Two Days Off and the Cell Model Debacle

J had Thursday and Friday off last week (NDEA/NDU Teacher’s Convention for Fargo Public Schools). J also had a “first draft” of his 3-D cell model for science class due Monday. I had a flight to New Jersey Friday afternoon to visit a friend from grad school, so Thursday I did a frantic brainstorm for ideas. Pintrest had some good ones, but they were all “edible” versions of the 3-D cell–something J’s teacher had specifically the class NOT do on the rubric.

I looked online for more ideas (because, let’s be honest, whether your kid’s autistic or not, projects like these tend to end up really being parent projects with some kid participation), scoured my house with things we could pass off as organelles and made a list of things to pick up from the dollar store and Hobby Lobby. We spent the entire Thursday rounding up the cell and doing as much construction as needed for the “first draft.” Because it was me that came up with the body part ideas of the cell, I wanted J to do as much of the rest of it as possible. Here’s some pics of the construction process. J really enjoyed the “crafty” part of it. It’s kind of crazy for me to see him get into this–to see him get over so many of his sensory issues or motor issues (the ones that have plagued him for so many years of his life). He could pull the trigger on the glue gun. He made slime–and then touched it! It may not seem like a big deal but for a kid who has a lot of sensory issues this is a big deal. As we trucked along, I really realized how great of a project this was for J. We’ve been studying the parts of a cell for about a week and a half now. The nucleus, mitochondria, vacuoles, cytoplasm, endoplasmic reticulum–all of these things were just words to memorize. When he tried to fill out the diagram of a cell he couldn’t see how all of these words corresponded to squiggles, dots, and lines on a page. Building a 3-D cell is visual. It’s tactile. And this is how J learns things best. For the first time he understood what cytoplasm (the fluid of the cell) was. He finally understood the concept of fluid.

This is the most amazing to me. Playing with the slime.

Painting the nucleolus

Our 3-D cell! Cake pan (cell wall), sparkle blue foam (cell membrane), balloon (vacuole), skinny blue beads (mitochondria), wikisticks (golgi body), pink ribbon (rough endoplasmic reticulum), blue pipecleaner loops (smooth endoplasmic reticulum), homemade pink slime (cytoplasm), foam ball (nucleus), smaller green foam ball (nucleolus), green marbles (chloroplast), tiny pink beads (ribosomes).

I headed off to Jersey to enjoy my mini vacation while Steve held down the fort at home. I left everything in place so all Steve had to do Sunday night was to help J do a finally assembling.

And then, Sunday night, I get this text from Steve:

“We have a little cell model problem”

Everything was sinking into the slime. Steve and I were going back and forth over the phone on how to solve the slime problem. We decided that it was just a “first draft” we’d send it “as is” and wait until I came back Tuesday morning to see it and figure out a solution. Steve pulled all the parts out of the slime and apparently it survived the “first draft” inspection. Apparently J was pretty excited to show off his cell creation too.

The cell is due tomorrow and Steve is still making some last minute adjustments. It seems like with J or things related to J we are always trying to find those last minute adjustments. But as I keep trying to remind myself–through the crazy stressful times–that we always figure something out. It’s usually some improvisational last-ditch effort, but it works out. We figure out the homework, we figure out some new behavioral strategy that will tide us over until the next behavior shows up, we figure out how to communicate with him better.

Small steps, always. Sometimes they’re so small you don’t even notice.

As I side note, I have to share my proud momma moment of the last week! This week I was scrolling through my running app and found J’s times for the past month. Of course, with J and running it’s adjustments, practice, then more adjustments–working on mental stamina, working on form. I feel like we’re still figuring out this running thing even since after the XC season ended. I haven’t been watching the week by week changes, but when I looked back at the past month it’s amazing the little things that change along the way:

J’s Running Rates:

Sept 4: 1.39 miles (Pace: 11:44 min/mi)

Sept 5: 2.46 miles (Pace 11:39 min/mi)

Oct 19: 1.44 miles (Pace 10:08 min/mi)

Oct 22: 2.4 miles (Pace 9:42 min/mi)!!!!!

I’m so proud of this kid!

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