Friday, September 17, 2010

A letter

This year I'm homeschooling.....



da da da daaaaaaaa **dramatic music*****



But last year and the year before that Toby was in a mother's day out program.



One thing I read, or hear, or talk to someone...honestly I dont even remember when (and i might have already told you about this not that I think about it) But anyway...



SOMEONE somewhere at SOMETIME told me that they did this for their child with Spina Bifida when they were younger.




They would send home a letter to all the children's parents in his class during the first couple weeks of school.





It would go something like this...



Dear ___________,



This year my child and your child are in Mrs. ___________ class. We are so excited to have a great school year!! I wanted to take the time to introduce my child to you. My child's name is _________. He has Spina Bifida. **At this point you can go into details or not. I chose not to** Your child might ask questions about some of the equippment he/she sees around the classroom. I wanted to let you know that _______ uses a walker, wheelchair and _____________ to help him/her get around the classroom. **I always wanted kids to feel comfortable to touch his equippment so here I would add something about allowing a child to see it and touch it because we dont want kids to be scared of it** We hope that this year we can make some wonderful friendships during all of the learning that will be going on. If you have any questions feel free to ask or you can email me at ______________________.


Hope this gives you a basic idea. I really got alot of positive feed back and all the parents were really comfortable with Toby and me. It kind of kept that awkward do I ask what's wrong, what do I tell me child thinking that makes people act weird. It was a hard thing to do to put myself and my son "OUT THERE" but I really felt like it was worth it.

Also, when Toby was a baby I had our nursery in our church post a similar letter on the wall. More proclaiming the nursery workers to please treat him normally and talking about all the amazing things HE can do. (then of course a blurb about latex and his shunt)

Do any of you do this? What are your thoughts?

Happy beginning of the shcool year!!

Kari

5 comments:

Cassie said...

Kari, I LOVE this. Caleb just started Kindergarten and I know the other parents wonder what's "wrong" with him but are likely hesitant to ask me. I just might do something like this. This letter gives other parents a little bit of knowledge so that maybe they could answer any questions their kiddos might ask about Caleb. I love it!

The Forest Minstrel said...

What a genuinely scary, brave thing to do. Yes, kids are going to ask and if Mommy & Daddy don't know it's okay to explain things, they may not only give misinformation, they can make their kids afraid of what isn't understood. (i.e., Mommy/Daddy don't want to talk about it, it must be *bad*!) What a tho'tful, generous thing to do (and share), Kari!
p.s., it also helps the SB kids learn it's okay to talk about it when they know Mommy/Daddy aren't embarrassed by it. It becomes no big deal.

matt said...

I think this is great idea and will file it away for future use!

Jill said...

I love this idea!! Someone send me a link to this post in 4 years to remind me! ;)

Meilani said...

I love this idea. I will definitely use this in the future. Thank you for sharing!