Best explanation ever!

Viktoria, the conductor, has explained CE better than I've EVER seen, heard, or read. Thanks, Viktoria! Follow the link below.


http://www.exceptionalfamilytv.com/blogs/families/janet/conductors-point-view-conductive-upbringing

Spring Break session is on.

In addition to all the work Anne is doing now, she's gearing up for the spring break session at Purpose. Check the website for details.

http://www.purposesociety.org/conductive/conded.html

Minnesota!

Wow, just great being home for the holidays. Temperatures ranging from -8C to 1C, snowbanks piled up to five feet high everywhere. Glistening white snow, and all the houses of my friends and families that aren't tweaked in the least for a boy with CP. Wow. I didn't realize just how much Roxy and I have planned everything around Blue and his "situation."
So, to make it a little easier for us, we used a kaboodle of our 'Avion' points to pay for part of the hotel; and here we are on night 3 of 11 in a small, fully furnished hotel. I must say, the things we're learned over the years about food prep, facilitated movement, and communication; it all comes into play now almost somewhat desperately.
It was most interesting to see my nieces stand respectfully around, watching Blue sitting on my lap as if he were some fragile creature. Nobody really loosened up until I began rolling about in the living room a little with Blue. What can a guy do? Last time we visited without Blue,making the impression that we can run, jump, and play about like a typical Aunt or Uncle. This time, we're with Blue; and everyone has to kind of start over again re-learning who he is and how we is with him. Very interesting. I probably shouldn't even be blogging here, because how that process is working out is something I can't really explain yet.
All I know is that it filled me with peace and happiness driving my Dad's mini-van back to the hotel and looking across so many snow-covered yards to see Christmas trees lit up and sparkling in the front windows of so many cozy homes. Just having all three of us there to enjoy it was/is wonderful. Ahhh. Home.

Goldfish Again

Holy smokes, would you ever think your friendly, little, "community" tank would become a place of predation? No. But the goldfish, being the biggest fish in the tank, and hungry all the time, began eating the other littler fish. Ha! Am I surprised? Not a whit. IF the goldfish serves as a metaphor for conductive education (because it survived every other fish as the tank cycled through its various concentrations of biology)then what else would one expect it to do?

Being surrounded by a lot of bureacratic brown-nosers and wimps extraordinaires - the goldfish probably said to itself, "Right. Well, if this is as far they can go, I shall eat them." Seems fair to me. But, what must I do as the keeper of these stupid fish? After three had been eaten, I had to do something, and in true form, there's no way I am going to give over the goldfish. I bought a "divider." The goldfish remains in the same tank with the others, but there is a big plastic, permeable wall keeping it away from the other fish.

Maybe I should follow through and get rid of all the other fancy, wimpy, loser fish and give the whole tank to the goldfish. If it is to serve as an allegory for my journey with CE, that would be the way to do it. On the other fin, if it is to serve as an allegory for this odd world in which I swim, I ought to rename all the other animals after the various 'therapists' involved in my son's life. And sadly, I continue to protect them from the consuming power of conductive education because politics demands no less. Humiliation, separation, and loss: but none of it matters in the end because my boy is sleeping peacefully in my arms during those afternoon naps. My God, if Anne-Christiane wasn't here, I'd go nuts. Truly, round-the-bend, bonkers: nuts.

Gaps

Just like the blue waves rolling in on the shores; there are gaps between waves. For me and my family, we have periods where there isn't much to "report." Blue is doing his thing, we are doing our things, there's nothing of import to pass along. I think maybe that is good news; you know, like the saying, "No news is good news."

No, I can't afford, nor am I going to the big, happy CE conference. There's nothing earth-shaking going on out here, but wait, there are many wonderful small, inroads being made by Anne Wittig, inroads of which I am so proud and happy. The quiet things are happening. The few families, people here and there around our community are shaking off the concrete of hopelessness and basking in Anne's warm smile, her humour, her brilliant curiosity. Yes, it is right and good to say that there is truly some wonderful conductive stuff going on out here now. Anne and I will soon begin laying out the offerings for spring break and for the summer program. Again, in these ventures, I will be busy with other things; but deep deep down I'm just breathing easier and happy to see Anne here and all the other folks whose names - new to me - whom I haven't even met. I couldn't have dreamed it any better than this. She's not busting her ass until the soon-to-return-home airplane trip. She's relaxed, living here, making a splendid work of art; and best of all Chris and I will go play hockey tomorrow night as if nothing out of the ordinary is happening. Gotta love Canada sometimes. I had gotten so tired of the 'excitement' that typically surrounded conductive education.

So, yeah; I think that's a blog entry.

A Blurb for the CP Association of B.C. . . .

For my family, as we live and love with our child who has cerebral palsy, the mystery has always been how to start learning and working in the area of his abilities. Conductors have shown my family not only WHAT his abilities could be, but HOW to get him actually developing those abilities. It’s very difficult to describe conductive education; but the results are easy to describe. He’s on his feet more. He’s taking part in every decision throughout his day. He’s willing and happy to try to use his hands and arms more. He knows that he has a part to do in every activity. He has more fun doing simple things. He’s involved and learning to do things that his regular team of professionals hasn’t so much as suggested in all his 13 years.

This means he has more belief in himself. I have more belief in myself, him, and my entire family. With CE we’ve moved into new, unexplored areas; and we’re still learning, every day. I love it because everyone in my house is learning, from every little interaction and activity every day. (At least the potential to learn is there, depending on energy levels and such) Because my son knows that this growing and learning and trying is happening all the time, he goes along with it. He always has, because early on we got some effective training through conductors. Come to think of it, it has a lot to do with simply setting the tone; for everyone. I have often felt that tone has been set far too low and far too ‘disabled’ for my boy with his usual workers. As a result, there are some glorious, happy differences; achievable only with the open-minded, smiling, curious approach I have come to know as conductive education. Over the last ten years, I have met a lot of B.C. families equally wonderstruck at the simple efficacy of conductive education; when they had the rare opportunity to try it out. This effective and amazing approach is now no longer a rare beast. There is a conductor here to stay and she needs your support. The whole idea of CE needs support; get involved.

Parents.

Having had my niece and nephew over last night for a "sleepover," it comes home more poignantly tonight how large the effect of a parent is in a child's life. I love my brother and sister, and I am honoured that they'd trust us to have their kids for a night and a day. In the afterglow of their visit, I see how formative a parent's perspective can be. The particular differences between us and the parents of these children became glaringly apparent to the niece and nephew this weekend. They discovered the chasm of contradiction between the contents of our fridge and theirs. These differences are usual; but for a youngster, it's somewhat more revelatory.

What WAS revelatory to me was seeing how an "able-bodied" child can be so inflexible in the mind. "I don't like [insert any normal food here]," . . .

What? My son doesn't even TASTE food, much less EAT it with his mouth! Argh, and here sits a 'normal' child using the mouth to not only deny the existence of every vegetable on the planet, but also TELLING me so. I found new levels of patience I didn't know I had. When we go to the trouble of making home-made waffles, and the kid tells me, "I want pancakes," well holy smokes, I wanted to hand him the yellow pages and say, "Find the local IHOP and call a cab."

Is this how 'real' kids act? Lord, it makes me wonder even more what is going on in my son's head! If nothing else, conductors have taught me to pay attention to the cues from a kid and respond to that; instead of to what I hope they are trying to say. Now that my boy is having a birthday, I feel almost allergic to having any other kids over to celebrate with him. They only gripe about things he never experiences. Drives me bonkers; totally bonkers.