Yesterday our Speech Pathologist held a seminar for some families who are starting RPM with their children. She asked James if he would come to the seminar and help her demonstrate RPM.  Here is what he said about doing the workshop and then their subsequent discussion about a Shel Silverstein poem and freedom.

EV: “Before we got into the lesson, I told James about the RPM workshop that I am giving this weekend and that I would like to have him do a short lesson with me to show everyone.  I asked, “will you help me out?”  He wrote, YES.  I AM HAPPY TO HElP YOU AND SHOW PARENTS HOW TO USE LETTER BOARD TO HELP KIDS LIKE ME TO TALK TO OTHERS

I also told James that I would be working on the curriculum for January over the holiday break.  I asked him what he would like to study next.  He replied, I WANT TO LEARN ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD 

A lesson on Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein:

There is a place where the sidewalk ends

and before the street begins,

and there the grass grows soft and white,

and there the sun burns crimson bright,

and there the moon-bird rests from his flight

to cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black

and the dark street winds and bends.

Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow

we shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow

and watch where the chalk-white arrows go

to the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we’ll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,

and we’ll go where the chalk-white arrows go,

for the children, they mark, and the children, they know,

the place where the sidewalk ends.

1. How does this poem make you feel?  REMORSEFUL.  LUSH FLOWERS IN HIDING FROM PEOPLE
2. What do you think this poem is about?  FINDING BEAUTY AROUND US
3. Silverstein uses powerful imagery in this poem.  What images come to your mind as you listen to it?  HURRY….KINDNESS….LAUGHTER….FUNNY
4. Silverstein encourages us to use our imagination as a child would and leave “this place” and go to a magical place where the sidewalk ends.
   1. What do you think of when you hear the line “this place”  OUR WORLD
   2. What place would you like to leave behind?  UNSPOKEN WORDS
   3. What would you like to find “where the sidewalk ends”?  I SEARCH FOR PERSONAL GROWTH AND WISDOM
5. Here’s a great quote from Silverstein, “To me, freedom entitles you to do something, not to not do something.”  What does this mean to you?  FREEDOM MEANS BEING ABLE TO SAY WHAT I THINK ABOUT IN MY HEART AND SOUL.  LAST YEAR I WAS IN PRISON, NOW I AM FREE.  

We are finding that James (just like so many others who now have a voice through spelling) is compelled to spread the information about  RPM and be a part of bringing his newfound freedom to others!