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Taking a little break from house posts to talk about something a bit bigger right now.

Jairus.  School.  Sigh.  Yep, this right now is actually bigger than my house.

So, little recap.  Jairus is just finishing up grade four at the elementary school that was around the corner from where we used to live.  I was going to say the name of the school but suddenly I thought it might be socially unsafe to do that.  I'm not usually concerned with all that when I blog, but for some reason naming the school right out seemed like not a good idea today.
This is the close of a little over 3 years for Jairus in public school.  James and I put him into school after two years of homeschooling because we were starting to run into roadblocks in providing services for him.  For instance, CDRP (therapy services through the Chedoke campus of Hamilton health sciences) discharged him when he turned six.  They told me that 'the school board' would take care of him now.
Ahem.  I was his school board.
We looked to the CCAC (community care access centre) as recommended.  They sent out two speech-language pathologists (at my request) to assess Jairus and turned him down for speech services because he was too delayed.  Yes, you read that right; they don't provide speech therapy for delayed children.  I can't say exactly why but I can tell you what reason it feels like.  It feels like they don't want to bother giving speech therapy to children who aren't going to develop properly.  Who aren't going to become a successful, contributing member of society.  That may not be the reason.  But they never bothered to explain to me why, even after a few firmly worded letters, so I'm left with my impressions.
But back to school.
We had been using Special Services at Home money to have my moms cousin, a retired EA, come out and help me with programming and a little hands on work with Jairus in his homeschooling.  In the February of that school year, she began to suggest that we could be accessing alot more resources for him if we were in the school board.  James and I gave it some serious consideration.  Not only could we get services for him (we thought), but with three girls now coming up behind Jairus, I was finding it increasingly difficult to accomplish our homeschooling.  Jairus needed alot of one on one time.  So we put him in school.

From the first day, it was a good thing.  We put Jairus in grade one even though he was age appropriate for grade two.  They gave him an EA right away, full time.  Jairus was not toilet trained at that time so he needed that kind of assistance at school.  Having never been in an elementary school environment at 7 years old, they eased him in with half days.  By June he went full time and his wonderful EA determined to have him toilet trained by the end of the month.  She was largely successful.  I was grateful!

When he returned that fall, it was to a different EA.  I was slightly bothered to find out that he'd only have the EA part time; he'd be sharing her with another little boy.  It worked out ok though, as she was in the classroom pretty much full time, and sat between the boys to give them maximum assistance.  She was very nice and the year went well.

The next year was grade three.  He went back in the fall with a new teacher, and a new EA.  The teacher seemed great.  Full of energy and constantly positive, she would turn out to be one of the best teachers I've ever met.  The EA didn't work out so well.  He was a man (not saying that was a problem, but it was different from what we were used to) and english was not his first language.  He had a very strong accent and this I had a big problem with.  Jairus' biggest need was speech assistance.  It was clear within a few weeks that Jairus was becoming frustrated at school and acted out his frustration on the EA at one point, resulting in a 'Safe schools' report on Jairus.
Fortunately, right after this, the EA postings came out and Jairus received a new EA.  An older lady this time, with years of professional and personal experience; she had a non-verbal daughter of her own at home.  The rest of the year went great, although I was becoming increasingly concerned in the lack of time Jairus actually  got with his EA. I spoke to his teacher about it, and then contacted the Board.  After a few responses that basically put the onus back on the principal to assign EA time as needed, I spoke with the principal and she 'tweaked' his schedule.  There was some improvement as she rearranged the EA time so that Jairus didn't have so many long gaps with no assistance.
On the last day of school I learned that Jairus would be getting even less EA help in the fall, perhaps amounting to 1/2 a day, every other day.
It actually turned out to be less.
This past fall, Jairus started grade four. Before school even started I went into the school and spoke to the principal.  I wanted to find out how much EA time he'd get and a few other things, like what were they going to do about french class.  I didn't get far....the principal told me to come back in a few weeks when things were more settled, and then she'd be able to tell me how much EA time he was actually getting.  It turned out to be 1/3 of a day, every other day.  I was not impressed.
Just a little rundown here, for anyone reading who doesn't know much about Jairus.  He turned 11 this past March.  His assessments have him working at a kindergarten to grade one level.  He's considered non verbal and has perhaps a dozen words that he can say that the average person can recognize.  He uses an augmentative communication device called a Vantage where he can touch the pictures on the screen and it speaks for him.  You can read a little more about why he's like that here.

