Kylie’s first parent teacher conference of her first grade year was today and we are very happy to report that she is doing very well. Kylie is currently reading at level 8 and she needs to reading at level 16 by the end of the year. Her teacher thinks that at the rate Kylie is learning and picking up this necessary skill she will be reading at between a level 20 and 22 by the end of year. This of course makes Mommy and I very happy, as we both enjoy reading and are trying to install that joy in Kylie as well. Seeing as she already enjoys going to the library and picking out books, we think we are on the right track. Additionally she is doing well in math but she needs help with money, mainly what each coin is worth. Mommy and I are trying to figure out a good way to help her with this, as the times have changed so much from when we were kids. See when Mommy and I were young it was still very common for our parents to pay for purchases with cash and coins, which means we could handle them everyday and help in making purchases. This constant handling of money made it a lot easier for us to pick up on money and each pieces value. However now it is less common to use cash and more common to use debit or credit cards, in fact it is so common that Daddy almost never has any cash on him at all. I am sure we will figure out a way to help her in this, as it is still a very important piece of information she needs to learn. Speaking of important skills, Kylie is also doing really well with writing and sounding out words, spelling them phonetically and learning how the actually spelling of words differ from the way they sound. She often asks us how to spell words while writing little notes and even more often will say to someone “Guess what. I know how to spell…wanna see?” and then she will spell a word. Sometimes she correct to the true spelling of the word and sometimes she makes a very good attempt by spelling the word the way it sounds. When she spells the word incorrectly we tell her the correct spelling and why it differs from what she gave, and more often than not she only needs to be told the correct spelling once. We are confident that the rest of the year, academically speaking, will go by without an issue and she will continue to learn and expand her knowledge ahead of the curve. Now if we can just do something about these boys Daddy will be even happier. 🙂
Category Archives: Kylie
Butter and Candles
Making butter and candles is not how I thought I would ever spend a Saturday afternoon, but that is what we did today. Melissa had found a flyer at the library saying there would be a demonstration of how butter and candles were made in colonial times and that we would even be able to participate in the experience. It sounded interesting to us and after asking Kylie what she thought about it we all decided to go give it a shot. We got there about an hour prior to the demonstration so we could locate exactly where it would be and to allow Kylie to look around for some books to borrow. She decided today that she wanted to borrow three books: Paddington Bear, The Elephant Wish, and The Sad Princess. When it was time we went into the story room where everything was set up. The demonstration for the butter was first and the speaker explained that the butter was made from mixing heavy whipping cream and some salt. To all the kids delight they were each handed a small jar containing the ingredients and told that all they needed to do to make butter was to vigorously shake the container for a few minutes and when it started to “make a glob” that they would then have butter and the remaining liquid would be butter milk. It was rather interesting to see the butter form out of what was basically just liquid. Melissa was a little disappointed because on the flyer it had shown an actual butter churn and so she was hoping to see one of those in use. Then it was time for the candles, and the speaker explained that these were candles made from real bees wax. Many of the children did not like how the bees wax smelled, but Kylie thought it smelled good. In a crock pot there was already a lot of melted wax and each child was given a started candle and told they needed to dip the candle into the wax, pull it back out and let it cool for a few seconds and repeat. Kylie tried this but lost interest in it rather quickly so Melissa gave it a try and also found it to be a very tedious task. By the time we decided to leave we ended up with two small jars of butter, but no candle, mainly because none of us had the patience to try to make a candle and a lot of other children were also trying to make one and the hot wax was splashing and dripping all over. Thought the event didn’t fully live up to our expectations I thought it was still very interesting and educational. I think Kylie was more excited that she got a few new books to read though.
This is getting bad!
