It is no easy task to find a teaching technique that can truly change the course of a child with special needs. Thirty years ago, when Janet Tubbs began working with children who had low self-esteem and behavioral problems, she developed a successful program using art, music, and movement. Believing that unconventional children required unconventional therapies, she then took her program one step further--she applied it to children with Autism, AD/HD, and Asperger's Syndrome. Her innovative methods and strategies not only worked, but actually defied the experts. In this new book, Janet Tubbs has put together a powerful teaching tool to help parents, therapists, and teachers work with their children.
The book is divided into four parts. Part One begins by introducing and explaining Janet's novel approach to teaching. Her goal is to balance the child's body, mind, and spirit through proven techniques. The next three parts provide a wide variety of exercises, activities, and games that are both fun and effective. Each is designed to reduce hyperactivity, increase and prolong focus, decrease anger, develop fine motor skills, or improve social and verbal skills. All are part of a program created to help these children relate to their environment without fear, anxiety, or discomfort.
Just because a child may appear stubborn and difficult, doesn't mean that the child isn't intelligent, curious, or creative. With the right approach, such a child can be reached, taught, and, hopefully, started on the road to improvement. The daily lessons provided in this book may be just what you and your child have been waiting for.
About the Author
Janet Tubbs was the founder of Creative Concepts for Children in Scottsdale, Arizona. In 1977, armed with a personal love of music, dance, and arts and crafts, Janet began working with children who had low self-esteem and behavioral problems. For the next four years she developed a unique approach using music, art, puppetry, and movement.
In 1984, Janet expanded her program to include children with Autism, Asperger's Syndrome, and AD/HD. In the same year, she established Children's Resource Center, a non-profit organization, for special needs children. For over two decades, Janet has profoundly helped thousands of children, trained hundreds of teachers and parents, and lectured to tens of thousands of educators and parents throughout North America. Janet is the author of six books and numerous published articles. Author contact: janet@childrensresources.com
]]>Uwe and Hannelore Romeike are not like other asylum seekers, people fleeing war or torture in places like Afghanistan, Iraq or Somalia. They're music teachers from a village in southern Germany. And yet, in what appears to be the first case of its kind, the couple and their five children were granted asylum in the U.S. last week by an immigration judge who ruled that they had a "well-founded fear of persecution" in their home country for engaging in what has become a popular albeit somewhat controversial American practice -- homeschooling their children.
The Romeikes, who are Evangelical Christians, took their three eldest children out of school in the town of Bissingen in 2006 because they were concerned about the impact the government-approved curriculum and the public-school environment would have on their social development. "Over the past 10 to 20 years, the curriculum in public schools in Germany has been more and more against Christian values, and my eldest children were having problems with violence, bullying and peer pressure. It's important for parents to have the freedom to choose the way their children can be taught," Uwe Romeike said in a statement provided by the couple's attorney, Michael Donnelly of the Virginia-based Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). (See pictures of East Germany making light of its past.)
But here's the problem: in Germany it's compulsory for children to attend school, and the Romeikes soon found themselves on the wrong side of the law. Local authorities slapped the couple with a $10,000 fine, and police even took their children to school when the Romeikes refused to send them. Fearing that they could lose custody of their kids or even be put in jail, the Romeikes fled to the U.S. in 2008, looking for a community where they could educate their kids as they saw fit.
That's exactly what they found in Morristown, Tenn., a town of about 27,000 deep in the Bible Belt. Donnelly says the Romeikes flourished in the environment, becoming "very disciplined" teachers tackling subjects like math, history and social science with the help of textbooks and other teaching materials, all in accordance with state law. The couple also joined a local group that organizes activities and field trips for homeschooled children in the area. Once they were settled in their new community, they applied for asylum in the U.S., claiming they'd be persecuted if they were sent back to Germany. (See pictures of Detroit school kids' dreams of the future.)
