KIDS KORNER

KIDS KORNER

Future Reflections Fall 1988, Vol. 7 No. 3
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KID'S CORNER
FARMBOY
Editor's Note: James Konechne of Platte, South
Dakota, was first-place winner in the Kindergarden/First Grade category of the 1987-88 NFB
Braille Reading Contest For Blind Children.
This article appeared in his hometown newspaper.
I am Jame Konechne. I'm six years old. I'm in first
grade at Platte. My mom, dad, and two sisters,
Wendy and Melissa-and I live on a farm. We
have cows and pigs. I feed them corn out of a
bucket each day when I get home from school.
We have seventeen kids in my class. We have two
first grades. The other has seventeen kids, too!
My teacher is Mrs. Johnson, and my Braille
teacher is Mrs. Wasje. I like to play "Round the
World in Math." Also spelling for Mrs. Wasje because
she gives me gummi zoo animals.
I can't wait for swimming this summer. I love to
ride in my dad's cab tractor when he bales. He
lets me run the controls. I get to tie the bale with
twine, cut the twine, and open the tailgate to
dump the bale. That's just part of my life in Platte.
CRUELTY OF CHILDREN
by Christine E. Hawkins.
Editor's Note: Christine is from Seymour, Indiana.
Her essay was accompanied by this letter.
May
25,1988
Dear Sirs:
This essay was written by one of my low-vision
students. The feelings conveyed I feel are
worthwhile sharing with others. If you feel it
should be published in Future Reflections, you
have Christine's permission to do so.
Sincerely,
Henrietta Snively
Consultant for Low
Vision Students
I wanted to write about cruelty of children. [It] is
a subject I know first-hand. I started to wear my
glasses when I was barely two years old and
learned to live with them. But when I started
school, children would often make fun of my
thick glasses. I didn't understand why they would
make fun of something that was so important to
me.
My older brother was also made fun of. He had a
colostomy and wore a plastic bag on his side that
would catch his urine. It hurt me to see children
make fun of him. Through the years I have come
to learn that children are often cruel because of
ignorance. They don't understand why someone
must wear glasses to see or braces to walk or a
colostomy bag because it is a necessity. Over the
years people still make fun of me, but I learned
to laugh with them or pretend I didn't even hear
them. But there are those days where I can't do
either, and I just go by myself and have a good
cry.
I babysit for several children, and one day I may
have my own. But I'd like to teach these children
not to make fun of others who are different for
whatever reason. The memories of being made
fun of can last a lifetime, and one of my goals in
life is to pass on to the children I see and talk to
is to educate them not to be cruel and to understand
the other child's problems or differences.
BEING CREATIVE
by Dottie Neely
Editor's Note: Dottie Neely wrote this for the Blind Missourian several years ago. I have held
onto it thinking I would find an opportunity to publish
it in Future Reflections. With the holiday
season coming up, this seemed the right time.
Kids love to be creative, yet this creativity needs
to be stimulated and cultivated by parents'
making available different kinds of materials.
Play dough can be used as a creative medium for
a child's imagination.
One year when money was limited, play dough
was used in a variety of ways to make Christmas
presents for friends and relatives. These presents
were useful and attractive. Gifts included the clay
itself as well as a wide variety of ornaments and
decorations.
With help from Mom, my children made the clay,
worked it up themselves, rolled it out using small
rolling pins obtained from small dollar stores, cut
different holiday shapes (we collect these as we
find them in stores year-round), helped put these
on cookie sheets, press strings in the top, or
punch holes in the top for strings. These shapes
were then dried slowly in a low- heat oven,
cooled, and painted with either water color or
acrylic paints. These are nice finish items. If
children cannot paint, glitter and glue can be
used for decorations. Different colors may be
mixed together to make a marbled effect, and
painting is not necessary when these are marbled.
My children also loved to make clay for small
friends to play with. This is a good Christmas
present if a small rolling pin is included and a
couple of small cookie cutters. My children have
a supply of clay to play with all the time. It is stored in an airtight container in a kitchen cupboard
next to a plastic box that contains plastic
sheets for them to work with clay on, and a supply
of cookie cutters for use with the clay. Mom
helps from time to time, encouraging them to use
different methods of working with clay to make
baskets, dishes, buildings, and whatever else
these two creative children may desire.
Happy creating with your children. We have
spent many quiet hours together with this
wonderful activity.
Play*Clay*Dough
Mix in pan:3 cups flour