It looks the my “problems” are going to not only continue but worsen a lot sooner than I had anticipated! I mean, she’s 6 and in 1st grade, a Father shouldn’t have to deal with this yet! Don’t get me wrong, I knew it was coming, I knew I would eventually have to deal with these situations. I just thought I had more time! What am I talking about you ask? Boys, as in boyfriends! -sigh- Let me explain… About a month ago Kylie came home from school with a rose from Lestat. Admittedly I wondered what I was going to do about it, but only for a few minutes and it soon passed. I figured I didn’t have anything to worry about and that this was a one time thing. Seems reasonable, right? Wrong! Kylie came home today with not one, not two, not even three roses. She came home with a FULL DOZEN!! That’s right, Lestat brought her in TWELVE roses! This is the picture that Tiffany sent me tonight. What am I going to do about this? The kids not old enough for me to play the “big scary Dad” role. I’m not ready for this…
Labatt is nasty
I got a disappointing phone call tonight from Tiffany. She wanted to let me know, just in case Kylie decided to tell me this coming weekend, that Kylie does not like the taste of beer. Specifically she does not like the taste of Labatt beer. Apparently Aunt Sissy and Theresa were preparing to go out and in there pre-outing preparations were having a beer. When I asked why this meant Kylie had to try some I was told that Kylie had asked multiple times when Aunt Sissy, or someone else were drinking, to try the beer. All the other times she was told “No, this is an adult drink” but for some reason tonight Mommy decided that she could try it. She told me that Kylie immediately decided she did not like the taste of the beer and spit it back into the bottle, apparently she disliked the taste so much she even licked a towel. Tiffany asked me if I was mad about this event to which I replied “Doesn’t really matter, it’s done and there is nothing I can do about it now.” I’m more disappointed than I am mad, and I have no doubt that if the situation had been reversed that Tiffany would have been pissed at me for letting this happen, yet I got the impression that she felt this situation was humorous because of the way Kylie reacted. I don’t know, perhaps I am just being over protective.
Lodi Farms
We took a trip out to Lodi Farms on the other side of Ann Arbor to go on a hay ride, navigate our way through a hay bale maze and allow Kylie to pick out a pumpkin. We had not heard of Lodi Farms prior to the other day when I got a Living Social deal in my email and because it sounded like a good deal we decided to make it today’s outing. The people how run the farm were very nice and the numerous cats wandering around were also very friendly. The entire experience made for a fun day, and I am not sure what part Kylie enjoyed the most, but I think it may have been hunting for all of the cats! Pictures from the day can be found here in the gallery.
First Grade School Portrait
Owls
They say you learn something new everyday, and today I learned that in order for Zales to properly inspect, clean, and put a new back on Kylie’s earrings they need to send them out. Apparently each back is custom to the stem, at least for the current stems on her earrings. 
I was not expecting this and so in order to let them do this we first had to find a new pair of earrings to buy Kylie so she could still wear a pair and we could send out her diamonds. So off we went to other stores and after some serious searching Kylie found these owl earrings that she liked. So tonight we got new earrings and sent out her diamonds to get cleaned and fit for a new back.
Mad dash to the mall
Tonight after Kylie got done taking her shower we discovered that she had lost a back to one of her diamond earrings. This would normally not be an issue because she could just put in another a pair, but she doesn’t have another pair at Daddy’s house. So at 8:45pm Daddy jumped in the car and headed to the mall, which closed at 9pm, to try to go to Zales and get a new back for the earring. Needless to say Daddy made it to the mall in time and was able to get a new temporary back for her earring. The back is temporary because it is a yellow gold back and her earrings are white gold. Tomorrow we will need to go up to the mall and see about getting a new back that matches and also get them inspected and cleaned.
Boy Trouble
Looks like the “problems” that started last year with Kylie and her 
boyfriends are going to continue this year as well. Of course these are only “problems” for Daddy and they are likely to get worse as she gets older, I guess I’ll need to find a way to deal with this eventually. So what am I talking about? Well today when Kylie came home from school she was toting along a long stemmed red rose that she got from Lestat. Not sure what I am going to do about this…
Update 9/18
Here is a picture of the rose in question. Clicking on it will bring you to the larger image in the gallery.
A Great First Day
Today was Kylie’s first day of 1st grade, and as we had hoped, she woke up excited and had a great day. She completely forgot about how nervous she was last night and when Mommy got her to school she went right up to the “big doors” and found her friends. Today was a half day as well, so when Mommy picked her up after school Kylie was a bundle of excitement, talking about all the friends from last year she saw and all the new friends she made today by meeting all the new kids in her class. It would appear that the night before jitters have all been forgotten and we are in store for a wonderful year of first grade!