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dialecticdreamerUncanny Beginnings
by Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
part 1 of 1, complete
word count (story only): 1168
:: Part of the Strange Family series in the Polychrome Heroics universe, this story begins on Monday morning, bright and early. Shaun’s first day at “day care” is as unique as his family, but it’s also an opportunity for inclusive play. This story takes place after “Strange and Winding Threads.” (Here’s the link to part one.) It was written for a prompt fromysabetwordsmith for the November 2018 Magpie Monday, and fit into the timeline too well not to take advantage. ::
“Good morning. I’m Holly Hawkins-Pride,” the woman at the door greeted. Shaun tugged on the straps of his backpack, stepping behind Saul instead of answering.
Nimkii offered half a wave. “Hi.”
Saul nodded, patting Shaun’s shoulder reassuringly. “I’m Saul. We’re a little early. Is that a problem?” When she shook her head, he grinned. “I met your husband at the day care.”
“He told me,” she promised, and her smile made her long face seem rounder. “There’s fresh fruit for snacking, Shaun, and we’ve got plenty of games you can play, too. There are already three people here who are looking forward to meeting you.”
“Let’s go see what kind of games they have,” Saul suggested. “Do you want me to carry you?”
Shaun shook his head, but he stuck like a burr to Saul’s side as they made their way into the long, open room full of conversational clusters of love seats and armchairs. At the opposite end of the room, waist-high bookshelves held dozens of games and framed a long, three-sided space for two large tables, just like the dining tables. Three people were already at the closer table, chatting as an older woman rolled out a felt mat set with a grid of the stiffer half of vrip tape.
“Holly?” the woman unrolling the mat asked. Her eyes were clear, but the pupils were fixed.
“Right as always,Tory,” the young woman agreed. “This is Saul, and Shaun’s the cute young man who might want to play some games with us today. Nimkii will be at the Language Center, having fun of a different kind.”
“Nice to meet you,” the elderly woman greeted, turning her face toward them, highlighting the patchy age spots hiding among the pattern of wrinkles. “Please call me Tory.”
Nimkii took a step toward the table, and the mat. “What are you going to play?” She cleared her throat, adding, “Ma’am.”
“Ma’am is for Muriel,” offered the affronted middle-aged woman in a yellow polo shirt, as she patted an elderly man’s hand. “That’s Holly, and I’m Sissy. This is Daddy.”
Shaun frowned. “Your daddy?” he clarified.
“Daddy,” Sissy repeated. “That’s all.” Her scowl seemed more petulant than mulish.
Shaun frowned even more deeply. Before he could say anything, Holly offered a distraction. “We could play color dominoes,” she suggested.
“My given name is Oscar,” the elderly man offered, shrugging. “Use it, or you’ll be stuck calling everybody in the building either ma’am or sir,” he teased Shaun gently. Turning to Nimkii, he offered a greeting in Ojibwe. “My son Max teaches out at the Language School two days a week. Tomorrow and Thursday, actually, so tell him hello from us.”
“Really?” Nimkii grinned. “Max is helping me with a surprise,” she confided, rocking from her heels to her toes.
“Color dominoes?” Shaun finally remembered. “How will Miss Tory play?”
She clapped her hands, reaching along a set of plastic shoe boxes to find one labeled in English and with a series of lines drawn in puff paint. “These are the dominoes,” she explained to Shaun. “Do you have time to join in?” Tory asked Saul.
He checked his watch and sighed. “Not if I want to get to work on time.”
“Daddy?” Shaun asked. His hand slipped into the open shoe box, lifting up a black felt rectangle marked with basic shapes, with some joined to make irregular ones, like the half circle abutting a square. “The shapes are different fabric!”
“There’s a pattern to them, like squares always mean red,” Tory assured. “Each fabric used represents a specific color.” She ran her fingers over the game piece in Shaun’s hand. “Ozaawaa, dark yellow. If that was in play, you have to put down a tile showing a blended color that uses yellow, like green or orange. If you can’t, the next person gets a turn. The winner is the first person to run out of tiles.”
“Those rules are the same for regular dominoes, too.” Shaun went rummaging in the box, holding out another piece. “I know this color. Miskozi! Red!” he chatted to the elderly woman.
She ran her fingers over the game piece. “It’s not just red, and that’s why the symbol is different. Feel that bar underneath? See it?” Tory asked.
“Yeah?” Shaun asked, running his finger on the bar.
“That means waab, white. So, the new color is waamiskozaa, pink.”
Shaun frowned, almost pouting. “Ojibwe calls ‘pink’ just white and red? That’s too easy!”
Laughing, Sissy said, “Yes. It’s much easier than English.” She grabbed at the felt game pieces, and gathered a double handful of them.
When two of the rectangles fell, Holly bent to scoop them up. “Just remember, the ending is important. It’s not like English where the position of the word does most of the work. Miskozaa means a red thing, while you were talking about a red living thing.”
