Hacker Widow

The next post I have planned is for color recognition. You can use this technique with any segmented picture. I had this center activity in “D”s basket for free choice. She became very good at it and so it became a calming activity for her. This would also be a great activity for teaching pre-school aged children their colors! There are ALOT of great websites out there that you can glean adaptable activities from. Here are a few.

DLTK-kids  GREAT site!! Lots of adaptive materials.

Kids Activities Neat site. Activities are divided by grade level.

There are so many free sites out there. Don’t pay for downloads. (Unless you realllly want to… Just be patient and use your imagination!

Enjoy!!

For the next re-post, I am using a center activity that is for slightly more advanced learners. The center activity is for simple word building. The most important thing I want to stress is don’t be intimidated!! If you are in a mainstream classroom, try to adapt the handouts and work the class is using. It really helps the child feel like apart of classroom activities. It also helps the other children in the classroom relate to the autistic child.

Enjoy!!

This was probably one of “D”s favorite center activities. Well, this and dressing the bear

Enjoy!

http://hackerwidow.org/2010/05/04/center-activities-4/

http://hackerwidow.org/2010/04/11/center-activities-3/

http://hackerwidow.org/2010/04/08/center-activities-2/

In honor of Autism Awareness month, I will be re-posting some past posts that were directed towards helping 1 to 1 aides, paraprofessionals, teachers and parents come up with some alternative teaching techniques.

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If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I’ll reply asap..

Enjoy!!

~Kim~

How many beginnings can a person have? When we “find” ourselves is that the end? I know our lives are ever changing, but should we look to do this, or just allow it to unfold? I personally feel like I’m treading water. My legs are going 100 miles an hour, but I’m not getting anywhere. Our girls have finally left the house, so maybe this is “empty nest” syndrome. While I miss them desperately, I find myself at a standstill. I feel that my life was so wrapped up in my children that, through no fault of their own, I am now at a complete loss as to what to do. I know I have many contributions that would benefit the right situation. I know I’d be a good worker,a good friend. I am just at a loss how to achieve this. So, I have decided to pursue to only untried course left. I am looking into re entry courses to go back to school. I figure that this is something that I can control. I can attend school at my own pace and get my degree. It seems very daunting. Wish me luck…

What constitutes a real friend? What I mean is, does anyone know what the word friend means anymore? Wikipedia says this:

“Friendship is a form of interpersonal relationship generally considered to be closer than association, although there is a range of degrees of intimacy in both friendships and associations. Friendship and association are often thought of as spanning across the same continuum. The study of friendship is included in the fields of sociology, social psychology, anthropology, philosophy, and zoology. Various academic theories of friendship have been proposed, among which are social exchange theory, equity theory, relationaldialectics, and attachment styles.

Value that is found in friendships is often the result of a friend demonstrating the following on a consistent basis:

• The tendency to desire what is best for the other
• Sympathy and empathy
• Honesty, perhaps in situations where it may be difficult for others to speak the truth, especially in terms of pointing out the perceived faults of one’s counterpart
• Mutual understanding and compassion; ability to go to each other for emotional support
• Enjoyment of each other’s company
• Trust in one another
• Positive reciprocity — a relationship is based on equal give and take between the two parties.
• The ability to be oneself, express one’s feelings and make mistakes without fear of judgement.
• It is very important to have honesty, trust, sympathy, respect and helpfulness in friendship.”

As I write this, I look at my life at this moment and realize that I do not have many that I would consider a true friend. I have MANY wonderful acquaintances, but not true friends. My Grandparents would get together with friend a couple nights a week. They would play, dominoes or cards, laughing and joking well into the night. They’d go on vacations with their friends. They’d have BBQ’s with their friends. They’d drop everything to rush to a friend who needed them. They made it a priority to have friendships. What happened??? Have we become so self absorbed that we feel we don’t need this anymore? I watched my children, now fully grown, struggle all through school AND beyond with friendships. When they were little, they’d look up at me and ask “Why can’t I find a friend who likes ME?”  Talk about a heart breaker! I’d sit there hugging and crying with them, assuring them that it would change. But will it? Does anyone know how to be a friend anymore? Is anyone willing to take the time and EFFORT it will take to build a relationship like that? I hope so…

