Similarities (Row, Row edition)

Three years ago, I wrote a post titled Similarities.  The post listed a whole string of commonalities with a sweet young lady in Massachusetts and her family, whom we've never met except in the blogosphere.  But I know of no other child who is more like Joy than Rhema.

In September 2009, the post was about their shared love of window dancing.

Yesterday, I got chills when I found the following clip on the Rhema-blog, Autism in a Word.




If you close your eyes and just listen -- might have to turn the volume up a little, it's a phone-video -- this could be me and Joy.  We do exactly the same thing with songs, where Joy fills in the blank.  Row, Row is one of our favorites.  Joy requests it by grabbing an adult's hands, swaying, and crooning "Whoa, whoa."

Even that might not have been enough to nudge me to write this post.  But then I opened Joy's backpack when she got home from school, and I found these.

"Row, Row" pictures

Joy's been hard at work in art class again.  Two weeks ago, she made her first Song Spots art, dotting with a Magic Marker in time to music.  Last week, she used a paintbrush and dotted in time to "C is for Cookie."

This week, she worked in two different media, paint and crayons, producing the artworks above.  She had a different aide for yesterday's class, who didn't know "C is for Cookie" (Joy's first request) but they quickly settled on a different song.  The artwork for October 5 is brought to you in time with Rhema's song:  Row, row, row your boat.

One year, some time, some how, these girls must meet.  And their mamas, and their sisters -- we could even bring the dads along, if everyone's in the same country at the same time!  I wonder if Rhema and Joy would recognize the kinship that's so spine-tinglingly evident to their blogging-mamas?

I think they might.  Especially if there are windows to dance in, and familiar songs with just the right blanks to fill in.

Music and Speech

We got our piano tuned the other week.  Rose has been making great strides with her piano lessons, making the instrument sing each morning with her practicing -- so we wanted to be sure it was singing in key!  (Didja hear the one about how people keep having to break into song because they can't find the key?  Heh.)

Anyway, the guy who did the turning also plays a variety of instruments but is particularly skilled with the marimba.  He's won numerous awards, plays from a repertoire of over 250 songs, and has performed in Wisconsin's Capitol Rotunda.

He also has autism, and didn't speak until he was eleven.  Now, in his mid-thirties, his list of accomplishments is long.  In his work as a piano tuner, he is accompanied by his mentor, a retired piano tech who supervises his work and helps him stay focused.  His mom, who manages his scheduling, also taught him at home.  By the time we'd completed the whole transaction, I wound up with two of their CDs -- one of his performances, one of her compositions.

Mom's songs, as it turned out, were integral to his education.  Twenty-some years ago, public schools were open to students with disabilities thanks to the 1975 "Education for All Handicapped Children Act" (predecessor to IDEA) -- but in his case at least, they weren't very successful at figuring out how to serve him.  His mother was a kindergarten teacher, and she discovered that what he best responded to was music; that if you sang his lessons to him, the material would actually stick.  So her CD features the songs of his education, created as she put together a music-laced curriculum for him.

Joy, meanwhile, has gotten off to a fine start this school year.  I was concerned that the transition back into school, with a mostly new-to-her team and coming off a late-summer riddled with behavioral challenges, was going to be rocky at best.  But her new special-educator and teacher and student-teacher met with us repeatedly in August, processed the mounds of input we had for them, and felt like partners in the education of Joy before classes even started.

On top of that, Joy has been blessed with musical SEAs (special education assistants).  The past two years, she was met first thing every morning by an SEA who plays drums and teaches piano.  We were sorry to leave that aide behind as Joy moved up to 2nd grade, but simply delighted to hear her new morning-greeter SEA announce, "I'm a singer!"  Joy's affinity for melody and tempo was quickly evident to this new SEA.  We've been hearing updates about Joy echoing little tunes and tapping rhythms.

Then on Friday, she sent home this piece of artwork.

"Song Spots"

Joy, who had never made it all the way through art class before as far as I knew, hung in for a full 45 minutes with her singer-SEA on Friday and dotted this sheet in one marker-color after another -- in time to music.  It sounds like her art teacher got into the act with the music as well.  I know he plays the bass, and the note said "Teacher plays quiet jazz too!"

Teachers have been badly scapegoated lately in Wisconsin and nationwide, and SEAs are even further down the totem pole.  As a Madison teacher-blogger posted just yesterday:

SEAs choose to stay in a career where they are often sworn at, kicked and challenged. They do this, because they care about our children and they understand the importance of their role in our students’ lives. We need to start rewarding SEAs both financially and by treating them with the professionalism they deserve.  Most importantly, we must create school conditions that foster success for the students they serve.