“Like putting bricks together,” Shaun crowed. He held up a hand. “That means I’m waamiskozi, a pink person, right?”
Sissy shrugged. “More waamiskozi than me,” she offered blandly, turning her palm up to show that her skin was more golden-brown than the little boy’s.
“Sorry to interrupt, but, Shaun?” Saul tried to keep his voice level as he fought laughter. “I need to drop Nimkii off and get back here to work. If I leave now, I can stop by on the way to the garden. That should be plenty of time to play dominoes, so you can tell me if you enjoyed it.”
The preschooler paced, clasping his hands behind his back. Oscar leaned an elbow on the table, blocking most of his smile at the boy’s body language. “Okay,” Shaun agreed slowly. “Can we get a movie on the way home, too?”
“What’s the rule about television?” Saul answered.
“Nimkii hasn’t asked for anything,” the boy offered hopefully. “We can watch a movie all together!”
“We’ll discuss the television rule,” Saul answered. “Give me a hug goodbye, Munchkin.”
Shaun bounced over, hugging his father hard enough to make the man groan and twist. “Oh, no, stuffing leak,” Saul joked, holding up a length of red ribbon. He tugged on Nimkii’s braid, just below the matching ribbon holding her hair in place.
Shaun let go, offering a softer hug to Nimkii. “See you?” he wavered.
Nimkii patted his shoulder. “Of course. Have fun.” She turned toward the door they’d walked through without looking back.
Saul wavered between following his daughter and his son. After a moment, he summoned up a weak, nervous smile and waved goodbye to Shaun. “See you in an hour, Munchkin.”
The door clicked shut between them, and Shaun turned to the game board. “How many tiles do we all get?” He bounced on his toes again. “I can count to one hundred!”
Holly said, “Eight, please.” She turned to make her way to an empty chair, and offered a thumbs up to Saul.
Turning away at last, he took Nimkii’s hand and headed toward the main exit.
30
ojibwe colors
http://www.native-languages.org/ojibwe_colors.htm
Feelipe color symbols
http://www.feelipa.com/live/wp-content/uploads/Feelipa_Color_Code-Explanation-EN.pdf
by Dialecticdreamer/Sarah Williams
part 1 of 1, complete
word count (story only): 1168
:: Part of the Strange Family series in the Polychrome Heroics universe, this story begins on Monday morning, bright and early. Shaun’s first day at “day care” is as unique as his family, but it’s also an opportunity for inclusive play. This story takes place after “Strange and Winding Threads.” (Here’s the link to part one.) It was written for a prompt from
ysabetwordsmith for the November 2018 Magpie Monday, and fit into the timeline too well not to take advantage. ::“Good morning. I’m Holly Hawkins-Pride,” the woman at the door greeted. Shaun tugged on the straps of his backpack, stepping behind Saul instead of answering.
Nimkii offered half a wave. “Hi.”
Saul nodded, patting Shaun’s shoulder reassuringly. “I’m Saul. We’re a little early. Is that a problem?” When she shook her head, he grinned. “I met your husband at the day care.”
“He told me,” she promised, and her smile made her long face seem rounder. “There’s fresh fruit for snacking, Shaun, and we’ve got plenty of games you can play, too. There are already three people here who are looking forward to meeting you.”
“Let’s go see what kind of games they have,” Saul suggested. “Do you want me to carry you?”
Shaun shook his head, but he stuck like a burr to Saul’s side as they made their way into the long, open room full of conversational clusters of love seats and armchairs. At the opposite end of the room, waist-high bookshelves held dozens of games and framed a long, three-sided space for two large tables, just like the dining tables. Three people were already at the closer table, chatting as an older woman rolled out a felt mat set with a grid of the stiffer half of vrip tape.
“Holly?” the woman unrolling the mat asked. Her eyes were clear, but the pupils were fixed.
“Right as always,Tory,” the young woman agreed. “This is Saul, and Shaun’s the cute young man who might want to play some games with us today. Nimkii will be at the Language Center, having fun of a different kind.”
“Nice to meet you,” the elderly woman greeted, turning her face toward them, highlighting the patchy age spots hiding among the pattern of wrinkles. “Please call me Tory.”
Nimkii took a step toward the table, and the mat. “What are you going to play?” She cleared her throat, adding, “Ma’am.”
“Ma’am is for Muriel,” offered the affronted middle-aged woman in a yellow polo shirt, as she patted an elderly man’s hand. “That’s Holly, and I’m Sissy. This is Daddy.”
Shaun frowned. “Your daddy?” he clarified.
“Daddy,” Sissy repeated. “That’s all.” Her scowl seemed more petulant than mulish.
Shaun frowned even more deeply. Before he could say anything, Holly offered a distraction. “We could play color dominoes,” she suggested.
