Saturday, July 28, 2012

Had a tough day so I made some stuff

Having a father with Alzheimer's disease is very difficult and this past 6 months it has gotten even more difficult. I knew this day was coming but it still hit me like a ton of bricks when my sweet daddy, who I see multiple times a week, looked at me on 2 separate occasions today and asked me "Who are you?"
Those 3 simple words broke my heart and have been haunting me all day. When my dad was first diagnosed 7 years ago I knew this day would come, I even tried to prepare my own kids for it. My daughter, who is very close to her Grandad, was very upset with the diagnosis and I told her "Baby girl you're right Grandad will some day forget us in his brain but he will never forget us in his heart" today I had to draw on those words myself and they were really of no comfort as I cried all the way home from his nursing home, and still tear up when I think about it.

So to try to take my mind off this whole thing I decided to work on things for my classroom. It was inspiring when I saw that Stephanie at Falling into First had posted a packet that matched my classroom perfectly - Owls and polka dots! Here I am thinking I am being all original but combining owls and polka dots, turns out its a pretty popular combo this year LOL

Anyway I bought her pack and downloaded it, mostly for the Word Wall Letters - Look how super cute these are!!

The kit had these in pink, purple, blue, and green. I did green for vowels and blue for consonants

And the desk tags! They are SO cute! 

I also spent some time making my "Name Necklaces" that are part of our reading program and my students use the first few days of school.


Finally, I saw a super cute idea on Young and Lively Kindergarten. She has "Tying Teachers" in her classroom. She has a display where she posts the names of the students in her class who can tie shoes, that way if you have a kiddo whose shoes are untied they know which classmates to go to for help. AND it gives them an incentive to learn to tie shoes so they can have their name on the Tying Teachers board. So I made a quick little sign and bought some cute little sneaker accents to put the kiddos' names on and I will be doing this in my classroom tis year as well.



Now, if I can get away from blog stalking and Facebook long enough I need to fire up my laminator and get these things laminated. 

Have a great Saturday night!
Cindy

7 comments:

  1. :( Hugs! I am sorry you are going through this difficult time. Your creations are adorable!

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  2. Sending hugs and prayers your way! But what you made is super cute!

    Lindsey
    Lovin’ Kindergarten

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  3. My mom has Alzheimer's as well. A few months ago we were cooking (she was watching) and we were having what I thought was a "regular" conversation. She asked me who taught me to cook and I responded "my Mama" and said her name. She got angry and said "don't try to confuse me, who is your Mama? " I responded that I didn't remember. She said "Well that's crazy!". I tell my family we've got to laugh or we"ll all be crying.

    BTW I love your ideas! They're absolutely darling and most importantly easy to implement and utilize. Keep up the good work and know that there are others walking in your shoes.

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    1. Thanks, it is such a terrible disease to deal with, we used to be able to laugh at a lot and my sister and I always said that God put the little bits of humor in to help us when it was tie to deal with the not so funny stuff. Unfortunately with my dad being in the advanced stages now there really aren't a lot of humorous moments anymore. My dad is starting to get into the violent stage and that can be scary. He has had a couple of incidents at his nursing home and I am sure they won't be the last. Its just so difficult watching the progression of the disease.

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  4. It looks like you are having a hard time doing that,after all you made such a cool items as those tags :D

    Thanks,
    Lulu from hanging letters for nursery

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