Toting the Bins Back to School

In our county school system, assistive technology equipment is grouped by schools and the OTs deliver the "AT bins" to schools now, before students return to the classrooms.  This makes for a bit of car decluttering on the part of most of us OTs, since the bins do take up quite a bit of space in our vehicles.

I bring along my trusty, rusty luggage wheelie thing to help me trek the bulky bins along the sidewalks and long hallways.

Yesterday I delivered bins to two schools with electric power, and two other schools without any power.  The trooper teachers were carrying on by the faint light brought in by the skylights around school.  Driving along the backroads you could see all the damage to trees and homes from Hurricane Irene.  Our family only lost power for 4 nights; think I'll go home and hug a lightswitch.

Site for Parents

Checked out this blog again to see if the author is still posting excellent info--yep, she is.  If you have parents who want to know what they can do at home to enhance their child's learning you might direct them to this site:

My Obstacle Course blog

Back to School

Plan to show this video of last year's sensory-based activities to families of students in the autism program at the high school as part of the Parent Open House:

Sensory-Based Activities for High School Students

I think the Speech-Language Pathologist might show her more detailed videos of the activities, which she used during follow-up sessions with her students.

Earthquake Central

We all headed back to work today and this afternoon we had an earthquake!  The epicenter was about 20 miles from our therapy office.  So glad the kiddos weren't back in school!

Stay tuned to this weekend with the hurricane coming up the coast.

A Final Walk for the Summer

This morning I dragged my poor husband along with me to walk around the quaint streets in northside Richmond, in a neighborhood named "Bellevue."  Lovely Bellevue  A fairly cool morning made it perfect for hugging the shady side of the street and enjoying the older homes.  We splurged and went to a 1940's breakfast-lunch spot on the way back home; we'd never been there before and it was delicious.

Tomorrow I'll be getting up a little earlier than I'm accustomed to...back to work!

Squeeze In All the Green You Can

As school-based therapists you know I'm NOT referring to our huge salaries.
Last year I read a study that stated we can reduce our stress levels by looking out the window and keeping our gaze on something green for at least twenty seconds.  Well, that's a little difficult for me to do since I work in a windowless office and some schools don't have too many large picture windows.
So...I think I'll play this video once in a while and gaze on the green, listen to the bugs and the birds and the relaxing sounds of water dancing along the stream.

Relax

Next Tuesday is the big day to start back to work--Yikes!

Twisted Huts

Well, I had intended for my personal blog,  LifeSpace ,to stand in for me this summer, but I hardly added a thing.  Too much working in the garden, walking dogs, and having funs with friends--I'm sorry.

School starts for us next Tuesday so I'll be back in the saddle and photographing/writing again.  This summer was full of tons of interesting ideas so I'll be adding new activities for my kiddos next year, based on those new thoughts.

Aren't the twisted huts dreamy?  They were constructed at Lewis Ginter Botanic Gardens in Richmond and a friend and I explored them two Saturdays ago.  How the Twisted Huts Were Created