Leprechauns, Books and O&M

Every kid should be this happy to go to school.
This was taken just before we leave in the morning.

The Lepon
Tom has so much fun in school but I also feel he is learning a lot because of the way they make concepts come alive for the children. For example, a sighted child sees leprechauns in advertisements and commercials in the weeks before St. Patrick's Day, but how do I explain a leprechaun to Tommy? I'm on the lookout for a little leprechaun doll and story to help with that. I always find that books are a great way to introduce more abstract concepts in a way that makes sense to children.

Well the other day Tom came home from school talking about a "lepon." After reading his daily note from his teacher I figured out that lepon was leprechaun. They have been playing chase the leprechaun at school and on Friday Tom got to be the leprechaun. How cute is that? He must have loved it because I heard all about the lepon all weekend.

In other exciting news, we got our Book Angel books from Seedlings. Make sure you sign up every year for two free Braille books. This is a great way to grow your Braille library and now is a good time to order a book to slip into Easter baskets later in the month!

Books from Seedlings.org

A Quick Brailler Update!
Tonight I sat down with Marty the SMART Brailler again. It was semi-successful. Tomorrow I am making arrangements to have some local experts come and show me how it's done! I can't wait. Tom and I are still at the pre-Braille stage so our fumbling should not reflect on the SMART Brailler. It's obviously one cool piece of machinery and I believe I am the problem here. Tomorrow we take Marty for a real test drive and I'll have all the details and some video here.

O&M Progress
Want another sign of a cool school? Each night Tom comes home with a write up of his day. It tells me what classes he had, what he liked the best, and what his teacher is proud of him for that day. They also tell me about his potty training progress and what he ate that day. It so much easier to understand your child when you are clued-in on what the did during the day. They leave a spot at the bottom to write notes to the parents and leave a space for us to send notes to them.

Last week I wrote a little note on his daily write up sheet and asked how his Orientation & Mobility instruction was going. Tom already had one year of O&M under his belt from working his Early Intervention TVI (Teacher of the Visually Impaired)/O&M, which is not very common. Most children do not start cane instruction until they are older.

Tommy working with his old O&M teacher last summer (2012).

I got a nice write up from his O&M teacher that told me what they have been working on and invited me to come in and observe an O&M lesson. I hope I can take him up on that offer soon.