All posts by Peter

Something New from School: Part II

Family Life, Jon

Jon also brought home the flu. It was a goodie too. From Friday night to mid-Sunday he had a low-to-mid-grade fever and a glazed look. And zero appetite.

On Saturday, we put an armchair near the TV with his bench as an ottoman, covered him with a blanket and gave him a remote. Generally Jon wouldn’t stay in this position for even five minutes, but that’s how he sat for the entire day, minus time at his computer. Having refused to take naps from age 3, he stayed awake as long as he could, and fell asleep shortly into his bedtime story (for the second time in his life).

Having become a student of the TV remote in the summer was a real bonus; Jon could do what he wanted, and we didn’t need to hover quite so close.

We knew something was up mid-Sunday when he suddenly started laughing at his videos: sure enough, the fever was gone. His sudden improvement tempted us to send his to school the next day, but because it’s a bad thing to send a contagious kid to school in general, and to Jon’s school in particular, we decided to keep him home another day.

It probably was the right thing to do. That said, Jon showed no real sign of sickness other than the occasional cough (mostly in the evening), but Laura and I had come down with the bug on Sunday night, and were engulfed simultaneously in all the fabulous symptoms that Jon had had. And we had to keep up with him. It was awful. But it’s done now. Jon’s at school, we’re on the upswing.

Still, wash your hands after you read this post.

Ack! His teacher just called and he’s coughing a lot. I’m off to get him.

Addendum: For those who thought we had got our flu shot, Rick Mercer’s Monday Report explains it best in this video clip.

Cooking Fun

Cool Stuff

It’s in it’s sixth season, so why hasn’t anybody told me about Alton Brown and his show Good Eats before??!! I only just discovered it. Clearly I’m not holding up my end in the flipping channels department.

I just love the mix of wacky humour, cooking and food science. To my mind, his educational style is not unlike James Burke’s take on science history. Just a little more wacky. And with food. Mmmm.

Reading Update

Jon

I forgot to mention that about three weeks ago, Jon moved out of the three pre-primers and into a 150 page reading primer. The type size is slightly smaller again, but it’s the leading (the spacing between the lines) that is causing some stress. If Jon isn’t totally focused, he tends to lose his spot and jump from the line he is on. I know this is common for beginner readers, but it’s exacerbated by the cortical visual impairment: it’s is easier to see something if the visual field around it is empty. So we’ll have to proceed and see where we get.

One of the many “not-quite, but kind-of-like” metaphors for CVI is that it’s like looking at the world through a moving, rotating piece of Swiss cheese. It’s fascinating to watch Jon read, as he is constantly changing distance from the page, cocking his head and changing angles. Sometimes you’d swear he was looking at the other page! Anything to keep the words in view.

Lately the at home readings have been quite stressful for Jon, probably since he’s exhausted from school. Thursday’s late afternoon session took 40 minutes, including whining and attempted evasion, whereas at school, fresh and no-nonsense, Jon did the same text in 12 minutes on Friday morning.

Laura, his teacher and I had a chat about that and we’ve decide that for the time being, Jon won’t have to do reading homework from the textbook, but only from supplementals he’s being assigned. If he volunteers for more, fine, but the whole idea is to reduce the stress and anxiety of reading.


Here’s the a page from his current assignment, that he won’t necessarily be reading with us anymore. How will I find out what becomes of Joey?

His teacher thinks that this frustration, and certain evasions she’s seen, shows that we are approaching his current skill level in vision, in vocabulary and in reading skills. Which is great. The great strides of late have taken him to where he needs to be. Now the books will be introducing up to 10 new words a story. I personally think that the vision is slightly hampering things in an absolute sense, but given how far he’s come in the 60 days since he was reading 48 point type, I can’t argue with how we’ve done so far.

In the meantime, we’ll ease off on the gas a little for now. We want him to like to read. Especially if it’s always going to require effort.

Chelsea

Family Life

On Friday, we headed up to Paul and Judy Mason’s house in Chelsea, across the river from Ottawa near the Gatineaus.


Paul and Willa and one too many genetic experiments.

Paul and Judy have built their house (and built with their own hands, aside from some sub-contracting, as in pouring concrete) in a valley right by Chelsea creek. In the winter, Paul really gets busy.


Judy and Jamie in their gorgeous kitchen.

