Infectious enthusiasm travels the world
I do not spent as much time as
I used to surfing the net reading other blogs and websites that are connected
in some way to Conductive Education, but I still have some favourites that I
open up now and then to discover what is going on in other conductive
communities.
One such website that I have
found so inspiring and have looked at regularly is that of conductor, Eszter
Agocs. Take a look and find out why -
I met Eszter in Hong Kong. She
was at the 2010 World Congress for Conductive Education with a conductor
colleague of hers, someone whom I knew from a few years earlier when she worked
in Germany.
Yes, it is a small world this
world of conduction.
I have a relative who lives not
far from Ezster’s centre in Adelaide who has also met her with the hope that her
family can use her services for her grandson. The world gets smaller and
smaller!
Eszter made quite an impression
on me when I met her. She and her colleague are both young and bubbling, full
of enthusiasm and with exciting plans for their futures in the conductive
world. They had that kind of enthusiasm that is so infectious that it oozes
through cyberspace too. I still feel it when I open up the website to look
through the pictures and read of the work at Future Footprints.
I was so delighted when, not
many weeks after our meeting in Hong Kong, I discovered Eszter’s website for
the centre that she opened in February 2011, in Adelaide, South Australia.
More about the furniture
Readers
of my blog will know that I have a strange and changing relationship with the
furniture that we have in our conductive centre. It is so very heavy, it takes
up so much space when not in use and, really, I can take it or leave it. If it
is there when I need it as a means of facilitation I use it, but if it is not
available I use something else. This is especially true when I am working with
families in their homes, where I use what is available.
Creative planning
I
plan many arty activities for my groups well ahead, so that I always have
something in store to fall back on in a time of need.
One
of the plans that I had for 2010, that followed me into 2011 and 2012 because I
had not made my deadlines, was for us to produce hand-painted furniture to
auction at our summer fetes. It is still an on-going project and we are
beginning to get some orders for our work based on the results of what I
describe below.
Dolly Mixtures
In
Eszter’s new centre she has the most wonderful furniture, all designed and made
by herself and her family. At first glance it looks like the children are
working and playing in a box of Dolly Mixtures! With furniture that looks like
a packet of sweeties, the pastel shades make it look like they are working and
playing in a fairy-story book!
Inspiration to get going
I
have been planning a paint-the-furniture project at our centre for years. Not
only did I want to paint the furniture, I actually wanted to put the finished
products in an auction at our summer fete.
I
always seemed to run out of time and the summers came and went. Then, one day
in the autumn of 2011 I received a call asking whether I would still like some
flat-pack chairs from the local branch of a well known Swedish furniture store.
Always
ready for an arty project and very much inspired by the pictures of Eszter’s
Dolly Mixture colours, I immediately said ‘Yes please’ and the chairs arrived
the next day.
It
was a day when all but three from seven members of our staff were sick and I
was left holding the fort with two groups of children. After a bit of shuffling
of people and spaces, in the end I had just five children with me, all of them
very eager to assemble the Swedish flat-pack chairs that they could see stacked
up in the corner.
Child’s play!
They
all turned out to be experts.
Not
only experts at furniture assembly but at teamwork too.
Each
child not only knew exactly where their own talents lie but also knew who best
to team up with to compliment their own skills. It was a joy to watch them, and
watch is what I did most of the time, except when I would quickly turn a piece
of wood round before it got screwed into (the wrong) place, or offered a longer
tool with a handle to afford better grip.
One
lad with hemiplegia was employed by all the
groups to make the final turn on the screws and an athetoid girl was the
best at sorting out the order of assembly and spotting the difference between
all the nuts and bolts.
We
had six chairs assembled in no time at all. By the time that we went home for
the day the chairs were all lined up, tried and tested, with plans being made
for their decoration at a later date. My colleagues were quite astounded to see
what we had achieved on a day when we were so short-staffed.
These
children did not need adults to assemble furniture, just each other. One to
read the instructions, one to get the bits of wood sorted, another sorting
nails, another who was good with an Allen key, and another who was strong and
could hold on tight.
I
do not think that I have never experienced such a motivated, active bunch of
children. It was a lovely experience for me and I thanked the person who turned
up with the chairs at just the right moment for making what could have been a
difficult, short-staffed afternoon into such a successful day for us all.
The project continued!
