by jphilo | Feb 14, 2012 | Different Dream, Special Needs Ministry, Spiritual Support
Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone in special needs land!
Riding the Sugar High
Between snitching the candy your kids brought home from school parties and/or celebrating the holiday with your sweetie, maybe you’re riding a sugar high. With that in mind, this post is a short and sweet peek at a sweetheart of a Key Ministry resource.
I’m In Love with Key Ministry
If you’re a regular DifferentDream.com reader, you know I’m in love with Key Ministry. If you’re a first time reader, you may want to check them out. They provide free (yes, free) resources for churches and advocates who want to start special needs ministries in their communities. Dr. Steve Grcevich, the founder of Key Ministry, and Katie Wetherbee, KM’s educational consultant have blogs jam-packed with resources, features, and sound advice.
A Valentine’s Day Treats
Last month they created two more sweetheart pages at Steve’s blog. The first is a compilation of all the links to their most popular series of 2011, Thinking Orange…Family Ministry Strategies When Families Have Special Needs. The second is a compilation of links to their most popular series of all time, ADHD and Spiritual Development.
Savor These Sweet Treats
Once you’ve had time to savor these sweet offering, maybe you’ll want to return to DifferentDream.com and leave comment about your favorite link. And considering the day, a comment about your favorite Valentine’s candy is acceptable, too. (Mine are Russel Stover coconut-filled chocolates, in case you still need to purchase my gift.)
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by jphilo | Aug 31, 2011 | Books and Resources, Different Dream, Special Needs Parenting
Do you remember the blog post from my birthday, July 27? I blogged about my new birthday toy – information cards about EA/TEF, the condition our son had at birth. That post was a spin off from an older post about Katie Wetherbee’s report about autism meltdown cards. Well, recently someone left a the comment about a similar card for a condition called Rett Syndrome.
Meet Ingrid Harding
The comment was left by Ingrid Harding, mother of Sarah, who lives with Rett Syndrome. Ingrid is also founder of the website Girl Power 2 Cure, Inc. It has to be one of the cutest websites ever, and it’s packed with information about Rett Syndrome, a “debilitating neurological (movement) disorder that predominantly affects females. ”
The Purple Card
In her comment, Ingrid included a link to the website page about The Purple Card, her version of the Meltdown Card for kids with Rett Syndrome. They even personalize the cards by including the child’s picture, if the parents so desire. Pretty cool, huh?
Any Other Great Ideas Out There?
So now I’m wondering how many other fantastic ideas for educating the general public about special needs are floating around out there. You probably have all sorts of good ideas. Now’s your chance to share them, like Ingrid did. How do you tell people about your child’s special need? How do you handle kids and adults differently? What works? What doesn’t?
Do you like what you see at DifferentDream.com? You can receive more great content by subscribing to the quarterly Different Dream newsletter and signing up for the daily RSS feed delivered to your email inbox. You can sign up for the first in the pop up box and the second at the bottom of this page.
by jphilo | Jul 27, 2011 | Books and Resources, Different Dream, Special Needs Parenting
Today is my birthday, and I’m celebrating by sharing my favorite new toy with you. The toy is a spin off from the meltdown cards first brought to my attention by Katie Wetherbee who blogs at Diving for Pearls.
TEF Information Cards
My new toy is a pack of information cards about EA/TEF (Esophageal Atresia/Tracheoesophageal Fistula), the congenital defect my husband and I first heard about several hours after our first child’s birth. For years we endured the stares and disapproving looks of strangers when they heard Allen’s barky cough or watched him gag up food at restaurants.
Some Things Haven’t Changed in 28 Years
According to moms parenting EA/TEF kids 28 years after Allen’s birth, they still deal with stares and disapproving looks. After they read about the meltdown informational cards about autism, one mom suggested making similar cards for EA/TEF. And Heather, mom to Kestrel, volunteered to create them. The cards are now available for purchase at Heather’s EA/TEF store.
