[blindkid] never stands still

Heather craney07 at rochester.rr.com
Fri Jun 11 17:39:36 UTC 2010


No worries, that is great, very helpful.  even with the hastle factor, I 
think springs would be better for us.  The one we have has a bungy chord 
that you are to wrap all of the way around the frame, while threading it 
through ilets.  We worked at it for three tries, over thirty minutes with a 
lot of four letter words, sweat dripping into eyes and pinched fingers, and 
it would only go half way around.  I'm pretty strong, and Jim is a United 
States Marine for crying out loud.  The only way we even got it up has been 
through hanging a bag with two heavy bowling balls from one end while 
securing it to a beam in the basement to stretch the blasted thing out for 
two days strait.  .  Springs,that need replacement, sound more my thing. 
The jumpaline thing, I should qualify.  It's great if you have one child 
only, who starts using it at 12 to 24 months of age, with supervision, and 
you don't own any cats, and you find it on clearance.  We found a 100 dollar 
sort for about 30 and figured if it popped we wouldn't be out that much, and 
it has held up for six months thus far.  Once we have more children though, 
we will get one of those larger net enclosed models from the great site you 
sent a link for.

It just strikes me that as a sighted father of a blind daughter, just how 
much you have done and thought of to do for her physical education.  Your 
suggestions, resources and thought process are miles ahead of some OT people 
I know who have masters degrees and certification for both Early Childhood 
Development and Occupational Tharapy.  My sighted dad's big thing was art. 
He gave me an apreciation for colours, shadows and light, adapted art 
projects that I don't know any other blind person to have ever done with 
artistic and efficent result.  He really has a gift that way, and I think 
you do regarding the physical education and movement component.  Your 
daughter is lucky to have you.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Holloway" <rholloway at gopbc.org>
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for parents of blind children)" 
<blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, June 11, 2010 1:38 AM
Subject: Re: [blindkid] never stands still


Sure,

The best we've found so far (our fifth small trampoline) has been our
Bazoongi 55" Junior Combo Trampoline with Teclon Pad. (That's the
official name on the web site.) I mention this with some reservation
because we have had some problems with it, but it  has been better
than our first four... All of these small units seem to be within a
foot or less from the floor.

It has steel springs which I thought would solve everything over our
previous elastic and bungee "springs". Well, the springs mount into
little slots in the frame. Jump enough and the edge of the punched
slot and the hook of the spring rub one another. The holes get longer
while the springs get thinner. After about six months, springs began
to break. (The hook ends simply snap off.) They sent replacements but
then I realized the frame was getting damaged (slots tearing to the
center of the frame, my oversight-- could not see that before I took
it apart to add the springs though). They sent a new frame but then I
realized they sent the wrong frame (too small, their mistake). They
sent another frame but then I realized we were short on springs from
the first batch (also their mistake). Finally they sent 40 more
springs and I replaced every one again. All this took several weeks
and I expect to have springs failing again this fall sometime and
suspect the frame could be getting unsafe a few months after that.
People at Bazoongi were very nice and polite and all parts and
shipping to date have been free but the hassle factor is still pretty
high.

Bottom line is that any of these $100-range products simply seem not
to be designed to last for a terribly long time.

The Intex Jump-O-Lene (I assume that's the one?) looks fun, but my
first reaction is the sides look low enough that a jumper could vault
over the side. Also, ultimately most of these blow-up units spring
leaks and deflate. This becomes a huge pain, re-inflating over and
again until the leaks are so fast that you can't use them anymore.
Adult weight may also pop them if you have to crawl in to rescue a
child with a "boo-boo", for example. Usually patch kits are included
but these often fail to stop the leaks properly. The trampoline above
has about 6 feet of surround netting so there's no chance of that,
though you can fall out the door if the netting tears up or the "door"
is not closed.

For something smaller than the Bazoongi we have, I'd probably look on
their same page at the 48"  Bazoongi® Bouncer. (Comes in pink or
orange camo.) This one is $100. (The next one up is only $7 more.) The
key difference is that the 55" unit has no actual handle but tall
sides with netting while the 48" has no surround netting but does have
a padded, "inverted-U" handle. Smaller kids could probably do better
with the handle, but if they do let go, there is no safety net so
think of that when you set it up. All of these small units (like the
48" and the 55") seem to be within a foot or less from the floor.
Carpet with a pad is better than a hard floor. Pillows around it might
help, but put them out far enough to catch a rebounding child.

Here is the Bazoongi page:
http://www.bazoongi.com/trampoline.htm

You could also go in the inflatable bounce house direction of you have
enough space and can tolerate the noise of the blower. Honestly, I'd
want a basement room to use these inside but they are great to softly
stop a fall and the surround nets are strong. However they'd
completely fill most of our living rooms, especially when you factor
in the blower that has to run all the time it is up. Better for most
of us to find outdoor space but then you have winter snow and summer
mosquitos to factor in or whatever local frustrations mother nature
will throw your way.

I hope that helps a bit.

If anyone else has some better recommendations, please jump in with
them. I know of more durable solutions but they are in the larger
trampoline and bounce house realm. They require a chunk of outdoor
space and are from several hundred dollars to up in the $1000-plus
range for even the lower end offerings in that arena.

Richard



On Jun 10, 2010, at 11:31 PM, Heather wrote:

> Richard, this might be off topic, but since you brought it up, could  you 
> please recommend a good quality small toddler trampoline and  then maybe 
> one for slightly larger kids?  We baught Jeremy one when  he out grew his 
> baby jumper at around 12 months old, but the one we  got was a pain to set 
> up, has very little bounce, is very small  considering the amount of space 
> it takes up and is already showing  signs of ware and tare and Jeremy only 
> jumps about thirty to forty  minutes a day.  It's funny that you mention 
> all that your daughter  does on hers.  Jeremy loves to watch TV, listen to 
> the radeo, sing,  talk to himself, or his checkered towel, his version of 
> a security  blanket, even look at books or pet the cat who has learned 
> that for  pats he needs to stand on the table where Jeremy's bouncing hand 
> will pat, but not hit him while meowing up a storm to go with the  toddler 
> babble.  I am always having to stop him from bringing his  sippy cup or 
> finger food snack up there with him.  In a pinch for  time with Jeremy in 
> a pissy mood I have even managed diaper changes  and clothing changes 
> while he jumped lightly.  lol  He never jumps  for more than five minutes 
> at a time, but he will do it through out  the day, and if thwarted by time 
> constraints, it is clear that his  mood and receptiveness to learning 
> suffers if he can't jump.  His  other thing, that I will post about and 
> ask some thing about later  is going up and down and up and down our 
> stairs for up to an hour  and forty minutes with various games and 
> make-believe employed while  doing it.  So, second the trampoline 
> recommendation, add the  recommendation for something called a jumpaline, 
> a mini bounce house  for the living room that Jeremy also recommends, as 
> he has one of  those at Jim's house and the trampoline at mine, , and 
> request  recommendations for spacific trampolines that pass the Kendra 
> ceal  of approval.
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard Holloway" <rholloway at gopbc.org
> >
> To: <empwrn at bellsouth.net>; "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List,(for  parents 
> of blind children)" <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2010 2:18 PM
> Subject: Re: [blindkid] never stands still
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