Challenge Met

My daughter attended the  The Braille Challenge, a national competition of blind and visually impaired students.   The competition she attended included students from first grade through high school, competing on braille reading, writing, spelling, comprehension, math, and other items, all surrounding braille.

Braille involves more than just letters and words.  My daughter does math both at home and in school using her braille writer.   Just as you might draw a graph paper to plot out information about a particular problem, you would then write the answer to the problem using numbers on a sheet of paper you'd turn in to the teacher.   Blind students use other tools to help with things like graphs and other mathematical concepts, but the associated formulas and mathematical notation can all be expressed in braille.  

My daughter and her classmate and good friend, Aditi, were tested on reading comprehension, proofreading, and spelling today.   This year she was entered as a non-competitive participant.   Next year she'll be ready to compete as she will have a good grasp on all she needs to read and write fully contracted braille.

We had a nice surprise when the morning started as they listed my in-laws among the sponsors for the day's events.   This is about a very special Christmas present my in-laws gave my husband and me.   They asked us to let them know what charity or non-profit organization we'd like to support and they would give a donation in our name.  

My husband and I selected the Eye Shine Foundation because they do so much for the VI community in our area.   They have hosted and run the Braille Challenge local event for multiple years among many, many other things.   They keep the community connected and do so much of it for free.

While my daughter was in the testing part of the day, my husband and I heard speakers and participated in discussions and both learned a lot.

My daughter apparently did very well with the test.  It will be graded and results will be out in a week.  In future years, if my daughter places the highest in her level, she'll be invited to compete at the national level.   She has the aptitude for it I believe.  

The Big Boy Update:  I got new pajamas for my son.   Because his existing ones were way too small and tight or looking ratty or thread bear.   This was a mistake, he told me.   He never wanted new pajamas.   Ever.   I solved the problem, removing everything from the drawer except one pair of new pajamas.   He is wearing them now, but he's not going to decide he's okay about it until tomorrow when he will have forgotten all about it.

The TIny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter was anxious about today's Braille Challenge and it manifested itself in a stomach ache and headache at school yesterday.   After just a short time this morning, you would have never known she had ever been nervous.