By December I had made enough fuss that a meeting was held with the Augmentative Communication team and all the school staff that dealt with Jairus.  I pulled out all of Jairus' IEP's to get an idea of what kind of progress he'd made.  I was shocked to find that his IEP's were worded exactly the same, year after year.  The only thing that changed was the percentage he was expected to accomplish the goals.  This was very discouraging. (Sidenote: I also discovered a few weeks ago that Jairus' DRA (developmental reading assessment) score is unchanged in three years).
As these meetings usually go, we left it feeling like our concerns had been discussed, but nothing was really improved.  Since no more EA time could be stretched to Jairus, instead they began sending him to two outside-of-class programs, one the KLLIC program with the Kindergarten class, the other called Class Act, administered by an EA and attended by Jairus and a few other special need children in the school.  Both were basic literacy, phonetic and speech programs that were right at Jairus' level.  The rest of his time in class however, was largely attended with no assistance.

With our impending move, I began wondering if Jairus' time at this school was going to be limited.  I was increasingly frustrated with the whole mess.  Sometime after the new year, I chose a bone and picked on it.

Jairus would bring home work all the time with his name misspelled.  Usually I ignored it, but after he misspelled his name on his Junior Soldier diploma, it started to get to me.  When I started to notice his name misspelled in a teachers' handwriting, that's when I decided something needed to be done.  It was the new kindergarten teacher---well, new to Jairus.  It was the KLLIC teacher who apparently didn't know how to spell his name.  So I sent a note in his agenda asking that all the teachers and EA's who worked with Jairus be apprised of how to spell his name. (Sidenote: this was also after seeing that his name was misspelled about 50% of the time in his IEP that year).  Frustratingly, she responded that Jairus was the one misspelling his own name and that all the teachers and EA's DID know how to spell it.  The day of that response, Jairus brought home a paper with the teachers writing on it....with his name spelled wrong.  I circled it and wrote a further note on the back and sent it in a few days later.  I ended up speaking with the teacher personally about it and she insisted that Jairus was misspelling his own name.
I was slightly stunned at misconception going on here.
I was quite aware that Jairus was the one misspelling his name.  It was his own handwriting.  What I wanted to see happen, was that when Jairus was spelling his name wrong, that someone would stop him, correct him, and help him learn how to do it right.  Was that too much to ask?
Apparently it was.  I decided to chuck the bone out the window.

Once we moved and I was driving Jairus to and from school each day, at a time usage of about 2 hours a day, the thoughts of whether we would keep him at this school became more prevalent.  I tried to limit my thoughts strictly to his academic needs (and not my need to stop doing all that driving), but as a good friend pointed out, if I felt that school was really a helpful place for him, driving him would not be a problem.  After all, I had driven him to and from Toronto for 30 days late last year for his Tomatis training because I felt it would be a tremendous benefit for him.

To help in this decision, I sent the girls to my parents for a day and shadowed Jairus around school.  I won't make this post any longer with the details of my observations, but the bottom line was that Jairus was not getting enough help.  Not enough EA time.  Not enough speech help.  The one shining positive about Jairus going to school was that his classmates were wonderful friends who would jump at the chance to help Jairus every day.  Was that enough?

James and I prayed and wrestled with the issue.  I begged God to show me what we should do.  I talked with his classroom teacher.  I spoke with the principal.  Slowly, a picture was emerging.  And it did not appear to involve public elementary school.  But I needed to keep searching....

I met with my moms cousin once more, and a colleague of hers in special ed.  I went out to the Gregory school for exceptional students and considered their private and expensive program.  I spoke with a friend of a church friend who runs an enriched kindergarten program and tutoring/therapy clinic.  I asked advice from a gymnastics mom (whose daughter trains with Verity) who is a Learning resource teacher in another board. I sent a letter to a Board of Ed trustee who in turn also contacted the Principle of Special Education.  We chatted.  I spoke with the principal of the school closest to us in the new board.  They put me in touch with the Special Ed teacher consultant.  I visited the developmentally delayed class for our new board.

