Little Miss - update

Grade 1 has flown by. We are only left with a few more days!

Little Miss has done very well in Grade 1. Of course I was worried about her doing Grade 1 while still very young, but given how well she has done and how well she has adjusted, I think we did the right thing!

She loves school!
She loves her friends!
We actually want to move her to a nearby school, but she does not want to budge! (It would make it much easier on us in the traffic!) I hope we can persuade her next year!

She has made new friends! That's a big one for us! She had the one friend that she loves, but who was always putting her down, and who influenced her moods. She is playing with new friends that are good to her, and she enjoys their company. She is even playing with friends in our complex where we stay, and can't wait to get home at night!

She does her own thing when friends are around, and disappears at playgrounds and parties! We are finally at the stage that we can drop her off at a party! (Yay!!)

I am still reading articles about the strong-willed child in trying to understand our Little Miss a bit better! She has very strong ideas, and she will defend it for dear life! There are some things to disagree about, but some things we have to examine our own thoughts about it.

(Sometimes we have outdated parental mechanisms that kicks in when confronted with a very opinionated little girl!)

She has done well in most of her extra-curricular activities as well this year! We will be continuing with the ballet and gymnastics, as well as tennis next year!

The CMaths has been a challenge, and maybe we can let it go... It's a struggle to get her to do the extra maths homework each week...


We love the Girl that is emerging, and the Personality that she is.
I am so glad that she is in our lives!

It is especially great to get little love notes from her, writing that she loves her Mom and Dad!


It is passing too fast!!

It's a Monday face

Life is difficult!

- She has to wear her pajamas for first day of vacation school during the holidays! (We had to assure her countless times that everybody is going to wear their pajamas!)
- She can't wear her slippers on it's own, because it scratches her!
- It was difficult to find the right socks to wear with the slippers, because most of her socks scratches her!
- When asked to smile at the camera, she told us that she does not feel very well!
- We could not get all her stuff in one bag to take to school. She is adamant that this bag should not be a school bag.
- When asked about what character she wants to be on Wednesday, we had a whole flood gate of tears, because her princess dress is too tight around the arms. We should go to the shops to get her a new outfit before Wednesday! (Most unlikely that that is going to happen!)
- The swim cap does not fit (it does!), and she is taking her toddler swimming cap today. (Luckily sorted yesterday already)


Mondays are difficult for a little girl!
Mondays are difficult for Mom and Dad with a little girl that struggles with a Monday!

Would you tell the mom if their kid steals?

The hockey season has just started at school, and Little Miss had her first official hockey lesson yesterday. We had to go and buy the mouth guard as well, as they are not allowed to play if they don't have one.

When I went to fetch her yesterday, she told me that her mouth guard was missing when she had to get dressed for her hockey practice. She saw that a friend of hers was running around with one that looks exactly the same as hers. She told her different stories about where she got it from. Since she don't have hockey, it is strange that she had the same one yesterday.

I asked the friend about where she got it. She first told me it was from Pick 'n Pay. I then asked if I could phone her mother. She then said now she got it from her father. (They are divorced) I then said could I phone the father. She then changed the story that it comes from her aunt (or lady that is married to the father). I had to leave it at that...

I went and bought another mouth guard as it is already ruined. It is one of those mouth guards you have to heat up and fit exactly to the teeth.

My question is: Do I phone the mother to tell her about a potential issue? It seems the girl is already using the divorce to scapegoat between the two parents. I am sure she told the mother she got it from the father.
Or do I just leave it? (If I am the parent, I would like to know.)

Skating for the first time

We only discovered the skating rink at Cradlestone Mall this last weekend. We have never introduced Little Miss to skating before this. Although she has nagged us about it. (I don't know why! I used to love to go ice-skating with my eldest.)

The skating is done on a plastic layer which made it the best way to start learning how to skate. There are no wet clothes, and it feels a bit less slippery. (Unfortunately the Skating Rink was only functioning until the 19 July.)

Next time we will be going to the real ice-rink.
Little Miss loves it!

Skating on a plastic ice-rink

A video posted by Karen Du Toit (@karentoittoit) on Jul 18, 2015 at 6:02am PDT

Wordless Wednesday #266 - Letter to the Tooth Mouse

Lief vir jou
(Love you)

The Tooth Mouse came to fetch tooth number 8 while camping

She asked the teacher to pull tooth number 8. (We can't be trusted, it seems!)
She said the teacher just touched it, and it came loose.

So we went camping with the tooth, hoping that the Tooth Mouse would find it there.

