I recently talked to Sara at NACD and got the contact information for five other moms with kids on programs. I sent an email to all five and within six hours had received warm and friendly replies from four of the moms. It has been so great to hear from these other moms going through similar struggles and compare notes.
One of the moms, Ashley, explained how she's been using technology to help her THREE kids who are on program. Her program (and mine) call for the use of flash cards with pictures of objects (like a dog, a banana, shoes, etc), flash cards of words printed (for learning to site read) and photos of "everyday life" things (like mom, dad, McDonald's, whatever). It also calls for videos of various things that we are working on like following directions, brushing teeth, playing pretend with toys, etc. Ashley is a genius and has basically combined all of these things into slide shows/movies and stuck them on iPods for her kids with attention grabbing background music. She says they love watching their iPods and at first she wasn't sure if they were really taking in the information, but suddenly they were following the directions they'd learned, they know the planets in the solar system in order, they know the names of various tropical fish, etc etc!!! I can't say how much I admire this mom whom I've never met. She is amazing to be doing what I know is a huge job with not one child, but three!! She has really given me the inspiration and motivation I was in need of.
So, here's what we've got on tap for Samantha right now. We are still on the "play and don't push it too hard" program. I have had an amazing month and a half in that I've been able to slow down and really enjoy bonding with my kids. I've also come to realize just how important Samantha is in my life and how much I am benefiting from having her as my daughter. Having said that, I am ready to move forward. Samantha needs to be challenged and as I notice her getting into more trouble around the house I think she's starting to crave the interaction of doing program.
Inspired by Ashley, last week we went out and bought a flip video camcorder. This cool little contraption has a USB plug that flips right out of the top so you just plug it into your computer when you're ready to download videos. The quality is not great for viewing on a big screen TV, but perfect for my purposes. It also comes with software for editing the videos, splicing them together and adding background music.
We bought a Creative Zen mp3/video player to load her videos and slide shows onto. Now I am just trying to conquer my "old person" syndrome of feeling overwhelmed by all of this technology and put together some good stuff.
I discovered that the best "slide show software" I could find is actually free from microsoft (just have to have a legit copy of Windows). It's called PhotoStory and is awesome. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx
Here's a video I did that Samantha is mesmerized by. It's a simple collage of a day's activities set to music- not extremely educational, mostly just a first video to get her interested in this process (unless you're a grandparent, you will be bored to tears after 30 seconds, so no need to finish the whole 7 minutes. You'll get the gist pretty quick.)
Last week Samantha started an eight week rock climbing class. She was a bit overwhelmed at first, but I think she's going to love it. It's such a great activity for building coordination and focus. She looked so cute in her little harness- I'll have to post a picture once she's really scaling the walls.
