Friday, August 27, 2010
What a day!
Well another day has come and gone. Normally this would be the end of the week and I would be screaming "Thank goodness it's Friday" but I decided to make up for that day we missed due to my back and continue tomorrow. Tom will be at work and it will just be us here anyway. I am also thinking that on Saturdays when Tom gets home in the afternoon that I will have some one on one time working with Georgia. Not much time, maybe an hour and a half so we can do some of the workbooks I bought for her. The workbooks are useless to Miriam and I like the girls to do joint activities so I am not using them. I think Georgia would enjoy the one on one time with me.
I am also planning on building a file system for the girls to store their completed work which we will go over at the end of the year. I am going to pick up one of those big 3 drawer plastic drawer units at Wal-Mart and put each girls name on their drawer. That way at the end of the day they can have the chore of putting their work away in their own space.
Now on to today which was "fun" to say the least. Miriam was in one heck of a mood today being defiant at every turn. She can be a little spitfire when it comes to doing things she doesn't want to do which is pretty much anything you WANT her to do..lol. Normally if she was at school she would get away with the behavior because she would be disrupting the class but at home we have a "don't care policy". Which means scream or no scream, fit or no fit, you are going to do your work, we don't care about your tantrums. Even if that means doing the work WHILE having the fit. Miriam has now started to test the limits to see if she can get away with the same things she got away with in school. As if mommy suddenly turned into an elementary school teacher, no relation. She is quickly learning that the same rules we have at home apply in the classroom. In our home there is no such thing as a disability. Miriam is not treated any differently than our other two girls and by no different I truly mean no different. We might adapt things so she can get more out of them but the things we adapt are the same things her sister use. It is VERY important to us that she not grow up to be one of those people who feel sorry for themselves or feel "entitled" to everything because they are different. It is very important that Miriam be raised to KNOW that just because she is blind it doesn't mean she is "special" beyond the fact that certain things need to be modified to accommodate the blindness and beyond the fact that she is loved. I want Miriam to say to anyone who feels sorry for her and comes at her with some remark like "oh how sorry I am for you that you are blind" that she doesn't understand why they would feel sorry for her when there is nothing wrong with her. We do not see blindness as something wrong, she is here , put on this earth by God as a blind person. She doesn't have a cold nor is she afflicted with cancer. She is just blind!
We had a great day at school once we got over Miriam's want not to hold a crayon or marker. I know she cannot see the paper but one day she will need to have the ability to write and coloring is the first step towards that. I also get how boring it must be for her to sit there and color but asking her to hold a crayon and move it along a piece of paper is not that hard! So after a scolding and after reinforcing that I am not bending to her will she decided to hold her coloring tools. She may not have painted a picture worthy of hanging in the Guggenheim but what she painted was beautiful because SHE did it by herself with no hand over hand action and I am proud of her. I am proud of both of my school girls because they did a great job today!
Miriam's work! If you look at the felt shape collage and the shape work page you can see Miriam's art work. My hand never touched hers to make it move, there was no hand over hand aid whatsoever! The only help she got from me was picking the marker/crayon up, putting it to her hand and ordering her to hold it when she decided to be defiant and drop it. She also opened her mouth to count the beans WITH us in the bean exercise and was even willing to move the beans on her own. Trust me, these things are HUGE!
Oh , I almost forgot,she was also made to pick out her own felt shapes for her collage. I bugged her with "choose one" until she got so annoyed she did..lol
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Georgia's work! It amazes me how much this 3 year old little girl loves school. She has a little trouble tracing but this is new and I know she will be an expert in a few weeks if not sooner. She gets better everyday! She has much of this stuff down already, she knows all her basic colors, shapes and knows how to count to 10
(a little more actually). I just wanted to start at the beginning regardless if she knows it. I want her confidence level to go up a bit. She is going through the "I can't do it" stage. I have no idea where she learned those words because I can assure you we don't ever say we can't do something. Tom and I are both CAN DO, WILL DO people. There is a reason why I have bruises all over, have had 10 sprained ankles and have thrown my back out several times. I don't know my own limits because I honestly do not think I have any..lol
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You might want to try scented markers, and add scent to the paint... she might not be able to see she is painting with the color orange, BUT she can smell she is painting with orange.... I would try and make my own scentless paint... and add the same scent to the same color every time... maybe lime to green, lemon to yellow, orange to orange, black licorice to black, chocolate to brown... happy smells for happy colors =-) Then she can smell what her picture looks like.... much less boring... keep it up Mama! Every day comes with challenges and ways we over come them!
ReplyDeleteThanks Dana! Good idea with the paint. I places an order a few days ago for scented markers we are just waiting for them. We use scented everything else though even playdough. I am scared with the chocolate she would try to eat it, she is a chocoholic! lol
ReplyDeleteLeather smell for the brown =-)
ReplyDeleteOh, I love that one! Tom really like that Tim Mcgraw cologne and it smells like leather. She could totally associate!
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