I have been saving up this post in my mind for a very very long time now! It's going to knock your socks off!
Remember Ryan's goodie bag from the combined birthday bash which I showed in yesterday's post?
As I mentioned yesterday, the goodie bag was prepared by Alicia. Alicia is one of the mummies that we meet up with from time to time, together with some other families. We all have a child born in January 2009. Actually, our little family doesn't join up with the families as often as the rest do, but it's all right because we keep up to date with social networking, emails and sms.
Anyway, back to Alicia. Alicia is the sweetest person and is completely generous. She has given us many, many things that she made for Ryan. When her son Brayden had his second birthday, she prepared a personalised goodie bag for Ryan, even though we did not attend the celebration! The goodie bag was chockful of ... err.. goodies... and the most amazing one was this personalised colouring book which she put together for Ryan. Here are a few pages!
Alicia is very interested in parenting, child development and early childhood education. She does a lot of research and reading up on her own. We talk a lot about those topics and it's always pleasant and interesting. Sometimes we exchange ideas for activities. For example, the shape activity for Valentine's Day that she made (in the photo below) was inspired by the
Circle Bear that I prepared for Ryan. In turn, her train shape activity inspired the
train texture and shape page in Ryan's quiet book. Mostly though, she is the one inspiring me with her dedication and consistency.
Alicia uses the Shichida Method with her son, although they do not attend the programme. Instead she reads up on her own and gets updates and feedback from other mummies who are using the method. She is the perfect demonstration of what I always tell people about the Shichida Method - the weekly class is just to keep you on track, the important part is what happens at home. Ironically, she is one of the people who helps me to stay motivated in this Shichida journey even though she is not attending the programme. Alicia's efforts in preparing home practice materials put me to shame! Everytime I fall behind on my own home practice, I think of Alicia, and I tell myself to buck up. Everytime I hear a parent from Shichida telling me that she has no time for home practice, or that she is too lazy, or too this or too that, I think of Alicia and I am reminded that, where there is a will, there is a way.
Alicia is a powerhouse of creativity and I am always bowled over by her work, because it is so beautiful and professional. The home practice materials that I produce are adequate for their purpose but not pretty at all (to be frank, they are very much like the materials in Shichida class). Alicia, on the other hand, takes the trouble to make her materials absolutely impeccable and beautiful and, if I didn't say anything, you would think that they were store-bought.
Let me show you more!
Alicia made these worksheets in the style of the Shichida printsheets (hers are much nicer!). She gave Ryan a set. I'll show you a few pages. This page says "Draw the strings for the balloons."
This page says "Draw a line from top to bottom connecting two pictures."
This set of worksheets that she made is about identifying the odd one out, which is a game we play regularly in Shichida.
These are for sequencing.
These are for photographic memory games. She made stacks of these!
These were also made by Alicia, inspired by Shichida material.
These are ESP paper scenes which she made.
Flashcards by Alicia.
Have you fallen off your seat yet? Jaw on the floor? Let me add that Alicia works full time in an office so all this is done outside of that as well as on top of all the things that most people have to do (family time, household duties, errands, etc). Truly, I take my hat off to her - for her dedication, for being so hardworking, and for her generous spirit.
