"Class"y Babies!

It's a new season full on new beginnings for the tots at NY City Explorers' full-time enrichment program, Explorer's Club. In addition to the new Savvy Scientists, Mathletes and World Culture Club classes being taught by resident teacher Amy on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, Brooklyn's Cutest began two new outward bound classes this week. Tuesday afternoon saw the group walking down Schermerhorn to Brooklyn Ballet, and yesterday morning the kids headed to the studio of local artist, Nephrii Amenii. In addition to being an author and local artist who works with clay, mask-making and puppetry, Amenii teaches in New York City public schools and in the Alvin Ailey American Dance Foundation's Arts in Education department. Amenii's teaching and art draws inspiration from ancient African philosophy and spirituality. On the Explorers' first visit to her studio, the group enjoyed hearing a reading of a book authored by the artist, Memories of a Little Elephant followed by an elephant-inspired movement exercise session and a craft where glitter, paper, plastic and imagination were used to build an elephant's memory!
Most of the little ones were ready for a visit from Mr. Sandman after such an active morning,which also included Hip to the Hop class with Vino, but Laudan spent only a few minutes tossing and turning before deciding that nap time was just not in the cards for her that afternoon. What was in the cards? Lunch with Gayla, which the 3-year-old cutie spent sitting at a table asking about the ingredients of Gayla's veggi-ful soup! Laudan was particularly curious about the seasonings Gayla added to her soup. Not a big surprise considering the amount of time she spends in the kitchen cooking with Grandpa, whose Persian-inspired menu often includes more vegetables in one dish than most of us eat in a week!