“My given name is Oscar,” the elderly man offered, shrugging. “Use it, or you’ll be stuck calling everybody in the building either ma’am or sir,” he teased Shaun gently. Turning to Nimkii, he offered a greeting in Ojibwe. “My son Max teaches out at the Language School two days a week. Tomorrow and Thursday, actually, so tell him hello from us.”
“Really?” Nimkii grinned. “Max is helping me with a surprise,” she confided, rocking from her heels to her toes.
“Color dominoes?” Shaun finally remembered. “How will Miss Tory play?”
She clapped her hands, reaching along a set of plastic shoe boxes to find one labeled in English and with a series of lines drawn in puff paint. “These are the dominoes,” she explained to Shaun. “Do you have time to join in?” Tory asked Saul.
He checked his watch and sighed. “Not if I want to get to work on time.”
“Daddy?” Shaun asked. His hand slipped into the open shoe box, lifting up a black felt rectangle marked with basic shapes, with some joined to make irregular ones, like the half circle abutting a square. “The shapes are different fabric!”
“There’s a pattern to them, like squares always mean red,” Tory assured. “Each fabric used represents a specific color.” She ran her fingers over the game piece in Shaun’s hand. “Ozaawaa, dark yellow. If that was in play, you have to put down a tile showing a blended color that uses yellow, like green or orange. If you can’t, the next person gets a turn. The winner is the first person to run out of tiles.”
“Those rules are the same for regular dominoes, too.” Shaun went rummaging in the box, holding out another piece. “I know this color. Miskozi! Red!” he chatted to the elderly woman.
She ran her fingers over the game piece. “It’s not just red, and that’s why the symbol is different. Feel that bar underneath? See it?” Tory asked.
“Yeah?” Shaun asked, running his finger on the bar.
“That means waab, white. So, the new color is waamiskozaa, pink.”
Shaun frowned, almost pouting. “Ojibwe calls ‘pink’ just white and red? That’s too easy!”
Laughing, Sissy said, “Yes. It’s much easier than English.” She grabbed at the felt game pieces, and gathered a double handful of them.
When two of the rectangles fell, Holly bent to scoop them up. “Just remember, the ending is important. It’s not like English where the position of the word does most of the work. Miskozaa means a red thing, while you were talking about a red living thing.”
“Like putting bricks together,” Shaun crowed. He held up a hand. “That means I’m waamiskozi, a pink person, right?”
Sissy shrugged. “More waamiskozi than me,” she offered blandly, turning her palm up to show that her skin was more golden-brown than the little boy’s.
“Sorry to interrupt, but, Shaun?” Saul tried to keep his voice level as he fought laughter. “I need to drop Nimkii off and get back here to work. If I leave now, I can stop by on the way to the garden. That should be plenty of time to play dominoes, so you can tell me if you enjoyed it.”
The preschooler paced, clasping his hands behind his back. Oscar leaned an elbow on the table, blocking most of his smile at the boy’s body language. “Okay,” Shaun agreed slowly. “Can we get a movie on the way home, too?”
“What’s the rule about television?” Saul answered.
“Nimkii hasn’t asked for anything,” the boy offered hopefully. “We can watch a movie all together!”
“We’ll discuss the television rule,” Saul answered. “Give me a hug goodbye, Munchkin.”
Shaun bounced over, hugging his father hard enough to make the man groan and twist. “Oh, no, stuffing leak,” Saul joked, holding up a length of red ribbon. He tugged on Nimkii’s braid, just below the matching ribbon holding her hair in place.
Shaun let go, offering a softer hug to Nimkii. “See you?” he wavered.
Nimkii patted his shoulder. “Of course. Have fun.” She turned toward the door they’d walked through without looking back.
Saul wavered between following his daughter and his son. After a moment, he summoned up a weak, nervous smile and waved goodbye to Shaun. “See you in an hour, Munchkin.”
The door clicked shut between them, and Shaun turned to the game board. “How many tiles do we all get?” He bounced on his toes again. “I can count to one hundred!”
Holly said, “Eight, please.” She turned to make her way to an empty chair, and offered a thumbs up to Saul.
Turning away at last, he took Nimkii’s hand and headed toward the main exit.
30
ojibwe colors
http://www.native-languages.org/ojibwe_colors.htm
Feelipe color symbols
http://www.feelipa.com/live/wp-content/uploads/Feelipa_Color_Code-Explanation-EN.pdf
Thoughts
Tuesday, 20 November 2018 06:49 (UTC)Yay! :D
>>Shaun shook his head, but he stuck like a burr to Saul’s side as they made their way into the long, open room full of conversational clusters of love seats and armchairs. At the opposite end of the room, waist-high bookshelves held dozens of games and framed a long, three-sided space for two large tables, just like the dining tables. Three people were already at the closer table, chatting as an older woman rolled out a felt mat set with a grid of the stiffer half of vrip tape. <<
That looks like a nice gathering space.
