What to say......

This sweet looking little person is now 10!! She now loves going to Pearson, actually last week we got a form home asking if she plans on returning in September as they need to know their numbers, I asked her what she wanted to do and she gave me a look and said "of course I am going back"! I am still trying to figure out how everything operates at that school, I hate being so far away and not knowing the teachers etc although we have made a point of dropping in to "chat" with her teachers from time to time, just to make sure we are not missing anything.....which really means that Jaden has such a lazy streak to her it drives me NUTS!! she forgets sheets, books and binders at school. She has been struggling with multiplication in math class, to the point that math homework often ends in tears. Mrs Case has told us that it takes longer for some kids to "get" math......she is one of those kids. It comes down to the fact that she just need to memorize multiplication tables.......and just when I think she has gotten it....she has not! We have flash cards that we plan on using all Summer long.....hopefully her brain will have figured it out by the start of grade 5!

The majority of the time Jaden is an easy going girl. She loves her friends and seems to have figured out the ones that are "real " friends and the ones that are every body's friends. She does not really talk about boys too much although I did hear her mention the other day that there is an end of the year dance at school and some boys and girls are asking each other to the dance! The ratio of boys to girls at Pearson is not a good one, so I foresee issues with that in the future.

Jaden has a temper!! and a nasty one at that! it is extremely difficult if not impossible to reason with her when she is in one of her moods. The only solution is to send her to her room and let her "sulk" it out by herself. It can take anywhere from a half hour to an hour for her to calm down. Only then can you talk to her. I have talked to her about the need to remedy this.....we are hitting the tween years which also means hormones are flying.....I am the moody one in this house, if there are two of us...well lets just say it won't be pretty!

She is still dancing and still loving it. At the beginning of this competition season I sat her down and let her know that she is now dancing in a higher age group so not to expect to win tons of awards this year etc she really had no issue with it. The first competition she won first overall soloist! great so much for that, however the second competition she did not place so well. She danced fantastically but not first place, she was great with it. If you ask Jade what her marks were at the last competition she would not be able to tell you......I LOVE that! it is a good lesson for her to learn, you don't always come in first....and guess what that is ok. There are some kids that sit and cry if they don't place well.......it is all they think about, and they also want to see how everybody else does, there is one girl on Jaden's team that literally falls over herself and others trying to see what other dancers marks are.....drives me nuts!

There are many parents that complain about the exams that the dancers have to take, Jaden did one ballet exam in December and just did another one last month, she is doing two more in June one in tap and one in jazz. I honestly don't mind the exams, I think it is good for her, at the last ballet exam she had to walk into a room with an examiner from China and be tested for 45 minutes, my thought is that it will give her confidence for the future, school presentations, interviews etc After one exam I asked Jaden how she thought she did, she thought for a minute and looked at me and said, " I think I may have made two mistakes, so I will probably only get 98%"!!! I LOVE that, she was not being a smart ass, she was dead serious, and I love that she had that much confidence in herself.

Jaden is a beautiful, kind, loving, smart, naive, happy girl! One thing I wish for her is the ability to express herself better.....she often lets things build up in her mind and then everything explodes ...usually with a lot of tears and shouting. She is a good friend and has a couple of very close friends. She still enjoys reading and right now has started reading Twilight. Family is very important to Jaden, she misses her Nead a lot.....even though it is just Peterborough as Jade says "it is just not the same"....and I get that. She loves being able to hold and help with Ronin.

She will always and forever be my little girl even though her legs are now longer than mine!!