Barbara phone practice

[Guest guest]

Barbara,

That is really GOOD! I really don't think I could get my 11-year-

old hearing 5th grader, Colin, to order a pizza over the phone from

a complete stranger! It would take a serious bribe and an awful lot

of pleading.

One little kid phone practice game we came up with is to use a

cordless phone with a speakerphone base. People take turns hiding

with the handset and telling the person at the base where they are

hiding. We would say things like " Are you ready? " " Where are you

hiding? " " Can I come find you yet? " and stuff like that. My kids

loved this game when we used to play it more often a few years ago.

It got really fun when figured out he could lie about where

he was hiding! :-)

Lydia

, almost 8, deaf due to connexin-26 mutations, implant at age 4

Colin, 11, hearing

> Lydia - that's exciting! Both my boys can now talk on the phone

using their

> hearing aids and the telecoil loop that's built into the aids.

they've called

> me from school - it's always such a plesaure to hear their voices!

>

> We actually have had telephone practice sessions. I think the

telephone is

> somewhat hard because yo ucan't see the caller. If we need to

order pizza,

> we'll have one of the guys do it. Or if they need to see if a

store is open, I

> have them call. They don't necessarily like it (particularly Sam,

who is shy)

> but it's helped them a bunch.

>

> Barbara

>

[Guest guest]

--- You wrote:

That is really GOOD! I really don't think I could get my 11-year-

old hearing 5th grader, Colin, to order a pizza over the phone from

a complete stranger! It would take a serious bribe and an awful lot

of pleading.

--- end of quote ---

It's amazing to me how different our boys are. Tom - my 12 year old - is very

confident and actually does a really nice job presenting to his class, etc. Sam

is so different - much shier (shy-er?) - heck, he's more shy! The phone is

still a little daunting with strangers for him but when he goes to the store

with me, his task is to order our deli meats - so far, he's gotten it all right!

It's so nice that they can use the phone - I can now leave them at home for very

short periods and know I can reach them. Actually, a kind of funny, offtopic

story about that. My husband is on the board of the local conservation council

and they were having their annual meeting. Ben Kilham, who's our local " bear

guy " was speaking. He's done National Geographic specials and has been on

animal PLanet and actually was in our yard because we had a dead bear in our

yard - that's another story! I wanted to go just for his talk and figured I

could leave the guys for an hour - our neighbor was home and I'd alerted her

that they were by themselves.

so I'm ready to leave and a person knocks on our front door. We're in a really

rural area - our house and land is 6 acres. She tells me she smells propane at

the front of the driveway which is strange... So I call the fire department to

ask if they could come with a meter to check. 5 minutes later the following

shows up at my house:

2 fire trucks

1 ambulance

1 fire car

**all with lights flashing!

all for my non-propane leak!

Our neighbor of course freaks out because she thinks the boys are home alone -

the boys thought it was the coolest thing ever! We had no propane leak and I

made it to the bear talk in time!

We made the police reports in the local paper! I guess it must have been a slow

night at the fire department?

sorry for going off topic but that was SO funny! :-)

Happy new year, everyone! I treasure you guys....

Barbara