Friday night Hope at St Paraskevi

Great first night of Hope. Father Dimitri gave a lesson on the narthex. Children were very involved. They played dodge ball after and painted frames. Good night.

Archangel Michael Festival

The festival was insane last night. Yiannis papastefanou sang. It was great. Rides, face painting, vendors galore. Food was. A 2 hour wait.

First Day of Little Angels

Father Dimitri visited us today. He gave all of the children angel icons ικονες . The icon depicted the Archangel Gabriel telling the Virgin Mary she was going to have a child. He read a prayer on angels and taught the boys and girls how to do their crosses. Callie did an art project of an angel. It came out adorable. Great day. the last pic was of my Yiannis not cooperating. Κακό Yiannis!

St Paraskevi Festival

Festival was a blast. Weather held up too. Band was awesome and the rides were great. Food was pretty good and the loukoumades were delicious. There were tons of vendors with great jewelry, Greek delicacies, clothing, artwork and Greek clothing and CDs. There wad face painting too!

Saint Paraskevi Greek Orthodox Shrine Church Festivl

My church is having their festival this weekend. Thursday September 20-Sunday September 23.  Please come support!  We have tons of rides and games for the kids, great food and wonderful Greek music. Pastries made from the mothers of the church.  Delicious.   Sure to be a blast.
  Check out the website www.stparaskevi.org

1 Shrine Place
Greenlawn New York

Its on Pulaski Road across the street from Waldbaums.

Archangel Michael Festival

Please check out this utube ad for the Archangel Michael Festival. It is from Friday, September 28 through Sunday, September 30.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL1Dh3YL5lY&sns=em
> My sister is at the Kids sand art area!

Uncle Goose Blocks

I just purchased these blocks with Greek letters and pictures on them. They have the capital , lower case letters and pictures of the beginning letter sound on the sides of the cube. The block is a pretty good size and it uses the primary colors. It's a good investment. Ijust bought them on amazon.com for $32.95 plus free shipping. You can also check on www.unclegoose.com They have these blocks in several languages.

Ministry Sunday At St. Paraskevi G.O. Shrine Church

I think Ministry Sunday was a huge success.  I manned two booths with the help of Beth and Dena.  The Little Angels group and The Greek American Preschool group.  I had the opportunity to ask people to come to the fundraiser for the preschool which was great!  The church was packed and I was also able to sign up my boys for all of their ministries.  Ready.....Greek School, Greek Preschool, Sunday school, Little Angels, Hope, Joy Sports, Cub Scouts.  Saint Paraskevi Greek Orthodox Shrine Church in Greenlawn, NY really has wonderful youth programs for our children.  If you live locally you really should consider being a member of our church.  It really has loads of programs.  Check out our website stparaskevi.org.

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Ta Morakia

The Greek langauge lessons this week in Ta Morakia class was that  we sang Ax Kounelaki, Ta Psarakia, To Pazari and Xaropa.  The kids loved it! I used stuffed animals as props.
We started with "Xerome Poli" "nice to meet you" and saying each childs' name in Greek.  Then we did Agios O Theos three times.  I read a story named "Ta Psarakia".
Each child had a stuffed psari(fish)  while we sang "Ta Psarakia".  When we sang "To Pazari",  each child  was able to hold a Kokkoraki(rooster), Kotoula (chick) Skilaki(puppy) and a Gatoula(Kitten).  It is very important to let the child not only see but feel the objects that are being sung.
During "Ax Kounelaki",  each child held their own kouneli (bunny) while singing the song and doing their hand gestures.  I even had a picture in front. After that, we all stood up and did all of our hand gestures during Xaropa.  Hands, fingers, knees, feet and our"HAHA'S".    We used the parachute for ena-deka and used a color bag.  Blue had "ble" objects inside and the same for red had "kokkino", yellow had "kitrina" objuects too!.  We ended with a Zouzounia cd and a 15 minute free play in our tunnels and play area!  Fun!!  Great first day!

