[stylist] Chris Kuell article in Braille Monitor

Tue Apr 3 02:43:05 UTC 2012

This was an awesome article.

Atty

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mary-Jo Lord" <mjfingerprints at comcast.net>
To: "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, April 02, 2012 6:31 PM
Subject: Re: [stylist] Chris Kuell article in Braille Monitor

> Congratulations Chris!
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Bridgit Pollpeter
> Sent: Monday, April 02, 2012 10:58 AM
> To: stylist at nfbnet.org
> Subject: [stylist] Chris Kuell article in Braille Monitor
>
> This article is in this month's Braille Monitor by our very own Chris 
> Kuell.
> Chris addresses being a parent with vision loss. It's a great article that
> will resonate with many of us. Chris is a great dad, and I find this 
> article
> very informative and valueable as I work on being a better parent myself.
> Congrats, Chris.
>
>
>
> Just Their Dad
>
> by Chris Kuell
>
> From the Editor: The following article appeared in the Winter 2012 
> Minnesota
> Bulletin, a publication of the NFB of Minnesota. It is what all blind
> parents hope for as we seek to raise our blind children and influence them
> and those around them about our capabilities. This article begins with the
> editor's note from the Bulletin:
>
> Editor's Note: This is the winner of the 2011 Metro Chapter essay contest.
>
> I received a great report from my daughter's kindergarten teacher this
> morning. Not that it was a surprise, but good to hear nonetheless. The
> teacher came over to me as Grace was busy putting away her coat and 
> backpack
> in her cubby. She said, "Grace is such a great kid. Her reading skills 
> have
> just skyrocketed in the last month. She is really getting it. And all the
> kids love her. I'll be sad when she moves on to first grade."
>
> Beaming with pride, I thanked her, made some small talk, and hugged Grace
> before walking my son to his third-grade class. There was a rousing "Hello
> Mr. Kuell!" as his teacher greeted me. "Did Nick tell you he was the
> Multiplication King?" the teacher asked. I informed her that indeed he 
> had,
> and then I gave him a hug and was on my way.
>
> Heading down the long hallway towards the door, I heard a small voice to 
> my
> side say "What's that?"
>
> Hearing no other response, I assumed the kid was talking to me. "This
> thing?" I responded. "This is my cane."
>
> "What's it for?" asked the inquisitive voice.
>
> Knowing I had only a minute before reaching the exit, I gave the simple
> answer, "My eyes don't work. I use the cane to feel where I am going."
>
> "You can't see anything?" came the astonished youngster's response.
>
> "Nope, nothing," I answered.
>
> "Oh" said the child. A few steps later, the kid gave me a cheery "Bye."
> I bid him good-bye, and then headed out of the school into the fresh air.
>
> When I lost my sight four years ago, I never could have envisioned such a
> pleasant drop-off. Amid the anxiety of losing my sight, my job, and my
> career, I felt helpless regarding raising the children. When my daughter 
> was
> born, I was blind in one eye but the other could see what a beauty she 
> was.
> By Christmas that same year everything was a blur for me; I couldn't 
> really
> make out what gifts were what. For the first time I couldn't see the joy 
> on
> my kids' faces as they opened their loot. My vision was really going
> downhill. I needed surgery on my better eye a few months later, and, while 
> I
> was hopeful, there was still lingering doubt. On the day before the
> operation, I tried to hold my daughter still, and I got about four inches
> from her face to try to see her as best I could. Being a kid, she thought 
> I
> was playing, so she squirmed and rolled, and I never did get a good look 
> at
> her. My son had just turned five at the time, and he was a little more
> cooperative. That was the last time I ever saw my children visually.
>
> So how does one move from this heart-wrenching melodrama to the nice 
> morning
> I had today? How can a blind parent help to educate his or her children 
> and
> give a positive impression to others? It's not that hard.
> The answer is through persistence, creativity, and a positive attitude.
>
> You have to believe you can do it. This is fairly logical--thousands of
> other people do it every day. You have to work at the essential blind
> skills; they are necessary to do what you want to in life, plus mastering
> them will build your confidence for tackling new stuff. And you have to be
> creative. Unless you have a blind friend at your side 24/7, you are going 
> to
> have to figure stuff out on your own. Remember, necessity is the mother of
> invention.
>
> My wife and I both worked with our son to teach him the alphabet and basic
> phonics, and at age four he was beginning to read simple things.
> Now he excels at all his schoolwork, which we attribute to his early
> reading. So, when Grace turned three, I tried to figure out a way that we
> could give her the same head start. I took some old business cards and 
> wrote
> a letter in bold marker on the back of the card. I used my slate and 
> stylus
> to make the letter in Braille, so in effect I made blind-friendly flash
> cards. We used to play games in which she would memorize the letters. 
> After
> she got the upper-case letters down, we did lower case and started working
> on sounds. This took a while longer, but soon she caught on. A year or so
> ago I started making word cards, emphasizing families of sounds. For
> example, at, cat, bat, rat, and sat are the "at" family. We also worked on
> the basic, much-encountered words like the, and, but, you, etc. In time 
> she
> developed a good sight vocabulary. My wife and son often read with her, 
> and
> together we listened to books on tape. As her teacher said, in the last
> month everything has really started to click, and she is reading.
>
> I taught both my son and daughter basic addition and subtraction at the
> kitchen table and in the bathtub. I started by having them learn to
> count-fingers and toes, crackers, whatever. Then in the kitchen I'd give
> them a few grapes, have them count them, then give them some more and 
> count
> again. This quickly evolved into an addition game. After that came
> subtraction. If I gave them twelve cheese doodles and they ate seven, how
> many were left? This stuff was reinforced during bath time when I quizzed
> them with problems and they tried to answer both correctly and quickly. My
> son is very good at doing math in his head, while Grace is still relying 
> on
> her fingers a lot. But that is OK; she understands the concepts and can do
> problems more and more without manipulatives. By a combination of a lot of
> innate intelligence and bathtub grilling, Nicholas has memorized the
> multiplication table and now reigns king of the third grade.
>
> Finding games to play with kids takes a bit of imagination and a lot of
> patience. Playing with cars and trucks, setting up blocks and bowling them
> over with a tennis ball just came naturally for me. Doing arts and crafts 
> is
> a little trickier, but I have a sighted memory of most things, so with a 
> pad
> of colored construction paper, some scissors, and white glue we can create
> just about anything. Both of my kids and I love playing cards, which is
> possible using Braille playing cards. I don't know too many card games, 
> and
> I soon became weary of Go Fish. So at a very early age my kids learned to
> play poker, which provided a natural opportunity to work once again on 
> their
> math skills.
>
> The possibilities for learning and having fun with kids as a blind or
> visually impaired adult are limited only by your desire and imagination.
> My kids are well adjusted and smart and overall just great people. They
> bring me a great deal of pride and help me in many ways to become a better
> person. I honestly believe I would not have come as far as I have if not 
> for
> the challenge of being a good dad to Nick and Grace. To them I'm not a 
> blind
> guy or the man with the long white stick; I'm just their dad, and a very
> lucky one at that.
>
>
> Sincerely,
> Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
> Read my blog at:
> http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/
>
> "History is not what happened; history is what was written down."
> The Expected One- Kathleen McGowan
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