A Christmas Concert to Remember

Papa, Logan, and Mema Before the Big Show

Miss Kate, Mommy, Leah, Logan, and Daddy

Miss Kate and Leah - The Best Duo in Town

Today was a special day in the Knight Family Adventures! It was the girls first ever Christmas Concert! And was it ever special!!!

Leah and Logan have been practicing their songs, stories and motions for weeks now at Primetime Preschool and boy-oh-boy did it ever show! It was a fabulous production of 3 and 4 year olds showing their Holiday spirit! And what spirit Leah and Logan showed! They used their voices to share their joy, they shook their jungle bells to welcome Santa and his sleigh, and they gestured and motioned each of the songs to keep us all right on-top of the show!!!!

Logan was thrilled to see Mema, Papa, Mommy and Daddy in the audience. She waved and shouted a few "Hi Mommy's" in between the festive songs! And Leah did an outstanding job signing her heart out in front of a crowd of 50 or more adoring adults!

After the show, the girls received another treat of lunch out with Mema and Papa! Who can top off a fun concert full of praise and applause other than Mema and Papa?!?!? As the four of them drove off to lunch, Mommy and Daddy drove home. And what else does Mommy do...Cries tears of pride! Tears of joy! Tears of...they are such beautiful souls and I'm blessed to raise them! Thank you God!

Little Diva

Many of you don't know, but we are raising a little diva. Yes, that's right. Logan has decided to become a singing, princess diva! We've been blessed with a 3 year old little LADY who wears her Daddy's iPod around the house singing pop tunes! Check her out and listen to her...can you name that tune?

Yep...Mercy by Duffy!

Can You Say Communication

Tomorrow morning Josh and I are heading to yet another meeting with Leah's school district. We will be learning how to more effectively communicate with our team of teachers and therapists as well as the administrators that we work with. They have invited a nationally known and well-respected mediator (we respect this individual as well) to facilitate this oh-so-necessary instruction. Because as you probably all know, a University instructor, special education provider herself and someone who considers herself 'well-educated' doesn't know how to effectively communicate. Funny, but the University will be employing me this spring to teach a graduate level course titled Consultation and Collaboration! But really, I have no idea how to communicate with others! (Does something seem wrong here to you too????)

This is what I'd really like to communicate to the district tomorrow:

• You are not providing what my daughter needs in terms of goals and objectives
• You are not providing what my daughter needs in terms of activities throughout her day
• You are not providing what my daughter needs in terms of behavior intervention (this intervention is proven effective with Leah based on documentation and ... just look at her from the start of the intervention until now...come on!)
• You are not providing my daughter approptiate behavior intervention because of lack of training of staff and refusal to do so
• You are not providing my daughter appropriate behavior intervention because of ignorance regarding the methodology and have adopted 2 other behavior interventions that are not nearly as effective (as proven in research) and not appropriate for Leah (as demonstrated in TWO separate psychological evaluation reports)
• You haven't progressed her skill set in the cognitive or occupational therapy domains
• You are restricting her social, behavioral and cognitive development by not recognizing her Least Restrictive Environment with non disabled peers for 2- 1/2 days with her twin
• You are limiting my daughters educational programming because we are pioneer advocates within this county and we are making you challenge the status quo...something that your mission statement says that you will do...but you refuse
• You are limiting my daughters possibility to become an independent individual in the future...you WILL NOT succeed

But I will not...I will sit there and learn 'how to communicate effectively', because I clearly am ignorant in this subject. I will allow my two renowned advocates talk for me as I sit and shoot daggers through their cold hearts and blank eyes. I will take notes of EVERY word that EACH of them say to nail their a$$es to the wall if and when it's necessary.

November Update

It's been a busy month with the Knight's Adventures! Oh my! And I'm sure it will become even more hectic as Christmas nears!

