Analogies

I was going through my daughter's homework folder tonight and found one of those "extra" works that are sometimes sent by her braillest.   She prepares all work the students may be doing in the course of the school day, only sometimes they don't get to everything planned.  In this case, she had created tactile versions of two photocopied sheets on analogies that I'm guessing they didn't have time to cover.

I know I go on about this, but I am continually impressed with the work that's done for my daughter so she has a tactile version of everything the other students have.   When her teacher selects work the other students will be doing, it's picking from existing materials that have already been created.   She chooses sheets and they're photocopied for the class.  That's the extent of work that needs to be done for her sighted students.  The materials clearly introduce a topic, give examples and then there are questions or problems for the students to complete.  For my daughter, that same material must be converted into a tactile form—and that takes work.

When I saw the sheets on analogies, I was excited.   This is, perhaps, because I love math as does my daughter.  I knew she would love the work.   She read the explanation her braillest had copied into braille and then felt the first problem that had been completed as an example.   She got it immediately. There was a baggie with the answers prepared for her by her braillest.   She could select the correct answer and stick it to the page.   I didn't give her the answer pieces though, I had her tell me what the answers were.   She loved them and was disappointed when we'd gotten to the last one.

Here are the three sheets.  The first two pages are multiple-choice, with the answers shown on the line below the problem.  For the third page, I had her tell me what the answer would look like.  Her braillest used materials including foam, felt, stickers with texture and raised tape.



It's a joy to watch my daughter understanding a concept as she feels over the page with her fingers.   Her braillest created such a lovely representation of the assignment in tactile form.  Math, explained like this, is fun.

The Serious Parent Issues Evening:  My children were having a lot of fun this evening with lightsabers, wands, and spells.   They were galavanting around the house calling out casting curses at each other using items from both Harry Potter and Star Wars.  Plus, there was a broom in play.   Maybe it was a hexing broom, I missed that part.   They didn't want to settle down to go to bed and after I left the room they got in a row over the light my son uses to read after lights out.   I came up and told them if I had to come up one more time, I was going to be very cross indeed.  It only got worse and I had to go back up.   This morning there were similar issues with them not caring about getting ready on time, not listening to me telling them to do things like get their shoes on, brush their teeth or that breakfast was over even though they wanted to tarry longer at the table.    I was a calm parent all day, but they pushed it one too many times and I lost my temper at them.  Tomorrow, I told them, they were on their own.   If they didn't get ready in time, they would go to school without clothes, or breakfast or shoes, etc.  I was mad and I yelled at them, telling them that I was tired of being told I was "mean" because I was telling them things they didn't want to hear or do and that just because they didn't get to do everything they wanted when they wanted, I was not a mean parent.  As I turned to leave the room for the night, my son said, "mom, you have serious parenting issues."   He lost his entire week's allowance for the comment.   Lately, he's taken to taking jabs at people that are completely unacceptable.   He did this to my father earlier this week.   He's going to have a lot of consequences coming to him if he doesn't learn some respect.