Thank you for praying for my son's recovery. It's very much appreciated. He's well on the road to recovery as I type this post.
We were at the hospital bright and early yesterday to have the paeditrician check my son. His temperature at the clinic was 38.3C even though I gave him panadol and Volatren (a suppository) a few hours prior. The Dr reckons it's the stomach flu which on average clears in 3 days. My son was so tired from poor sleep the night before that he had dozed off on the way home.
When he woke after an hour's nap, he started complaining about his tummy. I quickly started him on his medicines.
That was the start of what seemed like endless rounds of visiting the toilet, washing his bum, drying him, applying a nappy rash cream, putting on a diaper (I'm not keen on handwashing lots of soiled underwear), putting on his pants, and repeating the whole cycle again and again!
I think he must have poo'd about 3-4 times each waking hour yesterday. Seriously.
I started to panic when there were bits of blood in each watery stool deposit in his diaper. So I brought him to see a nearby GP (a reliable one) with the soiled diaper, cos his paed was in a meeting. She agreed to take a stool sample for culture but thinks it's a case of a rather bad stomach flu going around.
The GP herself has a mild case of the stomach flu and she recently saw a few kids who had it bad. My aunt from Australia who's back for a visit, caught it on Monday. We just heard that her friend who lives in TTDI had it bad with vomitting, diarrhoea and bad spasms.
My poor son was suffering and I couldnt help ease his pain. I gave him all the medicines - Colimix, Buscopan, Smecta, and heavy doses of my probiotic, LactoGG. Yet, nothing could soothe him. He was constantly saying "my tummy is not well" and whining. Nothing could distract him from the discomfort.
By night time, it became "pain....pain...my tummy is painful". I felt so helpless. He tried so many times but couldn't fall asleep because of the pain. After praying about it, it came to me that it might be gastric pain. I gave him my Gaviscon (thank goodness his paed replied my sms and gave the ok!) and that temporarily soothed him.
Middle of the night, the diaper leaked badly which required changing the bedsheet, the dust mite protector, washing him, washing his pants, putting on a new diaper, washing off the poo from the bedlinen, soaking it in anti-bacterial liquid, wiping the toilet floor...I was so thankful that I had a helper!
He required a few more doses of Gaviscon before dawn but at least both of us got a few hours of interrupted sleep.
This morning, I simply had to send off the comforter to the dobi, and buy some Clorox wipes. I was not taking any chances seeing that it was quite contagious and proceeded to disinfected his bedroom floor and walls (my helper accidently swiped the soiled linen on the wall) and toilet floor.
I'm so relieved that he's better today. His stools are slowly forming. There's significantly less complaining. His appetite is picking up. I'm no longer giving him any fever med. Now, it is my turn to take panadol - body aches and headache! LOL
Friday, January 28, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Diarrhoea & Fever
He recently recovered from a cold which saw him stay home for the past two weeks. Today, he has come down with a fever and a bad tummy. He might also be starting a runny nose (it's so slight that I'm not sure if he is). From what I hear, it seems like quite a few people are falling ill, but I do not know about his classmates.
He hadn't been sleeping well since Sunday. Each night he wakes up at least twice each night, coughing a little, then crying and vomitting, and having a hard time getting back to sleep.
I'm disappointed that he's sick again so soon. I feel he's missing out so much on opportunities to socialise with his classmates and to build his confidence. I'm not so worried about the academic side cos I believe he's still on par with the others (about average).
He only has about 3 months to go before he sits for an assessment by an international school, and about 6 months to go for another assessment by another international school. I'm getting anxious. I can do my part and help him with the academic side but not so much the social skills and confidence building if he keeps falling ill regularly.
I love him lots, but I'm also not looking forward to nursing a cranky monkey so soon again.
At least he's finally completed the last 2 HBOT sessions yesterday. I was looking forward to doing other things like Neurosuit, music, CST, speech therapy, and a maths enrichment programme. Guess those will have to wait...again.
Please do pray for a speedy and complete recovery, for peaceful sleep, and for a less cranky mood! CNY is just several days away and we have a flight to catch!