Memphis judge Lawrence Burman's ruling sparked outrage in Germany. Authorities in the state of Baden-Württemberg, where the Romeikes had lived, angrily dismissed suggestions that the couple had been persecuted. "We have compulsory schooling, and this law applies to everyone, including the Romeikes," says Thomas Hilsenbeck, a spokesman for the state Education Ministry. "If parents don't want to send their children to a public school, they can send them to alternative private schools."
A lower court had ruled that the girl could no longer be home-schooled by her mother. The girl's parents are divorced.
The court cited the father's concerns about the child's strong religious beliefs, saying public school would expose her to other points of view.
Judge Lucinda V. Sadler of the Family Division of the Judicial Court for Belknap County in Laconia wrote in her denial of the motion to reconsider the order that the girl "is at an age when it can be expected that she would benefit from the social interaction and problem solving she will find in public school, and granting a stay would result in a lost opportunity for her."
An Alliance Defense Fund allied attorney representing the mother stated that he is concerned when a court treads on the parents' right to make "sound choices" for their children.
"Courts can settle disputes, but they cannot legitimately order a child into a government-run school on the basis that her religious views need to be mixed with other views. That's precisely what the lower court admitted it is doing in this case, and that's where our concern lies," said ADF-allied attorney John Anthony Simmons of Hampton.
The lower court acknowledged that the girl's mother has "more than kept up" with the public schools in educating her daughter at home.
]]>Although homeschooling certainly has a longer heritage than formal education, it remains a sticky subject in crowds. The phrase often conjures visions of hyper-religious families worried about the indoctrination of their children or socially awkward pre-teens sleeping in until noon, sitting at a table with barely competent parents and doing homework in their PJs.
Not so -- at least not for the Littlejohn family. Derek, a high-school senior, and Carrie, an 8th grader, may be allowed to sleep about an hour later than most teenagers, but part of their homeschooling schedule requires showering, dressing and eating breakfast before school starts -- and it begins at 9 a.m., sharp. The structure, their mother said, makes all the difference, and it's one of the two keys to the success they've had.
Cheryl Littlejohn and her husband Tom have been homeschooling for five years. Before that, Derek and Carrie were attending a local private Christian school affiliated with their former church. When changes in the church and school made them uncomfortable with the children's educational situation, they began looking into homeschool programs.
The parents had two major questions: Would homeschooling be an effective choice in their education, and would they miss out socially? In the end, they decided to give it a try. "When considering our educational choices, in light of the changes in our lives, we felt that homeschooling was best for our family," Cheryl said.
At first, the children were a little resistant. Both Carrie and Derek missed their friends. Because both children were active in sports, Carrie continued to play soccer with St. Francis, and Derek immediately signed up for a homeschool basketball team. Cheryl and Tom pictured a few parents with whistles, but were pleasantly surprised and impressed when they showed up and found a highly professional organization and a great coach.
]]>Homeschool Theatre Troupe steps into another era, taking children and adults into Geoffrey Chaucer's classic, "The Canterbury Tales."
Sponsored by the Sharron Baucom Dale City Recreation Center, the play follows a lively story-telling contest among a group of pilgrims on their way to the shrine of Saint Thomas à Beckett at Canterbury Cathedral. These pilgrims each agree to tell a story and the person who tells the best story, as determined by the innkeeper, will have his supper paid for by the rest of the group.
Travel back in time to 14th century England, then on to Canterbury with the Prioress, the Miller, the Reeve, the Franklin, the Pardoner, and the Wife of Bath as they weave their tales with ele-ments of humor, satire, ethics, virtue, and courtly love.
Performance will be today at 1:30 p.m.; Nov. 20 at 7 p.m.; Nov. 21 at 1:30 p.m. General admis-sion is $8, available at the door before each show, or at the Dale City Recreation Center. Ages 3 and under are free. Group ticket prices are $6 each for 10 or more tickets. Groups can receive special benefits too, such as reserve seating. A tour of the set and/or a question and answer period at the end of either of the two daytime shows is also available.
The event will take place at The Dr. A. J. Ferlazzo Auditorium, 15941 Donald Curtis Drive in Woodbridge.
