Adventures with Westshore Montessori's "Weekend Bear"

My youngest, Caroline's preschool class has a unique tradition with a "Weekend Bear".  Each weekend, a different child takes the bear home and documents all of their family's adventures.  Then, the family compiles everything via narrative, photos, pictures, etc...and puts their pages into a binder full of stories.  

My initial thought was 'oh great, another 'homework assignment' for the parent.  Yet, as the weekend went on and Caroline's enthusiasm progressed, I began to appreciate this little project.  As it turns out, we had a ball taking photos and documenting our weekend, and reading about her classmates' adventures as well.

  

This past weekend was our turn...so here our story goes...

We were so happy to share our weekend with Weekend Bear!!  It was a particularly exciting weekend for him to visit, as our grandparents (Mema and Bepa) were visiting from Michigan as well! 

When we returned home Friday afternoon, we decided to make some brown paper bag animal puppets. Caroline made a “Weekend Bear” puppet while her brother, Charlie, made a bunny in his favorite color, green.  Can you see the resemblance between Caroline’s puppet and the REAL Weekend Bear?

 

 

Later, since it was a beautiful day outside, we washed our bikes and scooters with a bucket of water and some rags.  Who knew scrubbing could be so exciting for the little ones?  Weekend Bear did a great job of supervising this project.

Friday evening we went to dinner at the Rocky River Brew Pub.  Weekend Bear enjoyed their yummy mac & cheese.  When we returned home, we celebrated our Bepa’s birthday with his favorite blueberry and apple pie we made the day before.  Caroline lifted Weekend Bear onto her head to give him a good view of the festivities…

  

(on the way to dinner at RR Brew Pub)

On Saturday, we went to Caroline’s big brother, Jack’s soccer game at the Rocky River Rec.  As a coincidence, classmate Eli was also there cheering on his older brother.…Weekend Bear was surprised and excited to run into Eli!

 (Caroline watching her brother Jack, at his soccer game)

After the soccer game, we went to Mitchell’s for ice cream.  Caroline had cookies and cream, and shared hers with Weekend Bear.  Afterward, Mema gave everyone a lesson on how to draw dinosaurs.  Weekend Bear had fun watching everyone drawing…After ice cream, we all went to our swim lesson with “Miss Mary” at the Five Seasons.  Unfortunately, Weekend Bear did not bring his swim suit, so he had to watch pool-side.

One of our Mitchell's drawings...

Saturday afternoon, we played Uno with Mema.  Weekend Bear watched over the game to make sure everyone followed the rules.  We are so lucky because we have such a thoughtful, caring, and generous Mema.  She loves to read and play games with us, and often brings us exciting new books and games to play.

 We are also very lucky to have a loving, wise, and funny Bepa….Furthermore, he is almost always RIGHT (at least he loves to hear this)!  He also plays games with us and reads us great books.  This time, we picked a book for him, “How to Babysit Grandpa”.  He thought it was really funny and cute.  

Weekend Bear enjoyed listening to Bepa read us stories in the afternoon, while Daddy made a fire and Mommy prepared dinner.  We had a yummy dinner of spinach salad, potatoes, corn on the cob, and Daddy’s chicken on the grill.

On Sunday morning, we went to The Original Pancake House for breakfast.  We had their delicious pumpkin pancakes with whipped cream topping.  Weekend Bear said these pancakes were his favorite!  

After breakfast, we took the boys to their PSR ("Church School") at our local parish church, St. Chris.  We were thrilled to discover they were having an Art Fair with a display of the entire school's art projects.  It was SO impressive to see the amazing works of art these children completed....Weekend Bear had a ball appreciating this fine art!  Some of the works are photographed below...

St. Chris Art Fair...

Later, after PSR/church, we went to Caroline’s older brothers’ soccer practice at the Force.  Once again, we ran into another classmate, Jane!  Weekend Bear was so excited to get a picture with more friends from Caroline’s class at Westshore Montessori! 

We are so thankful for Weekend Bear’s visit.  We enjoyed documenting our adventures and hope he had as much fun as we did!

Love, The Patterson Family!