He hadn't been sleeping well since Sunday. Each night he wakes up at least twice each night, coughing a little, then crying and vomitting, and having a hard time getting back to sleep.
I'm disappointed that he's sick again so soon. I feel he's missing out so much on opportunities to socialise with his classmates and to build his confidence. I'm not so worried about the academic side cos I believe he's still on par with the others (about average).
He only has about 3 months to go before he sits for an assessment by an international school, and about 6 months to go for another assessment by another international school. I'm getting anxious. I can do my part and help him with the academic side but not so much the social skills and confidence building if he keeps falling ill regularly.
I love him lots, but I'm also not looking forward to nursing a cranky monkey so soon again.
At least he's finally completed the last 2 HBOT sessions yesterday. I was looking forward to doing other things like Neurosuit, music, CST, speech therapy, and a maths enrichment programme. Guess those will have to wait...again.
Please do pray for a speedy and complete recovery, for peaceful sleep, and for a less cranky mood! CNY is just several days away and we have a flight to catch!
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Mama, I love you
My son was in an incredibly excellent mood today. Perhaps he had a good rest last night.
Perhaps it's also because he has now fully recovered from his cold. I totally stopped his Promethazine and Clarinase today. There wasn't any sign of a runny nose, and but he did have a slightly phelgmy voice.
It's definitely a long while since he was this cheerful for an entire day. It was a welcomed change to the past week and a half, or two, of crankiness...and weeks and weeks of tiredness!
He was happily running as fast as he could along the pedestrian path between the wet market and the parked car.
He happily accepted a lollipop from the optician, even though we were there merely to accompany my aunt.
He was laughing lots at home - pushing the large button to make the toy train spin round; kicking a ball all over the place; banging large empty biscuit tins...
He didn't protest when it was time to brush his teeth, to shower, to eat, to change into his pyjamas.
He was very focused on what I attempted to teach him today. He still requires some reinforcement on the concept of a number being smaller than another number (he understands bigger, not smaller). At the moment, at the beginnng of each session, I still need to do a few examples of "smaller" before he is able to get it right consistently.
However I was extremely pleased that he achieved the other learning objective I set out to do with him today - to identify even numbers beyond 10. I had attempted to teach him this many many months ago after he knew that even numbers are quantities that could be paired up (montessori way of teaching) and after 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 became "Key Instant Recall Facts" for him, but I just couldn't make any headway even after trying many ways of presenting the lesson. So, I left it for many months and decided to try it today....and he got it! (I'll have to write a separate post about that lesson)
Best of all, he has swapped his frequent "I'm so tired" of the past weeks to "I love you"! He must have said it close to 50 times today!
If I could bottle up whatever that made him this happy today, I would ...and have him take it everyday! LOL
Perhaps it's also because he has now fully recovered from his cold. I totally stopped his Promethazine and Clarinase today. There wasn't any sign of a runny nose, and but he did have a slightly phelgmy voice.
It's definitely a long while since he was this cheerful for an entire day. It was a welcomed change to the past week and a half, or two, of crankiness...and weeks and weeks of tiredness!
He was happily running as fast as he could along the pedestrian path between the wet market and the parked car.
He happily accepted a lollipop from the optician, even though we were there merely to accompany my aunt.
He was laughing lots at home - pushing the large button to make the toy train spin round; kicking a ball all over the place; banging large empty biscuit tins...
He didn't protest when it was time to brush his teeth, to shower, to eat, to change into his pyjamas.
He was very focused on what I attempted to teach him today. He still requires some reinforcement on the concept of a number being smaller than another number (he understands bigger, not smaller). At the moment, at the beginnng of each session, I still need to do a few examples of "smaller" before he is able to get it right consistently.
However I was extremely pleased that he achieved the other learning objective I set out to do with him today - to identify even numbers beyond 10. I had attempted to teach him this many many months ago after he knew that even numbers are quantities that could be paired up (montessori way of teaching) and after 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 became "Key Instant Recall Facts" for him, but I just couldn't make any headway even after trying many ways of presenting the lesson. So, I left it for many months and decided to try it today....and he got it! (I'll have to write a separate post about that lesson)
Best of all, he has swapped his frequent "I'm so tired" of the past weeks to "I love you"! He must have said it close to 50 times today!
