Praznik!

Praz-what? Praznik (празник) is the Russian word for "celebration" and that's just what they had a Eliana's preschool on Friday. It was an hour-long program pretty much just put on by Eliana's class of four and five-year-olds. They sang songs, quoted poetry (Eliana said a poem in Russian by herself in front of the whole group!) played games (even with the adults) and even had a little English skit. We were quite impressed with the kids and how well they did and even more impressed with Eliana and how she handled everything. The girl loves to perform and she did great. She seemed to follow along pretty well with the songs and when asked to do a game in front of everyone knew exactly what to do. She also worked hard on her poem and did a great job saying it for everyone.

The funny part is that since Drew and I don't know any Russian we were pretty clueless the whole time. Ha! Oh well, we are excited for Eliana and thankful she is enjoying school and learning. I took a few pictures and Drew took video that he edited into a version that highlights both Eliana's and my (yes, I got roped into playing the parent game!) participation. Enjoy and know that you will understand as much as we did! :-)

All dressed up and ready to go!

The room where they did the performance

That little sign on the left is the name of their preschool- "Guli Bahor", which means spring flower.

Yep, everyone here sit and looks at their phones too!

Group stuff

The guys setting up the parent participation game- "Blindfold someone and have them walk and cut off a piece of fruit hanging from a string!" Lovely!

The first "volunteer"

Eliana's classroom