Education For One

It takes time and resources to create educational materials.  As parents (who aren't homeschooling,) we get in education when we can with discussions and explanations.   We might draw a picture to show the different phases of the moon.  With the advent of the Internet and streaming media, we might show a video on say what it means for a snake to molt.  As parents, we wedge some education in that's usually triggered by a question our child has.

Creating an entire curriculum for a child to give them the full breadth of materials and concepts necessary to educate them is another thing entirely.   Students benefit from materials created for mass use.  There are a lot of good materials out there.   My daughter is following the standard curriculum her sighted classmates are being taught.   Only her version of the materials are created just for her.

I've gone on about this before, but it's because I believe it is such a remarkable thing that our teachers, school system and nation give children with disabilities the opportunity to have the same chance to learn, despite their individual challenges.   Today I opened my daughter's backpack to find another elegantly simple tactile version of a concept that could have been explained in words to my daughter.   Other students see pictures and get an understanding beyond the words.   Pictures are very helpful in understanding concepts.   Ms. B. gave my daughter the same information in tactile form.



The sand is sandpaper.  The water is horizontally corrugated paper and the fish is big and detailed in features.





The orange and green stickers have arrows pointing down, indicating pressure. The rust-colored later is a different grit of sandpaper.



And finally, you can feel the sun above the land where the fish fossil is now exposed,



My daughter's education is customized just for her.   She is doing quite well in school.   Intelligence isn't an area my daughter is challenged in.   She has a sensory impairment, not a mental one.   Thank you, again, and again, to our teachers for giving my daughter the opportunity to learn alongside her sighted peers.

The Big Boy Update:  My mother came over the other day to play with the children.  They created a stuffed animal zoo in my son's bed, adding just about every stuffed animal they could find.   The plan was to remove them so he could sleep, but he decided he wanted most of them to remain.  Interestingly enough, he was able to sleep the first night.  Last night I came upstairs to get the dog from their room.   When I came in my son bolted up in the bed and asked me to please take away all the stuffed animals.   Groggily, he came down and got some water at the sink while I threw stuffed animal after stuffed animal over the railing and down onto the floor.  I would bet there were fifty in his bed if not more.   He came back up and flounced on the mattress and was back asleep before I had him covered up with the comforter.  He's generally liked a piled full bed, but this was over even his limit.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter and I have both been growing out our hair.   Both grow very slowly.   She gets her hair cut about twice a year.  I have to cut mine more frequently because I color and use heating tools on it.   I've been growing out my hair for five years now and while it's been slow going, I'm gradually making progress.  I told my daughter we should see who's hair is longer (relatively).   I told her I wanted mine Lady Godiva style long and showed her where that meant it would need to cover on me.   She said I was almost there.  Then we checked her hair and while it's shorter in total inches, it's more than long enough to have her ride side-saddle on a horse naked through the center of town with reasonable coverage.