Who Is God? from Apologia, a TOS Crew Review

Who is God? And Can I Really Know Him? Volume 1, Biblical Worldview of God and Truth, by John Hay and David Webb from the What We Believe Series is new from Apologia.

Who is God? And Can I Really Know Him? is designed to be a family inclusive study for children in the 6-14 age range.

Who is God? And Can I Really Know Him? is a beautiful book. List price is $39. It is a big, sturdy hardback with large print. It's a book you want to pick up and look at, linger over. The pages are not overwhelmingly crowded with information, the photos and illustrations are attractive and inviting, something that is very important for a child who can become anxious by too much text or something that looks too difficult.

The book contains 10 lessons meant to be completed in order at the child's pace, with a suggestion that the lessons can be covered in two-week segments with what I assume are typically developing children in that 6-14 year old age range.

Within each chapter is a preview box called, "What You Will Do" (which is really helpful for me in the situation with my homeschooler w/ special needs); narrative with facts and information that incorporates vocabulary "The Big Idea"; vocabulary words are listed for us in "Words You Need to Know" boxes. There are memory verses in "Hide It In Your Heart" boxes in each chapter; and a"What Should I Do?" section and a "Make A Note Of It" box, that asks the student questions about concepts he/she has learned. (Be sure to take a peek at the sample chapter so that you can visualize all of these chapter pieces.)

I thought we'd be ready for more of this study. My homeschooler is working at a K/1 level. She is on the autism spectrum with developmental delays in processing information. I am not sure that the recommended age-range (6-14) is accurate. (I could be wrong.) Writing a text for a 6-14 year old age range is a challenge, because comprehension at six is in a completely different place than comprehension at 14.

(Sidebar: Interestingly, the book gives readers a 2/3 page answer to the question, "Where was the Garden of Eden?", a question my son (a school-building-schooler) asks sometimes.)

This is a study of the concept of "worldview". That requires a certain level of joint attention, perspective taking, what we often refer to as "theory of mind" in the autism world. I found that the majority of the concepts in this book/study are well beyond the perspective-taking and joint attention level of my homeschooler and possibly that of an average six year old. For this particular study, I found that using the story that illustrates the concepts along with some of the vocabulary words is enough for her the first time through the book. And that's good enough for now. The stories are entertaining and my girl is beginning to be able to sit next to me and follow along as I read. If I pause and allow her to read occasionally, her attention on the story stretches a bit longer. Sometimes, her attention is short, and we have to stop part-way through and finish a story another time. I use the "What You Will Do" preview box to guide me, to help me wrap my mind around what I need to work on with her, as I figure out how to present it to her in a way she can understand and build on.

I know she is not understanding a lot of the concepts. Even the story illustrations contain abstract concepts for a child who by nature of all things autism is very literal and concrete. I try to use the vocab and concepts from the story during the next few days, spotlighting them, reviewing parts of the story, trying to grow concept development.

(Sidebar: This book has given me a bigger window into why Sunday School and church have not been positive experiences for her.)

Developmentally, we tend to understand concepts before we have a label for them. We understand the "a" sound long before we learn there is a letter symbol for it. We understand the concept of 1, or 2, or 3 before we learn that there is a symbol, a numeral, to go with it. I can try to get her to memorize vocabulary, but without the conceptual understanding behind it, we are not building meaning. (Rote memorization does not equal understanding.) She needs to be able to relate a new vocabulary word or a new concept to something in her experience, something she knows. Concepts like "worldview" and other abstract ideas are a challenge for me to define in a way that make sense to a child who needs to see and feel and experience very concretely.

As I look ahead, as we move through the stories and I think about finishing this book and beginning it again, I see that we have work to do, concepts to experience, before we begin the book again and include more than the story and some vocab. At this point, Who Is God? And Can I Really Know Him? is an outline for me to use as I consider what concepts I can teach at this point in my daughter's development / understanding. Realizing that my thoughts were not exactly the same as her thoughts took a while for her. She had to learn that my thoughts, my perspective, is different from hers. (Reminds me of Isaiah 55:8.) At some point, she'll learn about the perspectives of those with other worldviews, when she's developmentally ready.We still have some work (experience, practice) to do before all of the abstract concepts will make sense as a whole for her.

Apologia gives book purchasers access to a password protected web site of book extras that includes a set of Teacher Helps for each lesson and 50+ notebooking activities (and answer keys) that accompany the 10 lessons. Additionally, a"House of Truth" to accompany the lessons can be printed from the extras site. Finally, Apologia's extras page is a wealth of links to other information that may be helpful for families.

Here are the ten lessons:

Lesson 1: Where Am I Building My Life?
Lesson 2: How Can I Know What's True?
Lesson 3: What is God Like? (Part 1)
Lesson 4: What is God Like? (Part 2)
Lesson 5: Who Are The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit?
Lesson 6: If God Created the World, Why Isn't the World Perfect?
Lesson 7: Why Did God Create Me?
Lesson 8: Will God Meet All My Needs?
Lesson 9: Why Does Sin Keep Me From Knowing God?
Lesson 10: Is Jesus The Only Way to God?

I really like the progression of topics through the chapters.

If you are looking for some guidance on how (in what order) to teach a child with special needs about God, I think that Apologia's, "Who Is God? And How Can I Really Know Him?" is a solid resource to use as an outline. Know that you may have to read the lessons to yourself and do some prep work before you actually use the lessons with your child (and that's okay; a lot of us use some materials that way with a child who needs the extra prep). It may be a book that you complete more than once; the first time through on a "lite" mode as you fill in gaps in understanding of concepts; the second time more thoroughly. That's what I've got in my mind, anyway.