Tooth number 8
Could not get the phone camera to focus on the teeth
Notice the cute bag the teacher uses for the teeth (the children choose the stickers)

The first night she put the teeth in a shoe next to her sleeping bag, and when she woke it, there was a R50 note with a letter from the Tooth Mouse. (It seems he was under the impression it is the last of the teeth she is going to loose, and gave a little bit more than the usual R10.)
There was also a R30 in one of the other tents of the friends we were camping with. He must have gotten lost at some point during the night while searching for her teeth...
Little Miss was very impressed, and was telling everybody at camp about her riches and the letter.
R80 ($6.756) is a bit steep, but it is all going into the "plane fund" (our upcoming overseas trip, as she calls it!).

A reminder to all parents: Google says they replace all of their 20 primary teeth with 28-32 permanent ones. This keeps going until they are about 13 years old.
How come I don't remember the bigger teeth coming out?

The next night she decided to sent a letter to the Tooth Mouse as well, and put some cheese on a plate with the letter (see first photo). It was of course all gone in the morning. She was a bit lot upset that he took the paper plate with him, and we had some convincing to do. (One of the many strange things she gets upset about...)

For now the Tooth Mouse is going strong in our house!

Related posts:

- Adventures with a Tooth Mouse

- Great excitement over a loose tooth!

Wordless Wednesday #264 - Dancing

Is the Easter Bunny and Father Christmas for real?

We had to dodge a number of questions this weekend:

 - Is Father Christmas for real when the parents buy the presents?
- The Easter Bunny got the chocolates from the shop? How is that possible?
- The Easter Bunny left the same chocolates that we have been eating this week?

 I don't know for how long we will still be able to dodge these...

At what age did your little ones figured it out?
It is kinda sad that we are nearing the end of the childhood fantasies!

Grade 1 - we did the right thing!

As parents we are always second-guessing ourselves, and hoping we make the right decisions for our children.

But we also know our children, and know them at their best!

I am so glad we decided to send Little Miss to Grade 1 this year. The school readiness results last year indicated that she was not emotionally ready, and we were sent for occupational therapy as well as visual therapy. We have completed a series of visits to the OT as well as visual therapy. Both therapists have given her the "go-ahead" for Grade 1. The last of the visual therapy was on Saturday and Little Miss drew a heart picture to give to Penny (see picture above). I am amazed at how well she can now control her eyes. She can bring pictures together by only moving her eyes around. (I don't think I can do it, and I am too afraid to even try...)

The first week of school has also been a bit hectic with Little Miss being very tired at the end of the day, and clingy to start with! She also got quite confused with the extra-murals, and we are still searching for lost clothes that gets lost on an almost daily basis.

But, by the third week she started very good with Little Miss saying goodbye at the gate. There are less "Not a lekker day"-remarks that we have to hear at the end of each day! We are still walking her to the class, but she is happy to go off and play. Especially if she has a coin or two to spend at the Tuck Shop... (Which we try not to give in to, but yesterday I was weak again when I had to drop her off!...parenting fail much!)

She has been loving her teacher and her class. We decided not to say anything to her teacher about the extra OT and visual therapy, and to see how it goes! There has not been any complaint or negative feedback from school. Her school work also looks very good when it gets sent home!

She loves learning to read, and she is trying to spell all words she comes across. Out of her own free will, and without any push from us! (She is actually irritating us with trying to spell everything, and of course asking us to help her with it! Sorry, Little Miss! I will try harder at the end of my working day when asked to spell something/e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g for you!!)

She is also doing very well with the maths, and that we can definitely link back to her doing CMaths since last year! It has given her the edge that I have been hoping for! She is not a CMaths whizz-kid, but she has a better grasp of maths than her peer group. That's all we want!

There is a large amount of homework. It keeps her busy for at least an hour to two hours each day which I think is a bit much! But the after-care helps in doing most of it with the children, and we only have to quickly retrace some of it in the evenings. Luckily it is Hubby and I who are there to follow though! We can focus on her alone, which makes it easier on all of us!

I was talking to another mom the other day about her daughter that she kept back for another year, and I realised that I could say that we also did the right thing! Just as her daughter is still not ready for the huge leap into Grade 1, our daughter are now enjoying her Grade 1 year to the max!!

"Phew!"

Fighting fire with fire?

Little Hoots "wisdom"

It happened last week.

We were driving home, and she was thirsty and could not wait another second.
She was dying, for sure!

We asked her to wait for five minutes until we got home...

There was a very loud melt-down in the back of the car...

Hubby turned up the volume of the music in the car...

After a while we heard the following from the back:
"My teacher says you don't have to jump in the fire when your friends are doing it!"

----

We got home, and she drank two sips from the glass of water. (Of course!)

Not a lekker day!

"Lekker" = not exact translation, but "Nice"


This is the standard reply that we have been getting for the past two weeks.

Little Miss has an issue each day. And as soon as there is an "issue", the day is spoilt!

