| Wall Planner Keeps Kids On Track |
East & Bay Courier - Friday, April 3, 2009
A Meadowbank mother-of-four has come up with a way to ensure her kids are learning basic life skills - and she wants to spread the word. Pat Baker says the inspiration for the I Can Do It life skills wall planner she launched last year came from her experience with her own children. Living in Israel with her first son, she took time to teach him how to do things, like buying stamps at a post shop and cooking his favourite meals. "And the with each child that came after him I stopped doing it. There's a natural inclination to just do it yourself and get it done quicker," she says. "One day I noticed my other kids, who are not less bright than him and grew up with the same parents, didn't know the same basic things he did." She says this realisation, coupled with the added pressure of having one gifted child and two with learning disabilities, led her to develop the parenting aid. "I was really busy working. I was corporate. I wanted to make it better but didn't have the time to make it better myself and I was prepared so pay someone to do it for me," she says, referring to child psychologist Alison Kirby. "It took me a long time before I got off my bum and did something about it." The professional buyer and product developer says in today's busy, modern world kids are at risk of becoming couch or "mouse" potatoes. "There are some basic fundamental things that children are not getting. This is just a way to make sure you've got all your bases covered." She says the wall planner which uses colourful cards covering basic personal skills from household chores to social courtesies, is like having an independent person to turn to for help. "As a parent I was a referee 24/7. I thought to myself, this is exhausting, it's a waste of my time," she says. "I just thought it would be so nice to remove all these voices and shouting and have a third person," she says. "It's basically like your own 'Super Nanny.' The planner includes rewards cards, but Mrs Baker stresses these don't have to be material rewards - the most popular is a family game of spotlight played in the dark. She sewed the first planner using fabric nearly two years ago. It has since been enhanced, tested and is endorsed by Parenting Inc and Autism New Zealand and is being offered to schools as a fundraiser.
|
By Melanie Verran