Friday, May 15, 2009

Deaf, Blind - Amazing

About a week ago we took the kids to see "The Miracle Worker" a play about Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller. Our children are young for such a show - even if it was only high school (which, being only high school, I must say I was really impressed with the presentation - and very amazed at many of the actors).

It was a great opportunity to introduce the children to "theater" on a level other than elementary. At the same time, it was a great door opener to learn about something and someone else. All the kids enjoyed it for various different reasons. Gabi, though, was very excited about it. She went to Library this week and brought back a book (above her comprehension) to learn more about Helen Keller. I read it through and found I was learning things about Helen that I hadn't learned growing up. It was a great book and has caused me to want to get ahold of the actual books that Helen wrote herself.

Since we do some with sign language, I'm planning on exploring the manual alphabet "tapped into the hand" with Gabi. I think this could be fun. I'm thinking up a way to allow her to explore what it might have been like for Helen being blind and deaf - probably a really dark blindfold and Bob's Ear Protection from the woodshop. And then it would be neat to explore braille a little as well.

At this level, I don't expect Gabi to fully learn about Helen, but it has certainly opened a door to explore other things related to Helen Keller that would give Gabi understanding and experience. The story of Helen Keller is, of course, remarkable - Gabi sees that.

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