Over and over I kept hearing the same excuses: EA's are allotted to the schools based on the needs of all the special ed students, then the school divies up the EA's as they see fit.  Therefore the board was absolved of responsibility here for Jairus not getting enough help.  The school insisted that they weren't getting enough EA's and that they needed to give them to students that were in physical need, or a danger to themselves or others.  Non verbal and working at half his age level was apparently not important enough.  The school therefore has their hands tied.  Speech services were again denied through the school (administered by the CCAC....not them again...) because of his delays.  The augmentative communication team provided resources for the teacher...but nothing for Jairus, not even of a consultative nature.  We could bring our own private speech therapist in, sure.  For twice the cost of a usual session as we pay for her travel and extra time.  For sure we can do that.

Bit by bit the picture was coming clearer, like a photo being swished through the developing solution....

Then last Tuesday after speaking to the principal of Special Ed,  I held the picture up to the light and guess what I saw?

My little boy, at home with his mama, and his three sisters.  And I sighed with relief.

That's right, come fall, Kent Academy welcomes its original member back where he belongs.

Welcome home son. We sure have missed you.

:-)

The Aftermath

My goodness I've just been dying to blog, but didn't want to dislodge the posts about the contest.

Alas, we've almost certainly not won.  It was a close race....what am I saying, we were blown out of the water.  We came nearly to 5000 votes and there did seem to be alot of support going for it.  I heard from all sorts of friends and acquaintances who told me about all the people who were voting, or to whom they had forwarded the information.  There was of course the 2 articles that were published, and a third from an online news outlet. CHCH never did even respond.  That was disappointing.

At the risk of sounding like sour grapes, it all seemed rather suspicious though.  There were 3 videos at the top of the page (more on that later) who were far ahead from the very start.  In fact, between 3:30pm when I had last checked the Kraft site on the day the finalists were announced (they hadn't at that point) and about 9pm when I could next get on my computer, those top three had already amassed hundreds of votes.  Ours had half a dozen.  I quickly got on FB, email, twitter and a few other online outlets and got the word out.  Our video slowly started to pick up.  We averaged about 200 votes a day.  The top three would get 2-3 times that.
After the articles came out, I had alot of hope it would really pick up, and it did.  But not enough.  While our video picked up closer to a thousand votes a day over the last 3-4 days of the contest, the top three, narrowed now to two, picked up 2-3 thousand per day.  Many people expressed to me that our video was definitely the cutest.  Not as polished and edited as two of the top three perhaps, but REAL.  And about PEOPLE, not animals.  The two that ended up neck and neck by the last day climbed dramatically in votes those last hours.  So quickly and consistently did those votes come in, that many have suspected they might have been inflated artificially.

I imagine however, that we'll never know.  I haven't even been able to bring myself to look at the site again, to see which video actually won.  I figure if by some miracle our video still won, Kraft would contact us, as the rules said they would.

I felt throughout the contest that it wasn't a fair playing field.  With 10 videos picked as finalists, Kraft arranged the rather large thumbnails on the Spread the Feeling site.  This meant however, that about four videos were immediately in view as soon as you arrived at the site.  The other 6 you had to scroll down to see.  Ours was the very bottom one on the right hand side.  Can you see why all was not fair in love and peanut butter?  The imbalance was obvious as the videos at the top were viewed in excess of 10,000 times, while ours was viewed only 5-6,000 times.  I emailed Kraft twice during the 2 weeks of voting politely and respectfully requesting they rotate the videos.  I received canned responses both times.

If there's one thing I have become thoroughly sick and tired of, it's the passivity of your average computer user.  Yes, we did have a great show of support for the video and the reason we were attempting to win the contest.  But there was also a whole lot of people who ignored us.

I have a little over 400 'friends' on Facebook, and this was the main outlet I relied on to spread the word.  I figured that if we could get people to share it on their walls, our impact would multiply exponentially.  And many did.
Because of the recent changes to the FB platform, it's now impossible to send a message to groups of people.  I used to be able to make a list of 20 people and send them all the same message.  Can't do that anymore.  So instead, I created an event and invited ALL of my friends to it.  Then my friend Cari added her list to the event too.  So that made in excess of 800 people invited to our 'event'.
I made it clear that this wasn't something to attend, but just a call to vote and share the information.  I was rather shocked when people started responding and I quickly had about 1/2 a dozen who clicked 'not attending'.  Not attending!?  You have a problem with your hand that it can't click a few more times to vote for the video!?  This so bothered me that I actually went to the walls of these people and in a very friendly way, reminded them that this wasn't an event they had to attend and I would really appreciate their support.  Some responded that it had been a mistake, or just how they 'manage' their FB invites.  Others just didn't respond.  Same with those who had clicked 'maybe attending'.
And then there were those that responded positively.  Out of more than 800 invites, 101 people clicked 'attending'.  Not even 10%.
On the Friday before the contest ended (on a Monday) I was starting to get desperate.  I decided to personally FB message all my friends.  It took hours and I got to about the J's when I started skimming and skipping.  I probably sent messages to close to 200 friends.  I got perhaps 20-30 responses.

