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..

The transition from JK..

Junior Kindergarten at Kylee’s first school was all play, and this is how it should be. Unfortunately, we all have to grow, not just in height and weight, but also into responsibilities, and one of the responsibilities of school as we pass through the stages is to learn.

Senior Kindergarten has come as a bit of a shock. Apart from playing, there is now a definite element of learning involved, and not just in the English language. Of course, when shocked, we all tend to recoil somewhat, and Kylee has done this too.

While she was generally more than happy to go to school, the move to French Immersion has not quite gone the way that she had imagined. Her teacher is a little more ‘fierce’ than the predecessor, but I suspect that much of it has to do with a class population some three times larger.

As I pass the school buses in the school parking lot, the noise being generated from within gives me an inkling of what Kylee’s teacher is up against when trying to control a bunch of five year olds.

Needless to say, Kylee is making progress and pretty much always gets a ‘bravo’, the French for awesome, from her teacher.

I can’t say that I was in agreement with Kylee attending French Immersion because none of her family are even close to being able to converse in French beyond ‘hello, how are you’, and the best way to be conversant in French or any other language is to be able to converse on a regular basis.

However, I am really hoping that Kylee stays at the present school, not because I want her to suffer, and not because I want her to learn French. She has to learn, just as we all did, that we don’t always get what we want, and that success which comes despite the odds is a very valuable lesson indeed.

So, other than teething issues, Kylee is doing well.

Bravo..

1st term at French Immersion

Kylee is a Senior Kindergarten now, and has had a little bit of a shock.

Aside from the fact that she is having to learn the French alphabet, there is less time given to play and more to learning. Don’t get me wrong, Kylee loves to learn but at her speed, especially for stuff that she sees as boring. I have no doubt that I was the same way as I approached my 5th birthday.

The present school is larger than her first, and I believe the class size is thirty or more. Kylee tells me that Madame Teacher is more fierce than her former teacher, but with thirty or so little kids all vying for attention and wanting to do their own thing, it is not really surprising.

It is still early days yet, and Kylee will get used to it as time goes on. Occasionally, she is hoping that she does not feel well enough to go to school, but there has been only two instances, and there is little doubt that she was not her normal self.

So what French has Kylee learned? A direct question gets a ‘nothing’ answer, but she knows all of the words to ‘Frere Jacques’,  and is getting a grasp of French numbers, so there is actual progress.

In general..

Kylee is approaching her 5th birthday, and she has lots of things lined up to do which she considers are within the scope of a ‘five’.

She is changing too. She is much more self reliant than she used to be, and can do lots things that once required the help of an adult. I find this a little disconcerting at times, often left feeling that I have limited use.

I do have limited use, and it is an unwelcome reminder, I can tell you..

Almost 5..

But not quite yet. Another four months to go.

The year has been interesting and Kylee has continued to charm. She refers to herself as a ‘four’ and uses the term in the context of ‘Fours can do that’.

One of the things that ‘fours’ can do is pick up a book, open it and not use the story as written. She looks at the pictures and then uses her imagination to create a new story. The great thing about using her imagination in this way is that one book never becomes a bore because the story changes every time.

While we as adults may see this as a get-out from reading proper, it shows a great ability to adapt and overcome. Full marks for that.

What else do Fours get up to during the day? Apparently, accidents are all part of a Four’s day, aren’t they Papa.

Kylee is by no means the nimblest child on her feet, and it is normal practice to pick up a small injury during the course of the day. She is not the bravest child when it comes to climbing frames, and is often shown up by kids younger and smaller than herself, but that is no bad thing. The alarming part is that she can fall while jogging along. Excitement gets the better of her and she does not look in the direction that she should be looking.

Now for a major triumph.

On a recent weekend trip to the family cottage, Kylee was introduced to the art of fishing. Set up with a kiddie fishing rod, her Mom placed a worm on the hook and Kylee dangled the line over the edge of the boat jetty. Her Uncles, Mom and other Grandfather, all big into fishing, baited up and cast their own lines.

So who caught the big one? The biggest fish ever caught by any member of the family? Expressing concern that she had caught something and would need help, her Uncle Darryl took on the job. The fish was so big that it broke Kylee’s rod, but Darryl fought with what was left of it and finally a four foot fish was landed.

Kylee really did catch one <……… this big………..>. Never underestimate a ‘Four’.

School for the coming year will be ‘French Immersion’, and we are all hoping that she does well. She is a very smart kid when she applies herself, and being bi-lingual, even in an eminently English part of Canada will help her get work later in life, especially in government jobs.

The only downside is that nobody else in the family knows much more than ‘Merci Beaucoup’ and I doubt that they could even spell it. As with any language, if you don’t get to hear it much, it will be forgotten. It always helps if one or both parents are Francophone and neither are. Oh well..