Toddler No More

Bree is no longer a toddler. How time really flies? Turning 3 meant that she is now typically labelled as a preschooler. It will be official by the end of January when Bree starts attending Kindergarten once a week. Everyone is excited to see how she will go.

For this birthday, I have decided to buy a few little things for her. I selected a spiral bound drawing book, a pack of lead pencils and a pack of coloured pencils for Bree to keep a pictorial ‘journal’. I am hoping to encourage her to make an ‘entry’ regularly. It may not work but I would like to give it a try and her parents are supportive of the idea.

Picture books have always featured in gifts I buy for my charges. This year, I selected “Belinda” by Pamela Allen. Bree loved it and has requested everyone to read it to her over and over. With repetition, she is starting to recite bits and pieces as the story is read to her. For instance, she likes naming the vegetables that Old Tom has in his garden. Today, she pointed at the illustration of a tomato plant in Old Tom’s garden and said, “He grows tomatoes too!” and then followed that with, “I love tomatoes.” She probably wondered why the text didn’t mention the tomatoes specifically. LOL.

What I have bought for Bree are not the only things she has received for her birthday. As in previous years, she received plenty of gifts from family and friends. I think I will blog about them in another post.

The Little Card Maker’s Little Dilemma

Stella aka The Little Card Maker, her little apprentice and I have now successfully completed the card making project. There is however a minor hiccough. Stella is suddenly reluctant to give the cards and lollipops to a particular few classmates. She voiced her opinion after school today and I suggested that she better discuss such matters with her parents. She even said that she will tell them that they won’t get any! Her mum and I did have a phone chat this evening after the Supergirl had gone to bed. We, the adults all knew why she was reluctant but because the cards and lollipops weren’t to be distributed immediately, Stella was asked to reconsider later. She was told that she might change her mind on the day. It is obvious that she is still quite angry at some of her classmates’ recent antics. The teasing is now on and off, depending on the mood of those horrible children.

Bree ‘Scissorshand’

Bree is in love with a pair of special scissors of mine. She will sit for long periods of time snipping paper using these scissors. Bree’s coordination is still pretty clumsy and she is struggling to use basic scissors, including those that are made to fit small hands. In my ‘tool box’ is a pair of Bounce Back scissors that I bought years ago. Many young charges have used it with great success. This pair of Japanese scissors has a ‘lever’ that can be flicked upwards to act as a spring for self opening. The spring makes it easier for the child to maintain constant control of the cutting process. Once the child gets the hang of the movements required to operate a pair of scissors smoothly, he or she will no longer needs to use the spring feature. The spring feature can be deactivated by returning the ‘lever’ to its original position. I just love little gadgets like this that makes life easier.

Bree has access to a stack of used office paper. She enjoys cutting them up in no particular order for now. (The document shredding machine must be worried sick that it might be made redundant soon.) The only thing she is expected to do is to sit down on her chair for this activity. She is reminded to not run around with a pair of scissors in her hand even though this pair has rounded tips. As a result of regular practice in recent weeks, I now noticed an improvement in her posture as well. She is less tense than when she used to be riddled with frustration every few seconds. Soon I will be able to introduce her to a simple but purposeful cutting activity. I am hoping to invite her to cut out pictures of fruits from supermarket catalogues for pasting. She had pasted pictures onto paper after seeing me cutting them out from catalogues before. So, I am hoping that she will initiate this but if she doesn’t, I will. One day Bree will be ready to cut along printed lines (straight, zigzag or wavy) and I will print them out onto light card stock for her to practise. Stella used to enjoy doing this. Following the lines is trickier than just simply cutting around a desired object.

The Busy Little Card Maker

Stella’s mum recently asked her little girl about how she would like to farewell her classmates. The Supergirl had grand plans but we all know that she will never be able to achieve them all, so she was asked to seriously trim down her plans. After much consideration, she decided to give each classmate a homemade Christmas/Farewell card and a small lollipop from Suga (a lolly shop). She had originally wanted to make star shaped ginger biscuits but her mum steered her to the idea of store bought lollipops instead. The Supergirl and her parents worked together to come up with a suitable message and had it printed on sticky labels. My job was to help the little card maker make the cards. She and I didn’t come into agreement immediately. Stella had wanted to make complicated 3D pop-up cards but I simply couldn’t see how she or I would stick to the repetitive work of making multiple copies of them. In the end we agreed to decorate a card with glitter and sparkly sequins, an idea we got from a book that Stella was thumbing through for ‘research’. Using a Christmas theme stencil set of mine, we painted a chosen shape with PVA glue on each card and then sprinkle glitter on it. Before the glue dried, we had to shake the excess glitter off. On the next day, the little card maker and I would begin decorating the previous day’s batch by sticking on some stickers and sequins to dress up the card a little bit more.

We have now been repeating the same two day cycle on the days that I worked, churning out 3 or 4 cards every two days or so, for nearly two and a half weeks. Results wise, that may look quite poorly but this little card factory is only operational for around three quarters of an hour after school per day. And just like big name brand factories, this production line also experienced a few minor bumps along the way. A card or two were ‘accidentally’ damaged during manufacturing process and another two were withdrawn because the little card maker reckoned that they were unsatisfactory. And yet another one was also damaged by an over enthusiastic young apprentice (Bree). All of these had to be replaced ‘painstakingly’ by hand, taking up even more precious time. LOL. Today is the last day of production. We have successfully created enough cards for the whole class plus a couple to spare. Except for the message printed on a sticky label, the spare ones are left blank without the name of a recipient. I breathe a sigh of relief now that they are all ready for distribution. The girls are probably happy that this project is now over for good.