Since when has it become acceptable to completely ignore a personal message from someone you consider a friend?

I tried to keep in mind that people might have been voting and not just letting me know, not responding to the event invite, my emails or my private messages.  A few people I messaged did respond that they had been voting, or had at least voted once.  I tried to keep in mind that it was voting that was the important thing, not letting me know they were voting.  But with so few responses and the votes still lagging behind the top videos, it was, at times,discouraging to have so few speaking out.

In the end however, the most important thing is that the money was provided.  Through a completely different means, the thousands of dollars needed for Esme to have her therapy came through.  I thank and praise God for this.  And next week, Jairus starts his therapy, thanks to many other amazing and generous people.  I know this is a glass-half-empty or half-full thing.  I could focus on the emails, messages, phonecalls and face to face messages from the many who supported us.  Or I could focus on the hundreds who didn't.  I waffle and find myself doing both.

And as much as I did all of it out of obedience to God and love for Tamara, I will certainly think long and hard before embarking on anything else that will require me to reach out and ask alot of people to help out.

C'mon Hamilton, step up here!

We're down to the last few days of the Kraft Peanut Butter contest.  We've seen some amazing things happen---an article was published in the Spectator and the Mountain News, but still, The Night Raider lags in fourth place, the winning video showing twice as many votes as ours.  But there's still 3 days left to win this for Esme! Here's the articles from both newspapers:

Paying it forward with peanut power

Peanut Butter Contest The Kents, at right - Leslie and James and their children Honour, Afton, Verity, and Jairus, front right. They want to help out the Youngberg family, left - Tamara, Jason, their son William, and daughet Esme, front.

Cathie Coward/The Hamilton Spectator

Local acts of goodwill helped pay for Jairus Kent’s medical treatment. Now, the 10-year-old’s family hopes some goodwill of their own can help another child.

Jairus, 10, was born with Pierre Robin Sequence, which causes a cleft palate and underdeveloped jaw. Jairus is largely nonverbal, speaking at a 21-month-old level. Beginning Tomatis therapy to improve his audio and listening skills costs $5,000.

While applying to charities for assistance, Jairus’s parents Leslie and James Kent signed up for Kraft’s online contest encouraging people to display their love of peanut butter in a short video.

They entered because Jairus is a“peanut butter freak,” Leslie said, and the grand prize winner receives $10,000.

Two days before their video was named one of the 10 finalists, Mountain Citadel Salvation Army on Stone Church Road East surprised them with a fundraiser that helped cover most of the cost of starting Jairus’s Tomatis therapy. The Astley Family Foundation pitched in with a donation to cover the remaining costs.

That gave the Kents a chance at helping someone else.

If they win, the Kents will give the money to Tamara and Jason Youngberg to help their daughter, Esme, who also faces expensive medical treatments.

Tamara has been a big part of the Kents’ life as the midwife who delivered their four children. She operates Access Midwives in Stoney Creek, and the two mothers have remained close over the past decade.

Eight-year-old Esme was born with albinism and later developed epilepsy and autism. The cost of Esme’s autism treatment, at the renowned Son-Rise Program based in Massachusetts, is roughly $20,000, Tamara said.

“There’s such a strain on yourself when you’re trying to get that help for your child but aren’t able to because of financial restraints,” Leslie said.

Tamara resisted at first, telling Leslie she would think about her offer of help.

“But at the same time I don’t think she would take no for an answer,” Tamara said with a laugh.

She was hesitant to ask for help since she earns decent money, and took on a second job selling jewellery at house parties “so I can feel like I’ve worked for it,” Tamara said.

If they win the grand prize, Leslie says she’ll be thrilled.

“To have seen the joy (Tamara) has brought to people by bringing their children into the world, and then to see what’s happened with her and her own child … this would be really amazing.”

The whole situation has been overwhelming for Tamara, who says regardless of the outcome, the fact the Kents are willing to do this is remarkable.

