April 22, 2008 by Barbara.

Happy Earth Day everyone! We’ve been working on our celebration for a few days already. I spotted an article on Tree Hugging Family last week that mentioned a project to have kids decorate paper grocery bags for Earth Day and then return them to the grocery store. The daycare teachers thought it was a great activity - you didn’t think I would organize a group of kids, did you? I asked at my local Loblaws and the manager agreed immediately to supply the bags and distribute the finished products. Ken and Reid took the bags to daycare on Monday, the kids drew on them and then Ken and Reid brought them back home. This morning I wrote, “Happy Earth Day!” on each bag and Reid and I took them back to Loblaws.  There was only one person at the front of the store and she was harried. I was tempted to say grumpy but since she was the only one at dealing with people checking out, I’ll allow that she might have been to busy to smile at Reid when she handed over the bags or even to say, “thanks.” Reid had been excited to take the bags in and didn’t seem to notice the cool reception.

Reid and I hurried to the bus stop, running down the ramps and crying, “Wheee!” as we went. The other people in the mall smiled, the “look at the happy little girl smile” rather than the tight, “I hope that crazy lady keeps going” kind. Reid was riding in her little umbrella-type stroller. She is probably too old for it but I didn’t want to spoil our adventurous morning (taking a bus is still an adventure for Reid) with a series of “C’mon, keep walking”, “Reid, if you don’t hurry, we’ll miss the bus” and “Mama is going to be very late for work if you don’t stop dallying” comments. We didn’t have to wait long for our bus and then Reid found us good seats, near the front this time, where we ate our bananas and discussed the other passengers, where they were going and why the bus was stopping. She wondered at the highschool boys who were able to go to school by themselves! The things teenagers do these days! When we got off the bus, there was no traffic on the 4-lane road we had to cross (practically a miracle) and Reid hurry-scurried to get into the stroller and we zoomed across the road.

The other kids and the teachers were already outside by the time we got to daycare. I put Reid’s new Blue Lizard sunscreen* on her and then she went to get a paper grocery bag, one of the ones that hadn’t been decorated, to help tidy up the play yard. The teachers were raking leaves, sticks and the like and the kids were putting this stuff into the bags. The paper grocery bags were just the right size for the 3 and 4 year old kids to manage. There were some of the large leaf-and-yard-waste bags but I doubt they would have been anywhere near as easy for the kids to fill. Giving each child a bag also helped to identify the slackers and ask particular individuals to help. Reid was her usual helpful self (not like last week) and picked up many leaves. She even offered tips to Claire about where she should be raking, at one point showing that there were leaves all across the front fence and not just where Claire was currently working. Claire was so polite when she told Reid that she needed to finish the area in front of her first. There was no hint of “thanks, kid, now if you and the other kids would just put the leaves into the bags faster …” in her voice at all. She is a good person to be spending so much time with so many small children. I had missed the soonest bus going downtown because I to clean up my coffee that I spilled and so I had 26 minutes to observe the kids (and take pictures, of course.)

* We’ve used Ombrelle sunscreen on Reid since she was old enough to have it applied. Ombrelle comes with the “seal” of the Canadian Dermatologists Association on the front and I’d heard/read about how it was better than some of the other mass marketed products. Last week, I read a post on Crunchy Domestic Goddess that discussed a recent study that said oxybenzone, a chemical in most sunscreens, has been linked to allergies, hormone disruption and cell damage. Amy, the blog’s author, referred to the Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database and a list of the safest sunscreens for children. The type of Ombrelle I bought for Reid received a hazard score of 3. Some of the other products received a hazard score of 8. BUT some others received a hazard score of only 1. I searched for products on the 10 best list over the weekend and again on Monday and finally found some Blue Lizard for Sensitive Skin with an SPF of 30 that made the “best bet” list. There was a zinc oxide stick that has a hazard rating of 0 but it’s not suitable for being in the water or heavy perspiration. Reid plays in water each day at daycare throughout the summer and can be a sweaty little kid when she is running about and being 3 and 3/4 years old. I’m left with a bottle of Ombrelle that I think Ken and I will use since I’m cheap and the effects of chemicals on adults are much less. (Here’s hoping ;+)

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April 22, 2008 by Barbara.

Reid’s swimming lessons session wrapped up on Friday. This was her first experience in a “non-parented” class (sorry, I couldn’t think of how else to describe it) and it was a definite success. The 2 other kids in the class had been a class with us and so Reid was comfortable with them. I think I’ve mentioned P before and how she was a daredevil. Well, she still was and her brother was brave but not crazy with it. Reid was brave, too, and always willing to try what Jules asked them to do, albeit with prompting sometimes if she had to get her face wet. She was brave enough to stray a bit during class but never enough to put herself in danger or cause Jules to seem annoyed. He seemed to be the sort not to get excited over small transgressions. Reid’s confidence in the water grew dramatically over the course of the session. It seemed each week she tried something that I shook my head at Jules even proposing.

At the end of last Friday’s lesson, Jules handed the kids’ report cards to the parents. I had my camera at the ready and so Jules took it back from me and presented it to Reid formally. Reid promptly handed the report card to me and turned back to Jules, who was opening a bowl of candy. Jules is a wise and safety-conscious candy shopper. He let the kids each choose 2 sour keys instead of the hard candy that she has been offered so far and which I’ve always taken away from her. Maybe 4 year olds are big enough for hard candies but I have a still-vivid memory of choking on a cherry candy when I was only 4. Uncle Roger performed the Heimlich manoeuvre* to dislodge it. I remember seeing the candy arcing across the air in front of me. I don’t want Reid to choke, whether that is logical or not.

We had male instructors when I was still swimming with Reid and I noticed then, as I noticed again this past session, that the classes are quite different depending on whether the teacher is male or female. The female instructors tend to “mother” the kids - singing songs and encouraging them to try the activities. The male instructors almost never sing and they seem to expect the kids to make the attempt at the activities and congratulate them when they do. Reid does well with both styles but maybe even better with a male instructor.

Reid started lessons at a new swimming pool on Wednesday. It’s an old-style pool, a rectangle that is about 1 metre deep at the one end and gets deeper right away. There were 3 other girls and 2 boys in the class. One boy was a half-head taller than Reid, the other children were nearly a full-head taller. The water was up to Reid’s chin at the wall and she had to tip her head back a bit within a metre from the wall. It’s much different from the gentle slope at the Splash Wave Pool that mimics a long, slow beach.

Reid’s new teacher is a young woman named Leah (is that how you spell it when the person says, “Lee-uh”?) and she smiled at the kids and encouraged them all to try their front and back floats solo. Reid held a couple of foam pigs and gave each float a try. Leah stayed close and offered some support but at the end of each try, Reid did the float on her own for a few seconds. The difference between Preschool A and Preschool B seems to be quite significant. I wondered if Reid was ready for the Preschool A and I’m probably equally misguided to worry about this class.

*I learned at a First Aid course that, due to some legal proceedings, the term Heimlich Manoeuvre is no longer used. It’s now an “abdominal thrust“, the instructor said.

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