Making Sense of the Jigsaw Puzzle

Dominique Book Review, Parenting and Kids Autism, parenting book

Making Sense of the Jigsaw Puzzle

Making Sense of the Jigsaw Puzzle: A Parent’s Account of a Child with Autism by Theuns and Tania Henning is based on the Henning’s experience with their autistic son Reuben.

Reuben was their long awaited son who arrived after years of fertility treatments which they had underwent. Initially it was perceived that they may have a child who was inflicted with down syndrome as previously suspected. It came as a total shock when the doctor announced that Ruben has severe autism. It was a lifelong disease which had no cure and there was very little which could be done to alleviate his condition.

Theuns and Tania would have to learn by trial and error what worked and what didn’t with Reuben. It wasn’t an easy journey for them and they are still learning now what has to be done for their son to be able to live a “normal” life.

They were fortunate to have help from their community and have friends and relatives reach out to them in their time of need. The physical and financial help that was rendered to them was invaluable and helped them tie over all the difficult periods that they went through.

My Thoughts

It was a refreshing read to hear from a parent’s perspective how dealing with Autism has been like. I have Autistic kids before and it is very challenging trying to get their attention and understand how they tick.

It’s remarkable that the authors were able to overcome their own mental and physical barriers to be able to reach out and provide for their son. The amount of patience and love that they have is really amazing.

I would have given up long ago if it had taken 18 months of diligently bringing my child to the potty every 5 minutes to toilet train him like what they did for Ruben.

It takes a lot of discipline on the part of the parent and being consistent for an Autistic child to be able to learn. Most of the time there is no clear indication that the child is able to understand the given instructions and only in moments of clarity will things suddenly click and the lesson taught product results.

Theuns and Tania Henning are really an amazing couple.

Do pick up a copy of the book Making Sense of the Jigsaw Puzzle: A Parent’s Account of a Child with Autism to experience the Henning’s story.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for review purposes. All opinions are 100% mine. This post has affiliate links.

May 4, 2015

Jewelry Making in Taiwan

Dominique Parenting and Kids, Wordful Wednesday Jewellery workshop, Taipei, Taiwan, wordful wednesday

The rings that R and I made.

During the recent pre- anniversary holiday trip R booked a couple jewellery making workshop for us to try out. It has been a long time since we attended a couple workshop.

If my memory doesn’t fail me it was the 2nd couple workshop which we have attended together. The first one was a cooking workshop back in 2012 at TOTTS,

The jewelry workshop

There were many stations for students at the Jewelry workshop. There were about 5 couples and a single lady which attended the 2pm Saturday workshop that we signed up for. It was really interested to see what went into the making of a silver ring.

Another view of the workshop

The window view onto the road below

The tools that we used

It was the first time for me to be in a hands on workshop which involved the use of tools. I had fun playing with the different hammers and even used the blowtorch for wielding.

The apron that we had to use before starting the session.

The key ring

Each participant in the workshop had to use the key ring to self measure the size of the ring that would be made. I was contemplating on whether to make a ring for index finger or my ring finger. In the end I decided on the ring finger as it would certainly sit more comfortably then on the index.

Engraving tools

We started off the lesson learning how to engrave and were given copper plates to try out chiseling in the letters to form words. It took me some time to decide what to engrave on my ring and after much consideration I decided on carving in our 5 names.

Our instructor for the day

The pretty instructor taught us how to use the different tools that we will be using on our work bench. You can see her above giving instructions on how the blow torch was to be used.

The instructor showing how to knock the ring to size.

We were taught how to knock the ring to expand it to our chosen size. It was interesting that a single piece of silver was able to shaped and molded into different sizes.