“It’s my hope that one day, when my daughter has recovered, I could give to someone else in the same way,” she said.

You can vote for Jairus’s video, entitled TheNightRaider, by going to the PB&__ Video Contest atwww.kraftpeanutbutter.com. Voting closes Monday, Oct. 10.

Family hopes pantry raid video will help a friend

By Gord Bowes, News staff

The video is an exaggeration, but it’s not far off the mark, says Leslie Kent.

Her son, Jairus, really does sneak into the pantry for spoonfuls of peanut butter, but not usually under cover of the night sounding like a cat burglar.

“I’ll get up for breakfast and there will be a spoon stuck in the top of the peanut butter,” says Kent.

So when the mother of four saw a commercial back in June for Kraft’s Spread the Feeling video contest, she quickly knew they might have a winner.

“As soon as I saw it, I thought my son would be perfect for it,” says Kent.

They filmed the 33-second entry, which shows Jairus sneaking peanut butter out of the pantry of the family’s west Mountain home in the middle of the night, in just two takes.

The goal at first was to win the $10,000 prize to help pay for special therapy for Jairus, who was born with Pierre Robin sequence.

The condition, which resulted in a cleft palate and small lower jaw, has left Jairus with limited speech. The therapy is designed to help him speak clearly.

But between the time the Kent family entered the video contest and making it to the final 10, their church, Mountain Citadel of the Salvation Army, had raised the money for Jairus’s therapy.

Now they are hoping to win so they can donate the money to Kent’s friend and midwife, Tamara Youngberg, and her daughter Esme, who was recently diagnosed with epilepsy and autism.

“I think for someone who has given so much to Hamilton, (donating the prize money) is an easy thing to do,” says Kent.

Jairus attends Gordon Price, where his peers are encouraging him and voting in the contest daily to help him out.

As of Monday, the Jairus’s video, The Night Raider, trailed in fifth place. The Spread the Feeling contest ends Monday, Oct. 10.

Votes can be placed at kraftpeanutbutter.com.

Peanut Butter Update

WHAT an amazing day I've had.

First of all, we got our permits submitted.  Until that had happened, there was this weird, irrational feeling like it all wouldn't come together.  Like it all wasn't real.

Secondly, we sold our house.  It was on for less than a week and we've sold for MORE than our asking price. Lovin' that.  I'll chat more all about the house stuff later.

Thirdly, I had this craving for Little Caesars cheese-stuffed crazy bread, so James went out about 10:30.  He called me just before 11 to say that they didn't have any, and wouldn't make any because they were closing at 11.  Bummer.  He wanted to know if I'd settle for the regular crazy bread.  I said sure.  He came home a few minutes later with not one but FOUR bags of crazy bread.  Seems the girl there felt so badly for not having any stuffed bread that she gave us all the bread that was left....for FREE!

Fourthly, Jairus' video in the Peanut Butter contest has been named a FINALIST!  This means we are in the running for a $10,000 prize.  I have sent out emails and messages through every possible online means I can think of so you've probably heard all about it. (lol!)  However, if you haven't, please go to http://www.kraftpeanutbutter.com/en/contest/finalists/ and vote for him!  His video is called "The Night Raider".

As you've likely read earlier on this here blog, we entered Jairus' video into that to take a stab at winning the money to pay for his Tomatis therapy.  This past weekend however, all the funds needed were raised through the Garage/Bake Sale, Auction and BBQ fundraiser that the Quilting ladies put together.  Ever since I was contacted and told about the fundraiser, I had an idea about the contest, if by chance we should win.

There's this very special lady in my life.  I'm not going to name her, in case she'd rather not be named, but she has been with me, and helped me through two of the most terrible and stressful times in my life; the birth of my sons. (Update: yes, I checked with her, and she's ok with me mentioning their names)
6 weeks after she helped me deliver Honour, (yes, ok, she's my midwife) Tamara Youngberg gave birth to her own firstborn daughter, Esme.  (see her picture above)  I remember that she had been concerned on and off through her pregnancy: she kept noticing worrying things about the pregnancy, but we both figured it was just a case of 'the doctor doctoring herself' and finding things 'wrong' because of her vast knowledge of pregnancy.  Unfortunately, her gut had been right.
It took a few months, but Esme was eventually diagnosed with Albinism. With that, Tamara and her husband Jason have had to deal with many of the common accompanying issues of this congenital deficiency, but have also had to handle her further diagnoses of epilepsy and autism.  You can read an article about Esme here.
Tamara is now one of the moms I connect with often to share our latest therapy discoveries.  She became determined over a year ago to take Esme to the States to be a part of the Son-Rise therapy, a specialty therapy for autistic children pioneered by Barry Kaufman back in the 70's.  His son was autistic during a time when nobody knew what it was or what to do with children who had it.  The cost for this therapy is approximately 3-4X what we needed to raise for Jairus.
Despite her own dedicated fundraising through selling jewelry this past year, they have not reached their goal.  Still, they intend to follow through and take her at the end of next month, in any possible way.

