Lost Oasis Cave Preserve

I accompanied Spencer's class on an amazing field trip yesterday to the Lost Oasis Cave Preserve. Check out these adorable preschool spelunkers all geared-up and ready to go:

That's half of Spencer's class above. We were in two groups since the cave couldn't accomodate all 8 Iguanodons at once. First, Ms. Kate from the Austin Nature and Science Center entered the cave, followed by Ms. Kelly. I stayed up top to help the kids get in, then I followed last. I wasn't so sure I was going to fit, but I squeezed through the opening...

I took a few pictures inside with my phone, but of course the quality is not great. You can at least get an idea of what we experienced.

I just love how Spencer and Rex are holding onto each other in the photo above. Such sweeties! We saw lots of cave crickets and even a frog. We had to crawl around a lot because the cave is pretty shallow. Definitely not for the claustrophobic folks out there!

When we were finished, we went on a nice hike with our director, Ms. Bonnie, while the other half of the class explored the cave. I can't believe our time at NWPS will end next week. I can hardly bear to think about it!

February Catch-Up: Celebrating Urban Birds

Last month the Austin Nature and Science Center had a special event focused on urban birds. There were all kinds of activities like making bird feeders...

 Exploring how different beaks are designed to pick up different things...

 Drawing a bird... in this case, an Angry Bird!

There was also a neat scavenger hunt and we went to a talk about some other birds, where we saw a tiny little blind screech owl, a Bobwhite Quail and a fancy pigeon (my term). But the highlight was seeing a Eurasian Eagle-Owl. It's the largest owl species in the world. Just to give it some context, the handler said a Great Horned Owl usually weighs 3-4 pounds, and this guy was 9-10 pounds. And boy, did the have a sharp beak and claws! I actually got to pet him because he was raised by this woman pretty much from birth. Later in another activity, the instructor told us that petting an owl is a VERY rare experience!

Graduating from the Hummingbirds

This post is way overdue, but I wanted to share a little about the end of year activities at Nature's Way. It's hard to put into words how much we love the school and Spencer's teacher, Mr. Britt. Not a day went by that we didn't feel blessed to have found this special place. Dave and I were feeling super sentimental when we dropped off Spencer on the final day (I know you're surprised!)

My big boy outside the gate.

Just a glimpse of the tree corner.

Mr. Britt and Spencer.

5 of the 8 Hummingbirds - looking quite surly I might add!

When we came back to pick him up that afternoon, we were blown away by the "What We Love about Each Other" project. The kids took turns saying nice things about their classmates.

What do Spencer's classmates love about him? Playing Rocketship/Baby Jesus; He is helpful; Always takes care of us; Great leader. That'll bring tears to a mama's eyes, no doubt.

Mr. Britt drew a really cool tiger picture for Spencer and put a picture of him inside a frame that Spencer made earlier in the week. Special mementos.

Nature boy.

Later that week, the whole school went on an end-of-year field trip to Crowe's Nest Farm in Manor, TX. We were worried the trip would be canceled—when we woke up it was storming like you wouldn't believe. We headed out there anyway, and before we got started, the skies cleared up and it was actually kind of cold. It was a glorious day!

On the hayride with his buddy Koen. Dreamy little boys.

Daddy helped Koen and Charlie take some pictures. Not sure what this pose is all about!

I didn't take a lot of pictures—tried to enjoy the day and be in the moment. We saw lots of farm animals, plus a baby ostrich and a village of prairie dogs. We went on a hayride. We saw a cow milking demonstration, too. Then we had a picnic under some big trees and soaked up the last minutes of our Hummingbird year.

A few weeks ago, we wrote a letter of recommendation for Mr. Britt to help him get into a special program. We interviewed Spencer, too, and I think his answers are sweet and show why Mr. Britt is such a special teacher.

Q: Why did you like having Mr. Britt as a teacher?
A: Because he’s so smart.

Q: What did you learn from him?
A: Being in nature and I love him teaching us. To respect animals.

Q: What is your favorite thing about being a Hummingbird?
A: It was just a really fun class.

Q: Why was Mr. Britt such a good teacher?
A: Because he was so happy to see us when we got to the nature school.

Q: How do you feel around him?
A: Happy (and he drew a smiley face next to his answer).

Q: What are some of the special things you did?
A: Experiments.

Q: What will you miss when Mr. Britt isn’t your teacher anymore?
A: I’ll miss having fun with him and making traps for him. But we can still make traps for him! (The students liked to build traps to catch Britt on the playground. He, of course, went along with this, and Spencer plans to continue trapping Britt next year at school even though he won’t be in Britt’s class.)

Q: What are three words to describe Mr. Britt?
A: Nice. Fun. Really fun to play with… but I just don’t want him to ever not be my teacher!

Well, Mr. Britt won't be Spencer's teacher next year—he'll be one of Miss Kelly's Iguanodons—but Spencer will still get to see him a lot on the playground and probably set a few traps for him!
 

Nature's Way

Spencer started a new preschool in late September—Nature's Way, which is part of the Austin Nature and Science Center in Zilker Park. It's the only preschool that we got on the list for when he was a baby. Our good friends Jessie and Cooper went there and we heard how magical it was from their mom. We're pretty sure she had something to do with Spencer making the cut, along with Dave and Spencer's frequent trips to the ANSC where they talked to the director and various teachers. However it happened, we are feeling beyond blessed around here.

As you might guess from the school's name, it is very focused on the outdoors—they spend most of their time outside, rain or shine. There's have a huge playground covered by a canopy of oak trees, with a giant sand area complete with water hoses, shovels and PVC pipe, as well as access to paints, musical toys, puppets, etc. They take a hike every day. They eat lunch outdoors. Sometimes animals from the ANSC will visit their class. He comes home dirty and sweaty and happy as a clam!

Spencer is in the Hummingbirds class with seven other 3-yr-olds and a class frog. He has a male teacher and a male teaching assistant, and he adores them both (and they are beyond awesome with the kids). Here's a quick example of how great his teacher is. The third day of class, Spencer brought a huge yellow moth that we had found in a parking lot over the weekend. When we returned on Wednesday, his teacher had it on display with a note saying it was donated by Spencer, along with all sorts of information he had found about the moth. Made the boy feel special.

He is going to thrive here—it was obvious from the first day when Dave could barely tear him away to go home and then he talked non-stop during dinner about his day. This is a picture I took from my office while Spencer was telling Dave about something he learned on his hike the first day:

The program is just two mornings a week, so he still goes to his Montessori school two mornings as well. The only downside? His old school is now "boring" (direct quote). But we told him that maybe he can bring new ideas to the old school and make it more exciting for everyone. He likes that idea.