Category: Parent Talk
Hello there all :)
I got a question.
I am at mum and dads and we have my sisters children over. I dont really use to hang around children, and wonder activities i could do with them to strenghten both my confidence in beeing with kids, and strenghten their bond with me.
am 27 years, the kids are 5 and soon to be 4 years. any ideas?
of course mum and dad are around and watch them as wel.. but i dnt want their only thing related to me is my guide dog :)
greetings from Ran.
Hmmmm. I'm not sure quite how to answer this. Do you have access to any kind of Braille game? Board games, cards, etc? I had a Braille Candy Land game, and my nieces loved Candy Land, so we played that. they learned card games like Go Fish, and I had braille cards, so Played that with them. As they got
older, and learned more complex card and board games, I was able to play those.
I know watching TV isn't the most interactive activity, but it is at least spending time with them, and you can talk about whatever it is you have watched
together.
Again, not sure if you have access to Braille children's books, or even better, twin vision books. Those are books that have the story in both Braille and print. I had a few of those, and would read them with my nieces. I would read the Braille to them, when they were too young to read print. When they
got older, and were learning to read, I'd make them read the print aloud to me, and help them with it by using the Braille part. that was pretty fun. Many
kids do like reading. I found that one of my nieces was fascinated by the Braille, and wanted me to teach it to her, so I did. Since she hasn't used it in a long time, because I've moved away, she's likely forgot most of it, but it was fun teaching it to her.
I also had access to a thing called a raised-line drawing kit. This enabled whatever was drawn on a special kind of paper to be raised up, so you could feel the lines. I would have my nieces draw pictures for me to look at, and I'd sometimes attempt to draw things of my own. My Mom also made a few tactile coloring books. She'd take regular coloring books, and glue along the lines, so I could feel them. That way I could join them in coloring. Of course
they were better at it than me, but it still worked.
I know all that depends on the interests of the kids, and the kind of technology you have access to, but those are the only things I can think of.
right now i do not have access to many of those things. we have an egg-game that we use and play some. I also use some time playing and singing with them. but .. i don't feel tooo comfortable with it and wonder if i reach them kind of ...
As dawn said above, it depends upon the children's interest. few kids may be interested with physical activities. as per them, we can even play with balls and such. some may be interested with visual things, such as video games and so on. or, some may like hearing stories too.
So findout their interest and feel free to play with them. mainly talk to them and listen to them.
Raaj
if you aren't sure what to do, I'd say the best thing is to interact with them to the degree that you're comfortable.
try to find out what some of their interests are, and maybe even introduce them to new things while you're at it.