I know I just wrote a whole post about Molly, but in the past week I have gotten to know her so much better. I posted this on Facebook a few days ago and wanted to share here as well:
I have something that's been on my heart today... Every afternoon I do a little bit of "school" with Lily and Nolan. They are both doing great and we are hoping to get them into an actual school next year. Today, I decided to start with Molly too. She is just as intelligent as her brother and sister but is largely restricted by her body. All she wants is to be like them and she very often feels left out. While they are learning to walk, she is fighting to roll over and pull herself across the floor. When they head outside to play, she is left behind. And when they "go" to school, she can't participate. You can imagine the excitement when today, after the other two had finished, I asked her if she wanted to come to school as well. Her entire face lit up and she was shaking because she was so excited!
I carried her into the school room and we learned the letter A. She caught on quickly, was saying the name when I pointed to it, and when I put cards out with A and a couple other letters, she was able to find it and point it out to me. That was huge as I have been working with her on reaching out and pointing to things to make decisions and she struggles with it a little bit. My biggest worry was that I wouldn't be able to tell if she was understanding and now I have a way!
The only problem with today was finding a way to keep her sitting up. She can only sit on her own for a few seconds at a time and the contraption that I worked up to keep her upright didn't work as I had hoped. In the end, I had to sit with her in my lap the whole time which made teaching a little more tricky. That's when the gravity of her getting a wheelchair hit me.
Right now, SCH is fundraising to get custom wheelchairs for many of the kids, including Molly. With a wheelchair, it would not only make it easier for her to interact with the other kids at home and for me to work with her intellectually, but it would also open the door for us to get her into a school. Without it, that would be impossible. My dream is to get this girl's mind working and growing. Her physical limitations should not keep her mind from learning! Let's get this precious little girl the best Christmas present ever: the chance to learn and be taught by someone way better than me! $1075 of $2432 has been raised so far. If you would like to give, here is the link: http://www.tinyurl.com/schindiawheelchairs You can specify that it is for Molly or give to the general fund so that many others like her will also get the wheelchair they so badly need.
Molly is so intelligent and today just confirmed that for me even more. I can't wait to continue homeschooling her and see how far she will go!
Molly, you are one special girl and I love you more than words can say!
Quick update: Molly has learned the letter B now and knows both it and A quite well. Next week we'll start on C!
Also since writing this another $1019 has come in for Molly which means only $338 still to go!
Can we get this girl her wheelchair for Christmas?!
No comments:
Post a Comment