If I could bottle up whatever that made him this happy today, I would ...and have him take it everyday! LOL
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Switched on
He has only 2 more sessions to go for the Hyperbaric treatment, which ought to have been completed last Wednesday, but didn't because he caught a cold.
Actually, he should have done a session a day continuously for 6 days a week, every week until 40 sessions were up. Instead, he caught a cold in November which lasted 3 weeks, and then there was a week of Neurosuit (pre-planned weeks in advance) which meant there was a month's break after session number 18. When we picked up where we left off and had another 20 sessions in a row, he fell sick again.
He's still sick with a runny nose and a bit of a cough despite medicine and keeping him away from school. I dont know when his runny nose will stop, but I hope it's soon just so that I can finish the 2 remaining sessions, and get on with other things!
Before he fell sick the 2nd time, I was undecided whether to add on more HBOT sessions. I was very tempted to add on to make it a series of uninterrupted 40 sessions ("more is better" syndrome!).
But now that he's sick again, I have decided not to. It's so tiring. Also, it's because I suspect that it might have made him a bit hot headed (more impatient than his usual self) and hyper (he was bouncing off the walls after several sessions!)
As it is, I'm very pleased with the positive results achieved from the sessions. We noticed the following recent progress since he started in late Oct:
Cognitive - He seems more "switched on". Keen to learn, and to play. A bit more "normal" in some ways e.g. he looks for toys to play with when I'm not doing an activity with him. Previously, he'd wait for me to direct his activities. Also, now when he asks for permission to play, he rejects my offer of therapy based activities or learning based activities thinly disguised as play! LOL. His appetite for books has grown! He goes through 10 story books a week (thank goodness he loves the library books!).
Concentration - He's able to stay focused as I read through an entire story book with him.
Speech - He talks more frequently and there's improvement in clarity too.
Self care - He went through a phase, before he fell sick, where he'd feed himself most of the time (lunches and dinners). He'd make a big mess but that's already an improvement from seldom feeding himself.
Response time - He's physically moving around faster. At times he was bouncing off the wall, which is not so good! His thinking is moving a bit faster too.
Fine motor - he's less spastic, a bit more flexible with his hands and fingers. He's able to hold and drink from an ordinary ceramic mug filled with water (shows his strength). He's able to use a pair of scissors to cut a short straight line by himself! He's now learning to cut zig-zag lines. His control of the pencil has improved a bit where he now doesn't use the pencil grip anymore.
His confidence has improved too but that's probably an indirect result of HBOT and more of a direct result of the other activities he did.
There's still a lot more he has to improve on because when compared to his peers, I still notice a difference. But, I am definitely happy with the progress as a result of HBOT.
Actually, he should have done a session a day continuously for 6 days a week, every week until 40 sessions were up. Instead, he caught a cold in November which lasted 3 weeks, and then there was a week of Neurosuit (pre-planned weeks in advance) which meant there was a month's break after session number 18. When we picked up where we left off and had another 20 sessions in a row, he fell sick again.
He's still sick with a runny nose and a bit of a cough despite medicine and keeping him away from school. I dont know when his runny nose will stop, but I hope it's soon just so that I can finish the 2 remaining sessions, and get on with other things!
Before he fell sick the 2nd time, I was undecided whether to add on more HBOT sessions. I was very tempted to add on to make it a series of uninterrupted 40 sessions ("more is better" syndrome!).
But now that he's sick again, I have decided not to. It's so tiring. Also, it's because I suspect that it might have made him a bit hot headed (more impatient than his usual self) and hyper (he was bouncing off the walls after several sessions!)
As it is, I'm very pleased with the positive results achieved from the sessions. We noticed the following recent progress since he started in late Oct:
Cognitive - He seems more "switched on". Keen to learn, and to play. A bit more "normal" in some ways e.g. he looks for toys to play with when I'm not doing an activity with him. Previously, he'd wait for me to direct his activities. Also, now when he asks for permission to play, he rejects my offer of therapy based activities or learning based activities thinly disguised as play! LOL. His appetite for books has grown! He goes through 10 story books a week (thank goodness he loves the library books!).