I think you've probably figured out where I'm going with this.  If Jairus' video wins, we're going to be giving it to the Youngbergs.  She doesn't really know this; (Update: Um, yes, she does now) I joked about it last time we met for coffee.  She probably doesn't realize that I was serious; she said she would refuse it.  And I don't think she reads my blog, so she won't see all this.

So please vote everyday for Jairus' video, "The Night Raider".  I really want to help this precious family.

He's My Son

Hopefully, you've all noticed the link at the top of my sidebar. It's to a post about the Kraft Peanut Butter contest and how we hope to win it in order to send Jairus for some specialized therapy. Well, now there's something else happening. The ladies in my mom's quilting group at church were all talking last month about Jairus and the money it costs to send him to his therapies. My mom admitted that it was expensive. This is when they came up with the idea.
They wanted to hold a fundraiser and the ideas started flowing.  A garage sale.  A bake sale.  An auction (with, of course, a quilt). A BBQ.  Plans came flying thick and fast.  And now it's all in place.

On September 24th, from 8am to 2pm, all these things will be happening at my church, Mountain Citadel Salvation Army, in order to raise funds for Jairus to get his Tomatis Listening therapy.  A little about the therapy.

I first learned of Tomatis a number of years ago from a friend whom I would connect with every once in a while.  We both had children with special needs and would swap ideas about things we'd tried to help them in their development.  My friend had been especially impressed with the results her daughter showed after the Tomatis therapy.  I'm not expecting that Jairus will start spewing forth with words after this therapy, but it will strengthen and re-program his listening and focusing skills to better enable him to talk.  If you've read my blog for any length of time, you'll know that we're often looking out for therapies such as this.  For instance this past summer we tried some music therapy (why I waited so long is highly ironic and just plain weird, considering what I do).  He did fabulously with it.
The Tomatis therapy is offered at The Listening Centre in Toronto.  The program would take place over the span of 6 weeks: 2 weeks of active therapy involving 2-3 hour sessions daily, 2 weeks rest and then 2 weeks back in sessions again.  I would be driving Jairus in every day for the sessions.
I've recently been revamping Jairus' blog site, which was my original blog.  It's a little better organized now and if you would like to read more about what Jairus was born with and those early weeks of his life, read it here.
Finally, the quilting ladies asked me to make up a powerpoint presentation to show in church.  I put something together and James converted it to video.  Now you can see it too. :-)  Make sure your volume is up.

She does it again!

I was a little surprised when Honours teacher suggested we enter her in another competition only 2 weeks away from her first. We were planning to be camping for that weekend, so I wasn't sure how we would work it out, but fresh off the excitement of her first medal, I both really wanted her to do another competition, and was scared it was just a fluke and she wouldn't do well at another. We decided to try to get her to it.

In the meantime, I really wanted to get Honour a proper Highland dance outfit. I had hopes that I could do it before the next competition, the Cambridge Highland games, but figured it was wasn't very possible. I started looking online for what could be found secondhand, but didn't see much out there at this time. I sent an email to my cousin Claire, who danced for many years, to see if she still had any kilts and such. She wouldn't be able to find out for another week, so I took a chance and ordered an outfit from Tartantown. It arrived in 2 days and Honour was so pleased that she was going to look just like the other girls. :-)

We arrived at Flamboro Valley to camp with friends on Friday night. Knowing how excited the kids were to be camping, I suspected they wouldn't mind staying with our friends on Saturday morning, while we took Honour over to the competition. It was quite pleasantly only a 20 minute drive away.

Things looked much the same as the Embro games, just a different backdrop. We parked and made the trek from the makeshift parking lot through the various gates. We realized somewhere along the way that we had left our lawnchairs back in the camp. Fortunately, there were about three other families from our school of dance, so we bunked with them for the morning.

