Between my last post on the subject and now we decided to order some glasses for both me and Maggie from zennioptical.com. It seemed pretty risky since they’re made and shipped from overseas, but after reading the reviews and paying over $100 for Maggie’s first pair that were scratched within the month, we decided to try it out. We really needed to find a way to get her inexpensive enough glasses that we wouldn’t all panic and/or yell every time she acts her age and takes her glasses off and leaves them on the floor. I ordered a pair of $8 glasses (all of the glasses include the bullet-proof polycarbonate lenses) for me and a pair of $20 glasses for Maggie. Hers were the memory titanium type, where you can bend them and they don’t need to be re-adjusted (). They combine shipping for however many glasses you order, so it cost me $5 in shipping for both of us. About three weeks later (they say to expect them to arrive in no less than four weeks) the glasses arrived. Maggie likes the purple zennioptical glasses even more than her pink Lenscrafters ones, and they seemed to stay on better, and all the adults in the house have stopped flinching every time she gets mad and threatens to throw her glasses. Yay! Mine are also perfect and I like them better than my old ones–they’re lighter, thinner, and a better shape.

All that said, I think it was important that we went in person to stores and tried on real glasses and wrote down the measurements of the ones we liked. I wrote down the general shapes that looked good, the frame width (apparently the most important number), bridge length, the lens height and width, and the arm length. I got the optician in the store we’d already bought glasses at to give me our pupilary distances so we’d get that just right (especially important for Maggie with her lazy eye). Then I used those numbers to find frames on zennioptical that were similar to the ones we knew we liked, which we could do because zennioptical gives you all those measurements for their glasses. So, if you’re considering buying glasses online, I definitely recommend you go through that process first.

Anyway, I was still a little worried this morning before going to the doctor that we hadn’t gotten the right frames or that they’d turn out to be the wrong prescription. But the doctor confirmed that both pairs of glasses were just the right prescription. Later when we went to have them fitted by the optician, the optician (who was a 20-year specialist in fitting children’s glasses) commented that the frames I’d chosen for Maggie were practically indestructible, that they were great quality frames, and perfect for a two-year-old. When I told him I’d gotten both the frames and the lenses for $20 plus shipping, his jaw practically dropped to the floor and he ran around telling all the other opticians in the room. He told me that they sell similar frames in his office for less than other local places and they charge over $100 for the frames alone, plus over $100 for the lenses! Which means I got them for about 90% off. I’m okay with that.

Now that I have the endorsement of the ophthamologist and the optician, I’m ready to order about three more pairs of glasses for her from zennioptical just as backups. And since you can buy prescription sunglasses from them in any of their frames for an extra $5, maybe I’ll get some of those (for her or for me?). But probably in a few months when my wallet has recovered from her expensive glasses…

Oh, while I’m praising people, can I just say that our San Rafael Kaiser ophthamologist, Dr. Claiborne, is lovely and worked wonderfully well with my sometimes excitable two-year-old?  And our awesome child-friendly and impressively experienced optician’s name was George, so ask for him if you need to have your child’s glasses adjusted in the San Rafael Kaiser glasses store.

1. Playtime, then clean up

2. Opening (prayer, catch up on kids’ news, quick review of previous lesson, intro to today’s lesson)

3. Walk (outside or in building)

4. Lesson

5. Singing Time

6. Snack

7. Activity

8. Playtime

9. Cleanup, closing prayer, bubbles until parents arrive

So, my job was to be in charge of steps 2, 3, 4, and 7. Here’s how I did it.

2. For the Opening, we had a child say the opening prayer, then reviewed last week’s lesson about ears by asking them where their ears are and what things they heard during Sacrament Meeting that morning.  Then I told them we’d be talking about how we’re thankful for our eyes today.  I asked them where their eyes were, and had them look at each others’ eyes.  Then we made glasses with our hands to sing “Popcorn” and I asked them if we went outside if they thought we’d see popcorn.  I told them we were going for a walk and we’d look around and see what our eyes can do.

3. We have a rope in our Nursery that the kids hold on to when we go for a walk to keep them all together.  We went outside and sat on a bench, had them use their hands as “glasses” like in the Popcorn song, and I asked them what they could see.  I asked them if they could see anything green, then blue, then gray, etc.  Then I asked if they could see things of different shapes.  Then we went for a little run in circles to let them see what’s on the ground and to get some energy out.  Then we walked back inside, holding on to the rope.

4. We sat down in the Nursery room, I asked them what they could remember seeing outside with their wonderful eyes, and we sang “Two Little Eyes That See.”  I told the children that some people can’t see very well and have to wear glasses or contacts to help them see better.  I showed them which of the Nursery workers wore glasses, then asked them to raise their hands if their moms or dads wear glasses or contacts.  Then I told them some people can’t see at all with their eyes and got a volunteer to let me blindfold him and I pretended to be a guide dog and lead him around the room.

(At this point our Primary Chorister came in and we did Singing Time, then returned to the lesson)

I let a couple more kids be “blind” or the “guide dog.”  We talked about how hard it is to do things without our eyes, and how our eyes are a blessing.

Then I pulled out the Jesus Healing the Blind Man picture and told the story very simply.  I told them that Jesus spat on the dirt and made mud.  We talked about who likes mud and who doesn’t like mud (that conversation was a hit).  Then Jesus put the mud on the blind man’s eyes (I showed them the picture up close then, and asked if they could see Jesus putting mud on his eyes).  Then Jesus told him to go wash his eyes off.  The blind man was obedient and did what Jesus said, and then he could see again!  I asked the kids if they think Jesus showed he loved the blind man because he made his eyes work again.  Then I told them that Jesus loves them too, and their eyes are one way they can tell that Jesus and Heavenly Father love them.  I bore my testimony of how the Lord loves us, and how I’m thankful for my eyes.

7. For our activity, I prepared paper bag puppets with open and closing eyes for the kids to color as illustrated at the end of the lesson.  On the back of the bag I wrote “I am thankful for my EYES” and then as the kids colored we wrote their names on the bags.  The older kids especially liked opening the eyes and closing them again with the puppets.

This rendition of the lesson worked quite well.  I think it helped a LOT that we had a predictable schedule that we’d been using for a few weeks and the kids were used to it.  They were attentive and interested almost the whole time.  They were pretty afraid of the blindfold during the guide dog activity, so I think that one might have been too much for the little ones.  They were very interested in the part of the lesson that talked about Jesus.  They liked opening and closing their eyes and showing me their eyes.  I had prepared another “just in case” activity that we didn’t use–the one in the manual where you “hide” a small object and have them look around for it.  I brought a little rainbow colored stuffed animal to use for that.