1-1/2 cups salt

2 tsp. cream of tartar
Mix in bowl:3 cups water

3 tsp. salad oil

10 drops food coloring
*A few drops of peppermint can be used to make
the clay smell good.
Very slowly pour liquid mixture into the dry mixture.
Stir well while pouring. After all has been
well-mixed, cook over low heat stirring constantly
until mixture forms a large ball. Knead immediately,
set aside to cool, knead again when
cool, store in a plastic bag or a tight, closed container.
VALLEY
SECOND-GRADER PLACES
THIRD IN NATIONAL BRAILLE READING
CONTEST
Editor's Note: This article, written by Victoria
M. Stevens, is reprinted from the June 15, 1988
newspaper, Arizona Republic.
Noel Romey brushed his fingers across the stiff,
bumpy pages of the book, Little Wizard Stories of
Oz, and read aloud like a sage storyteller.
"So he roared and raved and stomped around in
his undersized palace in a way that rendered him
very agreeable," Noel narrated as he looked
straight ahead, raising an eyebrow for effect.
Then, the second-grader from Senita Elementary
School, 10444 N. 39th Ave., closed the book and
sighed.
"I'm tired of reading."
It is no wonder Noel, eight, is tired.
In three months, from Dec. 1 to March 1, he read
3,521 pages, for a total of 113 books in Braille,
and captured third place in the 1987-88 National
Federation of the Blind's national children's
Braille reading contest in the second-to-fourth
grade division.
Last year, Noel, who reads at a ninth-grade level,
won second place in the nationwide contest
kindergarten and first- grade division, reading
1,913 pages in Braille.
Braille is a system of writing and reading for the
blind in which each character is formed by a pattern
of raised dots on paper.
Noel, who was in traction after breaking both legs
in a playground accident at school in April, said
it becomes difficult to pick up a book after reading that much for three months straight. But
being bedridden forces him to read every now
and then.
"I don't read much now," he said. "I need a break,
so I listen to tapes."
Noel said he became interested in the competition
in 1987, when a teacher at his school asked
him whether he wanted to enter. He said he
didn't hesitate in getting started.
"I took a little bit every day," he said.
However, Noel said that this year, "I was racing
pretty much at the beginning.
"I started out with 50 pages a day. And one day,
I took practically all the books on my shelf and
read all of them. I started at 5:00 a.m. and 1,900
pages I had already read, and I jumped up to
2,100 by 2:00 p.m."
Noel has been blind since birth because of osteopeteroosis,
a rare disease that causes the bone
to become too dense, to the point that it is highly
susceptible to breaking, said his parents, Jackie
and Larry Romey.
Dense bone that is "almost like petrified wood"
formed around his optic nerve, impeding his sight
from birth, Jackie Romey said.
The Romeys said that because little is known
about the rare disease, doctors are not sure how
it might affect his development later in life.
Being blind hasn't hindered Noel, who regards
himself as "more normal" than other kids.
He can read and write in Braille; in fact, he and
his sister, Kelsea, six, have co-written a seven
page book about Sesame Street's "Big Bird." He
has made a tape explaining his school's talking
Page 28
computer and Braille printer for the blind, and
his favorite subject is math, where he is progressing
at the third- grade level. Kelsea said her
brother can even "see" colors when they draw
together.
"I color over the bumps that he makes with his
Braille writer," she said, "and then it makes a pretty
picture. He feels things and can tell the color
by the warmth and coldness." To Noel, black is
"darkness," yellow is the sun," orange is a
"pumpkin, cool and slimy," and turquoise is "like
some jewels on a belt."
Noel is a good example of how blind children can
excel with Braille, said Barbara Cheadle, coordinator
of the Braille reading competition for the
National Federation of the Blind. The nonprofit
organization in Baltimore, Maryland, helps
promote equality and opportunities for the blind
to integrate them into society.
"Noel can read faster than he can talk," she said,
adding that he was the only child from Arizona
to win an award in this year's competition.
The competition, which is in its fourth year, is offered to chioldren from kindergarten to 12th
grade. Cheadle said Noel was surpassed by
Renee Fields, a fourth grader from Louisville,
Kentucky, who read 4,289 pages to place first.
Alicia Richards, a second grader from Palo, Iowa,
read 3,611 pages to finish second.
Noel said he borrows many of his books from the
Braille Institute in Los Angeles.
"Encyclopedia Brown and Tom Swift (fictional
characters) are my favorites," Noel said.
Although he might be tired of reading right now,
it must not bother him too much.
He plans to read more than 6,000 pages in next
year's competition and to help his mother learn
to read and write Braille this year.
"I'm going to check her work," he said.
When he gets older, Noel wants to make a career
of checking other people's work.
"I want to be a Braille proofreader," he said.

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