December Bliss 2013

Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success. - Dale Carnegie

The following week right after his school term had ended, he started his first 2 school holiday programs that we had registered for him. One was creative art and craft while the other was the trikke exercise, both programs fell on the same days back to back throughout the sessions.

We were happy that he found it meaningful and was able to engage all the sessions and completed his 3 master pieces to take home for a great memories.

The trikke exercise was another eye opener for him to improve his skill in body co-ordination and space awareness, he is not use to doing such physical exercise normally, and stretching him a little of his comfort zone will do him good to path him forward for more future demand in physical education.  We will continue to enrol him for similar program to master this art of riding the trikke.

Helping him learn and grow is a constant balance between respecting his comfort zones, while continually stretching these comfort zones.  It is a continuous work in progress for me, to always learning to look for what is and not for what I thinks should be while journey on with him,  

30 Nov was a day we had our first ever The Purple Parade for the special communities, our entire family and my mum were there to meet up with my sisters and friends we know through this special learning journey.  The rain did not dampen any purple spirit in this event to celebrate the abilities of people in the special communities. In fact it is so normal to be dancing in the rain for most as they bring the best of each special potential as we had witnessed in this meaningful event. Great success and kudos to the Organizing Team, look forward to 2014 then.

I brought him on another outing to Garden by The Bay, this time with his grandma on 8 Dec morning.  It was first for her but his 3rd time there for him, I took several pictures of him with his grandma for another great memories and successful excursion.He is more process focus entering stage 1 to Flower Doom before proceeding to stage 2 to Cloud Forest as he recall his school outing.  He was more facinated by the water fall, with taking the elevator than appreciating the flowers, tress and plants and the garden atmosphere.  We walked the tree top and enjoy with him for what he sees and go with his flow before leaving the place for lunch together and went home.

His last program was a 5 days basic soccer skill, where he learnt the basic foot work/drill sets, running and kicking the ball. Through this activities, he can learn to elevate his social skill, turn taking, playing with friends in a team playing environment.  I also bought him a new soccer ball to work with him after being inspired by the coach and the teachers having accompanied him and observing their good working with the children in these 5 days.  Will continue to encourage him to exercise with me during weekend and seek further sporting opportunity in the next holiday or near future.

Holidays also mean breaking some routine to have tea break or meals out with sister and especially grandma where each moment matters.

All play will not be completed without work, he had managed to complete his last piece of homework just 2 days ago, well done!

Christmas is near, brought him on a shopping trip to practice money value and familiarize him with the process of purchase. He brought 4 items for Christmas decoration, each costing $2, get him to calculate how much and give him $10 to manage at the cashier. With right support and practice, he can improve his confident on this living skill independently in not too distant future and start buying food and drinks from school cafe.

After shopping, I got him to help me setup the Christmas tree to ready in this festive season celebration of giving and blessing others for another New Year of Hope, Faith and Loving life.

We now look forward to A Merry Christmas as each of us welcomes another New Year to embark on brand new learning journey in our respective life.

Winners Statement:

Celebrating Another Year Of Many Little Break Through & Achievement

I had just met up with his teachers for IEP meeting 2 days ago and was gratifying to know that he will be in primary 2 come 2014. On top of that, he had also better his 2 subjects results that matter with a double digit % point improvement vs SA1. This will not be possible without the great contribution and support from his SpEd Team, he is indeed so blessed in this learning journey thus far since day 1, where the little things are Never little and every inchstone is a celebration for all..

This positive outcome can best be explained using Lean Rules as challenges unfold while we try our every effort to over come and path forward in continuous improvement.

Lean Rule #1: Structure every activities

By using lean rule 1, he is able to predict and know what is expect of him to do next and hence self guided his follow through.  The more we practice him and reinforce using the correct steps, the more confident he will gain with each lesser mistakes made through the correct steps taken.

We are thankful that his work habits had improved but still plenty of room to improve as demand gets more in the next grade.

Lean Rule #3: Specify and simplify every flow path

What other neuro typical child learn naturally may become a hidden curriculum to child in the spectrum, we need to teach him to the very specific details possible in their strength for attention to details. Simplying the flow path of some complex tasks by breaking down into smaller tasks can help encourage the child to learn and engage positively in taking these small steps forward and be successful.

