Thursday, May 28, 2009

Superstar and night-limpet.

We had the parent interviews at Mia's school yesterday to discuss Mia's progress at school and how her learning is coming on. We've had one of these before, not so long ago, which was her 6 week review of how she's settling in. It turns out she is a dream student for the teacher. She dedicates herself to every task. She is very good at maths and reading and writing, is very capable in all areas and is "astounding" to her teacher. The teacher showed us a wedge graph of reading capabilities and Mia was way out of the wedge (WAY ABOVE) to which I responded with a "wow!". Her teacher then said (and this impressed Ben) that indeed it was astounding and that she had to answer to her management on review of this graph: when they asked "What does this mean?" the teacher responded with, "Well, you choose an unseen book on that level and I'll send Mia in for you to assess for yourself." She was that confident of Mia. Of course we know this of Mia - we know she is incredibly clever. It's wonderful to know we are not biased and that she is truly a gem (and doing well in her quest to become an astronaut!). Our only concerns were that Mia needs to relax a little and play a little more so she doesn't get overwhelmed by working so hard - she's so eager to please the teacher that she is constantly being sensible and well behaved...

It's all used up when she comes home.

As for Joshka, he told me yesterday that he loves gym. He goes to a class every Wednesday afternoon which is an introduction to gymnastics. It's great for the children: they do circuits around the gym pretending to be all sorts of things with all sorts of missions (climbing up the ladder to save the kitten when they were pretending to be firemen) on all the real gym equipment. Landing techniques and rolling techniques are all introduced in a fun way, so I think it's a fantastic thing for Josh and he loves it - rightly so.

He also told me he loves Ada. Ada is the head teacher at his kindergarten. She was Mis's favourite too and it's easy to love Ada: she's fun (and cuddly). So while we're on the topic of love I asked him if he loves his mommy.

"No."

Oh. I smiled. What about Mia? Do you love Mia?

"Yeah."

OK. And mommy?

"No." (Looking at me in a I-already-answered-this-question kind of way.)

What about Daddy? Do you love Daddy?

"Yeah!"

But not mommy. Who else do you love?

He loves Mrs Harry "a little bit" (she's another kindergarten teacher).

What about Jojo? (His grandmother.)

"No."

What about David? (Grandfather)

"No."

Do you love mummy???

"NO."

What about Ouma? (other grandmother.)

"No."

Oupa? (other grandfather.)

"No."

So you just love Ada, Mia and Daddy?

"And Mrs Harry, a little bit."

Ah. He's very clear on all he loves. It's extremely endearing. Ben thinks it's funny and that Josh has worked out how to tease me already. I'm not in any way offended because I KNOW he loves me. He wouldn't be sneaking in to my bed EVERY night to sleep on my arm or wrapped around my back if he didn't love me. Me and my night-limpet.

So there you go - my two lovelies who make me proud and who I love very much.