Indeed.

In tandem with the new music delights, we've had a burst of words these past weeks as well.  The speech-settings on Joy's mixer-board are hitting new highs.  I now regularly hear at snack-time, when Joy finishes the first serving of goldfish -- "moh... CACK-uh!"  Not too long ago, when Joy was angling for her iPad (which was busy charging up on the other side of the bedroom door), we got a three-word prompted utterance out of her: "I... want... iPad"!  Heck, just yesterday JoyDad was watching football with her, and was teaching her to raise her arms and say "Touchdown"!  (Next on the list of sports-speak to teach her will be "Go Bears!")

Music to our ears.

And yet, while all this wonderful music and speech and overlap between the two is happening on the home front, down at Wisconsin's Capitol, a new Chief of Capitol Police has been tasked with squelching musical free speech in the Capitol Rotunda.

I've blogged about the Solidarity Sing Along before: red heart balloons, and holiday defiance in the face of an attempted December crackdown last year.  Since March of 2011, the Sing Along has gathered daily to continue expressing opposition to the ongoing depredations of the Walker administration.  This remarkable resistance-movement has been a thorn in the side of the Republican regime since the singing first began.  They tried to squelch us last December with a ridiculous, unconstitutional re-interpretation of Capitol permitting rules, flying in the face of the Rotunda's rich history of being a public square, intentionally designed with acoustics suitable for free political expression.  We showed up by the hundreds in December, daring them to arrest us all -- and, in large part due to the thoughtful leadership of the previous Capitol police chief, no arrests were made and the Sing Along continued.

Now, however, the arrests have begun.  Chief David Erwin, a former Scott Walker bodyguard, has led the Capitol Police in an anti-singer campaign.  The arrests and citations have targeted the people who attend the Sing Along most frequently.  While Erwin gives interviews complaining about disruptive protesters who go around "terrorizing" tourists and Capitol staff, the arrests are for holding signs.  Or banners (like the one held by JoyMama the rabble-rouser in the red coat below).  Or for attending an unpermitted event, or for sections of the Administrative Code that have never been interpreted in this way before. Despite repeated requests for clarification, the Capitol Police are declining to specify what activities might be deemed citation-worthy on any particular day.  They've taken to showing up at people's homes and workplaces to deliver citations, without having approached the individuals at the Capitol at the time of the supposed infraction.  It's intimidation, and they're pairing it with a cynical propaganda campaign that Rebecca Kemble wrote about compellingly in The Progressive the other week: The Two-Pronged Assault on Dissent in Wisconsin's Capitol.

The citizen-lobbyists of the Solidarity Sing Along believe that our permit to lift our voices in musical dissent is contained in the following words of Wisconsin's Constitution (Article 1, Section 4):

The right of the people peaceably to assemble, to consult for the common good, and to petition the government, or any department thereof, shall never be abridged.

"What part of SHALL NEVER BE ABRIDGED don't you understand?"

And if we poke a little bit of fun at Chief Erwin with masks and signs, that too is free speech, a bit of political theatre to bring home our message.  We gather and sing in peace, but we are determined.  We intend to keep singing until Wisconsin is back on the right track.  Even then, we will continue to be involved on a new level.

There's too much at stake -- and my Joy, who delights in rhythm and song, is at the heart of the future I'm fighting for.

See you at the Capitol.

Songs of the Season, Part 1

As the introduction to our annual Christmas newsletter this year pointed out, "the local oldies station has switched to 'all Christmas music, all the time.'" Christmas, more than any other holiday, comes with its own musical soundtrack.

The JoyFamily appreciates the holiday soundtrack -- JoyMama in particular was simply delighted with the Messiah singalong at church on Sunday! (Rose, in contrast, left the sanctuary at the first chorus, claiming that the singing and instruments were painfully loud.)

We have our own songs going on this season too.

I've written before about Joy's bedtime routine, that involves filling in the blanks for Rock-A-Bye Joy and Twinkle, Twinkle, with Joy filling in the words. In recent weeks, these songs have gone to a whole new level. They've become an interactive people-play, where Joy decides what will be rocked or twinkled and when it will happen.

It looks something like this: she'll bring me her stuffed penguin and cuddle up to me with penguin in her arms. Then she'll rock slightly back and forth, saying something like "WOH-woh." Which is my cue to sing:

Rock-a-bye PENGUIN, on the tree top,
When the wind blows...

... and Joy fills in some "peh-peh" word so I can continue

PENGUIN will rock!

