Highlighting Kennen

Hello Again!

Today we spent our afternoon listening to one of Kennen's interviews exploring her Strengths, Dreams and Needs.  As we played back the audio recording of her first interview Ella kept track of and documented the Strengths, Dreams and Needs that Kenenn's family and friends identified.   Kennen will soon receive an email to review all the information.  This will give her a chance to decide what she agrees with, what she does not and what she wants to add!  More homework for Kennen!  But at least it is fun homework!

After listening to and documenting Kennen's first interview we continued to explore Rebekah's PATH!  We are looking forward to the upcoming make-up party.  In the next few days we will continue to organize the gathering!

Daily Shout Outs!

A!TLC ~  Thank you Randy Johner for helping us out today!
Kennen ~ Hi Ahsley!  Hoping you can make it to the Inclusion Cafe of May 23rd!
Rebekah ~

A!TLC visits Earls

Hello Out There,

Sorry for not posting yesterday!  We moved A!TLC from the U of R to Earls on South Albert Street and changed our hours from the afternoon to the evening.  We all met at Earls and enjoyed a nice supper together.  We were so busy eating and visiting that we forgot to take pictures ~ sorry!  To our delight also saw a friendly face ~ turns out Tracy works at Earls in her 'spare' time.  It was great to see her and we hope to run in to her again!  Lauren Vickaryous (Bonnie's toddler) also joined in on the fun.  This was her first time meeting all of the gang!  

After our fabulous dinner we headed to Rebekah's Rae Street home to continue our great conversations.  Kaitlyn also got to spend some time with Edgy (Eye Gaze Edge).  It was a great time for all!

Hello from WRC

Hello Out There!

What a day! Today we had a wonderful tour of Wascana Rehabilitation Centre thanks to our excellent

tour guide Rebekah Lindenbach.  We also want to thank Pascal, an Astonished! core member, for her expertise.  They showed us the auditorium (which we hope to be able to book for Tuesday to show our Kin 120 barriers and enablers presentation and to watch a movie), 2 atrium spaces, the location where Rebekah and Kaitlyn's school used to be, the pool, and the cafeteria.

We are now enjoying a variety of hot and cold beverages at the cafeteria.

We hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Daily Shout Outs
A!TLC ~ Thanks to WRC for having a personal care space available for us
Kaitlyn ~ Hi to Mary and have a good trip!
Rebekah ~ Hi to Dad have those cows ready for the bash next Thursday!

Rollin with it!

Hello out there!

It's final weeks at the U of R which means for the next few days we do not have booked space.  This gave us the opportunity to hang out in the Riddell Centre.  Like most U of R students we enjoyed sandwiches from Henderson's cafe and then got down to business.

Kennen and Ella in the Riddell Centre

After check-in we continued to make plans for our upcoming field trips.  On Thursday we will be going to Wascana Rehabilitation Centre where Rebekah will lead us in a tour.  Planned tour stops include visiting with core members who are residents of WRC and visiting with our facebook manager Ryan Ross.   Next Tuesday (if we can get access to the WRC auditorium) we plan to show our friends the jeopardy game that we presented in Kin 120 last week.

To end our day we continued to explore Rebekah's PATH making plans for her to host a makeup party!

Daily Shout Outs

A!TLC ~ Kaitlyn what's up, we missed you today!

Rebekah ~  Hey Pascal check your Facebook

Kennen ~ Good luck in your new job Sandy

Professional Development

Hello out there!

Hope everyone is doing well! This is just a quick note to tell you about the great workshop that Astonished! Executive Director Bonnie Cummings-Vickaryous and Program Developer Ella McIntyre were able to attend yesterday. This workshop was called "Finding Value Within My Day" and was lead by Cara Milne of M-Powered Planning. It was held in Saskatoon and the weather gods gave Bonnie and Ella great roads to make the highway journey from Regina. Thanks, weather gods!
Cara gave us lots to think about and lots to be encouraged about. She gave clear and thoughtful instructions and tips on how to support people with disabilities in having a value-filled day. We at the A!TLC always feel like there is great value in the days that we spend together and it was nice to be reminded of this, and to have a new crop of ideas to pull from.
Grateful for yesterday's learning opportunity, Bonnie and Ella are back in Regina now and are excited and ready to have an excellent afternoon at the A!TLC.  We will all be at the University of Regina today (during finals week...you can practically hear a pin drop!) but are planning a few field trips for the next few sessions. Happy (and Astonishing!) days!

Dang We're Good

Hello Out There...

Silvia, Kennen, and Ella

Well our presentations for the Winter 2013 semester are complete...... that is four if we are counting!  Yesterday the student researchers rocked their presentation in Kin 120. Kennen shone in the front with Silvia and Ella and Rebekah and Kaitlyn shared their expertise from the back.  Through personal examples the student researchers shared their knowledge on enablers and barriers to recreation, leisure and physical activity. The Kin 120 students appreciated the practical examples to reinforce the academic literature they learned the previous week.

Kaitlyn

Today we were part of a workshop series for the University of Regina's Centre for Teaching and Learning.  Our presentation included a description of The Big Sky Centre for Learning and Being Astonished! inc, an overview of the A!TLC, and the Roles of a Student Researcher.  Our presentation will eventually be posted to their website.  We will be sure to link to it once it is ready.






We are now enjoying a coffee in one of the common areas of the U of R.

Kennen, Ella, and Rebekah

Daily Shout Outs!

A!TLC ~ thank you to the Centre for Student Accessibility for inviting us to be part of the workshop series.

Rebekah ~  Hello to Lynn Blaser  and JVO in Toronto.

Kennen ~ No shout out for today.

No Time to Pause

Hello Out There!

No time to pause around here, we are busy busy!  Our Fun/Fundraiser on Saturday was an overwhelming success.  For now we will continue to say thank you to our sponsors and donors as well as our family and friends.  We plan to do a separate blog post dedicated to the fun/fundraiser ....stay tuned.

Today we are delivering our barrier presentation in Kin 120.  We have developed a jeopardy presentation highlighting the various barriers we have experienced to leisure, recreation and physical activity over our lives.  We also made a video comprised of photos of us recreating over the years.  Thank you once again to Tanys Archibald for your time and talent!  Going into the presentation we feel good....and a little nervous. Headed out shortly....wish us luck!


Daily Shout Outs!

A!TLC ~ Thank you to everyone for coming out on Saturday night!  We had a blast and hope you did too.

Kennen ~ Thank you to all of my family and friends who came to the fundraiser to support me and celebrate my 21st birthday!

Kaitlyn ~ Hello Mary!  I hope to see you at the Inclusion Cafe this Thursday.  3:00 pm at the OWL

Rebekah ~ Happy Belated Birthday to Dr. Jill Blaser in Saskatoon.

Tonight is the Night

We have all been working hard getting ready for The Astonishing Fun/Fund Raising Event. Sponsors have been generous, donors have been kind, and now we are ready to PARTY. We would love to see you tonight but know many of you live a great distance away, so come join us right here on the Astonishing Days blog.

We will be live-blogging throughout the event. We would  love to hear from you. If you don't have one of the e-mail options listed under comments, choose 'Anonymous' and put your name at the end of the message.