Erin and Albert…

Curie will start kindergarten soon, the day after Labor Day (because of Virginia’s King’s Dominion Law we understand) and as a part of getting ready, we were asked to write a letter about her so that her teacher could get to know her before the start of the school year. Here is a draft of what we wrote:

“Dear Ms Best

We hope you are well.

Thank you for being Curie’s kindergarten teacher this year, and likely like all the parents of the class, we go into this new phase in Curie’s development with equal parts nervousness, hope, and pride.

If you were to ask Curie what her powers are, she would tell you that she is smart, brave, strong and fast. When you ask her what her superpower is, she is as likely as not to say that she can use her “smell” to find things.

We have done our best to instill certain values especially around concepts of beauty, and doing the right thing. We were the proto-typical anti-Disney princess parents (we have relented somewhat as she has gotten older, we are still resistant to Barbie though), when someone would call Curie princess when she was young we worked on her so that she would respond “no, I am the King.” At pre-school, that has since become “I am a Queen,” and “my Daddy doesn’t want me to be a princess, I am a Queen.”

This is not to say that she doesn’t love the princesses and My Little Pony, she loves her toys and pretending with them. We have worked with Curie to understand that anyone is pretty if they are smiling regardless of gender and physical appearance, but more importantly we have been instilling that beauty is in your actions, that you are beautiful if you do beautiful things. This has manifested in learning to do the right thing, protecting her sister or other little kids at the playground, giving up all of her shovels and pails at the sandbox to kids who might need them.

Curie will be four going into kindergarten and will turn five that Saturday. She will be among the younger ones in her class (a friend of hers, Layla, is eight months older than her), but she has been precocious from the beginning, Curie was small at birth, a peanut at four pounds seven ounces, but alert and ahead of almost all of her milestones growing up (at her two-year-old check-up, the one thing she didn’t hit ahead on milestones was jumping, but upon hearing the doctor say that, she spent the afternoon practicing until she could jump). Curie was also an early talker and her first “words” were “all done,” and was very articulate and verbal by one and a half. In fact, we missed some of the cute learning to speak until we had her sister Elia. Yes, she will be one of the youngest in the class, but we felt that she would have been bored if we had kept her one more year.

We are, as all parents should be, proud of Curie (and her sister) and have high expectations for them, but we are not so blind as to not see some of her short comings as a four-to-be-five year-old either. She has had a bit of the “gimmies” lately and will be upset if she feels slighted, or wronged, she is exploring her boundaries a bit. She responds well to calm and caring logical explanation if she is crying (it helps if you are holding her when explaining things) and is quick to learn from her mistakes.

Trying to encapsulate your child in a single letter is impossible of course, but we hope this is at least a little glimpse into Curie and how to connect with her. We have worked in various areas of education, (Albert works for in educational non-profits now, PDK International these days) and we know the importance and value of early childhood education and establishing a nurturing and strong foundation. We hope this letter will help you build that bond with our child and allow you to teach her and help her grow in your care. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Parents of Curie Chen, Albert and Erin”

A lot has happened this month including our vacation to Toronto and Niagara Falls, the girls’ first hair cut, and more. Curie has been sharing a lot more with Elia, going so far as to give her food or toys she has because Elia wants them (Elia is testing her boundaries these days and sometimes gets what she wants by bullying Curie, which we are trying to work on).

As we said in our last blog, the Olympics coincided with our vacation, and as we learned about being in another country (both Curie and Elia will say “that is our flag” when we see an American flag now, though Elia says “dat our flag.”), and discovering what is different between our countries, flags, Kinder eggs, signs etc… We of course wrote about our trip to Centreville at the Toronto Islands and after their trip there, when Albert asked Curie what they have in Canada that we don’t have in the U.S. Curie said pony rides, because she had her first pony ride there (Curie rode a big pony, Brandy and Elia rode a little pony, Merlin).

After watching the Olympics while in Toronto, the kids jumping on the bed chanting USA! USA! while the swimmers raced in the pool was one of the highlights of our trip. Curie can now recognize Michael Phelps on TV, and the Final Five on magazine covers without prompting. She loves to race in the pool with her floaties on paddling away. It is wonderful. After watching women’s Olympic gymnastics one night, Curie asked us to turn off the TV do we could all watch her “safe gymnastics.”

A lot of change right now, finishing pre-school and being one of the last kids in day care means she has seen most of her friends go on their last days. She instead plays with very little girl who she likes to take care of in her class. She is ready for kindergarten, even if we are not. She is proud of her after-school martial arts uniform, has gone on a playdate with one of her new classmates, and though we suspect she has some trepidation, has been focused on the new. It is hard to believe she is about to go to school and at the same time we are proud and know that she will do great. More next time, right now we are going to go cuddle with our daughters.