Sydney Royal Easter Show

Sticking to our annual tradition of attending the Sydney Royal Easter Show, we made the trip again.
We stopped over the night before close to the showground, so we could get to the show early in the morning, after a fun filled 10 hour day we drove home. Here are some of the highlights.

Settling into Year 6

Well, Term 1 is getting away from us. Missy has started the school year well with the same male teacher as last year which is huge blessing.With each new teacher in the previous 5 years it's taken a couple of terms for them to get their head around Missy's technology and alternate ways of learning.
So with the same Teacher, Miss H continuing to be Missy's aid and all Year 6 in the one class this year, it's sure to be a great final year at  Primary School. A week long excursion is planned for Term 3 which will be a highlight.
We continue to have meetings at our Local High School to go over property issues that they are working on and technology that needs to be available. Year 6 will have four days of visiting the High School this year which we hope will iron out any issues that may arise next year. We are fortunate to have a great School Counsellor based at the High School who is making the transition planning a  really positive experience.
We've had a numerous trip to Sydney in February for yearly check ups at the CP Clinic - Sydney Children's Hospital, an ABR Clinic at Parramatta, the eye specialist at Epping.
 April will see us go to Sydney again with an overview of Missy's Communication setup, as we are currently trialling an Eco2 device and using two switches in the morning with Missy's feet and the afternoon(when her arms are more free) she uses her hands on two switches or direct touch.
So lots going at the moment and I can't see the year slowing down at all.

Thank You Ronald McDonald Family Retreats

In January we travelled to Forster to spend a week at the Ronald McDonald Family Retreat. We rarely take holidays as it's difficult to get away from the farm. Thankfully a friend came to stay and take care of our stock and most importantly Taz's puppy raising family offered to take her back for any holidays.
Ronald McDonald Charities last year offered Starlight families access to their retreats, which I noticed had two locations with wheelchair access, so with many friends who holiday at Forster, we thought we would jump at the chance to try it out.
We weren't disappointed with a fantastic wheelchair accessible cabin right on the marina, easily walking distance to shops, beach wheelchair, parking spots, friendly people, lovely beach and great weather. The day we drove home was when all the rain came up north.
The first night there was tears from Missy about missing Taz but she got pass that until the last day when she couldn't wait to pick her up on the way home.
I'll let the photos tell the story of our fantastic holiday.

The Miracle of Unbroken sleep

At our last ABR Clinic in Sept 2012 we were offered the trial of a new product developed by Advanced Biomechanical Rehabilitation  founder Leonid Blyum.
BioEQ Gel - Bio Equalizer contains all natural ingredients that facilitate microcirculation at both the superficial and deeper skin layers. It's applied daily to Missy's face and ABR wanted us to use it  for 3 months and report changes.
After 6 weeks of using the BioEQ Gel Missy started sleeping thru the night, I couldn't believe it when I woke in the mornings to realize I hadn't been up 3 times. So from November this improved sleep pattern has remained with usually only one night a week that she wakes. Prior to the BioEQ Gel Missy would wake up about 3 times between 12-6am each night for re-positioning.
Recently we started  using the Gel in the morning also and we can start to see a reduction in the amount of dribbling.

For 10 years I've had broken sleep and I'm over the moon that she has suddenly improved since using the BioEQ Gel.
The balls and eggs in the picture are ABR Tools with varying consistence that we use in a number of precise areas as prescribed by Leonid Blyum.

Student Leadership Speech

I've been missing in action for a little while, I had computer problems prior to Christmas and then well... it's end of school madness followed by Christmas madness.
Towards the end of each School Year, interested Year 5 students put their hand up for nomination as Student Leaders in 2013. A large portion of Year 5 decided to nomination including Missy. After working on her speech for some time, Missy was excited and nervous to present her speech to the entire school and parents.
Missy did a wonderful job, precisely driving on stage, looking confident(although I could see the nervous tension in her movements), she presented her speech via the I Pad with an external speaker to the Microphone. Missy worked the room beautifully, smiling left and right as her speech flipped thru the pages, she talked about her "have a go" attitude and how she would encourage others. Her speech finished with a wonderful round of applause from the audience and one proud mum.
It was a wonderful experience to share with her peers, the nervous build up of speech day and the relief they all felt, when it was over. Missy told me she didn't vote for herself but for another girl who was having a go.
Missy missed out on getting a leadership role next year but as always, was so genuinely pleased for her close friends who got the positions.