I had put Honours hair up before we left camp, so now all that was left was to get her into her outfit. I had checked multiple times over that I had brought everything needed. She looked great.

The competition was about 45 minutes late in starting. Then when it did, Honours group (Beginners 7) was first up, with Honour up on stage with the very first group. The piper played the familiar Highland Fling tune (as opposed to Embro) and Honour did well. About 15-20 minutes later they moved onto the Sword and Honour was again first up. There was some stalling and confusion as they placed the swords up on stage as there didn't seem to be enough for all the dancers. When they finally located another pair, they placed them in the spot Honour would be dancing. I was chagrined as all the other swords were slim and flat, while the pair set before Honour had a high, rounded hilt. Unfortunately, the dancers are supposed to be able to dance over whatever they are presented with, so while it didn't seem fair, there were no grounds to protest.

Sure enough, she nicked the top of the hilt a couple times which led her to actually step on the swords as she danced. But she kept going, and did really well despite that. She finished her dances a bit later with a try at a new dance called the Sean Trews. Her teacher Dianne didn't have any expectations that Honour would place with the Sean Trews, but wanted her to try it anyways, as she feels that competition really lights a fire under dancers to work hard.

By 12:30, I had Honour back into her outfit with her dancers card on a lanyard around her neck. (Learned that from the last competition). We were so thrilled when they called the numbers of those winning a medal for her group and she was included. Up she went, standing smartly in first position (also something we learned from the last competition) and waited for the announcer to begin...

I said later to Dianne that "if she's anything, she's consistent!", as Honour again was awarded a third place medal, which meant another stamp on her card, in the Highland Fling. We were so excited!

Now it appears we'll have a longer wait until another competition, as Dianne recommended one in Pickering on September 17th. I was again both pleased for the interval, so that Honour can really work up her dances, and disappointed to have to wait so long until another. Plus we'll have the added conflict of my Musikgarten classes starting up that day (if I get students) so we'll have to figure something out if she's to dance at that one.

Honour waiting to go on stage.

Up on her toes for the Fling

The Sword Dance

Waiting to see what she won.

(If any family would like to see a video of her getting her award or dancing the Sean Trews, just email me or leave a comment and I'll send you the private link. :-)

Honour's First Highland Dance Competition

In case you hadn't heard, Honour has been taking Highland dance from the Blackman School of Dance since last fall. I started thinking about it a couple years ago when the girls were interested in dance of some kind and I wasn't so thrilled with the idea of them going into ballet. My cousin did Highland dance for many years, and we do have some Scottish back on both sides of the family, so it was a natural consideration. I remember sitting with Honour and watching some videos on Youtube and she was quite interested and positive about the idea. So last fall we followed through and signed her up.

A couple months ago, we decided to enter her into a competition, upon her teachers recommendation. We almost ran into a bit of a crunch, as I didn't send off her registration for the Canadian Highland Dance organization (Scotdance) until the start of June. She needed a dance card to be eligible to dance and when the strike struck, her card was still en route. Fortunately, it arrived the day before the competition. (Phew!)

Honours teacher has been very positive about her progress and potential in Highland Dance, which of course we're very pleased about. I was happy to put her into a competition, because I think there are elements of competing that are good for kids to experience. Plus, it's like preparing a piece of music and having nowhere to perform it. It just loses some of it's appeal.

So yesterday was the day. I was up late the previous night getting her outfit ready, packing lunches and bags of all the paraphernalia we were going to need, as all four kids, plus Honours friend Tia were going. Then neighbours setting off fireworks at 3am didn't help matters. My mind started whirling again and between nerves and monitoring the clash between another neighbour that ran out to tell them off, I lost a good hour there. The alarm went off at 6am. Ugh.

As we drove, Honour was excited and giddy, telling us all how she wanted to win a First, a Second, a Third and a trophy. I tried to soften her expectations somewhat... :-)

The competition was taking place in Embro, which is about an hours drive west of us. It was happening as part of a larger Highland Games festival which attracts about 5000 people each year. We got in the gates, through admission and planted ourselves on some bleachers.

The competition started about 9:00am. Out of four possible dances Honour could have done, she was only entered into two of them, as the others weren't ready for competition yet. She would be dancing the Highland Fling and the Sword Dance. She was in the Beginners 7 group, which appeared to have about 18 girls entered.

