Friday

Today has been another busy day !! George and Jessica have spent the day with the special needs children at the home introducing them to various new equipment. Last night we went to Toys r Us and bought lots of different things that could be used for Gross motor and Fine motor activities. We looked pretty different arriving and leaving the Hotel with hula hoops and crawling tunnels and big shopping bags under our arms !! We have been very pleased with the reactions to baby gyms and soft baby books from the children with severe disabilities. We were pleased our assessments of the children were accurate.

They also introduced the children who returned from the special schools after lunch to mega blocks, shape sorters, hula hoops, and more music therapy.

Tracey and I spent the day presenting Literacy and Numeracy workshops and relating these back to yesterdays information. This went very well and the staff were much more relaxed today and are very keen to begin trying different strategies next week. They asked great questions about how to implement and manage the children so I believe they are very keen to try. They were also keen to continue over the weekend. Even after two days processing new information from 10am till 4.30pm !!

Tomorrow we meet with the trustees, committee and others informally here at the hotel. We are beginning to have very definite thoughts and ideas about where and how they can proceed with the programs. We are also feeling more comfortable with the people here and the situation and therefore more confident to suggest things. The plans and model for the new Home are huge, it is to be 4 storeys high and covers a large area of land.