2013 Year 6 , where has the time gone?

Everyone needs a friend to lean on

Missy looks forward to her floor time every night with Taz after dinner. Tonight Taz fell asleep on the floor near Missy while she was crawling around. I heard a thud and turned around to find Missy had fallen down(which she does a bit) but this time onto Taz, exactly where this picture(above) was taken. Taz opened her eyes, looked who it was and went back to sleep... Ain't Love Grand.

Carcoar Cup Running Festival

In it's second year the Carcoar Cup has  doubled in entries and is a great social get together although many people put many hours of training into their run.
Us, well the kids are there to have a bit of fun and run in the Kids Cup. With 62 runners this year, H-Ho came in 39th and left her mother behind at the finish, who was only running the last 500 m with her anyway.
Missy dumped Mum as her running partner this year based on last year's performance - too slow. Dad was the choice this year and he had no worries keeping up with Missy's driving as fast as her chair would go in 4th gear. Missy came in 50th and enjoyed rounding up the kids as they tired towards the end, she gets so excited when she comes around the last bend towards the finish line and the Race Commentator is on the loud speaker saying her name.
Prime News filmed some of the race and if you go the link below you will see Missy coming across the finish line at the end of the video.
http://au.prime7.yahoo.com/n3/video/watch/c9479be3_1373_36b4_b45a_ff3e6e964273/carcoar-cup/

Kids Cup Entrants with their finishing medals.

Canberra/Thredbo Excursion

Recently Missy went on another annual 3 day excursion with school, this year they went to Canberra. On the first day, they saw Parliament House(very boring - was the report there), Capital Exhibition, Questacon(great report there) they then travelled to Cooma for the night and got prepared for their day on the snow at Thredbo. Day 2 saw them head off for a great day in the very snowy conditions, we had joined Missy up to the Disabled Wintersport Association, so she could have a sit ski lesson while the other kids had there lesson alongside her. Of course Missy's fearless attitude to speedy sports put her in good stead for a fun day. The 50 kids arrived back to Cooma after a full day on the snow fields - wet and tired. Day 3 saw them head back to Canberra via the Snowy Hydro Scheme and the AIS and were home by 5.30pm.
Missy said it was the best excursion yet, it was full-on packed of venues to see, learn and have fun at. Lots of organising goes into these excursions and our family always appreciates the teachers and aide that help pre-organise as much as possible and of course their effort throughout the excursion. Missy took three types of chairs with her, a couple of ramps for those unexpected steps, her gear filled up one whole bay under the bus while the other 49 kids had two bays under the bus.
A real special touch after this excursion was a DVD that her teacher had made for all the kids, which was packed with photos of their adventures.

These wonderful inclusive school excursions just provide such awesome peer group experiences and lifelong memories.

Anything can be adapted with some initiative

The video shown here is a snippet of Friday sport at Missy's Mainstream school on a snowy day.  Sit down Soccer is chosen at the indoor sport where the kids sit on their bottom and scoot around the floor to kick & pass to score goals.  While the kids are on the floor, Missy is still up in her chair and wants to be on the floor with the kids, the surface is too hard for her to sit unaided and moving around would be difficult. So  out comes some inclusive initiative headed up by her Aide Miss H. Her teacher's jumper is put on the polished floor, a large sports container is put on that, the kids throw their jumpers in the container and Missy sits in, a rope is thrown around the container and off she goes, one kid pulling at the front and another pushing at the back, all the time Missy is wildly kicking her legs just waiting for that soccer ball to come her way.
Inclusion is not expensive or hard just requires some thinking outside the box or in this case inside the box.