Ballerina Girl...

So right before yesterday's Los Angeles excursion, Daddy and I had the pleasure of taking Kali to her very first dance class.  We had originally decided to sign her up for tap/hiphop but our schedules changed a little and that class no longer worked for us.  Kalissa kept saying that she wants to be a ballerina and would put her arms over her head and twirl around so I gave in and enrolled her in a ballet/jazz combo class.  Shopping for her little dance clothes was soooo much fun!  Of course she wanted a leotard with a tutu but I thought that was a bit much so we compromised and got one with a skirt instead.  She absolutely loved the outfit as soon as she tried it on.  In fact, when we were in the dressing room she said, "Mommy I want to go out there!"  Out there meant into the store where everyone could see her.  And when we got home, she couldn't wait to put the outfit back on to show Daddy. 

So, yesterday was her first day of class.  I was expecting there to be at least 5 kids but there was only one other little girl there.  The class is open to 3-5 year olds. The other little girl is almost five.  The instructor was very patient with Kalissa who needed A LOT of help (the other girl had taken class before so she knew what she was doing)!  *lol*  This class is definitely not going to be a cake walk for Kalissa and is going to require me to dig into my archives of ballet class to practice with her.  This is a good lesson for her, that she's not going to excel at everything right out the gate and some things you have to work hard for to be good at.  And if for nothing else other than to not let her waste my money, she will work hard at being the best ballet dancer she can be!

I definitely won't be adding anything else to her schedule anytime soon though...she has dance and Spanish classes once each week and each of those classes require us to practice with her.  Daddy and I both work full time jobs and sometimes BOTH of us have to pull a 12-hour day.  So yes, adding to her schedule means adding to our schedules but look how happy she is!  We just can't resist...

But it's not all fun and games in the Whitaker household.  Oh no....we're still about those book smarts too.  She outgrew abcmouse.com and pretty much didn't want to use it anymore so I found a new website for her called www.studydog.com  She absolutely LOVES it!  I let her spend 20 minutes on it every day and she will CRY when her time is up!  *lol*  What I like most is the customized reports so I can see what areas she may be struggling in. Today's report is:

Earlier in the week she had scored "needs improvement" on "Beginning sounds pre-K" so I had her work on the lessons that would strengthen this area and now she's well within the "proficiency" range.  I'm really loving using this site as a useful tool in her development.  Hopefully it'll keep her interest for more than a month or two!