For more information about the Homeschool Theatre Troupe visit the website at mysite.veri zon.net/julielittle/.
]]>My husband and I lived in a city where the public school system was terrible so I have homeschooled my children since day one. But he was recently transferred with his job and now we live in another state.
Here's my problem. I can still homeschool in this state but my son, who is at fifth-grade level must take achievement tests. Our daughter is only a first-grader so she's not required to take achievement tests yet.
I know my children are smart. They have learned what they need and more. In fact, my son is currently building a replica of a human body, but he has never had an achievement test before. What should I do?
Michelle M.
Nashville, TN
Dear Michelle:
Tennessee's achievement tests, part of the TCAP assessments, are like any other achievement tests in that they are measures from the past, yet they are still considered the key indicators of educational success.
]]>While some of this extra money is going to buy books and classroom supplies in a time of tight budgets, the new teacher-entrepreneurs are also spending it on dinners out, mortgage payments, credit card bills, vacation travel and even home renovation, leading some school officials to raise questions over who owns material developed for public school classrooms.
"To the extent that school district resources are used, then I think it's fair to ask whether the district should share in the proceeds," said Robert N. Lowry, deputy director of the New York State Council of School Superintendents.
The marketplace for educational tips and tricks is too new to have generated policies or guidelines in most places. In Fairfax County, Va., officials had been studying the issue when they discovered this fall that a former football coach was selling his playbook and instructional DVDs online for $197; they investigated but let him keep selling.
]]>Jore, a semi-finalist for a National Merit Scholarship, has been homeschooled most of her young life.
"It's quite informal," she said of her schooling. "You're required to do a certain number of hours a day ... but if there's something going on from 9 to 2 I can do that and you can do schoolwork in the evening."
Now 18, she's pretty involved in her own schooling and her interests direct a lot of what she studies and what textbooks are ordered for her classes.
That independence gives her a lot of freedom to participate in different activities, too, like regional, state and international science fairs, where she has been an award winner all through high school.
"I do something new every year," said Jore. "Sometimes my ideas come from personal experience and sometimes they're just out of the blue."
During her sophomore year, Jore's science fair project was inspired by a personal tragedy. Her aunt and a cousin had been killed in a car accident. Jore invented the Vehicular Line Detection Alert System, a device that would set off an alarm whenever the car crosses the highway's center line.
"I was able to do that and it was pretty exciting," said Jore.
That project took her to the international science fair.
]]>Since the time that Isabela was 5 years old, Catherine had been preparing her daughter for this trip, telling her that when she was in the 5th or 6th grade, they would set off for the vacation of their lives.
]]>A mother of two seeking H1N1 vaccinations for her children at a public health department was turned away in Virginia. Why? She was told it was because her children are homeschooled!
After learning of the situation the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) contacted Virginia authorities about the situation and was finally able to get vaccines for the children, one of which is considered high risk because of a respiratory issue.
Has this been an isolated incident? No. Another Virginia woman asked her local school district if her children could receive the vaccines with the other children. District officials promptly refused her stating that the vaccines were for public school students only
The state court suit, filed in West Palm Beach, names Gov. Charlie Crist, the Board of Education and several political leaders and asserts that they are violating a requirement in the Florida Constitution to provide a "uniform, efficient, safe, secure and high quality" education.
"Palm Beach County is clearly not upholding its responsibility to provide a quality education to all of its students when so many of them are not graduating," Chris Hansen, senior staff lawyer with the A.C.L.U., said Thursday in a statement.
]]>Schools across the country are lowering standards - actually dumbing down lesson plans - to avoid sanctions under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
That act was President George W. Bush's signature education reform. It mandates that every child in school must be "proficient" in reading and math by 2014 and schools that fall short are subject to sanctions.
Now a new federal study shows that nearly a third of the states lowered academic standards in recent years. Fifteen states in all lowered proficiency standards in fourth and eighth-grade reading or math from 2005 to 2007. Three states - Maine, Oklahoma, and Wyoming - lowered standards in both subjects at both grade levels. Yikes!
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