Concentration - He's able to stay focused as I read through an entire story book with him.
Speech - He talks more frequently and there's improvement in clarity too.
Self care - He went through a phase, before he fell sick, where he'd feed himself most of the time (lunches and dinners). He'd make a big mess but that's already an improvement from seldom feeding himself.
Response time - He's physically moving around faster. At times he was bouncing off the wall, which is not so good! His thinking is moving a bit faster too.
Fine motor - he's less spastic, a bit more flexible with his hands and fingers. He's able to hold and drink from an ordinary ceramic mug filled with water (shows his strength). He's able to use a pair of scissors to cut a short straight line by himself! He's now learning to cut zig-zag lines. His control of the pencil has improved a bit where he now doesn't use the pencil grip anymore.
His confidence has improved too but that's probably an indirect result of HBOT and more of a direct result of the other activities he did.
There's still a lot more he has to improve on because when compared to his peers, I still notice a difference. But, I am definitely happy with the progress as a result of HBOT.
Friday, January 14, 2011
My cranky monkey and I
My sick son has gone back to sleep and I've a chance to blog. It's 8am and I wish to go back to sleep too but my brain cant seem to shut down. I woke at 2.30am this morning, with my heart racing and got back to sleep a few hours later, only to be woken by my son at 6. So that makes for a cranky son and a cranky mama! LOL
My son fell ill a few days ago. On and off he kicks off his blanket and if that happens once too often on consecutive nights, or is coupled with poor sleep for a few nights, he falls ill.
A few nights ago, he accidentally wet his bed (seldom happens) and was restless until I realised what happened. Also, for about 2 nights recently, he woke crying badly when I wasn't with him. He gets scared when he wakes at night and I'm not there beside him. Sometimes I have a quick errand to run, or to grab a bite if I didnt eat enough at dinner, or have paperwork to do in the next room, or am on the internet but I guess, I'll have to stay in bed with him til morning, for the next few days at least.
He couldnt do his hyperbaric on Tuesday cos he complained his ear was painful. That was the earliest sign he caught a cold. He's stayed home from school since Wednesday. He was easy to care for on Wednesday, showing just slight signs of a cold. We did quite a lot of activities at home ranging from fine motor to maths and reading. The Clarintyne, Vit C, and Olbas seemed to help. But the level of crankiness started to rise in the evening, as he got more tired and hungry. I cut down his feeds as his appetite has gone down and also, I didnt want him to vomit.
Wednesday night was a totally different story. Despite giving him Clarinase before bedtime, his runny nose couldnt stop. He woke more than 10 times, needing to be carried most of the time, and at other times, he'd be tossing and turning, kicking off his blanket etc. I was so tired by Thursday morning, and so was he.
I gave him Clarinase again on Thursday morning and when that didnt work, I also gave him Afrin, a nasal drop. When that didnt stop the runny nose and cough, we went to see his peadiatrician. It was a very long wait - a record waiting time of 2 hours. Luckily I brought his toy fuel tanker and milk.
Dr said that it's a bad rhino-virus (a virus that attacks the nasal area/upper respiratory tract) and wanted to treat it aggresively. So he's now on Promethazine (that's the brown drowsy cough mixture) 3x a day, Clarinase and Afrin.
When Dr pointed out that the Promethazine would make him sleepy, I quickly said that that's probably what he needs. Without sleep, he'd only get worse (both in terms of his health and crankiness!).
He managed to take a long nap from 3-6pm yesterday, which allowed me to rest too. The med worked like a charm last night too, where he slept from 8pm to 6am without waking.
He was still cranky his morning but that's probably because he was very hungry (he had only half his dinner) and still a bit drowsy because of the med. Cranky but still wanted to play!
His med has kicked in, and he's now sound asleep. Thank goodness for drowsy medicine! Thank goodness for Panadol (that's for me cos I'm feeling sick too)! I'm now gonna try to rest with him.
Please pray for a speedy, complete recovery (my hubby hates it when my son misses school) and for peaceful sleep for all of us.
