I've mentioned Kane already, but I haven't really mentioned Zak - my stepson who has been my son for the last 6 years - but known me for 7 years.
The photo was taken at one of our many gigs we've been to - this one was when we went to see 'Pink'.
Zak is 17, into punk and heavy rock/metal music, has severe Cerebral Palsy and the main reason we bought the new place. He is certainly unique - he is the top of his school, and almost everything we do concerning his education has never been done before, and I am EXTREMELY proud of him!
There are a lot of things he did before anyone else, and many things he was the first to do - such as the following few examples;
At his current school they have awards for IT, Bronze, Silver and Gold. The Gold award being something which is sometimes awarded to young adult at school leaving age if they work really hard...
...Zak won it at 12!
Because he won the highest IT award so early, the school then had to invent another award called the Platinum award, which he one too - and because he won that they had to invent ANOTHER award called the Diamond award, which he is still working on, and hopes to finish before he leaves his school.
He was the first young adult from his school to go to a mainstream college course at 16, and he was the first young person at the college with special needs to do a mainstream IT course too! The college and I had to CREATE a course for him, and the IT course he was very profficient at, although with the amount of work he had to do, and the length of time travelling everyday we decided to stop, leaving the door open to go back at a later date and the head of the Department saying she would love to see Zak back some time so he can teach her and her staff a few things!
As I've already said, I am VERY proud of Zak!
We are converting part of the bungalow into his own 'batchelor pad' with his own lounge, bedroom, bathroom and carers room - all with very specialised equipment and gadgets.
The concrete path which measures 167M x 1.2M wide (almost 350' x 4') that I mentioned in an earlier post is for him to drive round the property - pretty much to every aspect of the garden.
The reason I'm mentioning him, is basically because he bullied me into putting a picture of him on this Blog - he wants to be famous (although how famous he'll get from my blithering I have no idea!).
10 comments:
Wow -no wonder you are so proud!
Didn't realise what a handsome young man Zak is!!!!! Only seen old (kiddie) photos up til now - you have some competition on your hands Dave!!!
Way to go Zak! What does he have to do to win the diamond? What kinds of projects does Zak do to when these nice awards?
Our daughter was really into the punk scene. She's probably want to go to some of those gigs with you two!
Zak says thanks guys!
Audrey: Yep he's a clever, good looking young man and has a lot of potential.
Don: The awards requirements vary from the Bronze award (which he won at 6)where he had to run a word processing program and print out his work plus other stuff, to the Platinum award, where he had to make and present a powerpoint presentation to an audience. He had to do other things too, but I can't remember all of them.
Thats m' boy :0)
Reading that resume' reminds me just how much Zak has had to instigate and drive forward.
Great photo, that one.
Wow, they are some great achievements Zak, no doubt there'll be many more first's in your future if these awards are anything to go by.
Zak is always leading the way at his school - and it's nice to see him leading the way in such a good college as Crawley too.
A lot of kids have Zak to thank for many of the things he has instigated.
Good to finally see the face behind the avatar.
It scared me how much I end to do that. When I first saw Stiggy's photo I was like "He looks nothing like his character!!". I am weird though!
Well done Zak; serious kudos for the IT stuff too. Makes me wish I'd done more back when I was in school instead of getting into fights and drooling over girls :D
Rock on dude! (oh, and stop being better looking than me. I stand people being smarter than me, or looking better, but not both. Stop that!)
Zak is certainly handsome! What a cutie! What are Zak's plans after he finishes school? Congratulations Zak! (...and where is HIS blog?)
The award list is very impressive. I can imagine the Power Point presentation was a bit stressful! Please congratulate Zak! I'll bet he is looking forward to having his own "Pad."
what a great write up about Zak. no wonder you're proud of him. he's achieved so much. He sounds like he has a real zest for life.
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