"Love isn't a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is right here and now." --Fred Rogers, from "The World According to Mr. Rogers".
How to Talk to Kids (and Parents) About Disability
"We were perusing our local nature center last weekend, and my seven-year-old daughter Penny abruptly stopped walking. Ahead of us were twin girls, probably three or four years old. One used a walker to support herself. Penny didn't say anything, but her eyes grew wide as they passed by. Today in school my younger daughter had a similar response to a girl with a crutch propped under her arm.
We see kids and adults with physical aids all the time--the young woman in the wheelchair at church, the little boy at the dentist with a special lift in his car that helps him get up and down, the man with the knee brace, the girl with a cast on her arm. Sometimes the situation is permanent, other times it is temporary. But either way, my kids are inclined to stare and then to ask me what happened.
For a long time, I didn't know what to say." [more]
We see kids and adults with physical aids all the time--the young woman in the wheelchair at church, the little boy at the dentist with a special lift in his car that helps him get up and down, the man with the knee brace, the girl with a cast on her arm. Sometimes the situation is permanent, other times it is temporary. But either way, my kids are inclined to stare and then to ask me what happened.
For a long time, I didn't know what to say." [more]
Reading Corner
Title: Wonder
By: R.J. Palacio Ages: 8 - 12
"Auggie is a fifth grader. His face is so badly deformed he spends much of his preschool years hiding under a toy astronaut helmet. When he starts attending school for the first time, he makes enemies and friends, enduring the worst kind of taunts and enjoying the best kind of friendships.
WONDER is Auggie's story, but it's also ours. It captures the dual nature of childhood, about how cruel and tender we can be with one another. It's about the wounds we inflict and scars we carry, all things that teach us to to do things differently the next time."
--Amazon Reviewer
By: R.J. Palacio Ages: 8 - 12
"Auggie is a fifth grader. His face is so badly deformed he spends much of his preschool years hiding under a toy astronaut helmet. When he starts attending school for the first time, he makes enemies and friends, enduring the worst kind of taunts and enjoying the best kind of friendships.
WONDER is Auggie's story, but it's also ours. It captures the dual nature of childhood, about how cruel and tender we can be with one another. It's about the wounds we inflict and scars we carry, all things that teach us to to do things differently the next time."
--Amazon Reviewer
Recommended by Cubs Editors
Be the Change
Talk to your children about people you know with differences, both seen and unseen. See if you can brainstorm ways you are alike, and not different, and how to use that commonality to connect with that person.
