Another curtain call..

After 8 weeks of activities revolving around learning lines, new songs and dance moves, the  Original Kids Theatre Company of London Ontario put on the Fall 2013 show called ‘Squirm!’. It centred around the rhyme ‘Itsy Bitsy Spider’.

This is just up Kylee’s street as she loves to learn new lines, songs and dance routines. She is and always has been a ‘natural’ entertainer who puts on impromptu shows wherever she is.

An example fairly recently was in Cherryhill Mall. There was an old guy watching her, and one would have to say that he didn’t look too impressed. However, when his wife arrived back from her shopping excursion and was ready to leave, he told her that he couldn’t leave just yet as he was watching the show. So they both watched Kylee until she had finished her routines.

Kylee always inspires pride in us, and this was one of many times, so if I was asked who was star of the Squirms show, I would have to say that Kylee was.

Of course, OKTC is not about being a star. It is all about fun, and the players do other activities as well as learning about stage craft.

There are some ‘players’ who don’t always remember their lines, songs or the dance routines, and look out of place, but OKTC ensures that all players have an equal showing, and that nobody is singled out in any way. These shows are as much about bringing children out of their shells as much as anything, and we should be grateful that Kylee does it with such ease.

Was it a good show? As grandparents, we were ALL proud of our respective ‘stars’, as one would expect and hope.

For more on OKTC, click on the link..

http://www.oktc.ca

.. and have a great day..

Now we are ‘Six’..

Kylee had a special birthday party two days before her official date. It was held at home and was a properly organised ‘princess’ party headed by a professional Cinderella.

Cinders made her an ‘official’ princess as part of the closing ceremony, and Kylee’s face was priceless. To be honoured in such a way was more than she expected, especially as she thought that Cinderella would be way too busy attending balls to even show up for her birthday party.

The birthday cake was special too, having been made by Aunt Mel (it was good, Mel. I would have eaten more of it but had to leave some for everybody else) and in Kylee’s favourite colours, pink and white.

In attendance were classmates and friends she has had since being able to sit up without the assistance of a Jolly Jumper. It was three hours of less raucous fun that I expected. Surprisingly, there was not as much screaming as one might associate with 17 little girls and one boy chasing each other around the garden.

Being ‘six’ brings other joys of course. Grade One school involves more learning than play, and she has the task of learning 32 new words, ‘en Francais s’il vous plait, je crois’. I will do my best to help out even though my memory of French is limited to mainly grammar and having to cast my mind back a ‘long’ way into the past.

Other than that, Kylee is adapting to being older very well.

Today, she gets to see her new car booster seat. It is one of these.. see the photo?

OK, well its time to get ready to greet her from school. Until the next time..

Grade One..

Thirteen days from now, Kylee will be 6 years old, and is now in Grade One school.

She was worried about a couple of things prior to moving up and out of Senior Kindergarten

1. With having school Monday through Friday in Grade One instead of every other day as per JK and SK, what would she do in the event that she became tired?
2. Would it mean that she would be too old to love her favourite stuffed bear, Rainbows?

Needless to say, she is coping admirably with the ‘stresses’ of 5 day per week school, as she will cope admirably with the extra weight of ‘homework’ beginning tomorrow. Don’t worry.. she will not be expected to write 10,000 word dissertations just yet. It will be all simple stuff.

‘Bravo’ badges are becoming the norm too, and if you knew her as we do, you would understand why we are not surprised, pleased for her of course that she gets recognition for being one in a million, but not surprised that she does.

On a slightly sadder note, we as grandparents don’t get to see her anything like as much as we did. We are down to picking her up from school on occasion and the odd baby sitting stint into early evening.

Yes, she is missed.

This October sees her start back at ‘Kidlets’, a theatrical group for aspiring actors and actresses, where she can really play out her skill for comedic timing and ‘drama’. If she doesn’t end up doing something on stage in later life, I will be shocked and may ‘turn over’ a few times in silent protest.

On the computer front, she now knows how to reset a wireless connection on a PC having watched me do it just once. Scary stuff, eh..

It is her birthday very soon, and so I will break from this blog temporarily while I consider what to buy her for a birthday present.

SK comes to an end..

The report: All good, including being kind, taking leadership, participating in everything, trying really hard to be the best that she can.

Oh, she does part of it in French too..

I would like to say that I have been a large part of what she is and can do, but the truth is that she was born that way, and I have learned more watching her grow up than I have ever taught her.

So, the start of the next year is not far off, and it is Grade One all of the way. The culture shock is that Grade One is school every week day, not every other day. It will be interesting to see what she can lean in a full week because she has astounded at times with what she has picked up part-time.

I asked Kylee what she thought about going up to Grade One and her response was tearful. She was scared that as she got older, she wouldn’t love Rainbows, her favourite bear, or be able to do all of the things that she does now. Strange how kids think, eh. We told her that life is not quite like that, so now her only misgiving about Grade One is the possibility of getting a bossy teacher.

