Landmarks for the period ending April 2015..

Swimming..

Kylee recently passed ‘Boy’s and Girl’s Club’ level 5 swimming and is now at level 6 not surprisingly. She puts in huge effort to improve, especially when considering she does it straight after school.

Wiggly teeth..

You know the type. They make it difficult to eat, but the baby teeth have to go eventually. Kylee is now officially missing a front tooth, but looks none the worse for it. She downed a Tim Horton’s chocolate muffin and apple fritter Timbit without hesitation and no complaints earlier today.

Brownies..

Guess who got a badge for music? Was it her playing of a recorder at one of the Brownie meetings? I have absolutely no idea to be honest with you. LOL. Anyone would think that Brownies has become a secret society, but then again, Kylee is not one for blowing here own recorder..

In general..

Kylee is growing up fast and becoming way more sophisticated in every way, and even her palette is expanding. It’s all good..

Brownies..

Not the cake things.. BROWNIES as in junior Girl Guides.

Kylee had her induction today, promising to be good to all (including grumpy old Papas) and other stuff which Brownies have to promise.

We then had a show of what Brownies do at the beginning of every Brownie meeting, and I now know why the meeting extends to an hour and a half.

After the show, all new Brownies were presented with badges which need to be sewed onto the Brownie sash, and the proceedings finished up with everybody eating chocolate cake.

A successful evening all around, and as with all group activities which don’t include homework, Kylee had loads of fun..

A hiccup..

It;s called ‘Pneumonia’ and is very debilitating, especially for a young child. Kylee had three weeks of it, time away from school, and it has left her a little behind in what her class has been doing.

She will catch up of course, being a smart child with an unwillingness to come in second to anybody, but it is going to require some hard work on her part and an insistence on ours that it is done.

She calls her illness ‘ammonia’, and yes, pneumonia is every bit as distasteful as ammonia.

Sometimes, her expectations bring her down. An example: She recently started skating with a view to being a figure skater, and her expectation was that she would soon be on TV performing a ‘double Salko’ and a ‘triple Lutz’.

It’s a difficult situation because, on the one hand it is good to encourage her to do things, but on the other hand it is easy to put a child off doing something because it is going to take years of practice. For somebody who likes instant success, it is even more difficult. So I will say this.. 

Kylee, you can do it, but it may not be tomorrow..

It’s back to school..

.. Grade 2 no less. Kylee was a bit upset about going back, I understand, maybe misgivings about not liking the new class teacher, but after the first day, it was all smiles and I don’t doubt that she is well on her way to becoming teacher’s pet.

Apparently, there was no learning of anything, just talking about different things. I would imagine that the new teacher is quickly trying to remember names and make an initial assessment of each child.

Kylee thinks that the new teacher is ‘awesome’, btw.

Grade 1 is over..

.. and guess who received a glowing report? All a’s and b’s again. Kylee also received a certificate, and incidentally the only one given in her class, commemorating her ability to speak French in class almost all of the time.

Each child also received an album containing photos throughout the year showing a variety of class activities, and Kylee’s teacher, Mme. Nolan wrote that she would miss her ‘little ray of sunshine’, something that she has been to her Granny and myself since she was born. The funny part was that she had no idea what a little ray of sunshine was, but assumed that it was a positive thing.

I note that she also did well in the ‘skipping endurance’ part of physical activities. They say that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but this old dog managed to teach Kylee the trick of how to skip with a rope enough that she could manage over 50 continuous skips when she put her mind to it.

Yes, I am still as biased as ever but what grand-parent wouldn’t be.

Grade 2 will start September of this year, and if Kylee continues to improve at the rate she did through Grade 1, her next report might be all a’s, a far cry from my school reports, I can tell you..

The skipping rope..

It is a relatively cheap red plastic rope with black handles at each end and, two weeks ago, the best that Kylee could do was two skips. It’s summer, there is a an up and coming skip rope competition at her school and Kylee wanted to skip.

So, after breakfast (I have been on early morning duties recently), I was asked if she could skip outside. It was painful to watch, I have to tell you, as time after time she managed two skips and then bust.

I may not seem like the best skip rope tutor these days, but skipping is like riding a bicycle. Once you know how to do it, you can always do it, or at the very least remember how to do it.

The first job was to get the right length, and you do that by stepping on the rope and adjusting the length such that it reaches your armpits. In theory this is good but not when the skippers arms are not holding station. Anyway, after a few minutes, we had the rope at the right length.

By the end of the first morning, we had six consecutive jumps. Two weeks later, and after practising every weekday before school, Kylee managed forty eight consecutive skips, followed five minutes later by forty four. Not bad when you consider that her personal target was thirty. In total, she probably managed two hundred jumps in total, and although it wore her out, she made her way to school feeling very pleased with herself and a determination to enter the skip rope competition at school.

Do I think that she will do well? Yes, I do because when Kylee puts in the effort, she can do anything, and Kylee is not the type of personality who likes being at the back.

A tip I gave her is to hold both handles in one hand and rotate the rope at a constant speed, adding jumps every time that the rope hits the ground. This technique helps a great deal with timing, and Kylee adopts it when she is struggling to make more than three skips.

She thinks that I should take on a second job as skip rope tutor to the world..

A new pin..

.. a second pin has been set up because the old pin is full. Full of what? Diamonds of course, and after the seventh diamond is attached to the pin, you get to take it home and a new pin is started. Now do you see what I mean?

You get a diamond for being good, actually exceptionally good, a role model no less. After Kylee got her first ‘Bravo’, she had already won double the awards I ever got at school and she is not even out of Grade One yet.

Getting to take your pin home is no easy achievement but I would imagine that Kylee makes it look easy.

Another success..

Guess who doesn’t need trainer wheels on her bicycle anymore? It doesn’t take much guesswork, and if you answered ‘Kylee’, you would be right of course, but there are no prizes for a right answer.

Kylee’s achievements to date show how far a person can go with kindness and a determination to succeed, and it will be interesting to see the grand total for the entire year. There are only five and a half months to go to her next birthday celebration and a lot can happen in that time, and I expect that it will..