[blparent] Re-Introducing Myself

Tue Oct 27 19:38:45 UTC 2009

Hello Colleen,
Glad you're back on the list.  My name is Melissa, and my husband and I have
an almost three year old named Austin.  
	There are tons of ways to teach shapes, numbers, letters, colors,
and animals.  You can get many different toys with letters, shapes, and
numbers that announce the name of the letter, shape, or number when it is
pressed.  A lot of these have different game modes where your child can
practice letter, shape, and number identification.  Some also have a color
mode where you can press one of the buttons and hear what color it is.  I
know Leap Frog, Fisher Price, and other brands have toys like this.  You can
also get magnetic letters to put on the refridgerator, letter, letter,
number, and shape puzzles, or just talk a lot about the shape and color of
different everyday objects.  There are also many animal puzzles, or you can
get animal puppets or even use stuffed animals.  The book Brown Bear Brown
Bear What Do You See? Is great because it tells the animal and the color of
the animal is being seen.  The only thing to remember about that book is
that the brown bear is on the first page, and the animal he sees is on the
next page, then the animal that animal sees is on the page after that.  I
hope that makes sense--it might not if you're not familiar with the book.
It was one of Austin's favorites, and you can get it all ready in Braille
from Seedlings Braille Books in a board book.  I was most worried about
Austin learning colors, but it just seemed like one day he knew them
correctly...  And I didn't do anything with him beyond the things I'm
describing to you.  So, I hope this is your experience as well.  (I'm also
blind as a result of LCA by the way.)
	I hope some of this helps. 
Melissa

-----Original Message-----
From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Colleen Kozubowski
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 12:17 PM
To: blparent at nfbnet.org
Subject: [blparent] Re-Introducing Myself

Hi Everyone,

My name is Colleen and I'm a blind mom from Chicago.  I was on this list
awhile back when I was pregnant and trying to plan.  Then I fell off for
awhile.  Now I hope to be back to stay.  My daughter Claire is 18 months old
and her vision is normal, as is my husband's.  My blindness is caused by
LCA.

I hope to get advice from parents whose kids are older than mine and I'm
happy to offer 18 months worth of advice to those of you with babies.  One
recommendation I definitely wanted to put out there is a company called Itzy
Bitzy.  For those of you who have not heard of them, this is a company which
sells squeaky shoes for children.

These shoes have been a godsend for me since my daughter started walking. 
They have little squeakers built into the heels that sound like dog toys. 
They are a fantastic tracking device for busy toddlers.  Claire has three
pairs and she wears them all the time.  It's a perfect way for me to know
where she is and what she's up to at all times.  Plus the shoes are really
cute - my husband has described them to me and people always comment on how
adorable they are.

The company was started by a woman who has a special needs child, so part of
the proceeds from the shoes go to help several foundations for children. 
You can see the whole selection of shoes at www.itzybitzy.com.

I do have a question for the list.  My daughter is getting to the point
where I need to start teaching her basic recognizable things.  Letters,
numbers, animals, colors, shapes, etc.  But I'm not sure how to do it.  All
of these appear in her children's books, but those are pretty inaccessible
to me.  Any suggestions?

Best,
Colleen

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