Day by day, he has grown taller, more social seeking and these days also more expressive, receptive and talkative.  Today we went shopping to buy him lego toy that he chosed and get him to build with me, so happy that what use to be difficult in the past in building these small pieces of lego block has become easy now. This success gives us new strength in seeking opportunity to explore bigger lego model in near future.

When he likes to try this and that at home, and if they are safe, we will always encourage and support him to try them out, seeing his smiling face will often make our day and help release our light energy to cheer him on further.  He is like our super hero fighting big batte.

Recently, his sister just turned 12. We had a simple family dinner in table of 11 and then adjourned to my sister place to have circle time and cake cutting. he has also grown more attached to his sister.  Very often when he knows he did something which we are upset, he will request us to tell his sister or when he is not able to do his homework, he will insist to seek help first from his sister.  Sometimes, little event like these, he may also request us to write it down in the school hand book to tell his form teacher.  I will then counter propose to write it in our home hand book instead saying that this is for home matters while school handbook is related to school work to practice his flexibility and perspective taking.  From there in the long run, we can also explore further to develop his diary writing to practice his sentence construction.

Lean Rule #2: Clearly connect every customer and supplier

This is an important critical success factor that has carried me this far of the journey until today.  To be in great partnership with the SpEd Team, good mutual collaborative and co-operative habits, open communication and sharing success stories with teachers, recognizing and appreciating their great contribution through their dedication and commitment to improve each child have become part and parcel of this learning journey with him and an important process that I will always cherish. 

Kudos to his teachers for the encouragement in the recent annual school recognition day, I was also glad and happy to learn from other parents that their child too had been recognized with some form of Best in their area of strength,  every child is a winners.

"Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement.  Be hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise." ~ Dale Carnegie

Thank you teachers, all of you are amazing and great, thumbs up to all!  We are near to end of Term 4, I am sure he will miss all of them he knows.

Lean Rule #4: Improve through experimentation

From the success of last holiday program he participated in June and enjoyed greatly, we had registered and enrolled him for 3 programs this time during this coming Dec holiday.  Using lean rule 4, we may also try explore other forms of engagements/activities in the near future which can enhance his personal or joint attention, focus at task, work habits, promote more functional communication and social skills.

There will be an important event on the last day of this November called The Purple Parade.  Our family and friends are looking forward to participate in this movement to support and celebrate the abilities for all people in this special community.

We will be ready to wear Purple on this special event to stand up for him and others with special needs, to advocate and also educate to share awareness.  Walk on and dance in the rain for You Never Walk Alone !

Can't wait to see the ocean Purple wave unfold on that day!

Winners

September Birthday Weekend Bliss & Celebration

September has always been a month of celebration, on top of honouring his teachers, but also to remember the day he was born and it will have been his 8th years since this beautifiul seed starts growingl.

We began our weekend celebration with a family Cycling Event, kudos to his mommy's company who organized this employees cum family activities in the spirit of Team "Staying on track together".. The whole family took part and had a great fun exercising this engagement & join attention on Saturday morning.

We celebrated his birthday in advance on Sunday with our family of 10 and lots of Love and got him to write his own story to recall & share:-

So thankful to my sister and her beautiful family that make this birthday celebration possible & a memorable one.

We wish him many years of happy returns with good health, great fun learning and growing up with lots of LOVE.

This year had been special for him whereby both his birthday on Roman & Lunar calendar follow one day  after another(19 Sep '13 which is also the mid Autumn festival). It was a meaningful surprise and a strong finish to this year celebration when he received well wishes penned by friends and teachers from his school. Kudos to his form teacher, special educators and classmates, all of us are great partners by design. By seeking every opportunities to promote social, functional communication and right perception thinking through small little routines, gestures & events that matters, all of US can be blessed with more abundance Love, Hope & Faith in this journey less travel.

Look forward to a strong finish for the Term in our partnership for continuous improved collaborative and co-operative habits.