My son fell ill a few days ago. On and off he kicks off his blanket and if that happens once too often on consecutive nights, or is coupled with poor sleep for a few nights, he falls ill.
A few nights ago, he accidentally wet his bed (seldom happens) and was restless until I realised what happened. Also, for about 2 nights recently, he woke crying badly when I wasn't with him. He gets scared when he wakes at night and I'm not there beside him. Sometimes I have a quick errand to run, or to grab a bite if I didnt eat enough at dinner, or have paperwork to do in the next room, or am on the internet but I guess, I'll have to stay in bed with him til morning, for the next few days at least.
He couldnt do his hyperbaric on Tuesday cos he complained his ear was painful. That was the earliest sign he caught a cold. He's stayed home from school since Wednesday. He was easy to care for on Wednesday, showing just slight signs of a cold. We did quite a lot of activities at home ranging from fine motor to maths and reading. The Clarintyne, Vit C, and Olbas seemed to help. But the level of crankiness started to rise in the evening, as he got more tired and hungry. I cut down his feeds as his appetite has gone down and also, I didnt want him to vomit.
Wednesday night was a totally different story. Despite giving him Clarinase before bedtime, his runny nose couldnt stop. He woke more than 10 times, needing to be carried most of the time, and at other times, he'd be tossing and turning, kicking off his blanket etc. I was so tired by Thursday morning, and so was he.
I gave him Clarinase again on Thursday morning and when that didnt work, I also gave him Afrin, a nasal drop. When that didnt stop the runny nose and cough, we went to see his peadiatrician. It was a very long wait - a record waiting time of 2 hours. Luckily I brought his toy fuel tanker and milk.
Dr said that it's a bad rhino-virus (a virus that attacks the nasal area/upper respiratory tract) and wanted to treat it aggresively. So he's now on Promethazine (that's the brown drowsy cough mixture) 3x a day, Clarinase and Afrin.
When Dr pointed out that the Promethazine would make him sleepy, I quickly said that that's probably what he needs. Without sleep, he'd only get worse (both in terms of his health and crankiness!).
He managed to take a long nap from 3-6pm yesterday, which allowed me to rest too. The med worked like a charm last night too, where he slept from 8pm to 6am without waking.
He was still cranky his morning but that's probably because he was very hungry (he had only half his dinner) and still a bit drowsy because of the med. Cranky but still wanted to play!
His med has kicked in, and he's now sound asleep. Thank goodness for drowsy medicine! Thank goodness for Panadol (that's for me cos I'm feeling sick too)! I'm now gonna try to rest with him.
Please pray for a speedy, complete recovery (my hubby hates it when my son misses school) and for peaceful sleep for all of us.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
How hard is it to fill in an application form?
My husband, myself and my son first visited this particular international school back in June 2010 (http://humbledmum-myjourney.blogspot.com/2010/06/visit-to-international-school.html), having heard good things about it from another mother of a special needs boy.
Fast forward a few months to November. That same friend drops by on the off chance I'm home. She urges me to quickly submit the application form for registering my son. She heard from another parent there that there was already a waiting list.
I panicked. I scrambled to get things in order. Luckily, it wasn't the school holidays yet and he was attending class without me, thus enabling me to see to this matter.
You see, completing the application form is no simple task that can be completed in an hour or two. The form itself is 28 pages long. Among other things, it requires both parents to submit a Curriculm Vitae covering education and employment history. That was one of the easiest documents to attach to the form. The rest of the documents requested required more effort.
A recommendation letter from a non-related parent with a child currently enrolled in the school, was required. No big deal? Well, that friend of mine is super busy stay at home mum with 3 kids and no helper. She's very involved with her special needs son, and my request for her help came at a bad time. She was stressed out preparing her special needs son for the term exams. Both of us didnt know what to write in the letter. I'm thankful to her that she not only slotted in time to come up with the letter, but also the words that I think are able to touch the heart of the principal.
A doctor was required to fill in his medical history of vaccinations, and conduct a medical examination based on their check list. My son's paeditrician is a very busy doctor and you will usually need to book appointments one month in advance. I didn't have the luxury of waiting a month, so we went in one afternoon as a walk in patient, and waited and waited and waited.
