Hannah Learned to Ride a 2-Wheeler!!!

Hannah was close to learning how to ride a 2 wheeled bike without training wheels just before the snow flew but on her first day out this spring she mastered it! 

There are still some wobbles

and the occasional fall

but my girl has officially said goodbye to her training wheels and is now free wheeling!!

Way to go Hannah!!!

Riding Her Big Girl Bike

Last weekend Hannah had the first opportunity to take her big girl bike on a longer ride.  We’ve been around our complex a number of times but this time we ventured off to visit Auntie Carol and her family.  Hannah loved it!!

I hadn’t realized some of the things I would need to teach her.  She was still a little challenged about using the brakes even though we’d ridden around our complex a number of times but by the end of the ride she had improved greatly.  I also didn’t realize that when she came to a 90^o angle at a corner that she’d attempt to take it at full speed.  Yikes!  I quickly grabbed the seat and it was all good.  She only took one big tumble and that was when one wheel slipped off the side of the road.  She went down and her little leg was caught under the bike but she quickly shook it off and after a couple of kisses she was good to go!  Yay Hannah XiaoFen!

I quickly learned that I needed to ask her to stop about 10’ before a street to give her enough time to get herself stopped.  We followed the rules and walked her bike across each intersection.  Might as well learn good habits right from the beginning. 

Some things never change.  Even when tooting along on her bike flowers grabbed her attention.  She blessed Mommy with a beautiful bouquet of dandelions.  As beautiful as any bouquet of  roses when picked and presented by my little love!

Showing off her new riding skills to Auntie Carol, Katie and Jacob.

Our first ride was a huge success and I can’t wait to enjoy more with you Hannah!  Once she masters controlling her speed when going down inclines Mommy might even try riding her bike too.  Hmmm, that would require me getting it from Nana and Papa’s garage.  I rode it there one day but then ended up staying until it was dark so parked it in their garage….15 years ago!  Oops!  Will change that soon so that we can enjoy family bike rides together.  Fun times ahead!

Computer Update:  The little netbook I purchased when the power button went on my old one also quit working about 2 weeks after I purchased it.  When I took it back we quickly realized that it just wasn’t powerful enough for me even though I only use it for uploading and editing pictures, blogging and surfing the net.  I upgraded to a HP laptop and have been really happy with it.  So much faster, a bigger screen than I’ve had in a long time and just a great machine.  I miss the portability of the small netbook but reading blogs, looking at pictures and watching videos is much nicer on the 15.6” screen.  The one challenge I’d had was adding Windows Live Writer to it which is the program I use for blogging.  Thankfully one of the guys at our lunch table (we eat with The Big Bang guys) was able to add Live Writer to my computer and also retrieve the pictures that were locked on my original broken computer.  Thanks Cory!!

Now….if I could just figure out stupid Windows 8!

Kindergarten Orientation

In September Hannah will be attending Junior Kindergarten so a couple of weeks ago we attended her Kindergarten Orientation.

In Ontario kiddos attend kindergarten for 2 years - Junior Kindergarten (JK) and Senior Kindergarten (SK).  All children born in 2009 like Hannah will begin JK in September.  The province is in the process of transitioning all schools to full-day kindergarten and her school already offers this so she will go to school Monday through Friday, full days.  It sounds like a lot but it's a play-based learning style and each classroom will have a full-time teacher and full-time early childhood educator.  I think Hannah is going to flourish in this environment!

After signing in and being welcomed by one of the kindergarten teachers, the children chose to visit a number of different mats located on the gym floor, each with a different activity on them.  Hannah chose to play with cars, then Polly Pockets and finally finished with a mat of building blocks.

After an initial welcome by the principal, each teacher took the group of 8 students assigned to her to her classroom.  Hannah did well.  She wanted me to hold her hand and asked to be picked up for a moment but then was ready to get back down as we followed the group into the classroom.

Once in the room she was happy to find a spot on the floor with the other children.  That's a familiar activity for her as she does the same at Preschool so it was a nice transition for her.  The 3 teachers present introduced themselves, said a little poem about circle time and then they sang a couple of songs.  Each child introduced themselves and Hannah did really well by participating in all of it!