Winner's Statement:-

Happy Teacher' s Day

Education is one of the most precious blessing of life. This journey of thousand miles begin with a single step,  deep inside us, we are so very appreciative and proud for Fabian to have amazing teachers that make a difference. Today is Teacher's Day, I will like to take this opportunity to remember and honour their contribution when we first crossed path in this special learning journey with him.

Thank you all for believing in him, for the encouragement and support to him, always explore to instill a love for learning, lighting up the way for his path forward.

Wishing all of you A very Happy Teacher's Day & Great Holidays ahead!

Winner's Statement::-
I cannot emphasize enough the importance of a good teacher.Temple Grandin 

August Highlights & Celebration

Everyone writes their own stories with their thoughts and choice making. Some of us will learn in a simple way while others may take a great adventure to show the way...Hold on and enjoy every moment.. If you have inner peace and joy in return, you are on the right way, practising the ice-berg framework can be that little first and important step to the right way.

We are 2 weeks away from completing Term 3, journeying with him in this path less travelled is like perfect imperfecting or imperfect perfecting, you just have to "Don't Stop Believing" in him.  Term 3 has been great to him in various learning focus area taught in school.

On 19 July, the school celebrated Racial Harmony Day, children and teachers wore traditional clothes to embrace each other, irregardless of races. I got him to write a journey to recall the activities for the day:-

Mindfulness means moment-to-moment, non-judgmental awareness. It is cultivated by refining our capacity to pay attention, intentionally, in the present moment, and then sustaining that attention over time as best we can. In the process, we become more in touch with our life as it is unfolding. —Jon Kabat-Zinn

We always find joy engaging with him in join attention whether it is just having some games on smart phone or iPAD, taking breakfast or meals together, shopping or picking mommy from work etc..We believe that we can't teach him if we can't reach him...If we can, he will learn, may have fun and follow through in his most wonderful and unique way beyond our imagination.

You need to be content with small steps. That’s all life is. Small steps that you take every day so when you look back down the road it all adds up and you know you covered some distance. It took me a long time to accept that, but it’s true. You need to have patience. —Katie Kacvinsky

His Show and Tell skill has been progressing inch by inch, with right coaching, many practices and improved confident, he too can achieve what he once seems impossible, kudos to his English teacher for the good support and encouragement, we will next focus on working his expression and intonation.

This year August 9 is our Nation 48th Birthday, our family get together to each colour a portion of the parade floating stage picture.. Though art can be his weakest link, but his border and colour within area has improved over the past months. He requested to go lunch at Novena on national Day which I promptly agree and took some photo at the cafe where we took our meal.for some memories.

We also got him to write a journal on National Day:-

In the last PCN for Term 3, I took home with me an Aspiration and quote from Daisaku Ikeda that Life is by nature a process of on going challenge and constant change. The important thing is to not be fearful. Boldness builds a strong and undefeated Self. I was touched by the RI students' sharing the goodness they had learnt so much from the Pathlighters during their project collaboration. This is also what most parents have been transformed by how special each of our children has given us in this very special walk with them.
We live life only once, if we live to its fullest, once is enough.

I was also impressed by the skit and the Music and Movement performance put up by the students .He feels excited and happy to see 2 of his friends singing and dancing when I show him the video recording of the music and movement.

The launch bring cheers to parents in the Autism community, we had just filled the Giro form and will be sending in the application to expedite his insurance plan, kudos to ARC pro-active advocacy and NTUC Income.

On the 24 August, he took part in the BB uniform group outing to S.E.A. Aquarium under the Boys Brigade CARES program. The outing was hosted by BB boys aged between 9-12 years old.together with adult BB volunteers.  He had a great time interacting & engaging in join attention with the boys and adults from BB group.The desired outcome of inclusion has been positive, kudos to BB companies from 3 schools and the sponsor by St Andrew Cathedral. Hope to see more main stream schools adopting such meaningful CARES program(Community Actiivities Rallying Everyone to Serve) to elevate social awareness and overall core spirituality. Always seek to Discover, Explore and Inspire.

We are now approaching the 9th months of the year, with plenty more cheers & celebration to look forward in coming few months remaining..

Winners Statement:-

Gratitude makes a person modest. A sense of gratitude expands the heart. - Daisaku Ikeda