PRT151 – Facts and Feelings

Hello Roundtable friends,

I am so moved and excited about this Roundtable episode. I am an occupational therapist (but yes, those are my real initials!); I am retiring after 37 years of practice, the last 18 in our public school district. First of all, huge kudos to you, Ali and Jeanette, for your acknowledgement of therapy in school, as well as your positive attitudes. I love, love. love my students and it will be hard to say good-bye to some of them AND their parents. We work as teams in the schools to provide the best program for each child with special needs, regardless of their diagnosis. Teams include special education teachers, paraprofessionals, a speech-language pathologist, OT, PT, behavior and autism specialist, social worker, assistive technology specialist, psychologist and administrator. Educational plans are a team effort, that includes the parents! Your support is critical to a child’s success in school. My work has been primarily in elementary schools, so the reality of a child’s differences become evident in those early years. It is heartbreaking to watch the grieving process parents experience as they listen to assessments and reports. Trust me, we all know you are aching and what a difficult transition this is. It is also very hard on marriages and we are aware of that as well. My heart goes out to you and all parents wrestling with new realities.

What a pleasure to hear the positive comments from your guests today. As a scrapbooker I treasure those students who touch my heart. Without using names I love to include the little handwritten notes, especially in the child’s writing! You special parents know how much that means to an OT! I have a few layouts that celebrate the moments, and thanks to Ali Edwards for her BPC class “31 Things” last spring. I used many of the topics to reflect on what my job and career means to me. Last but not least, thanks for the cookies and muffins SOME parents bring to meetings. We may not like them better, but it always makes an impression (hint, hint)!

Keep working on those fine motor skills!
EliseOT

We need more shows like this to talk about our community which is big and needs to relate with all other Scrapbookers out there.

I loved this episode, it was one I know I will listen to many times to catch everything, since I know I do not get it all the first time through. I am adding a comment to say that my favourite part was the way both Jeanette and Ali talked about the specific milestones that were wonderful accomplishments for THAT kid, rather than the ones that are special for “every kid”. I think it is true for every child. My daughter is not special needs and my son is, but in my opinion it would be scrapworthy if she managed to eat a sandwich without cover her face, hands, seat and the floor with whatever the spread was.. I have washed so many vegemite covered tshirts! He was always need, it is no accomplishment for him.

On the other hand, I already scrapbooked our little victory on the weekend in project life and a layout too, I was so happy about it. He came to a very busy 1st birthday for his cousin, with over 50 strangers and loads of little kids, he hates crowds and he coped so well, he found a quiet corner and played with some legos and didnt have a meltdown. At the end he told me he really loved the packing up (ie when everyone left and we packed away the chairs and toys LOL). I was so excited by the way he coped with it, because that is a big struggle for him. Not a big deal for her at all, but a huge one for him. Yay!

Celebrating your kids and what you learn from them – what a wonderful and supportive message this show has. Love this show, thank you Ali and Jeanette for the honest, open, supportive and positive picture you present of something that is complicated and difficult to talk about for many of us. Thank you very much.

I was going to say that no matter what, we can certainly scrap about our kids personalities! We all have weird tendencies or little things here and there that reveal a story… even if it’s not specifically a special need :P

Great show — good to hear Ali’s voice again. I laughed, along with everyone else, at Izzy’s tongue-in-cheek suggestion of a line of negative scrapbooking products, but honestly, sometimes I look at the die cuts and stickers and wonder if the designers live in Disneyland. They all say “perfect day”, “best day ever”, “you are my favorite”, “awesome”, etc. Where are the die cuts that say, “It’s snowing *again*?” or “Is this day over yet?” lol I’d like to throw my hat into the ring as a product designer for Izzy’s line. :-)

Hi guys,

First of all I wanted to stop by and thank you for another interesting Roundtable. I always look forward to each new episode. Ali and Jeanette were wonderful to share their stories and thought processes behind their scrapping. I have followed Ali’s blog for many years and am always inspired by her use of words and her insight in what she shares. Jeanette was a lot of fun to listen to. I enjoyed her sunny outlook on life.

Although I don’t have special needs children, today’s episode made me stop and think about how I approach the touchy or tough subjects that crop up in everyone’s lives.