Being a special needs kid, there were additional documents required. The check list for special needs kid was simple enough to fill. But I needed time to get reports from his speech therapist, his physiotherapist, and a detailed report from his kindergarten. I spent many more hours over several days getting those reports, so I was kinda busy while he was in school, on top of the other stuff I had to see to.
I wasted a few hours struggling over drafting my son's kindergarten report (yeah, I was asked to draft my son's report). Thankfully I subsequently remembered that many months ago, I had downloaded a very detailed assessment guide (UK's Early Foundation Years Assessment Guide) and got going. After 4 more hours, I ended up with a detailed 4 page report for his kindergarten teacher to review!
My advice to other parents of special needs kids who are planning to register their child in a private/international school, is to get the paperwork started early!
That was just the part on getting the application form ready. There's another long story on attempting to submit the form, and then to get an appointment to meet the principal. Even though there have been mini road blocks along the way, I believe it is worth, just to get the chance to get him into that school.
Note that from the school's viewpoint, that was just Stage 1 - Submitting the application form. I'll now have to wait until July to be called for my son to be assessed by their teachers. I had sent a prayer request to a few friends on this schooling matter, as it is a major worry for us.
The big worry is: what happens if he doesnt get through the assessment? It was only in the last few days of Dec 2010 that I found out from another parent that another international school (that is also far from home) accepts special needs kids with shadow aides. Realising that it was also affordable (a fraction of the more popular international schools), I went there last week to place him on the waiting list.
This back up plan doesnt provide any guarantees. In fact, it may be harder to get into this second school as it is a lot more popular (modern, more facilities, spacious, more reasonable fees) with a long waiting list. That school has as it's preference: non-Malaysians; existing students from it's other schools within the group; siblings of existing students; or resident of the housing estate in which the school is in. We're non of the above, and to top it off, he has a mild disability. Not much that I can do, apart from praying! God will make a way!
Fast forward a few months to November. That same friend drops by on the off chance I'm home. She urges me to quickly submit the application form for registering my son. She heard from another parent there that there was already a waiting list.
I panicked. I scrambled to get things in order. Luckily, it wasn't the school holidays yet and he was attending class without me, thus enabling me to see to this matter.
You see, completing the application form is no simple task that can be completed in an hour or two. The form itself is 28 pages long. Among other things, it requires both parents to submit a Curriculm Vitae covering education and employment history. That was one of the easiest documents to attach to the form. The rest of the documents requested required more effort.
A recommendation letter from a non-related parent with a child currently enrolled in the school, was required. No big deal? Well, that friend of mine is super busy stay at home mum with 3 kids and no helper. She's very involved with her special needs son, and my request for her help came at a bad time. She was stressed out preparing her special needs son for the term exams. Both of us didnt know what to write in the letter. I'm thankful to her that she not only slotted in time to come up with the letter, but also the words that I think are able to touch the heart of the principal.
A doctor was required to fill in his medical history of vaccinations, and conduct a medical examination based on their check list. My son's paeditrician is a very busy doctor and you will usually need to book appointments one month in advance. I didn't have the luxury of waiting a month, so we went in one afternoon as a walk in patient, and waited and waited and waited.
Being a special needs kid, there were additional documents required. The check list for special needs kid was simple enough to fill. But I needed time to get reports from his speech therapist, his physiotherapist, and a detailed report from his kindergarten. I spent many more hours over several days getting those reports, so I was kinda busy while he was in school, on top of the other stuff I had to see to.
I wasted a few hours struggling over drafting my son's kindergarten report (yeah, I was asked to draft my son's report). Thankfully I subsequently remembered that many months ago, I had downloaded a very detailed assessment guide (UK's Early Foundation Years Assessment Guide) and got going. After 4 more hours, I ended up with a detailed 4 page report for his kindergarten teacher to review!
My advice to other parents of special needs kids who are planning to register their child in a private/international school, is to get the paperwork started early!
That was just the part on getting the application form ready. There's another long story on attempting to submit the form, and then to get an appointment to meet the principal. Even though there have been mini road blocks along the way, I believe it is worth, just to get the chance to get him into that school.
