[Nfb-krafters-korner] You're full of great ideas!

Wed Jun 15 16:43:33 UTC 2011

I had fun with American bricks in my childhood.  They have bumps on the top and holes on the bottom.  They interlock.  They can over lap or stack.  They come with windows, doors and even tringles to make a roof!

Terry P.

-----Original Message-----
From: Annette Carr [mailto:amcarr1 at verizon.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2011 8:11 PM
To: 'List for blind crafters and artists'
Subject: Re: [Nfb-krafters-korner] You're full of great ideas!

Hi Dick,

I love hearing how Willy is doing, so keep the updates coming.

Off of the top of my head I do not have any suggestions for your summer "big messy" projects, but I did want to offer some ideas about the sliding puzzle pieces.

Are you familiar with the rubber shelf liner material?  It is bumpy.
Assemble the puzzle pieces on a piece of the shelf liner.

Glue the shelf liner material on the back of the puzzle pieces.  If they still slide around, then assemble these rubber-backed pieces on another piece of shelf liner.

Add a strip of sticky-backed magnetic tape to the back of the puzzle pieces and then assemble the puzzle on a metal surface.

As far as working with blocks, show Willy how to build a pyramid.  This will not fall over as easy as he learns how to gently touch things.  

Starting out with bigger blocks and working toward smaller blocks.

Work on building towers of blocks.  Start with 3 rectangles next to one another.  Place a second layer of 3 rectangles on top of the first but laying perpendicular.  Keep adding layers that alternate the direction of the blocks.  See how high you can make the tower.  

There is always Legos!

Annette

-----Original Message-----
From: nfb-krafters-korner-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:nfb-krafters-korner-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Dick Carlson
Sent: Tuesday, June 14, 2011 4:44 AM
To: 'List for blind crafters and artists'
Subject: [Nfb-krafters-korner] You're full of great ideas!

Hello everyone,

I sure hope all of you are doing well.  It's been a couple of weeks since I've written, but that's OK.  We've been busy.  I've been working and Willy's been finishing up school.  He's out for the summer in a couple of days, and that's great.

Luckily, he won't be idle this summer because he will be taking a few classes to work on things like his Braille and some other things I can't remember right now.  We're also working out a schedule and at some point, we'll go visit his grandparents for a bit.  

This past weekend was so bright and sunny that we spent plenty of time outside.  We go to his favorite park and take walks all the time, but I kind of had to get a little bit tough with him because for a bit, he was really reluctant to use his cane again.  He got into this thing where he didn't feel confident or good about using it.  He would say, "You can see, so you can just take me."  Again, I don't like those mixed messages.  Of course, he'll hold my arm when we're crossing streets and such, but when we go on our walks now, I have made him bring his cane or simply not gone to the park if he doesn't.  I told him that now that he was seven that he looked cooler and even older using his cane.  I want to find ways of making it fun and incorporating it into being used where ever we go.  But, this weekend, Willy used it without any fuss, and we had a good time going for our walk.  I told him that I'd challenge him to walk with me to the park without holding my hand.  He did it!

Thank you to you guys for the puzzle ideas!  I wasn't sure how he would work, as I knew that puzzles didn't really call his attention in the past.
So, I started out with a few very simple things.  I had some shapes that I just cut out and I'd cut some of those in half.  I just had him put those together.  He did OK with that.  I did these very simple puzzles that he could put together, and they worked well although he just put them together on the table.  If he somehow moved his hand, a piece would fall off or get moved, but he had fun with them.  I will probably buy a couple of them just so he could have fun and think a little bit.  Being just a bit held back or delayed, I think that thinking would be good for him, so puzzles might be fun.  I don't know.

I also have encouraged him to play more with his blocks, and he likes that.
He builds very simple things and likes doing the whole stacking them up thing, but he hates when they fall.

This weekend, he was also introduced to beads, as someone suggested.  I was able to find some pretty long pieces of string and was able to knot one end.
I got him a whole assortment of beads.big, little, different shapes, etc.
It was cool.  He loved looking at them and stringing them along that piece of string.  He had some trouble at first getting the beads through.  His coordination is a bit off at times, but he got it.  I helped him out at first, but I also had some stuff I needed to be doing, so I had him in the room while I worked.  We said that Willy's job was to string as many beads on a couple of those pieces of string.  Of course, if he got bored, then he could read his book or do something else.

I have yet to have him color a picture.  We just haven't done it yet.  I draw pictures just for a hobby, and Willy thought it would be fun to color one of my pictures.  Well, we'll have to modify that a bit so that he can color.  I guess the kids or teacher at school really weren't sure if he could do much of that, but the teacher tried anyway.  You know how those primary kinder and first grade art is.

I know it's not an art project, but he also got to see how his plant was growing and water it.  He also got to plant a new one in the garden.  He learned that the seeds went into a little hole and that they were covered with soil.  And.I have news for you guys.  He did a lot of it with me.  He got his hands and covered the area with soil and such.  This is good news because he's less leery about getting his hands dirty!!  In fact, he was in the garden, looking at the plants and rocks around the dirt and such.  

Now, you're never going to believe this, but he actually did ask me if we were going to do another big project and he wanted to know if it was going to be a messy one because that's what I had said.  I was kidding, but this kid has a good memory.  He remembers everything.  So, I played with him a bit and said that if he wanted to do another art project that was messy that it would mean having to get his hands dirty and into things.  He actually said that it was OK because we'd do it together!  How neat!!

I'll get him a thing of clay or something to start out with, huh?

So, I think what I will do is that one day a week during this summer, I'm going to put Wily to the test.  We're going to go all out and have a fun and messy art day!  So, here's where you come in, because I haven't been a kid for many years.

Could you guys share with me some of your neatest, most fun, messiest, blind friendly art projects?  I'm thinking we could make a lot of stuff with our hands and build things together as well.  We know he's worked with glue a bit now with the collage, so I want to keep that up some, and anything else.
I guess we could find a way of finger-painting, but would it mean something to him if we did that?  Hmmm.  

So, if Willy's on board, and if I'm on board, let the boys have some fun this summer!

Dick

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