Maple Leaves

I made this fall bento for T's lunch today.

• maple leaf-shaped sandwiches (one on whole wheat bread, one on honey wheat bread)
• Rold Gold Tiny Twists Cheddar Pretzels with maple leaf pick
• applesauce with maple leaf-shaped sprinkles
• Dare Maple Leaf Creme Cookie
• orange juice in a glass with maple leaves design

Linked to:
   Bento Blog Network
   Meatless Monday
   I Heart Lunch
   What's for Lunch Wednesday

Fall Finger-Painting

I remembered doing a wonderful finger-painting activity with T...I just didn't remember doing it two years ago!  Wow, how time flies.

Here's a repeat of part of that post from October 29, 2011.  You can read the original post in its entirety here.

T loved this finger-painting activity...because he didn't have to get his hands in the paint!
(--a sensory issue for him, related to Down syndrome)

You can see how he "gets into it" more and more as the activity progresses!

I found this terrific idea for no mess finger-painting at Sandy's site, Moments of Mommyhood.

We made these fall leaves with T's artwork.  They are hanging in our kitchen window.
Fall beauty at its best!

Making Activities Feasible

It was fun...and interesting...to browse the collection of other bloggers who are taking the 31 Days challenge, too.  In looking through the buttons in the Family Life category, I noticed that someone was planning to post each day about special needs homeschool Pinterest hacks.

31 Days of Special Needs Homeschool Pinterest Hacks

The title caught my fancy:  special needs (check mark), homeschool (check mark), Pinterest (check mark).  I had to check it out.  I'm so glad I did!  I discovered a wonderful blog written by Gabriella Volpe.

First, a bit about Gabriella Volpe:

She is a homeschool consultant for families of children with special needs.

She is a certified teacher with 16 years of classroom experience working with children who have special needs.

She is a mother who homeschools her child with special needs.

She is adept at modifying and adapting curriculum so it meets the specific needs of children with special needs and helps those who teach them.

She is an advocate for her child with special needs.  She defends his rights and speaks in his best interest until he can do so for himself.

source:  http://www.gabriellavolpe.com/

Next, a bit about her 31 Days:

She states that she spends hours perusing Pinterest and finds a ton of ideas for homeschooling.  She guesses that we do, too...but that after pinning ideas for activities, we find ourselves never going back to them because the activities are not doable for our children with special needs -- our children who have special needs that prevent them from being able to execute the activities as presented.

For 31 days, she is showing us how an idea for an activity or project on Pinterest can be hacked and adapted/modified into something that is doable for a child with special needs.
She is giving details on how to make the activities and projects she finds on Pinterest feasible for a child with special needs.

source:  http://www.gabriellavolpe.com/31-days-of-special-needs-homeschool-pinterest-hacks/

You should check it out!  :)  She is very insightful.  Her posts are bursting with helpful ideas and doable adaptations and modifications!

Russia

I received two postcards today.  The second one was from Russia...and was a personal swap at the sender's request.

The postcard shows many samovars which are used in and around Russia.

A samovar is a heated metal container traditionally used to heat and boil water.  Since the heated water typically is used to make tea, many samovars have a ring-shaped attachment around the chimney to hold and heat a teapot filled with tea concentrate.  Though traditionally heated with coal or charcoal, many newer samovars use electricity to heat water in a manner similar to an electric water boiler.

Samovars typically are crafted out of plain iron, copper, polished brass, bronze, silver, gold, tin, or nickel.  A typical samovar consists of a body, base, and chimney, cover and steam vent, handles, faucet and key, crown and ring, chimney extension and cap, drip-bowl, and teapot.  The body shape can be an urn, vase, barrel, cylinder, or sphere.  Sizes vary, from large samovars which hold 110 gallons to small samovars which hold approximately 1 quart.

The first known samovar was manufactured in 1717.  The first historically recorded samovar-makers in Russia were brothers, Ivan and Nazar Lisitsyn.  From their childhood, they were engaged in metalworking at their father's brass factory.  In 1778, they made a samovar.  Also in 1778, Nazar Lisitsyn registered the first samovar-making factory in Russia.  They might not have been the inventors of the samovar, but they were the first documented samovar-makers.

source:  Wikipedia

The sender of the postcard wrote that Russians think tea from a samovar is tastier than from a kettle.  ;o)

Germany

I received two postcards today.  The first one was from Germany.

It is a view of the city of Dresden.  It is terrassenufer im abendlicht which means terrace shore in the evening light.

Dresden is the capital of the Free State of Saxony in Germany and has a population of 525,105.  It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border.

Dresden has a long history as the capital and royal residence for the Electors and Kings of Saxony, who for centuries furnished the city with cultural and artistic splendor.  The city was known as the Jewel Box because of its baroque and rococo city center which was destroyed toward the end of World War II.  Some restoration work has helped to reconstruct parts of the historic inner city.

Since German reunification in 1990, Dresden has regained importance as one of the cultural, educational, political, and economic centers of Germany and Europe.  The Dresden University of Technology is one of the 10 largest universities in Germany.

source:  Wikipedia

Get To Know Me

You might be interested to know (especially if you are a teacher), that you can request a complimentary "Get To Know Me" poster and lesson plan for elementary school-aged children.

The National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS) is offering these materials (free of charge) in an effort to raise awareness about Down syndrome and to promote inclusion.

The poster is 11x17 inches.  The lesson plan (for grades K-2 and 3-5) reinforces the inclusive message of the poster.