Note that from the school's viewpoint, that was just Stage 1 - Submitting the application form. I'll now have to wait until July to be called for my son to be assessed by their teachers. I had sent a prayer request to a few friends on this schooling matter, as it is a major worry for us.
The big worry is: what happens if he doesnt get through the assessment? It was only in the last few days of Dec 2010 that I found out from another parent that another international school (that is also far from home) accepts special needs kids with shadow aides. Realising that it was also affordable (a fraction of the more popular international schools), I went there last week to place him on the waiting list.
This back up plan doesnt provide any guarantees. In fact, it may be harder to get into this second school as it is a lot more popular (modern, more facilities, spacious, more reasonable fees) with a long waiting list. That school has as it's preference: non-Malaysians; existing students from it's other schools within the group; siblings of existing students; or resident of the housing estate in which the school is in. We're non of the above, and to top it off, he has a mild disability. Not much that I can do, apart from praying! God will make a way!
Friday, January 7, 2011
December's craft projects
I had originally wanted to write separate posts on the many crafts I did with my son last December, but seeing it's now January and there are many more things I wish to write about, I'll instead make it brief and into just a single post.
First off, I've to state that the crafts below are not my ideas. They were obtained from various websites (and modified to suit his abilities and according to what materials I had around the house), which I've unfortunately now forgotten and thus unable to give credit appropriately. Apologies.
Next, most of the crafts below required significant input from me. My son's effort was probably 30% at most. I didnt want you to think he could do it all by himself.
Even though he didn't contribute much, I simply wanted him to see what could be achieved with his hands. I wanted to encourage him to use his fingers and hands, in a fun way. It's boring to merely cut straight lines off worksheets. Also, I hoped to show him what a bit of creativity can achieve (other people's creativity not mine!).
Christmas Toilet Paper Craft
This "family" was made from toilet paper rolls. We made one character a day. It took too long to make the first one, Santa. So my lesson learnt was to prepare the materials before hand!
As with all craft projects, I hoped to develop his fine motor skills. In this project, he helped to colour, to apply glue, to paste.
He was rather proud of the end products, which is good cos I wanted to boost his self esteem/confidence (even though it's not 100% his own effort). When Papa came home at the end of each day's work, he proudly showed them off.
Paper Bauble Craft
This paper bauble project took many days to make. We ended up with a dozen colourful baubles, and stopped when I sensed that he was bored with this project.
It was a great way to have him practice his scissoring skill. This was the FIRST time he was able to cut!
There was also quite a bit of preparation needed for his project. I cut long strips of similarly coloured magazine paper and kept in separate containers according to colour. He then had the freedom to choose which colours he wanted to work with on a particular day. His job was to snip those strips into squares, apply wet glue, place them in a designated place to dry out, and apply glue on the circumference. I did the rest like cutting the cardboard, hole punching, and applying the glitter dust.
Btw, I now have several different types of glue bottles - dry glue stick, wet glue that comes with an application stick, wet glue that has a roller ball on the tip - all bought with the intention of exercising different finger/hand muscles.
Button wreath
I thought this was a great idea but turned out too challenging for him. It's really a disguised lacing activity!
Its made from thin pipe cleaner, with various Christmassy coloured buttons thread through it. The buttons were too small for him to handle.
But there was still some benefit: I had him lay out the buttons in a pattern (an early maths skill); he still had to pick up the small buttons and lay them out (pincer grip); he had to use both hands to lace even though I had my hands over his to help him.
Paper wreath
In this project (which also took several days to complete), I had him trace the outline of his hand onto a cardboard. I cut that out and then used it as a template. He traced the outline of that template onto green paper many times. I cut out several little green hands, which he then had to apply wet glue to, and paste them onto a cardboard ring. He also applied glue using the roller glue bottle unto the centre of the ring and a few "fingers". I then scattered glitter dust on those bits.
Paper Christmas stocking
First off, I've to state that the crafts below are not my ideas. They were obtained from various websites (and modified to suit his abilities and according to what materials I had around the house), which I've unfortunately now forgotten and thus unable to give credit appropriately. Apologies.