Walking has become my #1 exercise for about the past year. I have posted in the past about my various walking paths and how beautiful they are. Since I have decided to get serious about losing weight, I have been redoubling my efforts. I am trying very hard to stay positive and focused. It’s kind of hard for this “verified” couch potato. But today, I found this…

No biggie. Probably someone doing work on the sidewalks or something. About 100 yards farther down the path, I notice…

Kind of hard to see, but it is the name Danielle. So now I’m thinking, it’s probably just a bunch of kids messing around with chalk. OK, so I continue on and come to this…

hmmmm….. then…

All of a sudden, I get excited. This is kind of cute. Maybe someone asked their girlfriend to the prom… or to go steady (do kids even DO that anymore??). Now I am actively looking for the pale pink chalk marks, and a few yards farther I see…

I am getting more excited. I start trying to imagine how “Danielle” was feeling. Was she excited?confused? I actually start walking a little faster to see what is next.

WHAT?? How cool!!! My imagination goes into warp drive!!! Danielle is probably FREAKING out when she see this…Can you imagine? The excitement! By now, she’s probably running!!

And then..

Can you imagine him standing here? Possibly with flowers in his hand, waiting for her to turn the slight curve in the path to see him?? *sigh* I really hope it WAS that romantic. I know it made my walk very enjoyable, just trying to imagine the scenario unfold. Congratulations to these two people (who ever they are)  :-D

We are faced with thousands of choices. From the time we wake up, to the time we go to sleep, we are bombarded with them. Everyone from movie stars to infomercials know what we need better than we do. And if you through the word “Diet” into the mix….. look out!!!!  You’ve got green bean, cabbage, soybean, tofu, green tea, low carb, no carb, all protein, no meat, no food choices….it’s enough to make you hide in the closet whimpering! And believe me, I’ve tried most of them. The first time I decided to nip this weight gain in the bud, I joined Weight Watchers. This was roughly 12 years ago. I loved the group support but the weight loss was slllooowwwww. I was a little impatient back then. Then they closed our area meeting place so on to the next. I can’t even THINK about a certain no carb all protein diet that was extremely popular a few years ago, without gagging. The first couple of days, I was in heaven! All the meat and cheese I could eat??? By about the third day, meat had lost it’s appeal and I had extreme weakness and headaches. After some research, I concluded I was going through severe carb withdrawal. I didn’t even know you could do that!! So on to the next diet, touting a low carb plan with no withdrawals. Named after a popular beach on the east coast, it was the next new craze. Problem was, I still had the withdrawal (though not as bad as before), the recipes weren’t the best, and now my cravings were out of control. Cravings are my downfall… Carbs, chocolate, caramel, Starbucks salted caramel bites!!!!!YUMMMMMMM!!!! Sorry, I’m back, anywho, I can now say I have found something that is finally starting to work for me and my freak metabolism. I have been trying a system based on the book The 17 Day Diet. It very informative and easy to follow. The 17 day part does NOT mean you will lose the desired weight in that time, rather that each cycle in the program is 17 days long. This intrigued me. 17 days, that’s not too long, if a cycle seems more difficult. Ok, next is Dr. Moreno’s theory that you hit certain plateaus because your body grows used to a way of eating. BRILLIANT!! So that’s why diets haven’t worked for me in the past…(head slap) So to combat this, in his second phase(which I’m am now starting) he has you very your eating. While you are allowed more foods in this phase, you alternate with one meal from the first phase every other day, thus keeping your metabolism on it’s toes. I am close to day 22 and …drum roll…..10 lbs gone!! While this is not as fast as stated in the book, I’m ok with that. I don’t have the blood sugar dips I used to have. And my cravings…GONE!!!!!! WHOOHOO …shout it from the rooftops!! I am so relieved about that one. So I will trudge on, slowly adding the foods I love back into my diet, hoping that I can continue to make better choices. Will update soon……until then,   BON APPETIT !!

P.S. I am not affiliated with The 17 Day Diet in anyway. These are my opinions and have not received any payment for my support.  Thanks!!