First there’s the skating rink. Holy cow. It’s huge. Paul can correct me, but I figure it must be 20 by 45 feet at least. With boards. And a plywood cartoon goalie to cover the net for half-rink games. And lights strung up for nighttime games. And a clubhouse, a space-heater-heated dressing room in the garage that has benches and hockey poster and little cubbies.


View of the rink from the warm kitchen. It was -20° out there, but we did have a good game with a bunch of local kids.

Then there’s the luge run. A few years ago, I guess the kids had started tobogganing down the snow plowed off the driveway. The pile maybe got up to 8 or 9 feet high. They were drifting near to hitting the house, so Paul built a bank in the slide, and gradually it became a two-curve luge run. Last year, it was moved to its current, more extreme location…up the hill in the forest, which means Paul has to build a bridge across a drainage ditch each year.


Jon lives for luge.

Last year the first turn was–how to say it gently?–more wall than a bank, with many many poor lugers, myself included, not being able to make it beyond in one go.


Paul and Jamie come out of the new and improved first turn at a bad angle, and carnage is imminent.

The architect for this year’s run has obviously learned a thing or two from the red stains on last year’s course. It is fast, and well-balanced, with just enough variation for a little carnage.

Click to watch some carnage unfold.

We had a fabulous weekend. Jon and Laura especially, since I came down with a stomach bug thing just in time to miss a second day of luging on Sunday. On the way back, we stopped by our friends in Gananoque where Jon got his first TV of the weekend, and he discovered…well, why don’t I let him tell it? This is from his creative writing yesterday:

“I went to Ottawa on a trip with my dad and my mom. I went loojing. I went to visit tom and caroll. I wotched the wether chanel in french.”

Oh boy! Now Jon is hooked not only on The Weather Network, but on its French twin M�t�o M�dia.

Thanks so much to Paul and Judy and Jamie and Willa, the staff at the beautiful Mason Resort.

Bad choices

Jon

Uh oh, trouble at school. Jon refused to stand up straight while in his stander, folding himself over and lying on the table. After constant reminders, then warnings, he had to be timed out. After a couple of minutes, his teacher Tami went over to discuss things and asked if he understood why he was timed out.
“Yes,” he replied, “Tami made bad choices.”
“WHO made bad choices?”
Pause.
“I made bad choices.”
Later in the day, same deal, this time Jon continually jackknifed over his wheelchair, despite cajolling and warnings. Time out again. Discussion. “Tami made bad choices.” Here we go again.
Jon’s teacher suggests that it’s regression, which you sometimes see when you have gains elsewhere (and we are seeing wonderful reading and improved spoken sentences).
The theme of the day continued. When Jon came home on the bus he had gnawed a good sized chunk out of the book he was reading, something he hasn’t done in a year and a half. Sigh. I gently pointed out that means no book tomorrow. His shoulders sagged.
Inside, I asked him if any bad choices had been made today.
He immediately looked at me and said “Tami made bad choices!”
Rinse. Lather. Repeat.
On the good news side, his lousy day did not hurt his reading or spelling homework–a year ago a day like this topped off by book restrictions would have resulted in crying and tantrums. He seems to have compartmentalized these things.

Three-Wheel Drive!

Jon

We were feeling a bit snowbound just after Christmas. Not everybody shovels their sidewalk and the snow doesn’t have to get too deep to be too much for a standard wheelchair (even a new purple one). So we brought out the Winter Wheelchair (AKA a Baby Jogger Special Needs Junior Outdoor Mobility Device. I’m not kidding.) This thing can plow through pretty much anything. Last year I even took it up Riverdale hill a dozen times while tobogganing with Jon (if I do it this year, it’ll probably be the last–he’s heavy and it’s steep!)

It’s not a perfect solution…Jon’s posture isn’t too great just sitting in the hammock (and it does affect him afterwards). But he loves the outdoors and we were all getting a little grumpy, and the crankiness literally diappears when we get out to the front step. It is a big emotional deal. So it’s all a balance.

Uh-oh. In the course of linking this post I notice that the Baby Jogger company has relegated the Special Needs series to their Non-Current Model section. Implying that it might be discontinued. This is a concern because within a couple of years, our guy is going to need a bigger Winter Wheelchair (ie a Baby Jogger Special Needs Outdoor Mobility Device). I hope they aren’t doing anything drastic.