P.S.  If you're keeping track, then you'll know that I missed posting this on the actual day 7 of my challenge(s).  :(  My sister had surgery on Friday morning, I had what ended up being a looong appointment in the afternoon (2 1/2 hours, plus an additional 1 3/4 hours of travel time), and then I went straight to the hospital to visit my sister.  I arrived home at 10:30 pm...and sat in front of the computer for almost an hour, trying to compose a post.  It wasn't coming together...so at 11:30 pm, I went to bed.  Hence, it's actually Saturday, October 12th at 3:15 pm.  You don't mind that I changed the post date to Friday, do you?  ;-)

Words

In 2008, I received some materials from the Indiana Governor's Council for People with Disabilities (GCPD) in celebration of Disability Awareness Month in March.

Included in the package of materials was this bookmark.

The front says:

Attitude is Everything.

When you champion a winning attitude for yourself and your team, you can achieve anything.

The back says:

Choose Words Wisely.

1. Put people first.  Instead of saying "the blind boy," say "the boy who is blind."
2. Focus on what someone can do, not on what he can't do.
3. Say "my friend has a disability" rather than "my friend is handicapped."
4. Treat people equally.  Don't feel sorry for or go overboard in how you treat people with a disability just to make them "feel" better.
5. Give the person a chance to say something or to do an activity on his own.  Like you, he has ideas and talents to contribute.
6. Wait to offer help until someone is ready or asks for help.
7. It's okay to ask questions when you're unsure of what to do.

I can tell you that these truly are words of wisdom.  They make a difference.  :)

Especially important to me is the 1st statement.  I do a kind of "mental cringe" when someone refers to a child with Down syndrome as a "Down's kid."

I'd like to add something to the 5th statement.  Not only give the person a chance to say something, but also wait for the person to say something.  Often, T is slower than is typical when he responds.

And...the 6th statement is a big reminder to myself!  Too often, I find myself trying to help T when either he wants to try to do it without help or he is capable of doing it by himself.  :P

Netherlands

I received two postcards today.  The second one was from the Netherlands.

The sender of this postcard wrote that this view is of one of the few small hills in Holland.  Gorgeous, isn't it?  She also wrote that it is near her country's border with Belgium.  The farm pictured is "in the way people built in former years."

Germany

I received two postcards today.  The first one was from Germany.

Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Düsseldorf is Germany's seventh largest city with a population of 593,682 within city limits (2012).

Düsseldorf is an international business and financial center and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs.

Culturally, Düsseldorf is known for its academy of fine arts, its pioneering influence on electronic music, and its relatively large Japanese community.

Düsseldorf experiences moderate winters with little snowfall and mild to warm summers.  The average annual temperature is 51° F. with an average yearly precipitation of 31 inches.

source:  Wikipedia

Netherlands

I received a postcard today from the Netherlands.

The West Frisian Islands or Wadden Islands (called De Waddeneilanden in Dutch) are a chain of islands in the North Sea, north of Netherlands and Germany and west of Denmark.
Between the islands and the mainland is the Wadden Sea, which at low tide is mostly dry.

The islands are inhabited by about 81,300 people.  The largest island is the Dutch Texel, followed by the Danish Rømø and German Sylt.  Sylt has about 21,000 inhabitants and is the most populous island.

sources:
   Wikipedia - Waddeneilanden
   Wikipedia - West Frisian Islands

The sender of this postcard wrote that when it is low tide, it is possible to walk to the islands from the mainland...called wad-hiking.  That's what the people pictured on the postcard are doing!

Trip to Holland

My guess is that most parents who have a child with special needs (and many others who don't) are familiar already with this essay by Emily Perl Kingsley.  I had neither heard of nor read the essay until after T was born.

Welcome to Holland

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability -- to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel.  It's like this....

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip -- to Italy.  You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans.  The Coliseum.  The Michelangelo David.  The gondolas in Venice.  You may learn some handy phrases in Italian.  It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives.  You pack your bags and off you go.  Several hours later, the plane lands.  The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say.  "What do you mean Holland??  I signed up for Italy!  I'm supposed to be in Italy.  All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan.  They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine, and disease.  It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books.  And you must learn a whole new language.
And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place.  It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy.  But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around...and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills...and Holland has tulips.  Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy...and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there.  And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go.  That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away...because the loss of that dream is a very, very significant loss.

But...if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things...about Holland.

c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley

When I was pregnant with T, the ladies from our chapel planned a baby shower for us.  However, the planned date of the shower was too close to my due date...and T was born before the shower occurred!  The baby shower was re-scheduled...and by that time, I was familiar with this essay.  It spoke to my heart in such a way that I shared it...read it to this group of ladies during the shower.

There is a post of a wonderful interview with Emily Perl Kingsley here.

Ellen of Love That Max blog sums up this March 2011 interview with these words:

Savor whatever experience you are fortunate enough to have.  Make the most of the hand you are dealt.  Try to find beauty in each day, if you can.

Finland

Yesterday, I received this postcard from Finland.

Finland is a Nordic country located in northern Europe.  It is bordered by Sweden to the west, Norway to the north, Russia to the east, and Estonia to the south across the Gulf of Finland.

Finland:

• is the eighth largest country in Europe.
• is the most sparsely populated country in the European Union.
• has a population of 5.4 million (2012).
• has the best educational system in Europe.
• has been ranked as one of the world's most peaceful and economically competitive countries.
• has been ranked as one of the world's countries with the highest quality of life.
• has been ranked as the overall "best country in the world" (by Newsweek magazine).

source:  Wikipedia