In
the autumn of 2011 the school children were delighted that we were at last able
to organise a weekend sleep-over at our conductive centre. We had a wonderful
time and were incredibly busy. It was autumn and Halloween, so we were not
short of inspiration for our creativity, and to top it all we had our chair
project to get on with.
Upon
the advice of a lovely young man at the hardware store I had purchased a huge
can of white paint and four very tiny pots of highly concentrated colours.
We
had all that we needed to mix just about any colour under the sun, which is
exactly what we did.
Before
we went to bed on the first evening of the sleep-over we had four
pastel-coloured chairs. Over the course of the following months, whenever the
children found the time and the motivation, they painted and stencilled away
until they were satisfied with their creations. One child whose hands are not always as steady as she would like them to be printed spots on her chair with the tip of her nose!
An instant make-over
Throughout
the creative period the chairs where used – after they had dried, of course!
Abandoned to the cellar were the ladder-backs.
We
now had our pastel dolly-mixture chairs to sit on at the dinner table, so the
dull, fifteen-years-old ladder-backs from the Pető Institute have been confined
to the corner of the room (just-in-case), and some to the cellar. Our new, brightly
painted chairs immediately changed the atmosphere in our group room through
their vibrancy of colour and flair. They also attract many comments and now –
Orders flowing are in!
When
we had a festival in July to celebrate the roofing of the new Kindergarten the
Boss of the association, of which our conductive work is just a small part,
came into our room and noticed our lovely chairs around the table. She
immediately wanted to have one to give to the building firm as a thank-you
present, but I told her that she would
have a lot of explaining to do if one of the children arrived the next to find
their chair was missing!
She
of course understood this immediately and said that she would send us some more
flat packs from the well-known Swedish store as soon as she could, so that we
could get creative on some more chairs to use in the Association as gifts and
to auction off at fund-raising events.
And now the stroke group get roped in!
Something
else that I have been waiting for from that same store, something for the
group-room, is a small flat-pack step-ladder. We wanted it for the children who
are just a little bit too short to use the kitchen. With two ladder-back chairs
beside it it is ideal for some of the children. I had tested one from the Kindergarten
group a long time ago and at long last ours arrived.
The
children were delighted and unpacked the box with glee. They soon had the
cartoon-like instructions in their hands and the nuts and bolts all sorted. It
was not long before they realised that this time they needed more elbow-grease
than any of them could supply and the whole package was left all sorted out for
the arrival of our stroke group the next morning.
It
was interesting to see how that group worked together.
The
one lady in the group took on the role of observer. She made sure that
everything flowed according to plan. I had warned them all just before they
started, before I retreated to another part of the room, that there were a few
tricky pieces, similar bits of wood with holes in different places, that they
should be aware of.
I
learnt as much from this adult furniture-building session as I had done from
the session with the children. I was not at all surprised to see who it was who
took charge of the group, in a kind and encouraging way, not doing it all
himself but knowing that he had the better fine motor skills to do the work.
He
and one of the other men were so patient with a third man who kept insisting,
despite having the instruction sheet in front of him with its very clear
pictorial instructions, that the second side panel should be attached before
the steps were all inserted. Our female group member was able to explain to him
the reason why they were still not ready for that piece but I observed that he
still kept offering the same piece several times before he realised what needed
to be done first.
I
love it when we introduce such practical tasks to the sessions. The clients are
so highly motivated, both the children and the adults, to show off all their
skills and their ability to work as a team. I am not sure whether it is not I
who learns the most from these moments, especially when the clients are so good
at the task in hand that I can take a back seat and observe their conversations,
notice who helps whom and how, and who asked who for help and why!
I
am really grateful that we have this certain Swedish furniture store just
around the corner that has such good-value products that are useful to us and
come with child- and disability-friendly instruction sheets. We supply a few
extra tools from the box-full that we have accumulated over the years of
conductive work. It is full of long spanners and keys that had come with
long-since-out-of-use leg and foot splints and bicycles.
The next stage
When
the next flat-packs arrive I shall organise a joint venture. Adults and
children joining forces, coming together to enjoy an action-packed,
furniture-making creative experience!
Then
next summer I will get all our clients out there at the summer fete auctioning
off their wares!
But first a different celebration
We
already have another creative project in hand.
We
have been asked to make costumes for a Golden Jubilee fashion parade that will
take place at the end of this month to celebrate fifty years of the Association
that the conductive department belongs to!
There
is never a dull moment in our conductive lives!