Thanks for the Birthday Present, Heather Greywolf
So thanks for the new toy, Heather. It makes up for the birthday in 1982 years ago when our son and I were life-flighted to the University of Nebraska Hospital in Omaha for a second, unexpected surgery on his tiny esophagus. Sometimes, that day seems like yesterday, but knowing that the TEF information cards you created are available to a new generation of EA/TEF parents will soften those old memories.
Do you like what you see at DifferentDream.com? You can receive more great content by subscribing to the quarterly Different Dream newsletter and signing up for the daily RSS feed delivered to your email inbox. You can sign up for the first in the pop up box and the second at the bottom of this page.
by jphilo | Feb 28, 2011 | Books and Resources, Different Dream, Special Needs Parenting
Once in awhile, someone shares a tip so elegant and easy I wonder why it wasn’t invented sooner…like when my son was little.
Katie Wetherbee and Meltdown Cards
My friend Katie Wetherbee loves to talk about meltdown cards, which parents of kids with autism or Asperger’s can hand to onlookers. Katie’s review, which describes the cards more fully can be viewed at her website, www.DivingforPearls.com.
EA/TEF Information Cards
Since my son doesn’t have autism or Asperger’s, he didn’t have meltdowns in public. But from birth to age five his barky cough, caused by his TEF repair, garnered plenty of judgmental looks from onlookers who thought we had no business taking a sick kid out in public. And most restaurant meals resulted in at least one episode of gagging and vomiting. If only I’d had meltdown cards, I could have eased our embarrassment, educated our ignorant audiences and dispelled germ phobias in one fell swoop. Maybe someone in the EA/TEF community will design a card like that.
A Meltdown Card for Every Special Need
If your child has a different special need, maybe you can think of a way to adapt it to your circumstances, too. Leave a comment if you have an idea or if you already use something similar. What a great way to educate others about our kids!
Do you like what you see at DifferentDream.com? You can receive more great content by subscribing to the quarterly Different Dream newsletter and signing up for the daily RSS feed delivered to your email inbox. You can sign up for the first in the pop up box and the second at the bottom of this page.
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by jphilo | Feb 18, 2011 | Reviews
When teachers or former students and their parents ask if I miss teaching, my answer often disappoints them. After twenty-five years of rigid schedules, grading, report cards, school politics, recess duty, teacher evaluations, curriculum writing, and inhaling every virus trapped in stale, classroom air, it was time for a new adventure.
But, there are a few things I miss – creating a community of trust in the classroom, being allowed into a nine-year-old’s world, and reassuring parents of a child’s worth and ability. I also miss staying abreast of developments in the rich world of children and young literature. That’s hard to do without the recommendations of a classroom full of kids and the school librarian to point me to the best and brightest new writing each year.
Once the first draft of my new book was complete, the itch to read kid and young adult lit began. But I didn’t know where to start until my friend Katie Wetherbee of Key Ministries suggested The Wednesday Wars.
“It’s fantastic,” she said. “You have to read it,” she said. So I did. And she was right.
The book is a gem, which is no surprise to those who follow it’s author, Gary Schmidt. He’s written three other books, Anson’s Way, Straw Into Gold, and Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, a Newberry Honor Book. After reading The Wednesday Wars, they’re all on my must read list.
Why? Because Schmidt wove a rich tapestry from the staples of middle childhood – friendship, rejection, school, baseball, cynical older sisters, teachers, parents, the realizations that adults are frail humans and that all issues are not black and white – and the unexpected elements of Shakespeare, pet rats, cream puffs, cross country running, and architecture. He deftly fit unlikely components together, thanks to generous amounts of humor and a realistic 1967 story world, complete with an appearance by Mickey Mantle and news reports about Viet Nam, the deaths of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy.
Revealing more about the plot would ruin the story for those of you who haven’t read it. Instead, meet two of the main characters. The first is seventh grade nerd, Holling Hoodhood. With a name like that, could he not be a nerd? The second is Mrs. Baker, a precise and demanding teacher. She is also Holling’s nemesis in his Wednesday afternoon wars.
For fear of spoiling the fun and the poignancy of The Wednesday Wars, I won’t say anymore. Except for this. Thank you, Katie Wetherbee, for recommending The Wednesday Wars.