The funnier the item, the better the Joy-giggles. One of my favorites has been the plastic tomato slice:

Twinkle, twinkle, little TOMATO!!

But wait, there's more! JoyDad and Joy then added a variation where Joy points to her own body-parts, with a one-finger point even, to direct him into verses such as:

Rock-a-bye KNEE, on the tree top,
When the wind blows, BELLY-BUTTON will rock!

The most recent variation has to do with a home-made board book dating back to Joy's days in daycare and early-childhood ed. The book has photos of people close to Joy, plus useful shots representing daycare, home, mealtime booster-chair, potty, etc. When Joy brings this book with a cuddle and a "WOH-woh," and starts flipping to the desired pages, we get something like:

Rock-a-bye GRANDMA, on the tree top,
When the wind blows, POTTY will rock!

I've got a few more musical offerings to share before Christmas rolls around next week. Meanwhile, though, I'm off to the Solidarity Sing-Along at the Capitol, something I've written about here and elsewhere. Today's singalong of holiday-themed protest songs will end up being a test of a set of new restrictive rules designed to quash protest, this regular protest in particular. Might be something of a showdown today, though it sounds as if the administration isn't going to try any mass arrests. I'm all dressed up respectable-like just on the off chance, though!

Keep singing, and I'll report more Joy-family song-related goodies in days to come...

Generation Gap

JoyDad and I had the privilege of attending Rose's 2nd/3rd grade music program at her school yesterday morning. The music teacher had built the program on the theme of "Mexico," connected to a social studies unit they'd all just finished. The entire show was bi-lingual, giving the Spanish-speakers a chance to shine and the English-speakers an exciting learning challenge. They even had a seasonal touch, a song from the tradition of "Las Posadas" which re-enacts the procession of Mary and Joseph from door to door in Bethlehem until they finally find shelter and welcome. It was very well done, and of course the sight of my first-born up there singing and moving so enthusiastically brought tears to my eyes!

After the program, I got a chance to visit Rose's classroom, something I've not been able to do this fall during school hours with all my LEND overload.

She'd talked several times about a certain little fellow whom we'll call "R" who sits near her and is apparently "in love" with her. When she speaks of him, I've thought I hear a sense of being flattered, but mostly buried under words of annoyance. Was looking forward to meeting the kid, and prepared to be kinda charmed -- puppy-love and all that, so cute!

And in her classroom I did meet R, and he is indeed a cutie, bright eyes and big smile and full of energy.

Then he spoke to me.

"Hey, are you Rose's grandma?"

GRANDMA?!?!

Rose, sweetie? Feel free to be annoyed. I won't discourage you in that stance, not one little bit!

One More

OK, one more running post. One more Bobby McFerrin song. Then I promise I'll get back to the anatomy of Joy's days, at least until the Valentine's Day race!

Here's the Bobby McFerrin song that's been in my head today, again from the Medicine Music album. It's called Discipline:

For those who have been trained by it,
no discipline seems pleasant at the time but painful,
no discipline seems pleasant at the time but painful...

Later on however it produces
a harvest of righteousness and peace,
for those who have been trained by it,
no discipline seems pleasant at the time but painful...

Make level paths for your feet
make level paths for your feet
straighten out your feeble mind
so He can make it heal, so He can make it heal,
strengthen up your feeble arms,
strengthen up your weakened knees,
fix your mind on things above
above where we are free
above where we will be...

For those who have been trained by it,
no discipline seems pleasant at the time but painful.

My little foray into pain-spiced discipline this morning was an outdoor run through gently-falling snowflakes with Joy in the jogging-stroller. I love how smoothly jogging-strollers ride in comparison to regular strollers. I also succeeded in picking a 5K route that didn't have any glare ice. Alas, my avoidance of glare ice sent me up a killer hill. Did I mention I had Joy in the stroller, all 40 pounds of her? Puff, pant, gasp, snuffle. Also I'm fighting a cold (JoyDad has a version of the cold that's been kicking his backside for several days now.) Plus Joy woke up at 2:30 this morning, and so did we. All this combined to add about a minute and a half to my running time. But I did run-jog-fasterthanawalk the whole course.

However... while I'm not quite ready to claim a harvest of righteousness and peace from all this running discipline, I have been doing better at fighting colds this winter. And keeping the deep-blue days of the deep-winter season at bay. My weakened knees even feel pretty good. I will not feel at all feeble when I take my bike commute back up this spring -- already the days are almost long enough for it again, if we get the right combination of good temperatures and good snow-clearing.

I'd have done better to pick a level path for my feet, though.