I love and hate how new TV shows come out a full season at a time now. It’s nice that it’s all “just there” to watch. But there’s a lack of excitement and discussion about what’s going to happen next. Would you like to watch some shows together… SLOWLY?
This was brought to a head for me when I saw episode 4 of The Witcher the other night. I thought “Wow, that was awesome! I want to talk to somebody ab…. wait. Most likely any of my friends have either seen the whole season already or they haven’t seen the show at all.”
Abigail went back to preschool this week. The school is doing a lot to minimize the spread of Coronavirus. This is her last 5 weeks of preschool and Step One School has been amazing to promote her growth! I am truly bothered that the pandemic robbed Abigail of part of this experience. At every pick-up, I was learning more about how to become a better pediatric occupational therapist and dad!
Megan and I are going back to work in what will assuredly be a “complex” working environment in about a month in the school, so we welcome the quiet prep time. To give you a taste, here’s the update from her main teacher on the first day back:
Dear Room 1 Families,
We are in the midsts of having such an amazing day back at school. It has been so wonderful to feel the love, joy, and energy of the kids being back.
Our day started at circle, where they met our pet “Queenie”. Ask your child if they can remember what kind of snake she is. She was also feeling shy and nervous, which helped some kids feel better. Here is a picture from circle. We went over some of the new procedures. Ask them if they can remember some of them, like where do they put their toy when they are done or what airplane arms mean.
After circle the kids were so busy playing around the room. Some of the activities were:
Making placemats
Playing with their own ball of play dough
Building with Magnatiles
Playing in the playhouse
Playing with the trains
Listening to stories
Swinging on the rope ladder
Jumping onto the pillows
Painting
Playing at the water table
Building on existing friendships and making new ones
After playing inside we headed up to the deck for snack. Here is a picture from snack time.
After snack was our first outside time. Some of the activities outside were:
Washing babies in the water table
Swinging on the swing
Playing on the monkey bars
Riding the bikes and scooters
Playing under the gatehouse
Playing in the waterfall (ask your child if they were part of the big leaf removal at the waterfall)
After our outside time we were back to the deck for lunch and to listen to a story. The kids had fun using their placemat that they had made in the morning. After lunch is another outside time and nap time for a few (more rolling around than napping so far). That’s a summary of our day so far.
A few reminders:
Please remember to sunscreen your child in the morning. We are doing it when we first come out.
Please send your child with a hat. We have the sun shades around the yard but a hat could help.
Check in with your child about how they felt about being at school. It’s a big change for all of us.
We are so excited to have your child in our class and look forward to all that is yet to come. Please email us (please cc all of the teachers) if you have any questions.
Well, actually, it is a poke in the eye, but that’s ok! I’ve been getting monthly treatments for macular edema caused by CRVO. I keep reminding myself that the technology to repair this problem has only existed for about 20 years. The previous treatment, with steroids, wasn’t very effective, and before that, I simply would have gone blind in that eye.
The treatment is getting a few needles in the eye. It’s oddly exhausting for how little actual pain is involved but I’m right as rain the next day.
Happily, my treatments are very successful. My next appointment is 5 weeks away instead of the previous 4 weeks. In a few months, the treatments will hopefully not be needed any more :-)
If you want to watch the most “important” bits of the meeting, I’d start watching the video at about the 51 minute mark.. Here’s a link: https://youtu.be/U2FUA_yAQXM?t=3063
I work in elementary schools as an occupational therapist. My district just came out with a tentative plan to start the year nearly fully online with the hope of transitioning to in-person as time goes by. In the superintendent’s letter he mentions, “the teacher… can deliver instruction either from home or in a classroom with a limited number of high-need students.”
I work with many high-need students. So… … we’ll see how it goes! I have trust in my district. And I’m nervous. We’ll see how it goes!
Encouraging COVID news? I was chatting with Zee and wrote …it’s encouraging to see that while the confirmed case rate in the US is climbing (https://aatishb.com/covidtrends/?location=Canada&location=US), the death rate in the US is declining (https://aatishb.com/covidtrends/?data=deaths&location=Canada&location=US) One idea is that since death occurs about 3 weeks after contracting the virus, the death-rate should follow the case-rate after about a 3 week delay. That doesn’t seem to be happening. I’m not sure why. What does this data mean?
Friends were discussing what to do when a person without a protective mask demands to enter a store or business because of an unspecified disability.
You should learn what the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) says about reasonable accommodations like not wearing a mask during this pandemic. In brief, the operative words are “reasonable” and “accommodation”!
Reasonable: no, store-owners don’t have to go far out of their way to make an accommodation, but they have to try to make a reasonable effort.
Accommodation: no, it’s not going to be the same as what a person without a disability can do, it’ll be an accommodation like maybe instead of shopping in the store, they’ll get curbside assistance, telephone support or another way of helping them.
This is a type of problem that happens all the time. When, for example, a business isn’t wheelchair accessible for any of a variety of reasons, the business usually has to figure out some reasonable accommodation. It’s a whole body of law that a maskless bandit probably doesn’t actually want to get involved in but a person suffering from a real condition will be familiar with and thankful that you are concerned about. Stopping people at the door and saying “I’m sorry, you can’t come in without a mask. How can I provide a reasonable accommodation to your disability?” is legal and legit.
Update: my friend Rich pointed out: There’s specific wording in the ADA that it doesn’t apply to mandates in a public health emergency. Also, on whether it’s ‘Constitutional’, It DID go to court, the Supreme Court ruled on it, and Jacobson v. Massachusetts is still the controlling case (please correct if that’s wrong, I looked like crazy and that’s what I found) Note that this case was decided in 1905.
