Only four (not 24)

We started acrobatics in Term 3. We wanted to avoid dance, expensive costumes, makeup and concerts. As it turns out, acro is just the same as dance. K has a costume more expensve than any of Mum's clothes and now owns more makeup than Mum as well. She did enjoy her concert and worked hard to remember her routine along with the other acrobats.

There are three dance schools that I know of in our town. I still maintain however that if anyone started a 'Just for fun' dance school where makeup was not required and costumes consisted of "bring a fairy costume or pretty dress from home", this school would be inundated with families who want their kids to be active and have fun without all the hoopla. I feel sorry for parents of the 2-4 year olds at the concert who had to spend so much money on two very beautiful dresses (not to mention the makeup, stockings, wigs etc) for their daughters to shuffle around on the stage for a few minutes.

I love that acrobatics is building strength and teaching K skills including how to socialise with the others and listen / follow instructions. I'm still not keen on the idea however that to get a medal and the applause of the crowd you have to be dressed up and have a face full of 'stage makeup'. I wasn't even keen on the role modeling taking place with the teachers from K's class (older girls) performing their Jazz and Tap routines with plenty of revealing costumes, bum and boob wiggling (I'm sure there are technical names for these moves in the dance world). If I had even half an idea in regards to how to dance, I would start 'Just for Fun Dance' myself.

Death by Chocolate

K has always wanted a 'chocolate fountain' after experiencing one 18 months ago at her sister's engagement party. She received a small one as a gift and we agreed to give it a go.

Oil needs to be added to the melted chocolate to make it runny and flow. Very yummy and very, very unhealthy.

We dipped strawberries and marshmallows. K voluntarily stopped after a few minutes commenting she had had enough of chocolate for 10 weeks! I think we might get the fountain out one more time at Christmas, and then put it away until next year. Maybe we will make it a Christmas only tradition.

Just to make the point K doesn't always eat like crap! She recently made a picnic for herself and friends with watermelon, grapes, peach, cheese and a bread roll - all her staple foods.

Cold Water

Our pool doesn't get used too often. Being enclosed, the water stays very cool (not heated by the sun) and our local weather is usually mild, rather than the heat we are used to from the Wheatbelt. K was recently given some diving mermaids and has been super keen to get them in the water. She is normally pretty good with the cold water for about half an hour, until the teeth chattering becomes too much.

Natti is a real water dog and jumps in at the beach or our little swamp whenever she has the chance. She likes to crouch down and put her front paws and face in the pool, shaking her head, splashing her paws and drinking the water. We don't encourage her to jump in the pool as we don't want her to jump on top of our yet to swim competently Miss Nearly 5.

Nana loves the water and K recently took great joy in rescuing Nana from 'drowning'.

Nana and K take turns of being the rescuer and rescuee.

K attends a half an hour swimming lesson every Saturday during the school terms. Her swimming hasn't progressed much in the last 12 months though so I think Mum and Dad need to make more of an effort to get K in the water more regularly.

New Things

We recently visited a little local school fete. I love little outings like this as a cheap way to find something new for K to try. Today it was a climbing wall. Having never attempted to do this before, we gave K a choice to participate or not. I am happy that she was keen.

The harness is fitted first.

Dad lends support whilst Mum stands back out of the way.

Dad talks to K and encourages her to use her own strength to climb.

This is a difficult challenge. The spaces for hands and feet are quite far apart and K ends up using the actual grooves in the 'rock' itself  to grab and rest upon.

K gets about half way before needing to come down. She has done a good job for a not quite 5 year old. I'm sure the next time she sees a climbing wall she will challenge herself further and try again.

K also decorated a cupcake. She ended up choosing some nice Christmas colours for the icing and lollies from the large array of choices on offer.

We didn't stay too long at the fete. The day was warm and the amount of lollies, donuts, cakes and other such stalls and options available was a bit overwhelming. It would have been nice for some of the stalls to have offered fruit kebabs, cups of watermelon, popcorn, plant your own plant or something a little bit less related to sugar. K ate half of her one cupcake and we headed home.

Shops

K loves to play shops. One morning, after playing in her room quietly (unusual for K), I was invited to knock on the door. I was handed a basket and invited to conduct my shopping.

There was a mostly green fruit section.

A bread aisle.

 A citrus space.

A sunny orange/yellow section.

And a miscellaneous shelf.

The bed doubled as a toy and cutlery aisle.

 

I think shops is an excellent opportunity for the development of a whole range of skills. We have made play money (1, 2, 3 and 4 dollar notes) where K can practise simple addition and subtraction.

 

Father Christmas is bringing K a wooden shop, new cash register and some Australian play money to add to her role playing. I'm hoping there will be lots more shop play in the future.

 

F is for...

Frogs. K loves to catch frogs. All the time! At first it was quite tricky, but she well and truly has the hang of it now.

She puts them in her little bug catcher.

With a bit of greenery. 

She loves to hold and feel them.

Mum thinks its a bit gross. I will catch them, but I don't like the feel of them wiggling in my hand!

I'm not interested at all in the big ones. I leave that up to K and Dad.

I'm glad K is turning out to be a bit braver than Mum :-) It's a bit of an effort to convince K to release the frogs back to the grass. She likes to keep hold of them for as long as possible. It's a fine line between examining nature and suffocating it with interest and love.

Advent Calendar

This is K's first year of having an advent calendar. She has been working on decorating 25 envelopes for a few weekends. Last night we hung the envelopes in the loungeroom.

I found some Christmas cards from last year that we cut up and glued on to the envelopes.

Glitter glue was used for some.

And paints of course.

K practised her numbers by writing 1-25 on the envelopes.

 

Mum will place a very small gift or activity card in each envelope and K will get to open the corresponding envelope (December date) each morning. Maybe this will become a new tradition for our family. We don't have too many special event traditions so it would be nice to start one.

 



(Photo taken by K)

Show Time II

K enjoyed the little country show with Nana a few weeks back and now she had the opportunity to visit the show in her own town, building on the experiences she gained with Nana. We decided to go on Friday evening for a few hours so that we could see the fireworks which were to start at 8.30pm.

 A goof friend of K's came along with us - it was very sweet seeing them holding hands as they arrived and entered the show.

K has enjoyed this little rollercoaster before. It swings around the corners quite fast and leaves K with a great big smile on her face.

The girls enjoyed looking at the artwork on display, created by other children. We were quite disappointed though that the animals were all tucked up in bed with the shed closed. We could hear the roosters etc, but weren't able to see them. Given a lot of families come to the show on a Friday night, it would have been nice to have had some animals the kids could view.

Clowns are always a favourite. The girls identified each number chute the balls would land in. Maybe next year they can have a go at adding up the numbers themselves. Other favourite activities for the night were the jumping trampolines and the bouncy castle. One bouncy castle attendant was good enought to let the girls stay on for a good 15 minutes as we were waiting for the fireworks start to get closer. The girls had great fun and we actually got a bit of value out of the $6 per child cost.

 

Sitting on the grass enjoying slushies, waiting for the fireworks to start.

 



 

The night was cool, but we had warm enough clothes on not to be uncomfortable. The girls bought one showbag on the way out (that K has not eaten and lost interest in) and were tucked into bed and asleep by 9.50pm. This was a late night for them, however they both still woke just after 6am.

 

In getting K changed for swimming lessons on Saturday morning, we discovered some spots that looked suspiciosly like chicken pox.