>>“There’s a pattern to them, like squares always mean red,” Tory assured. “Each fabric used represents a specific color.” She ran her fingers over the game piece in Shaun’s hand. “Ozaawaa, dark yellow. If that was in play, you have to put down a tile showing a blended color that uses yellow, like green or orange. If you can’t, the next person gets a turn. The winner is the first person to run out of tiles.” <<
These are so awesome. <3 I wish we had them in our world. They're easy to make, but you have to make your own, and for a whole set of dominoes that adds up.
>> “That means waab, white. So, the new color is waamiskozaa, pink.”
Shaun frowned, almost pouting. “Ojibwe calls ‘pink’ just white and red? That’s too easy!” <<
I love the way you show how games support language learning. This kind of game is great because you can talk about colors, shapes, motions, and positions -- all of which appear in the core vocabulary of every language. While you're playing, you get lots of repetition practice.
>>“Like putting bricks together,” Shaun crowed. He held up a hand. “That means I’m waamiskozi, a pink person, right?” <<
*laugh* Well, it's a lot nicer than some other words that could be used.
>>“Sorry to interrupt, but, Shaun?” Saul tried to keep his voice level as he fought laughter. “I need to drop Nimkii off and get back here to work. If I leave now, I can stop by on the way to the garden. That should be plenty of time to play dominoes, so you can tell me if you enjoyed it.”<<
That's a graceful way to handle separation. Not only does it give Shaun something to focus on, it teaches a very important family skill: talking about your day. Laying the groundwork like this reduces the chance of winding up with a teenager who responds to "How was your day?" with a sullen grunt.
Re: Thoughts
Tuesday, 20 November 2018 06:52 (UTC)I wanted something that, while unusual- he's the only child at the Adult Center, because of the paperwork sabotage- still shows that the inclusion is actually fairly EASY for the staff.
Saul's the one nervous and twitching as he tries to leave, LAUGH.
Re: Thoughts
Tuesday, 20 November 2018 08:10 (UTC)Re: Thoughts
Tuesday, 20 November 2018 12:56 (UTC)It just takes a moment of thought, rather than a cabinet full of equipment, to make a space more inclusive.
Re: Thoughts
Tuesday, 20 November 2018 18:14 (UTC)Exactly.
>> and while he's going to be making mistakes akin to "I goed" while cobbling together color names, within the day he'll have them sorted out, except for the few times where an object gets a person ending because of its cultural significance.<<
LOL yes.
>> Tackling counting words the same way can be done with the dominoes by counting the red-plus-something tiles and comparing that to the blue-plus-something tiles after a game is done, and so on.<<
Scorekeeping is a good way to learn numbers and math, with a game instead of a boring assignment.
>> It just takes a moment of thought, rather than a cabinet full of equipment, to make a space more inclusive. <<
That's true. However, you do need either inclusive resources to choose from or the ability to make your own. Our world's supply of inclusive games -- really good ones like this -- is limited. But maybe if we keep writing about how cool this stuff is, more folks will join in.
Our cubic yard or so of games is not that inclusive yet. I do have the image dominoes. We did buy a set of woodblock card holders. But most of our stuff relies on text or dexterity.
Re: Thoughts
Tuesday, 20 November 2018 19:13 (UTC)No game board required, just language (in our case, English) and thinking. This was particularly important when trying to balance the different verbal skills between a four-year-old and an eighteen-month-old. (Who got the 'find' questions most often.)
After that, we played with a big foam die, and I'd make "game boards" out of practically anything. A favorite was simply to find a boring stretch of sidewalk and roll the die. Go that many steps forward, and so on, and the first one to the end of the block won. If one kid was learning a new skill, they would use it, like skipping, while the one with the disadvantage got to take bigger strides.
We played finger spelling games, passing "top secret" messages when they were three and five, and by then we had a supply of homemade alternatives to Candyland. (If I never play that again, it'll be too soon!)
Everything was more about play than process, but the results were blindingly obvious-- I honestly thought that the kids counting to one hundred by age three and a half was TYPICAL, and that's just one skill.
Inclusion elements involved adjusting for advantages or skills one kid didn't have, and familiarity with ASL led to questions about HOW to show details to someone who was Deaf, but without access to a descriptive track, and that led to both kids learning to draw cartoons.
If you keep the ATTITUDE that inclusion is a good thing, the games will follow.
Reread
Friday, 10 January 2020 02:50 (UTC)Re: Reread
Friday, 10 January 2020 05:11 (UTC)Re: Reread
Friday, 10 January 2020 12:51 (UTC)Re: Reread
Saturday, 11 January 2020 01:45 (UTC)Re: Reread
Sunday, 12 January 2020 02:04 (UTC)