Melancholic personality? Hope not!
(Even writing this makes me feel that putting it out there will label it for her and us.)
But how do you teach a little one not to see the dark in everything? That the glass is half full, and not empty?

Is it possible to teach them to see the bright side, when they are constantly in drama mode and having some sort of crisis which ruins the whole day?


Some of the issues this past week:

- Her best friend did not want to play with her!

- Her best friend was mean to her.

- She had a bee sting in her hand.

- She hurt her toe.

- Mom forgot to put in her homework book. (No, I did not! It was in her bag.)

- I did not put in her dress for after-care and she could not put on her school dress again. Her friends teased her, and ran away. She had to make do with her jersey and stretch pants. (Unfortunately I did! Feeling very bad!)

- The sun did not come out yesterday. It was raining!

- Her friend broke her toy.

- She was tired. (We really stick to the 8 op'clock rule to get her into bed, but she struggles to go to sleep, and can't get up in the mornings.)

- She lost some of her stationary at school.

- She lost her socks / water bottle / clothes at school...


And it does not help to tell her to see things differently... It's not so bad! Never!


I saw this on Kidspot this month, and will definitely try some of these to help brighten her spirits! It seems like good advice!
11 questions that teach kids to be happy

Will let you know...


Related post:

First week of school - still getting into it!

First week of school - still getting into it!

First day of school - homework

The first few days of school have passed already. It has been hectic with sorting the after-care, extra-murals, parent meetings and helping with the homework. (And we only have the one child! "Phew!*)

Little Miss has been very tired after each day.

Her first feedback on her first day was that she very surprised that she did not learn to read on the first day!

Little Hoots - First day in Grade 1

Dad had been struggling with her being very clingy in the mornings when he goes to drop her off.
She doesn't want to play with the other friends. Only off course the one friend who does not always reciprocate!
How do you tell/learn a six year old that you can have and play with more than one friend?

We hope it's only because of the new year with new things and that Little Miss will become more relaxed as she gets used to everything.

-------

I had to make an unexpected visit to the dentist yesterday. Little Miss had been complaining about a toothache, but we put it down to all the milk teeth being lost in recent months.

Dr Wayne

It was with a new dentist, but Dr Wayne turned out to be a gem as well. He can speak good Afrikaans! (It was awesome!)

Little Miss cooperated and her tooth was fixed! (The previous time it was a whole hoo-ha! and we had to give her a mild sedative and we had to prepare her before the time...)

I am very proud of her for staying in the chair and sticking it out!

----

How is the New Year school year treating you?

Grade 1 - Here we come!

Grade One learner

There is big excitement in our midst. Tomorrow is the Big Day! Tomorrow is the start of a new chapter in the life of Little Miss.

She is going to Grade 1.

We walked this morning past her new class. She could already check it out because the after-care at school had organised two days of holiday care at school this week. It was a good idea to get her familiar with the new after-care, before everything is a new blur tomorrow.

Hubby seems to be more apprehensive about this huge stepping stone. He loves her going into the new phase, but also mourns the end of her being a toddler and a preschooler. His little girl is not as little ...

I do not have the same apprehension, because I love each new phase of her. Maybe also because I went through these stages previously, I am not that upset any more...

But The Student told me I would pinch a tear tomorrow. She says: "You always do!" (I won't! I won't!)

As expected, Little Miss got the go-ahead from the occupational therapist as well as the vision therapist. Not that we would have kept her behind, but we feel more at ease that she will cope this year! I am glad that we took her for the sessions!

She is also going to school without any front teeth. She lost two more teeth and the count is now up to six! She is a true "haasbek", an Afrikaans word for all the front teeth missing!

She practised the whole day on Sunday to jump rope, and by yesterday she was jumping ten counts in a row. She could not understand her sore legs, and told me we had to go to the doctor... (Another accomplishment ticked off!)

The whole family is going with her tomorrow for the first day! We can't wait to see her in full school attire! (Expect a photo!)

 The bag, the clothes, the stationary... everything is ready!

You go, Little Miss! We are sharing your excitement!


Picture taken by Dad yesterday at the OT

Happy birthday to the Little Miss - finally a 6!

6 years old!

Finally! A full 6!

This has been a long wait, but it finally happened!

Little Miss has been celebrating since the end of November with a Spur party and she took party packs to school as well just before the end of the school term.

The teacher took these photos of her in class.

Look at the cute party hat that the teacher has made!

She also got her birthday present from us a little earlier. The trampoline has been a constant source of activity and joy!


I asked her last night about her future plans for Grade 1. She promptly answered with another question. Can she wear her hair loose in Grade 1? No!
Well , then she wants braids one day, two ponies the next day, and then again a French braid in her hair the next day...


Happy birthday to my not so little girl any more!

You are a constant source of joy in our midst!
We love you!