Teasing Miss Stella

Little Miss Stella was teased incessantly recently. It all started when she was told that she was not invited to a certain Queen Bee’s 6th birthday party. Little Miss Stella was fine about that because she was already invited to another birthday party and was looking forward to going to that one. Unfortunately, a couple of the other ‘wannabees’ were determined to not let Little Miss Stella forget the fact that she was not invited to a cool party. The teasing went on even after the party date. At the other party that Little Miss Stella was invited to, a couple of the little party goers (one of the busy ‘wannabees’ and that Queen Bee) attempted to start another bout of teasing but this time the birthday girl’s mum and aunt was quick to put a stop to all the nonsense. The birthday girl’s mum reported to Little Miss Stella’s mum when she came to pick up the Supergirl. Her mum was grateful for their kindness in looking out for Little Miss Stella. The birthday girl’s mum also said that Little Miss Stella will be sadly missed next year and wondered aloud what the class will be like without at least two of the friendlier members.

What Is It With Bree’s Sandpit?

The sandpit that Grandma Ettie recently bought for Bree is gone. LOL. Bree doesn’t seem to have much luck when it comes to her favourite pastime. Some family friends came to stay last weekend. After the children used the sandpit no one remembered to put the lid back on and a feline or two promptly dropped by to use it as a toilet. The children discovered what was left behind in the sand on Sunday and the adults dragged the plastic sandbox and its lid to the driveway to remove the soiled sand and to give them a proper hose down. They were left to dry on the driveway. On Monday, one of the family friends was in a hurry to get to the bakery to buy some croissants for the kids. As he reversed his big Toorak Taxi down the driveway, he ran over the sandbox and its lid causing them both to crack beyond repair. So, that was the end of Bree’s hobby again for a second time. The poor man thought that he ran over a kid and was completely beside himself.

Free Lectures at Safeway @ QV

The Safeway supermarket in QV at the city is undergoing renovations. The products are all over the place and this makes it hard to shop ‘systematically’. The aisles also seem narrower than ever and I hope this is only temporary. Narrow aisles won’t do in this particular Safeway because many shoppers like to shop in groups and spread out to take up as much space as possible to chat or to discuss the quality / the use of the products on the shelves.

I was there a few days ago and bought only 4 essential items that came to a measly total of just $10. It was either because I was drop dead tired or that my ageing memory chips were playing up, as I had forgotten all about the newly installed self-checkouts. I even filed past them on the way to be served by a checkout attendant. When the young checkout attendant saw the items I unloaded from the basket, she asked, “Only 3?” I fished out a small pack of lollies under the bread and answered, “No, there are four actually.” Up to that point, I was still my cheerful self despite being very tired and longing to get home ASAP. Then I was given the lecture of my life. I was asked if I had ever used the new self-checkouts. She then went on to explain how to use the self-checkouts and why I should use them. I don’t mind gentle suggestions but this checkout chick was bombarding away very loudly. She asked a few questions but there was no way I was allowed to answer them because there never was any intention for her to allow me to do so. She was too busy bombarding away as she checked out the items that I had bought. If anyone saw me looking very guilty for taking up her time, they should have tried looking at the two customers after me. The woman after me bought only two items and the man after her bought only one! To avoid a similar predicament, the Asian students after them wisely moved to another checkout. Those kids are unusually quick in sniffing out a potential ‘loss of face’ situation. I just put up with her verbal spray and even thanked her before I left. There was no point in complaining. This store is making a roaring trade. People living in the city rely on it.

I recently heard that some supermarkets were trialling the idea of charging customers for plastic bags. In fact, Borders is already charging customers for plastic bags. Now, I am all for greener living and I personally use calico bags for all of my shopping. Even the girls, Bree and Stella are taught to use a little green bag whenever we go shopping. So, I am not totally against the idea of paying for the use of plastic bags, but if they can start charging this to promote greater environmental awareness, I can’t see why they won’t dig up some reasons to start charging for other services that are still free to customers today. For instance, with the installations of these self-checkouts, these shops would probably one day find a reason to charge a small service fee if a customer instead chose to be served by a checkout attendant.

The Safeway supermarket at QV opened its doors around September 2003. The staff members were mostly friendly. Most of the checkout attendants were Australians. They were probably students from universities nearby. Cameron and I used to have our favourites and would prefer to be served by the ones we liked. I can vividly remember one guy that looked like Ian Thorpe but shorter. Then some were gradually replaced by more people from the subcontinent of India who were just as friendly. I think they too were mostly university students and I often wondered why the others were replaced by them. Cameron and I too have our favourites among the ‘foreign workers’. A few of them seemed happy and would make small talk – something of a rarity in the city. With the influx of these machines recently, I think even the friendly and probably cheaper overseas born checkout attendants are finding themselves a no match in this fierce competition. I wonder if any were given the boot or whether some were retained to help stock the shelves. What is obvious is that this is one example of how it is becoming harder for students/unskilled workers to earn a small living and with the global financial crisis looming ever so close, it really looks like there is going to be a tough period ahead.