Blindness

Our book club book for the month is Out of Darkness the story of Louis Braille.  Obviously, it is a biography of Louis Braille who invented the braille system of using dots to "open the doors of knowledge to all those who cannot see." We are almost done with the book and this morning after reading a couple of chapters, I decided to do a little "project."  I blindfolded the kids where they could not see at all.  First, I had them listen to classical music really loud, trying to remember that Louis couldn't see at all but was a wonderful musician that wrote and played music on the piano all by ear.  I had them listen for low and high sounds, for loud and soft.  They listened for different instruments all while remembering that Louis could not see at all....

Then I gave them tasks...John Daniel had to walk from the living room to the kitchen and get a bottle water out of the fridge and secondly, walk to the bathroom and sit on the toilet like he was going to go.  They died laughing...J.D. also had to feed the dog blindfolded. 

Emily had to walk from the living room to her room and bring me her dolphin pillow and secondly, go to the fridge, get the orange juice out and pour herself a glass of OJ.  Emily also had to find a matching pair of shoes and tie them.

They loved this and had so much fun!  I thought it was a good way to understand what the main character in our book lived day in and day out and why he never gave up in finding a way to read and communicate as a blind person.