Jimmy has really taken to school, studying and being responsible , which we really appreciate and just when we started to think "wow maybe he gets it" we find out he is in another competion of sorts. The kid excels whenever he is challenged or when he sees a chance to compete. Turns out at school there is a student of the month award, for the student that excels in the classroom, goes above and beyond around school, turns all their homework in and on time, you know the new millennium of teachers pet. Jimmy wants that distinction!! Hence the drive to get his work done. Now, being competitive is great on the sporting field and trying to convince your child to take that same competitiveness into the classroom is hard to do and that he has gravitated there all by himself tells us we are doing a great job!He also is trying out for every team he can. (remember, he's a team kid) last year there was a teachers strike and there were no after school sports, which caused a student strike (see post from Dec 2012)Anyway he made the 7 & 8 grade softball team. They had practice after school in preparation for playing in tournaments. The way it works is that of you win the first tournament then your team keeps going and the goal is to play in the all city championship. So after going to practice and complaining about not hitting the ball, we suggested to the lad that perhaps he should adjust his swing for softball as it is under hand and slow pitch, to which he replied, rather vehemently, " I worked all summer on my swing and I'm not changing it for softball, no way"
Needless to say the team did not advance past the first tournament. He is now trying out for volleyball and just found out that even though it is a 7th & 8th grade team, the coach has decided that since the current group of 8th graders did not get to play last year ( because of the strike), and that the 8th graders are taller than the 7th graders, he is only going to pick 8th graders to play on the team. Jimmy's response " Coach that doesn't make since for a couple of reasons, one that means that next year the 7th graders won't be able to play because you will only pick 8th graders and I am taller than all the 8th graders except for one?" Perhaps another student strike is imminent?
Kay on the other hand has been rolling along biding her time until Halloween, but more on that later. She has been working extremely hard at gymnastics and recently decided to try her hand at acro and dance. Yep she wants to sign up for dance lessons and acro lessons, acro is like advanced tumbling of sorts while dance is well dance, rhythm, beat, in sync things that well gymnastics is not, just making a comparison. She also has taken to putting on this crazy Thing 1 & Thing 2 costume at night she says ' it keeps her warm", which I for one can understand as it is in the mid-40's outside while in our house it is a mere 62, just saying. Of course she can't go more than a day without trying to create some food related masterpiece. The kids in her class have come to expect, yes expect, her to show up at least once a week with some kind of homemade treat, of the sugar kind, and of course she can't disappoint. She is planning a quite elaborate Halloween treat, which of she actually cleans her room for once she may be able to make, sorry, this creation will consist of chocolate pudding, gummy worms, Oreo cookies and graham crackers, more on that later... She's also joined French club. Why? Because they get to go to a French restaurant at the end of the year:).
Billy is just plain and simply loving taekwondo ( TKD). He is moving though the belts like Bruce Lee and we are super proud of him. He just competed in a huge tournament and came in second place in both pomsae and sparing. The video below shows him doing the pomsae portion, watch the other kid....he sort of forgets where he is. Poor guy. Billy is now a green belt with a blue stripe and working hard to get to the next level.
Last week Billy and his class went to this cool place called Pioneer Village, which is a historical landmark here in Toronto and Tom volunteered. The class goes to the school there for the week and re-lives what it was like to live in Pioneer times. The kids from Billy's school, Cameron, are the only kids in the city that actually get to do this so it is really special. They all dress up in period outfit's, as all the people in the village do, the class is conducted in the same manner, girls on one side boys on the other, the kids have to stand up when called upon and answer the question asked and sit back down when the teachers asks them to, it was really fun! The kids brough their lunch in baskets and galvanized pails and wrote on the big blackboard with chalk. They visited different buildings like the blacksmith, tinsmith, printers, doctor and even a general store.
So with all this going on it is no wonder that Nikki needs some serious rest!
Next up Halloween more to come.......