After circle time the children were broken into 2 groups.  Hannah and her group went to the literacy area first.  She rocked!  There was a laminated card with her name on it that she traced with an erasable marker; wrote her name with plastic letters and then started to form her name using sticks that are a little bit like string dipped in wax that can be molded into shapes.

At the second literacy table she had the choice to play 2 games and she chose a challenging one and did quite well.  There was a game board with pictures on it.  She rolled the die and moved the corresponding number of spaces.  When she landed on a picture she said the word, sounded it our and tried to figure out what letter it started with and then put that letter on the picture.  She did really well getting top, yarn and another word correct before it was time to move on.  Way to go Hannah!

She next moved to the math centre (where I finally asked if I could take pictures and found out the answer was 'yes'.  Wish I'd asked earlier!)  This first activity was 2 parts.  Part 1 was finding the plastic numbers in a dish to match those on the sheet and then part 2 was adding the corresponding number of popcorn kernels.




























The second part of the math station was a book about drowsy dinosaurs.  After a couple of pages she was able to anticipate the next page and 'read' it.  As she said the colour and number she put the corresponding coloured block on the number.

After we spent about 30 mins in the classroom all the classes moved back to the gym which was now set up with little picnic tables.  Hands were washed and I was excited to find out that they also sang a song of thankfulness for their snack before eating it.   This pictures shows that my little sweetie, while having a good time, was still a little out of sorts.  Normally she would sit 'inside' the picnic table but no amount of encouragement from mommy would get her to move in.  This was one of the few little clues she gave off that as much as she appeared to be doing well, this was still a big step for her!

Snack was a little dish of crackers, grapes and carrots.  It was no surprise to me when she ate everything but the carrots, but I noticed many of the other kiddos did the same.  Heh!  She's not a huge veggie fan but we're slowly working on it.

While Hannah did really, really well at her orindergarten orientation, it threw her for a bit of a loop and she regressed a bit.  For the next few days she wanted Mommy close and was more tender with more tears than normal.  The day after orientation she had a HUGE meltdown at preschool drop off, which was a first for her.  It was reminiscent of those she had as a baby when I was trying to transition her to the nursery.  One of her teachers held her and cuddled her close for a couple of minutes but she was still distraught so I quickly went back in and was able to help her through this.  Poor little lamb!!  It broke my heart to see her experience this and brought back memories of our earlier days at home. 

I know this reaction is totally understandable but I'll admit to being surprised that it happened at orientation time.  I was fully prepared that this might happen when kindergarten begins in September but I wasn't prepared for it to happen now.  I took her lead and made sure to pull in and spend extra time with her for the next number of days and listen to her concerns.  For now I've pulled back on talking about her going to 'big girl school' unless she starts the conversation.  We drive by her school often during the week and this morning she said, 'Mommy, I can't wait to go to my big girl school!'  This is a big step for her and I got excited with her.  I know she'll do well once she gets going, it's just the transition that may be understandably challenging.  She's doing excellent at preschool and I know that she will do well in JK too!

Now, here is where you come in friends.  May I ask you to pray about something?  I am SO thankful that Hannah will still be in Ange's school district so she will not have to change daycare.  Yay!!!  That is a HUGE answer to prayer as we love both Ange and her family!  But, we still have one small piece of the puzzle to put into place.  Hannah's bus will  drop her off at Ange's boys' school but her bus will not arrive at the school until 30-40 mins after their school is dismissed.  There is no way I can ask Ange to dress the other 5 kiddos each day and walk back to pick up Hannah so I need to find someone to walk her from the bus to Ange's home.  It's only .2 of a kilometer (about 10 houses) but at this time it's still an unknown.  I'm asking God to show me the person I can hire to care for Hannah each day and walk her this distance.  It's not far but I need someone reliable and responsible.  Thank you for praying about this with me.

Skipping with Grandma and Grandpa

On Thursday nights while I teach piano, Hannah is blessed to spend the evenings with Grandma and Grandpa!  G’ma picks her up at daycare and the fun begins!  When we woke up on Thursday mornings I used to prepare her that she’d be going to G’ma and G’pa’s for supper and fun so that she was prepared when I didn’t arrive at daycare.  Now I just have to mention the words and she jumps up and down with excitement shouting their names!  She loves spending time with them and I know they love being with her too!

Last night when I arrived Hannah was excited to show me her new skill – skipping!  Check her out!

Way to go Xiao!  Great skipping!!