Look ! I can ride my bike with both hands off !!

Today evening, we went out for a walk while the kids rode their bikes. A few minutes into the bike ride, Kavya called out "Look, I can ride with one hand off the bike." We were impressed since she rides without the training wheels - so it meant that she was getting better at balancing. Ishaan was right behind her and wanted to copy what Kavya just did. So, he immediately took one hand off his bike (with training wheels) and was happy to report that he can also ride with one hand off the bike :). A minute later, Ishaan tried taking off both his hands off his bike and shouted "Look ! I can ride my bike with both hands off !!". He felt proud for this accomplishment.

No wonder he could do that because he had the training wheels on :) Gaurav and I just laughed looking at each other and encouraged Ishaan for his efforts and accomplishment :)

"Spiderman is not strong enough", says Ishaan

Ishaan has started liking superheroes now. His current favorite is Spiderman. He pretends to be a Spiderman and does silly things.

Today, Kavya was intentionally hanging upside down from the sofa such that her head was touching the ground. Ishaan was playing Spiderman at that time. So, Kavya started shouting, "Spiderman, spiderman , help me , help me". Ishaan rushed to help her. He tried to lift her head off of the ground, but it was heavy and so he couldn't. So, he immediately announced "Spiderman is not strong enough" and walked away. Gaurav and I burst out laughing :)

Ishaan likes finding his way through a maze

Last year, I ordered an Easy Mazes book for Kavya, but when it arrived, I realized Kavya was too big for those mazes - she was already doing more complex mazes. So, I decided to save it for Ishaan.

Today evening, after coming home from school, I was thinking of some activity for Ishaan and remembered that book. So, I decided to introduce it to Ishaan. Ishaan immediately got the hang of it and wanted to do more and more and more. He already completed lots of mazes.

Then something interesting happened. For every maze, there was an arrow suggesting where to start and a star suggesting where to end. So, I would tell Ishaan to look for arrow to start and then draw his way to the star. When we came across a maze in the shape of a fox, the arrow and the star were relatively close to each other. So, instead of navigating through the maze, Ishaan conveniently drew a line from the arrow to the star outside of the maze and started laughing. I also couldn't resist laughing on seeing his clever or innocent (?) trick :)

Kavya wins the Talent Show to become Stratford Idol

Little over 3 weeks back we had received a letter suggesting there was going to be a Talent Show in Kavya's school. That made me think what talent can Kavya showcase there ? I asked Kavya if she wanted to participate and if so what would she do ? She wanted to participate (good thing because I also wanted her to participate - just for the experience) and her talent ideas were Magic show (using a kids magic kit that I had bought for her over a year ago) or play "Happy Birthday" on piano. I immediately discarded those and told her that I will teach her some dance steps on a bollywood song. So, she should do dancing instead. Unwillingly, she agreed.

3 weeks passed by without any further action from either her or my end on practicing for the talent show. Finally, it was Sunday afternoon (just the day before the show) and I was trying to teach her some dance steps on her favorite song "Kajra re..". She showed me some random steps on her own, but didn't want to learn anything else. She finally announced "I am going to do magic instead."

Gaurav was also watching and we decided it's best to let her do whatever she wanted. In our minds, we actually thought that in either case, it was participation that was important and not the winning. So, why put up a last-minute fight and cause stress for everyone ?

So, she got her Magic Kit and we explained her what and how to say and how to show the tricks. She practiced 3-4 times and was all set.

Finally, yesterday was the talent show in her class. The kids had to show their talent to the entire class and then all the kids get to vote to select the class winner. 2 kids with highest number of votes would then participate in "Stratford Idol" today where they would show their talent to the entire school.

I dropped Kavya off to school yesterday morning with her Magic Kit and wished her luck. When I went to pick her up in the afternoon, her class teacher, Mrs. Hayes, walked up to my car and my heart started to beat faster in anticipation. To my surprise, she told me that Kavya won the talent show and that all the kids loved the magic tricks. She went on to add that she has never seen any kid get as many votes as Kavya did ! She said almost every vote they opened up had Kavya's name :) I was happy and excited. Shortly, Kavya came out and was all smiles. She was like "See mamma, I told you Magic Show would be more fun and you wanted me to dance" :) I was like "Yeah, good thing you decided to do magic". Other kids in her class played some songs on the piano, sang a song or danced or did some gymnastic moves.. but there was only 1 magician !

Then today, she had to perform in Stratford Idol. She didn't have any magician robe or hat for the class performance. Mrs. Hayes offered her a black hat for the Stratford Idol and I decided to go to few stores to see if I can find magician costume. We went home and Binduben was there. She said she might have something at her home. So, after he reached her home, she asked us to come by to see what she had. She had a black robe from a witch costume which seemed like it would work as a magician's robe too. So, Kavya was all set.

Today morning, I dressed Kavya up and went to the Stratford Idol. The entire auditorium was full of kids and their parents.  Kavya and Nathan were selected from the Room 12 Kindergarten class. Kavya's class had made a sign saying "We love Kavya" to encourage her. Soon, the performances started. There were few kids ahead of Kavya. Finally, it was Kavya's turn.

She was looking like a real magician. However, I could feel that she was little nervous. She spoke very softly, so I couldn't hear her very well in the back, but the kids in the front enjoyed. She didn't exactly deliver the dialogues as we had practiced at home, but the important thing is that she had the courage and confidence to go up on stage and perform for the entire school. What more can one expect from a 6 year old ?

We are very proud of our little magician :)