Course in Quicksand - dual credit

[Guest guest]

Kids, those of us with challenges, positive modeling a desire

behavior, and FUN.

Today we made quicksand with my neighbors. Tyler (5) had been

looking forward to the gettin' dirty part for 3 weeks. But then again

Tyler sees the world in a unique way. Every second there is

something to be learned. on (9) is having a little harder time

with life. Being short in stature at the age when boys start to

bully was bad enough and now his Mom hasn't been seen around their

house for over a month. Learning by what he has seen modeled at

school on's tendency was to tease poor Daisy and belittle my

challenges just loud enough for me to hear...or so he started about a

month ago.

Since then I banished on from my lot unless I granted

permission. Then within 2 days hired him to do some simple chores at

half a week's allowance in 2 hours time. I then helped him negotiate

how to pay his employee Tyler who desperately wanted to help. That's

when we planned our course in Quicksand.

I knew I needed sand to weigh the patio umbrellas down. I got the

recipe off the Geeks show on TV and found the neatest website " How

stuff works " complete with animation of an adult stepping into

quicksand.

on is gone a lot now so it took us quite a while to get together

but we did this evening. Tyler's Mom tagged along for good measure

though I think I heard more 'wow's' from her than the other two.

While no one could lift the 50 pounds of sand I could push it across

the patio with the scooter. We then mixed the right consistency and

tested its buoyancy with a headless, legless GI Joe - obviously a

casualty from the Iraqi war.

on was concerned that I kept Daisy shut away in my bedroom. He

tried so hard to see her through the window that he had a perfectly

round dirt spot on the end of his nose from the dirty screen.

We then came inside to look at the neat webpage. When I asked if

someone would read the info included since my speech is still slow

and throaty. To my surprise on said that's OK I want you to

read it. Meanwhile Tyler is replaying the animation of how quickly

the man sinks when he wiggles as opposed to relaxes.

We learned about quicksand. on learned to 'Recognize and

Celebrate Ability'. Tyler learned that at Ms. Eva's house he's

allowed to play in dirt and sand until he's saturated that desire.

And Ms. Eva learned how to change attitude to the positive instead of

just grumbling about the bad attitude of kids towards those with

challenges (as you see with hindsight THAT was not the problem at

all). Oh Oh and Tyler's Mom is totally amazed how I've creatively

made this cottage accessible....though the sink full of dirty dishes

impressed No One.

Hugs

Eva

[Guest guest]

hi, Eva,

Funny that you should mention howstuffworks.com. Our daughter,

, has been a staff writer there for about a year. Next time you

are at the site, search for V. and a number of her

articles will come up. She usually has at least one " front page "

article a week.

Don

[Guest guest]

Hey Don,

I remember you telling me about her being a writer--I will have to

check that out also! Cool! Tell Bettie Jo I said hello!

Sue Me

yahoogroups.com, " Don " wrote:

>

> hi, Eva,

>

> Funny that you should mention howstuffworks.com. Our daughter,

> , has been a staff writer there for about a year. Next time

you

> are at the site, search for V. and a number of her

> articles will come up. She usually has at least one " front page "

> article a week.

>

> Don

>