classes and camps

And now for something a little different.

After five months in which Sebastian, Liesl, and I have been inseparable at nearly every moment, we have enrolled Sebastian in a class. We started thinking about the transition to kindergarten in September, and what a dramatic change it was going to be for both Seb and Liesl, as well as about Sebastian's lack of same-age friends so far in Portland. And so I've been investigating options for week-long summer camps and other classes that will get him back with his peer group and into a teacher-led setting.

He started his first class this morning, a "Nuts about Nature" session run by Portland Parks and Recreation, at the Hoyt Arboretum. It is a two-hour class, all outdoors, with about eight children and two teachers. It'll run every Wednesday morning through the end of May, with the option to continue in June, or to do a full week-long summer camp.  The kids learn about bugs and plants and trees and birds, and tromp around the woods together.  Sebastian was initially nervous, of course, but agreed to go and handled drop-off with aplomb.  When I picked him up he was full of chatter about the teachers and the various things they'd done and seen - owls in trees, bird nests, a huge log, the lack of ladybugs, an insect in its own shell, some black poop by the side of the trail, etc.  And he admitted to being interested in returning next week. Phew!!  (The teachers said he was very talkative and outgoing - told them all about moving here from New York and hiking the Wildwood trail.)

I've also signed him up for a soccer class that will run once a week starting in late June, a week-long outdoor adventure camp in Forest Park in late July, and a week-long Sports Craze class in mid-June. I'll probably add one more week-long camp in August. I think it'll be good for him, and for Liesl to have some private time with mommy, and for me to have only one child. But I actually missed him this morning, and so did Liesl, and it got me a little sad to think about the fall and his departure back into a school setting and the world of his friends. It's been nice to nest together this winter and spring.