Questions

I am thrilled with Ethan's pre-K teacher this year.  She has all sorts of great ideas that really make the kids (or Ethan, at least) enthusiastic about learning.  Each week is a different "unit", and everything in the curriculum for that week ties back to that common theme (this week's unit: community helpers [firemen, policemen, garbage collectors, etc.] - you can only imagine how exciting this was for a certain someone in our house).  I have always been a firm believer in integrated learning strategies, and am now witnessing how well they work, even for preschoolers!  Anyway, one of the rituals in Ethan's classroom is a daily question.  The kids' answers are posted right outside the room every afternoon, and I always chuckle reading them.  You can learn a lot about each child's personality, likes/dislikes, home life (!), etc. by their answers to these simple questions.  I always cringe a little when I start reading Ethan's answer, worried that it will be somehow embarrassing or silly, but (at least to date), I've always finished reading his answers with a smile or a laugh instead.

This is all a long and wordy intro to say that I am going to start asking the boys questions like these every once in awhile and reporting their answers here on the blog.  I doubt they'll be particularly funny or interesting, but they will capture who and where they are at that moment.  So tonight on the way home from school, I asked them what they like most about fall.  Ethan's response was "soccer" which is so confusing because he neither plays nor watches soccer.  Maybe he heard some of his friends at school talking about soccer, or maybe they play soccer at school, I don't know.  But when I challenged his knowledge of soccer, he changed his answer to "watching the leaves change color" and started into a lengthy and vivid description of which trees in our yard had changed colors and which hadn't, which then led into many, many questions about how and why leaves change color.  This is Ethan - full of stories and observations and inquisitions.  Next it was Adam's turn.  His answer?  "Football."  Again, such a strange answer because he neither plays it nor watches it (although, admittedly, our television is on for about 8 hours on Sunday afternoons....).  I am guessing he has heard his daddy and mommy talking about the excitement of the return of football season, and helped his dad search for the lucky football during Pats games.  This is Adam - he is perceptive, always listening, wanting to learn about (and like) what other people like.  He knows the favorite colors of every one of his friends and family, and proudly defends them if others claim them as their favorite.  Adam also had a second answer: "Halloween!".  I have to admit I preferred both boys' second answers to their first - I too am a sucker for the changing leaves and that very, very fun holiday at the end of this month.  There are so many things I like about fall: the fairs, the cooler air and bright blue skies, the pumpkins, the return of the crockpot and the oven, the permission to snuggle in and have a cozy Sunday indoors...

We had lots of fall fun (despite the very summer-like weather!) at the lake last weekend, including a cider pressing party on Saturday morning, time working (and playing) with family, and a fall foliage road race / chili cookoff on Sunday.

Ethan, in his fall crown, tossing apples into the press

Adam watching (and eating...and eating and eating and eating)

The press doing its magic

The final step: filtration (although the cider tasted mighty good dripping right out of the press)

Off to the compost - boy was Ben jealous

(Tiny bragging moment alert): Third place overall finisher!

It was hard to say goodbye to Keoka and our cousins - it will be at least seven (long and dark and cold) months before we see them again.