Swimming lessons

We signed Nick up for swimming lessons for the winter.

This is the first alone lesson. We have always done mom -child classes, but he has outgrown that.

 

Group classes, and even semi-private classes are out of the question. He needs someone one-on-one who is there with him all the time.

So we booked Grandview special needs private swim lessons. So it is individualized and with people who have experience with different needs and abilities.

 

 

Nick has been very interested in swimming. He loves being in the water. He swims every week at school, and in the summer at the cottages.

He is independent in the water with his floaties on.

These pictures are from parents day when we were allowed to take pictures (and sent Katheryn out with the camera)

 

 

I want to see how we can get him out of his floaties. And he doesn't use floaties in his swim lessons.
He still needs support to keep up and concentrate on his kicking, but not too much support.

Nick has been using pool noodles to give the support but still let him put his face in the water and move his arms.

 

 

And he can balance in the water with this decreased support to move himself.

 

 



 

Putting his face in the water is one of the goals. Nick will do everything to try to trick and not put his face in the water.

He is getting stronger and more comfortable in the water. He isn't relying so heavily on his floaties and in the shallow water he moves around without anything on.
Nick has also been floating on his back and front, kicking and swimming. His arms he doesn't move so much still.

 



We got Nick's report today, he is in the Sea Otter level in the preschool Swim Kids, and has a couple of things to complete to finish it.

 

We have signed him up again for the spring swimming session. His goals that are left for the Sea Otter badge (or sticker) are front float and recovery, front glide, back glide and 1m front swim.

 

 We have signed Katheryn up for swimming in the spring as well. Unfortunately on different days (Grandview swim is only on Friday). Seeing how well Nick is doing with private lessons, we decided do private for Katheryn as well.

The kids are looking forward to all the swimming the will get this summer!

Writing and Education

We've had the finale of our appointments from last month. We had psycho-education testing 

Psycho-education testing and writing aids.

The writing aids appointment is with an occupational therapist. We brought some writing samples and times with us. She did some testing to see how Nick was typing and his typing speed to be able to compare it.

In the end we got to take home a computer that is similar to his computer at school. We want to practice daily and use sight words and practice typing.

Nick has an hour of time in the evening that is perfect to set up the computer and let Nick type.

This is an example of what Nick has typed

Nick spends some time looking for the letters, but he is liking doing typing and is motivated.

The key to everything involved with Nickolas is motivation.
Nick has to want to type and write. And even if it took 45 minutes to get that sentence and words out, he still did it. And was so proud of himself!

Katheryn's Day Out

Katheryn has been feeling a little left out lately.
Nick has had a bunch of appointments and missing school. When that happens I try to make it fun for him, but that means that Katheryn thinks that appointments are fun. And she wants some.

School is not a problem. Katheryn is doing great, all of her work comes home at 100% and her report card was great. So we asked Katheryn where she wanted to go for a day out.

She picked the CN Tower. Nick went in November after an appointment and a day on the town.

Katheryn was very excited to be out with just Mommy and Daddy. I know that she feels left out sometimes and it makes me sad. I know that I can't take her with us for every appointment, but Kyle and I can try to balance my time between both kids.

Katheryn had a great time with both her parents to herself!

She was much braver than I was in regards to the glass floor!

Even pretended that she was falling!

She was reassured that the floor would be strong enough to hold 35 moose

We had fun looking at all of the buildings we knew in the area. And this was our view for lunch

 I wanted a picture with Katheryn as well.... this is her no more pictures face.

Katheryn really enjoyed her day out!

Beaver Buggies

Nick has been in Beavers this year.

The had an event this weekend making beaver cars and racing them down a ramp.

Nick was very excited about his Beaver Buggy.

Katheryn got right into it as well. Getting right in with the other Beavers and making room for Nick in his walker.

They had some crafts for the kids. Nick likes to explore and take his time with the crafts, and Katheryn just jumps right in.

It was fun night for both of them. I sometimes worry about Nick's social activities and friends. Making friends and participating in activities with other kids his age. And hope they are accepting about his walker and being different from the other kids that way.

But it makes me feel better when I actually see Nick out with his friends. Yes everyone still plays by themselves, but Nick is still included in everything. And he wants to be involved in the activities and will be.
Nick is really enjoying Beavers and I'm glad we were able to get him involved.

Accessiblity and snow

This winter has been cold and we've gotten a lot of snow in the last couple of months.

This isn't anything unique to Nickolas or our family. But it is newer for us (I wrote about it last year as well)

The snow and the cold brings up some issues for Nickolas and his ability to move around outside.

It means loading everyone into the van for even little trips. Some days it is because it is minus a million degrees.

But then it is also for reasons like this:

Everyone knows they are supposed to shovel their driveway. Not everyone does.

But I can actually push Nick pretty well through slush and moderately unshovelled driveways.

Except for someone who doesn't actually have any idea about mobility challenges. Just knows they need to shovel the sidewalk. Don't acutally shovel the end of the sidewalk so that there is street access.

It was left like this for over a week. I did contact the city, and the next day it was shovelled.

Of course with snow and parking lots.

Because why do you need to park in these spots? They need to put the snow somewhere?!

I can't wait for the snow to melt