First Week of The Greek American Preschool at Saint Paraskevi

This week was absolutely wonderful.  We have a total of 31 students in our Greek language preschool. We actually recruited 4 families to our church because of this program.  Unfortunately on Long Island there are very few Greek Orthodox churched that offer Greek school for our preschoolers.  I want to thank Kyria Callie, Despinis Katerina and Despinis Sophia for all of their hard work.  You guys are awesome and I feel truly blessed to have you on my faculty.  educate, d certified Greek woman!  Plenty of pics to follow.

First Day of Ta Kouklakia Class

The first day of Ta Kouklakia class was wonderful.  We have 7 students total.  It is a 2/3 year old class with two certified teachers co teaching.  Kyria Callie and Despinis Katerina.  Today our children learned how to write their names in Greek. BRAVO KOUKLAKIA!  Our teachers also are preparing a wonderful bulletin board entitled Feggaraki Mou Lambro.

Mommy and Me The Greek American Preschool

Success. Great class. We sang Ax Kounelaki, koulourakia, To Pazari and used the parachute introducing numbers, also we had color bags with different colored objects that we referred to by color. After a ten minute free play using our tunnels and listening to Ta Zouzounia.

Yiannis first day of The Greek American Preschool at Saint Paraskevi

So excited. My third son starting his first day at my Greek School in fact I'm teaching the class. I was up all night preparing. 5 kids in the class. I'm nervous. Kostas says I'm a pro but I just want it to be perfect! Fingers crossed.

Festival at Holy Trinity was so much fun. We went again on Sunday. The souvlakia were amazing, wine and parea. My nieces and nephews were so sweet to my boys. They bought them so much stuff. I bought two komboskines for my boys to wear everyday. Since they play sports I don't want them wearing their baptismal crosses. I also bought Argyri a Greek soccer jersey considering his Gekas one is getting too small. I bought 3 CDs . I'll let you know how they go. Here are some pics of the cousins. My pethera is in one too. She was making loukoumades the whole weekend.

Correction, now there are 2 fish instead of three.  :(

Agia Triada Festival

The festival was a blast last night.  We met up with tons of family and friends.  Father George Stavropoulos was of course walking around and greeting everyone.  I love that man.  My pethera God bless her was making the Loukoumades all night!  The souvlakia were excellent and a bottle of wine was $15.  Pretty good.  My cousins were making the souvlakia and old friends of Kostas' from high school were selling the beverages.  The boys won stuffed animals and 3 fish.  Ye, s you read it correctly.  They won three fish at the ring toss.  Now,  not only do I have to care for the 4 men in my life , but  I have 3 fish to take care of as well.   Good luck and God bless Agia Triada!

Holy Trinity Festival

This weekend the whole family will be going to Agia Triada in Hicksville, NY festival.  They have the most popular Greek Festival on Long Island.  It is the community the my husband grew up in when he first came here from Greece.  My pethera runs the loukoumades stand.  YUM!  Pictures to follow!  It is on September 7,8 and 9th.

We are trying our Greek Night Fundraiser again this year.  It will be held on Saturday, October 13 from 7pm-11pm at The Artful Dodger in Huntington, NY.  There will be a Greek DJ, open bar and buffet.  It is $65 per person.  Fingers crossed.  We are trying to raise money for a small playground for our students.  Please help support us.

I am very excited that all of my teachers from last year are returning.  they truly did an excellent job last year and I think this one will be a better one.  We have 5 students in Ta Morakia class, 7 students in Ta Kouklakia class, 6 students in Ta Poulakia class, and 8 students in Ta Psarakia class.  Starting off the year with 26 students...........Awesome!

This year I will be teaching a course at The Greek American Preschool.  It is a mommy and me class birth until 2 years of age.  It is 45 minutes one day a week.  Children and mothers will be exposed to  the basics of introducing Greek Language to their children.  Nursery rhymes, colors,  shapes  numbers and body parts.  Celebrations and religious days will also be introduced. I am bursting with ideas!

I have taken on the advisor of Little Angels at my Church.  It is a mommy and me social group for children ages birth to 5 years old.  I thought it was appropriate considering I am running the Greek language preschool ages birth to 5 years of age.  I have a lot of wonderful things planned.  I am very excited for this school year!