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..

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..

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..

One hundred days into Grade One..

.. and Kylee’s interim school report is glowing, all A’s and B’s. But wait, there is a problem!

Kylee is pleased to have A’s and B’s, but other kids in the class got C’s and D’s, and Kylee doesn’t have any of them. Zut alors!!

She is a competitive girl and does not like to lose out, even on low marks apparently. It was explained to her that C’s and D’s were not so good, and the tears that had started to appear dried up rapidly.

Destination Disney..

As I write this, Kylee is in Florida for her yearly visit to Disney, beaches and warm weather. The family first drive to Detroit and stay over in a hotel because the flight south leaves criminally early in the morning. For Kylee, this part of the journey is almost as exciting as Florida. If it were me at that age, I would be asking when we were going to be on a beach, not looking forward to a night in Detroit.

Swimmingly good..

On the ‘learning to swim’ front, Kylee is getting set to swim Lake Ontario, well not quite that yet, but certainly the ‘deep’ end of the pool at the ‘Boys and Girls Club here in London. The only problem is that the deep end is separated off from the shallow end by a solid divider, and it is considerably colder on the other side.

Even with tears in her eyes, and swimming against the current made by the circulatory pumps, she made it from one side to the other, a truly supreme effort.

Gymnastics..

Kylee likes it but she lacks a ‘quality’ that all gymnasts have.. fearlessness. Whether swinging from bars, hanging from rings or ‘flic-flac’ floor exercises, gymnasts put a lot of faith into the landing, and Kylee doesn’t have what it takes to do that. A ‘flaw’ perhaps as far as gymnastics goes, but her fear works for her in everyday life. Safe, soft landings is her bag, and quite honestly, I think that is a good thing.

She recognizes that she is not quite the gymnast that some in here peer group are, but she enjoys the exercise and that is what counts.. 

Well, that rounds up this entry..