I nearly goofed right at the start. We'd only seen one competition before, Honour and I, a few months ago when there was one happening in Ancaster. I had forgotten that they dance all the girls (I should say entrants; there were a few boys) through the same dance, all the age groups. Then when that is done, they all dance through the next dance. (Yes, it means you see and hear the same dance about 15 time in a row :-).

I had forgotten this, and even though there were groups up there dancing a different dance from Honours two, when they called the Beginners 7 group, I took her up to the ready tent.

Fortunately we realized the mistake and pulled her out before she got up on stage!

I had a severe bout of nerves for her as the Fling dances started and I didn't recognize the music. Honour has been practicing every day for the last two weeks or so (and close to everyday before that) with the help of a sticker chart on the fridge. But for the physical ability, I could dance those dances myself, I've heard them so many times! I knew that some girls might dance the various dances with slightly different steps from each other (making it difficult to focus on your own dance), but I didn't realize that it wouldn't be the same music. I was just sure this would throw Honour off completely, but she surprised me!

With just one tiny mis-move of her foot, she danced her Fling quite nicely. I was so relieved I could have cried. Over my life time, I have sung for thousands of people, and sometimes even that many at one time; none of these compared in how nervous I was for Honour.

By the time the Sword dance came around, I felt significantly better. She did great with the Sword, but touched it as she danced, a no-no. She would likely be out of the running for any medals because of that. I really didn't care: she had done it! Gotten up and danced in the sun in front of hundreds of people!

We got her out of her outfit after that to have some playtime. It was a clear shining day and the kids were anxious to get away from the bleachers for a while. We had some lunch with other dancing friends from the Blackman studio under a tent one of them had brought. The kids had lots of fun.

Soon after, one of the moms mentioned to me that Honour should get back into her outfit for the awards ceremony. I guess I hadn't really thought that she might win anything and had figured we would get her back into her outfit if we really needed to. It seemed I needed to. :-)

At 12:30 we made our way to the arena for the awards, as further festivities were happening out at the stage area during that time.

They started calling up all the little wee ones (4, 5 and 6 years old--soooo cute!) and they all got a prize for dancing. The best of the little ones were given medals for placing.

Suddenly Honours teacher came running over asking if we'd heard them call number 135. That was Honours number (which I had kinda forgotten). We hadn't; the sound system was not the best quality and was rather muddy sounding in the arena. I was confused, because I didn't realize that her entire group wouldn't be standing there: they would only be calling the numbers of the winners with the older dancers. Once they went up to the presenting area, then we'd find out what they'd placed in. I figured they would call them again and a few minutes later, they did. To our great excitement, they had called #135. "This means she's won something", said her teacher. I grabbed Honours hand and started around the back of the crowd to get to stage right where the dancers were lining up. I noticed that all the little girls were clutching their blue dancers cards. "Does she need her card?", I asked one of the ladies in charge. She answered affirmatively and I scurried off to my purse, thankful that I had it close on hand. I delivered it back to Honour before her line proceeded across the presenting area. Phew!

They gave out the awards for the first dance that Honour hadn't danced in. Then came the awards for the Fling.

First was awarded.

Second was awarded.

Third was called....#135. We all broke into cheers and claps!

Strangely though, the lady handing out the medals did not come over to Honour. Honour kept looking around with a slightly anxious look on her face, but did not say or do anything. A bit of commotion broke out amongst the other parents from our studio and the teacher. They had called #135, hadn't they? Why weren't they handing her the medal? I was fairly sure that the lady presenting had gone down the line and handed it instead to #145. Ohhh dear....

Fortunately, Honours teacher is extremely experienced and judges competitions herself. James had even seen some of the organizers consulting her during the course of the morning. She hurried herself over to the announcer and at a pause, discreetly inquired as to the true winner of 3rd place. The awards froze for a moment while the kerfuffle was sorted out.

In the end, the medal was taken away from #145 and given to the the true winner, Honour wearing #135. I was so relieved. I would have felt badly for poor little #145...(if she didn't already have a couple medals around her neck:-)

They went on to announce the Sword dance winners and the other dance that Honour hadn't competed in. The parents around us congratulated us all, and, as nearly all the Blackman Dancers placed in more than one dance each, were beaming themselves.

What a fabulous day! When's the next one!?!