and dust pan inside.

We use NO plastic.

Mason mopping with his kid size mop--he actually loves to mop the floor!

Toddler Color Sort Game

I found this game at a church fair for $1.00

Roll the dice to find color and number of wooden beads to place on your card.

Russian Doll we got in the continent swap!