Ms R learnt to ride her bicycle today. It came about because I suddenly noticed that Master R was riding on the little bicycle with stabilisers which he’s never had the strength in his legs to do before. Ms R was inspired by this and told me she was going to ride hers so I took them out to the garage compound and pushed her a little bit. It was only really a matter of confidence for her because I was barely holding the bike and knew if I let go she’d be fine. I thought she’d have me running up and down all day but after a couple of goes she yelled at me to let go and I did. She was very excited and as with everything, very dramatic. She hugged me tight while bouncing up and down, I thought she was going to cry she was so happy. Master R came running over to give her a hug too, he was as proud of her as she was herself. She practiced, riding up and down in front of the garages and before long she could set off by herself, steer round corners and use the brakes to stop.
After the disappointment of the plastic flute that none of us can make work we visited the music shop for some hope. We came out with a little recorder (soprano?) for Ms R and a tin whistle for Master R. Ms R is getting the hang of using the first three fingers and kept wanting me to teach her more when really she just needed to practice what she already knew. We’ve looked at some Youtube clips of recorder playing and it is very impressive, and Ms R is very ambitious. Master R is a very enthusiastic blower of his tin whistle but has less patience for covering the holes. In all fairness to him he’s making a lot less horrible noise than Ms R made when she was three and I had to dismantle a recorder and hide the parts in different places. Every so often I come across a bit of recorder and just for safety measures thrust it in a different hiding place.
Ms R had Rainbows again which she really enjoyed. She chatted away to various girls and seemed to really enjoy the activity coming over just once to tell me what a wonderful time she was having. She took her little recorder to the show-and-tell.