Next, most of the crafts below required significant input from me. My son's effort was probably 30% at most. I didnt want you to think he could do it all by himself.
Even though he didn't contribute much, I simply wanted him to see what could be achieved with his hands. I wanted to encourage him to use his fingers and hands, in a fun way. It's boring to merely cut straight lines off worksheets. Also, I hoped to show him what a bit of creativity can achieve (other people's creativity not mine!).
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| Toilet paper craft |
Christmas Toilet Paper Craft
This "family" was made from toilet paper rolls. We made one character a day. It took too long to make the first one, Santa. So my lesson learnt was to prepare the materials before hand!
As with all craft projects, I hoped to develop his fine motor skills. In this project, he helped to colour, to apply glue, to paste.
He was rather proud of the end products, which is good cos I wanted to boost his self esteem/confidence (even though it's not 100% his own effort). When Papa came home at the end of each day's work, he proudly showed them off.
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| Paper baubles |
This paper bauble project took many days to make. We ended up with a dozen colourful baubles, and stopped when I sensed that he was bored with this project.
It was a great way to have him practice his scissoring skill. This was the FIRST time he was able to cut!
There was also quite a bit of preparation needed for his project. I cut long strips of similarly coloured magazine paper and kept in separate containers according to colour. He then had the freedom to choose which colours he wanted to work with on a particular day. His job was to snip those strips into squares, apply wet glue, place them in a designated place to dry out, and apply glue on the circumference. I did the rest like cutting the cardboard, hole punching, and applying the glitter dust.
Btw, I now have several different types of glue bottles - dry glue stick, wet glue that comes with an application stick, wet glue that has a roller ball on the tip - all bought with the intention of exercising different finger/hand muscles.
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| Button wreath Christmas tree decoration |
I thought this was a great idea but turned out too challenging for him. It's really a disguised lacing activity!
Its made from thin pipe cleaner, with various Christmassy coloured buttons thread through it. The buttons were too small for him to handle.
But there was still some benefit: I had him lay out the buttons in a pattern (an early maths skill); he still had to pick up the small buttons and lay them out (pincer grip); he had to use both hands to lace even though I had my hands over his to help him.
 |
| Paper wreath |
In this project (which also took several days to complete), I had him trace the outline of his hand onto a cardboard. I cut that out and then used it as a template. He traced the outline of that template onto green paper many times. I cut out several little green hands, which he then had to apply wet glue to, and paste them onto a cardboard ring. He also applied glue using the roller glue bottle unto the centre of the ring and a few "fingers". I then scattered glitter dust on those bits.
Paper Christmas stocking
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| Paper Chirstmas stocking decoration |
I thought this was a great idea to get him to practice lacing. He did like decorating the stocking with Disney's Pixar Car (his favourite movie) stickers and the glittering christmas tree. But when it came to lacing the front and back of the stocking, he refused! I only managed to have him lace two or three holes! I'm not sure if he had too much of craft work (this was the last craft work for Dec) or that he was just too tired at that time.
Good internet connection
It was pretty amazing that Maxis actually responded positively to my complaint. An engineer called to say that others in my area had also complained of the bad connection. So they've increased bandwith, and I'm so happy.
That was about a week ago. I've however not had time to update my blog although I've lots to write about. It's been busy (so what's new). I need more time to settle down to a new routine, to plan what to teach my son etc, to reorganise the cupboards. If the state of your desk is reflective of the state of your mind, then the state of my house pretty much reflects the "mess" in my head! Right now, there are just too many things I want to do straight away.
I will try though to catch up on some news that happened in Dec and share January's good news. That's assuming my son sleeps through the night tonight...
That was about a week ago. I've however not had time to update my blog although I've lots to write about. It's been busy (so what's new). I need more time to settle down to a new routine, to plan what to teach my son etc, to reorganise the cupboards. If the state of your desk is reflective of the state of your mind, then the state of my house pretty much reflects the "mess" in my head! Right now, there are just too many things I want to do straight away.
I will try though to catch up on some news that happened in Dec and share January's good news. That's assuming my son sleeps through the night tonight...
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