November 19, 2006 The music obsession continues! We are going for our third visit to Mr. Nerino's music room tomorrow after school! Thanks so much Mike for entertaining this stage in John's development! John so wants to talk to Mr. Nerino all the time! He's scared to do so, but when he sees him in the hall, he almost shakes with excitement! He's still enjoying school. He doesn't like to do assessment sorts of activities with the teacher however! He's now in a little reading group, but is hesitant to read in front of the teacher. I finally decided to ask him what he would read! Of course, mommy, a list of instruments. So, we went downstairs to the computer and he listed all the musical instruments he wanted to read to Ms. Fenton and Mrs. Getson. There were 41 of them. He read them all, flawlessly and even had to explain to the teachers what a few of them were! We're starting to think he has a photographic memory because if you show him a word once, he remembers it. You don't see his eyes going left to write, looking at the letters. He just looks at the word and says it. He really enjoyed watching the Toronto Santa Claus parade today. Of course, he liked the marching bands the best. His current favourite colour is light green. He's starting to ask me really hard questions again. A friend of mine passed away this week, and John became very interested in death. He asked me if kids die...broke my heart. I said, "Sometimes they do, honey but usually people live to be very very old before they die." He also wanted to know if he could see God. So, God, if you're out there and feel like revealing yourself to a four year old boy, help me out! He also wants to know how old God is and when's his birthday! For John, he's always interested in remembering when things happen. This sucks when you have chemo brain like I do. I honestly don't remember 1/3 of the stuff that he does! He'll say, last May, when I was three years old, we did such and such. Tonight, I discovered he could count by 5's and 10's. I asked him who taught him to do that because I really didn't work on that with him. He said, "Nobody did mom." O.K. so if he's doing calculus in the third grade, I'm going to need help! I sucked at calculus. I started doing an orchestra theme with my grade 2's, but NONE of them are as interested in music as John is. I keep waiting for them to get thrilled when I show them a picture of a bassoon, but it just doesn't pan out. I have to continually remind myself that John is not the typical kid with the typical interests. Every morning we do calendar routine. He needs absolutely NO help doing this, although gets frustrated when he wants the weather to be something different! Last weekend, he went for his first playdate to Brooke's new house. Brooke's mom Natalie works at the school and they moved here from Sioux Lookout. What a nice house! John had a smashing good time! Next week is Brooke's birthday party at Best Western pool. Should be fun! O.K. I'm really writing a lot here. I think I'll stop now! Johns letter to Santa: Dear Santa Claus, My name is John Edward Kennedy. I am four years old. I have been really, really good this year. I hope you and Mrs. Santa had a really good year too. I really like instruments this year Santa. For Christmas, maybe you could pick something for me. My favourite is the baritone. Please Santa, could you give that to me. I want you to have a really big sleigh to fit the baritone in it. I also like the saxophone in the Santa book. I would like a gum ball machine too, like Mommy’s friend Cole has. I would also like my own flashlight. I would also really, really, really like an oboe and a pink Barbie violin. I love baritones Santa. Say hi to the reindeer and have a safe trip! Love, John Edward Kennedy The Music Story By John Edward Kennedy – 4 years old Baritones have big, fat bells. A baritone is a small tuba. A baritone makes a really low sound like tubas. Mr. Nerino has a baritone. I want to write about all of his instruments. Clarinets: Clarinets have little mouthpieces kind of like tubas. Clarinets have keys we push on. Flutes: Flutes have shiny, shiny keys. It is hard to blow with the mouthpiece on the flute. Trombones: Trombones have a big slider and it has the same mouthpiece like baritones and tubas. Accordions: Accordions have little piano things. You push the buttons for the chord. Recorder: A recorder has eight holes and we blow into the wood part and it makes music. The end Nov. 3/06 It snowed on Halloween and was miserably cold. John didn't want to wear his costume for school, however, agreed to wear it for trick or treating. He went with his friend Brooke from Best Start and JK and her brother Joshua. It was very cute to watch the two of them holding hands and going trick or treating. The cold didn't seem to bother the kids much. More the adults. He did not want to do the ABC test for Ms. Fenton this week. Said he didn't know any letters. He just doesn't like to be the centre of attention (just like Dad). He did do the test for mommy though (with crying and whispering) and scored 54/54. He knows all of his letters. We also visited Mr. Nerino's music room again this week. He's nagging me already about when we can go back. He now wants a violin for Christmas. And a bass clarinet etc. etc. I said the only kid's one in Sears was pink Barbie and he said he loved pink Barbie. © 2006 Derek Kennedy

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