Kylee has also been learning to swim and is at Level One, having completed the test which included doing a width of the pool unassisted. If she would stop talking, she would be able to swim more, but she likes to discuss her progress with the coach, entering into fairly lengthy discussions re her weak and strong points. The strongest point is that as with everything that she does, maximum effort is always applied.

Go, Kylee go..

The Original Kids Theatre Company..

Some eight weeks ago, Kylee joined the OKTC.

Every Monday after school, she attended rehearsals and, as always, put her all into it.

The first that we knew was a sudden burst of singing to a CD she fed into her computer.

The show, a musical, was called Lemonade!, a theme repeated throughout, but was based around a number of popular short stories and rhymes, including the Three Little Pigs, Chicken Little, Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Bo Peep and many others.

Kylee’s part was Little Miss Muffet.

Did she do well? Kylee is a ‘natural’ performer who takes her audience seriously. She aims to get it right, and always does. She remembered her lines, remembered the songs, the steps and movements, her placing on stage, the whole nine yards.

Of a cast of twenty one, she was one of four who shone, and being biased I guess, she was the brightest of the four. Even other members of the audience thought it, so my bias is vindicated somewhat.

Will she be appearing in the OKTC again? This we don’t know. She had friends in the troupe who may be moving to a more ‘drama’ based company, but whatever, she will no doubt shine again, no matter what the ‘company’.

I have one photo, taken on a less than professional cellphone camera which shows Kylee (centre front) and her great friend Andie (left front).

A progress report..

OK.. Kylee

1. can handle a computer well and is exceptional on an iPad.
2. can remember important phone numbers and is able to call them.
3. can make a creditable peanut butter and jam sandwich and cut the crusts off.
4. can help and plays a large part in kitchen stuff generally (not the hot stuff).
5. can sing the first verse of ‘Oh Canada’ in FRENCH.
6. can reach the ‘floor 2’ elevator button.
7. can get on and off an escalator unaided (but watched carefully).

The list keeps growing and she is surpassing some of the stuff that she thought she might only be able to do when aged six.

Re. school, she is still not the biggest fan and is not averse to avoiding it if possible. If learning from play and general observation was enough, she would be star of the show. Unfortunately, structured learning is necessary. It will get better.. 

Re the home front, you couldn’t wish for a nicer kid. If you give her a set place to take off her shoes and hang her jacket up, she will do it. Kylee likes to know what is ahead such that she can plan ahead.

Re routine, if the process is in place, she will utilise it.

Kylee is progressing well, not top of the class yet, but could easily be if she applied herself. It will come..

Granting a wish..

There is nothing worse than always having to look through a window at folks having fun, knowing that you can’t join them.

So it was with the Build-a-bear store in London Ontario’s most prestigious mall. Kylee looked through the window on more than a few occasions, and sometimes wandered into the store to get a taste of what it was all about.

A few months prior, we were in a store and she had seen an alarm clock, the type with bells on, that had a kitten face on it. She told me that she would really like an alarm clock, so I told her that I would write to Santa and make sure that he didn’t forget to make her one.

Sure enough, Santa remembered, and late on Christmas Day, she unwrapped an ‘Hello Kitty’ alarm clock complete with two  shiny red bells.

But hey, this story is about a bear, not an alarm clock.

We had also been to the mall with the build-a-bear store, and she had watched a young girl get one. I asked her which bear she would like best, and she pulled the multi-coloured bear out. I made a promise that I would tell Santa about the bear too, but that I might be too late.

On December 31st, 2012, I drove her to the mall, walked her to the front of the store, and I told her that her wish was about to come true.

Build-a-bear is no ordinary teddy bear store.

First, she picked her favourite bear out of a bin, then she picked a voice for it.

Next, she took it to a bear maker, where she pressed a pedal to fill it with stuffing while the maker guided the stuffing into the bear’s extremities. He let her briefly hug the bear to ensure that it was nicely stuffed ,

Then he asked her to pick a small red heart out, and make a big wish. The heart was placed into the bear, and the bear was sealed up.

The next stage is fluffing up the fur of the bear, and Kylee had no problem with this task. She had watched it being done on more than one occasion.

No self-respecting bear owner would ever let a bear out without being dressed. A Ballerina outfit, ballet shoes, and two pink bows were selected, and she dressed up the bear.

Lastly, when a bear is born, there has to be a certificate. The Build-a-bear registrar helped her fill out the details. Kylee gave the name ‘Rainbows’ to the bear.

Kylee exited the store with a bear that she had longed for since she was a little beyond a year old. Getting the bear was an obvious thrill for her, but it was more than that. She finally got the whole experience from beginning to end, just like the kids she had watched many times before.

That is why I didn’t get the bear for her as a Christmas present. I wanted her to be there for the whole trip..