As a mom to four, there are always moments of disappointment, let downs, hurts (emotional or physical) and sorrow that our children experience. Sometimes I am the one that is the cause of those hurts and disappointments, usually for their own good. Sharing those memories in my scrapbooks are tricky. But, always there is a purpose in the stories I choose to share whether it is a lesson learned or personal growth. My oldest had his first heartbreak last year and the song “Someone I Used to Know” was played about 1001 times. There was nothing I could do for him, but let him know that we were there for him. But, I did feel it was a milestone in his life story and something he could reflect on in the future. The page I made is simple, just a picture of him with the lyrics from the song and a little note from me to him letting him know that he is loved. It’s not that I want him to have to relive that moment, but I do want him to know that at 16 it seemed like it was huge deal. At 17 he has moved on. This is how life goes.

In my opinion Scrapbooking, by it’s very nature, is a personal expose of the story of our lives – mine, my children and my husband. The stories are mostly told from my perspective. It’s a lot of fun to share our happy celebratory pages with others. For myself, my thoughtful introspective pages are a part of my scrapbook, they are a part of my story, but they are not the ones I generally choose not to post on-line.

For Izzy, thank you for the little reminder e-mail to renew my subscription to Papperclipping. I am proud to say I have been a member for the past 3 years (non-schmo). You guys are great company. The Roundtable is my constant companion when I am on the trail, mainly cause I can understand you (I live in Cyprus and everyone speaks Greek – it’s all Greek to me – ha!).

With thanks,
Tambur (ScrappyTams)

:)

Thank you for another thought-provoking PRT. Noell and Izzy, I’d like to humbly propose a follow up topic about memory keeping for those of us living with infertility. I know it’s probably a “dark” subject, not super scrap-friendly… but that’s precisely the point. There are some unique challenges facing those of us who want to keep up with memory keeping, but get constant reminders that we are childless.
For example, I’ve purchased many a magazine or eBook and ended up in tears. When instructors give examples of journaling prompts or photo suggestions, the majority are child-focused. December Daily can be so emotional because I’d love nothing more than to create and document the holiday season with kids of my own. I love listening to podcasts: PRT, The Digi Show, Lain Ehmann, but there are times when I have to skip past, or simply turn off because I’m having an emotional reaction to a comment. I held off on Project Life for ages, because of the realization that I’d be documenting a childless life.
Sometimes it can be challenging to keep informed and stay current on what’s going on with this passion, without the constant reminder. So much of the content in this industry is infant-toddler-child-centric. Which is fine, because I’d daresay that becoming a parent is what attracts most newbies into the hobby. But maybe there are others in my situation who could share their strategies on dealing with this heart-breaking, typically private struggle. I believe Steph from the Daily Digi mentioned something about facing it herself, I was surprised and wished she’d shared more.
Thanks!

Thank you for the suggestion and the guest idea, Marilyn. I added it to our list of possible episodes. Those of us who haven’t been through this don’t realize how painful it must be to be so submerged in a culture that focuses this heavily on children. If you come up with any other guest ideas, please let me know.

There is a stamp set called “Sucky Day Part 1″. I don´t have it, but I love it. (I´m not affiliated) http://www.basicgrey.com/scrapbook/shop/product/bba-4061/category:embellishments

funny! thanks for the link!

I am a little behind on listening to the shows, but I had to go ahead and comment on this one. This was such a wonderful topic, and I am sure so many people were able to relate to this.

I am an elementary school teacher, and I have worked with many students with a variety of special needs through the years. I love hearing how you document your stories. I especially love the idea of Ali’s album that has people writing what they have learned from Simon. I know that as a teacher, I learn so much from all of my kids, and especially the ones with some kind of special need. Those are the kids that always have a huge place in my heart. I would love for a parent to ask me to write something for their child. I think this idea is great for any kid. I can even imagine collecting letters through the years and giving it as a graduation present.

As always, another great show with so many good ideas. This one just really seemed to speak to me. I know I will listen to this one again and again.

Just wanted to say that this was an awesome show! I made a “superpowers” book for my son when he was much younger and just diagnosed with ADHD and I used information from a book on the subject “The Gift of ADHD” to incorporate what is awesome about ADHD so he and we could focus on the good parts of it – I haven’t looked at it in a bit but I think there were things like “boundless energy” “curious” “inventive” etc. and pictures and jouranling to support it. I made the album in a notebook sized book and used divided page protectors ( years and years before Project Life!).