[Nfb-krafters-korner] Half way done!

[River Woman]

So great to read about the adventures of Dick and Will.

Will is like most children today. I taught children's art classes for a 
number of years, and I can assure you that almost ALL children are afraid to 
get "messy."  They have been carefully taught to avoid anything messy. That 
is an obstacle to overcome in sighted children, too.

The folding cane is a wonderful thing. Yes, I agree that he should never 
leave the house without his cane. While you have him out, you could begin to 
let him do a little walking alone, without him holding onto you for little 
bits of time, to encourage him to rely on the cane and learn to use it for 
his eyes. Our cane is our eyes, gives us information we need about the 
landscape we are walking in. He needs to learn to do this and can't do it if 
someone is physically connected with im. Just do it in little bits at a 
time, telling him you are stepping away but that you are right beside him 
and he is ok. He really needs to learn to do this himself, so he can be safe 
and can be independent eventually. It will be scary at first, but each 
little bit of time he does it, he will begin to get up his courage and feel 
good that he actually can do it.
Not only does the cane give him the clues he needs, so does the wind, and 
the sounds he is hearing, and the sense of touch that he gets from the 
sunshine, or the shade.  The cane is part of his learning to use his senses 
more.

OH, I was so amused at the singing and clapping. What fun! You two are a 
team and a good one. You are teaching him life lessons and making it fun. 
Music is certainly ART. Keep it going. One thing you could do is to have 
some CDs of music that you can sing along with, too. Look forward to more of 
your adventures. Lynda
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dick Carlson" <dick.carlson0428 at earthlink.net>
To: "List for blind crafters and artists" <nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, November 07, 2010 1:33 AM
Subject: [Nfb-krafters-korner] Half way done!


> Oh boy!  What a day.
> I had my nephew here for a good bit of the day and we had us a time.
> Trust me...there were times when I'm sure he thought his uncle Dick was 
> nuts and at one point probably even mean.  That's OK though.  He knows I 
> care about him and want the best.
>
> First of all, I know what Willy's getting as one of his Christmas 
> presents. He's going to get a straight cane that doesn't fold...maybe even 
> two, one for my house.
> He conveniently forgot to bring his cane today.  He has one of those 
> little folding canes and I thought it was in his backpack.
> He learned that sometimes, there are few obstacles that get in the way of 
> him walking freely.  He wanted to go to the park today and swing. 
> However, when I found out he didn't have his cane, we talked about how he 
> was ALWAYS going to use it when he was with me and anywhere else.
> So, we actually drove back to his house and got his cane.
> We came back and then went for our walk.
>
> I'm very tempted to try making him use it on his own now when we walk 
> together.
>
> Then came the arts and crafts.  You guys are going to need to keep on 
> inspiring me to keep these ideas happening!
>
> Willy wanted to work on the picture.  He knew where the materials were and 
> went straight for the table3 and began handing me different things.  I 
> stopped him and asked where and how he was going to put them on.  He had a 
> puzzled look on his face because he's generally been handing them to me 
> and telling me where they can go and then I end up using that glue stick 
> and putting them on for him because he found it hard to use it.  He asked 
> for the stick that pastes and I told him we didn't have it any more.  I 
> then said that he was going to begin putting the stuff on himself and that 
> we'd do some together.
> He wanted to know how, and I showed him the bottle of Elmer's glue.  He 
> wasn't sure what he was going to do with the bottle, wso we discussed how 
> we were going to try something new2.  I then said the feared 
> word..."Messy!"  He's been taught not to be at all messy at home.
>
> I began trying what you guys suggested and squirted some glue on a piece 
> of paper so that he can use his fingers.  I decided not to just put a 
> little bit that would dry quickly.  I put a good mound there.  I then told 
> him to just put his finger in it and put it on the first scrap of paper 
> we'd paste on the collage.
> He wasn't sure about it but did it though.  You should have seen him 
> simply barely use his finger tip...almost his nail.  He found it wasn't 
> working so well and asked why not.
> I then suggested he use more of his finger and more glue.  In a gentle but 
> nudging way, I took his finger and dragged it and pushed it around in it. 
> He wasn't sure if he liked it or not but then I showed him what to do.
>
> I think when we work on it tomorrow some more, he'll get more of the hang 
> of it, don't you?  We did get some stuff put on the collage and talked 
> about the various things we were putting on.  We also just cut some strips 
> of paper out because he wanted to put them around the collage as well. 
> OK.  Sure.
>
>
>
> So, now that I've begun getting him exposed to this stuff, am I doing OK 
> so far?  What do I do to proceed with this and do more of it tomorrow?  He 
> was not reluctant to doing it but was uncertain about getting that one 
> finger dirty.  In fact, he made3 sure it was that one finger, for the most 
> part.  In fact, I'm kind of tempted that when we work on it tomorrow to 
> also join him and show him that I can do it too and get my "hands dirty" 
> so to speak.  Hmmm, getting his hand dirty or at least involved more than 
> just one finger might not be such a bad idea.  I don't know.
>
> We finished art time for a while and actually did some singing.  He loves 
> music!  Neither of us play instruments and we found it was a bit hard to 
> sometimes sing songs without an instrument or something with which to keep 
> time.  Hey, music is also art, right?  We had a little lesson in rhythm. 
> Willy had a bit of a clapping lesson!  I didn't really know he hadn't been 
> taught to clap right, so we worked on singing and clapping for a little 
> bit.
>
> We then went for a hamburger before taking him home.
>
> Dick
> PS. More collage work tomorrow!
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