November started off rather calmly with just a few things to do, here and there. Busy with work for both Josh and I and the girls had school on a regular basis. We took the girls to Jumpin' Jax to break the motonany of that cycle and that always proves to be a fun trip! If you don't know what Jumpin' Jax is and you have kids...you've got to get in the loop! It's a huge arena of inflatables where the kids can jump, slide, bounce, do mazes, and spend energy like there's no tomorrow! And guess what, parents are encouraged to do these activites with their kiddos! (UGH!) But Leah and Logan both love the place and it's a great time for us all!

We then took a trip to Indy to see my college roommate and to attend her sister's baby shower! It was great to see everyone and we stayed at a great hotel with a huge HEATED pool! Once again, a hit for the girls! Leah was so in love with swimming that she cried buckets when she had to get out and say 'adios' to the pool! :(

We then returned home to celebrate Thanksgiving with the family! It was a great day! Full of fun, family and for Kristin...my first ever Tofurkey! Yes, you can all eww, ick or spew...whatever...I actually had food to eat on Thanksgiving and it was awesome! So there...let it be known carnivores...vegetarians can enjoy Thanksgiving too!!! :) We also celebrated Kenny's (our nephew) 5th birthday with a Batman themed birthday! Happy Birthday, Batman!!!!

And yesterday we prepared the house for Santa! 7 hours of decorating the house for Christmas with toddlers under foot and 'helping'! Uh-huh! Nevertheless, the Knight home is fully prepped for Santa! And boy-oh-boy, do we have two anxious little girls with high-hopes and dreams for Santa to come soon!

We're looking forward to an exciting December! Check in often...I'm in a blogging mood!

Back to School...A Lesson

Class...I'm going to teach you all some very important words today.


-Equality

-Fairness

-Status Quo

-Ignorance

-Disrespect

-Restrictive

-Independence

-Follower

-Advocacy


Good, can you all say these important words with me now? ***repeat*** Excellent! Let's review what they all mean:


Equality - The idea of equal treatment

Fairness - The absence of bias

Status Quo - The existing state of affairs

Ignorance - Lacking knowledge

Disrespect - Lack of acknowledgement of value

Restrictive - Enforcement of segregation

Independence - Not requiring outside aid or support

Follower - Person who completes actions suggested by the leader(s)

Advocacy - Pursuit of influencing outcomes that directly affect people's lives


Excellent job of listing the vocabulary of today's lesson. Now, let's talk about today's lesson. It's a challenge for all of you to see if you can pick out all of today's vocabulary words!!!


Today's lesson is all about equality and fairness for all individuals, particularly those that cannot voice for themselves what they need. Today's lesson is about asking the individuals who work with the above mentioned individuals to challenge the status quo...one that needs to be challenged as it is a necessity in the state of the world today (and is in the mission/vision statement). Today's lesson is to not accept ignorance on the part of the individuals who administer programs for individuals who cannot voice for themselves and to not accept ignorance from any of the individuals who provide services to individuals who cannot voice for themselves. Today's lesson is about using scientifically based instructional and inclusionary practices (and the practices that have been proven *proof of growth* profoundly effective for the individual whom I am writing this) for those with specific needs. Today's lesson is to teach that it is ignorant and disrespectful to not look at all aspects of a situation in relation to the needs of an individual who cannot voice for themselves. Today's lesson is to teach that restriction is a form of ignorance and disrespect as well as being illegal. And finally, today's lesson is about being a follower. Being a follower means that you have been taught to listen and respect authority. Nicely done. But, being a follower in a situation regarding the needs of an individual without a voice is doing nothing beneficial for that individual. In fact it's detrimental. 'Following' is paving the way for complacency, perpetual ignorance, and guilt. One thing that will remedy 'following' is advocacy for the individual with needs. Advocate for needs! Advocate for independence! Advocate for respect! Advocate for FAIRNESS AND EQUALITY!


This ends our lesson today! If you didn't understand our lesson, look at the picture below and know that I am an advocate for this little girl and her educational needs. But also know that there are others in her life that refuse to advocate for fairness and equality for her needs!