If you are teaching multiple (typically developing) children across an age range, the younger children will relate to the stories and absorb the material at their level while the older sibs are diving deeper into the material and concepts.

If you're looking for something to use with a developmentally delayed child, this may not be your first choice. While it is quite good, and a beautiful book, there are other studies that are better suited for this particular situation, in my opinion. (I would like to see Apologia develop a set of the stories as separate children's books with some guidance for mom or teacher for using with children with special needs or who are younger and not ready for this book.)

For reviews of Who Is God? And Can I Really Know Him? by my Crewmates, please go here.

I was given a copy of Who Is God for review purposes. I was not paid for this review, do not benefit if you purchase the product, and am not obligated to provide a positive review.

Getting Info In Preparation For A Move (with a child on the autism spectrum)

A fellow Autism Mom asked me how I'm finding resources and connections as we prepare to make a huge move. Her husband is interviewing for a job in a sunny state even farther away from here than where we're moving in a few weeks.

I've looked into quite a few options as I try to familiarize myself with what's available just for my child w/ special needs. (Yes, I've done this with the sibs in mind, too.)

I began with what I think is the obvious. Autism Society chapter. ARC chapter. Developmental Disability Council. TACA (Talk About Curing Autism). Generation Rescue Angels. Autism Research Institute's list of DAN! doctors.

Yahoo Groups and Google Groups. Go to the groups dot yahoo dot com and groups dot google dot com pages and search for groups on the topic of your child's special need. You'll need a Yahoo ID and Google ID to join the groups. Be sure to think outside the box on your searches. You can search "autism" and "special needs" and "ADHD" alongside the name of the state, and search again with those words next to the city, and yet another search with the name of the county in the search box. If your child has a special interest, be sure to search for that along with the city name and county name. If your child loves trains, there may be a yahoo group for train collectors in the city where you are going. If your child participates in a sport, be sure to connect there, too. I found more help from homeschool groups than I did from autism groups in the area we are headed. And I found more insight from celiac groups than I did from autism groups. When you connect with a group, head over to facebook to look for that group there. There are groups with members from all over the world that may be helpful; one example is the yahoo group "taca-usa", where you may post about a particular state or city and connect with other parents near your destination location. I found names of doctors to research from that particular group. And while you're looking at yahoo and google groups, don't forget to search for special ed law and IEP groups. If your child is going to a public school, make sure you join the yahoo group, IEP_Guide, where you can ask questions about specific states and cities.

Newspaper and TV station web sites in your destination city. Use the search box to search for "special needs" or "autism" on the local media web sites. Take notes. Write down any organization name that is featured. Write down the name of parents who are interviewed. Head over to facebook to try to locate those organizations or parents. Send the parents a private message explaining who you are, why you are intruding on their facebook inbox, and ask for insight about the area you are moving to.

Churches in your destination city. Look for special needs Sunday Schools or Buddy Breaks or something similar. E-mail church staff, introduce yourself, explain your situation, ask for insight.

Jewish Community Center and Friendship Circle in your destination city. (I am spoiled by my current city's offerings; looks like the destination city hasn't gotten involved in the special needs FC thing yet. I'm trying not to be disappointed with all the things I am not finding at our new location.)

The YMCA in your destination city.

TOPSoccer. Miracle League Baseball. Special Olympics. The county park & rec department.

The Chamber of Commerce in your destination city. Chamber employees know a lot about all sorts of topics and know someone who can help you with just about any question or concern. Our Chamber contact turned out to be a bit of an insider to the community of special needs families.

Facebook. The search options are huge here. In the search box at the top of your facebook page, type in the state name and the special interest of your child or his/her diagnostic label. If your child is on a GFCF diet, search on facebook for "gluten free" in that city, county, state.

Next, try a google search with any colleges or universities in your new town or area alongside your child's disability. I was expecting to find programming for kids with autism (which is popular here, but notsomuch there, where we are going). Schools with a speech-language path program may offer free or low cost speech therapy. You may find OT, PT, speech, social skills, rec classes, arts and crafts, sports, etc, at a university. I turned up a couple of college professors who are married to one another who have a child on the autism spectrum that way. I found their e-mail addresses and phone numbers in the faculty section and contacted them to ask for insight as we prepare to move. They've been a super resource.

Look for a Katie Beckett type waiver or Childrens Medicaid Waiver in your destination state. (Our current state has such a waiver; our destination state does NOT.) Find out how to apply for a waiver if your destination state has one.

Google search Joey Travolta's film camps to see if he's bringing a camp to a university near you. (You guessed it; He comes to a university near me now, but not in our new state.)

Your real estate agent may be able to put you in contact with a support group leader or a parent of a child that is like your child. If your agent doesn't know of any connections, someone in that real estate office might. Be sure to ask.

Even though I am homeschooling, I did google state public education rules and regs as I was looking at homeschooling rules and regs. Some states offer non-core classes to homeschoolers; some states offer special ed services to homeschoolers who qualify. (The state we are departing does both; the state we are moving to does neither.) I also searched for names of schools in our destination city alongside "due process" and other special ed related terms. I turned up one web site by a family in an ugly situation with a school in the area we are going.

My least favorite, least helpful set of resources has come from the professional community. Calling and e-mailing clinics that offer speech, OT, PT, etc., are disappointing. The social worker who answered the phone at the clinic at a huge, well-known university was useless, unable to answer my basic questions about how speech groups are run and how much they cost, and the people who are supposed to know those things never returned my phone call. (Sidebar: The state we are moving to has a law that requires insurance to cover autism-related services up to age 12, and I see a huge black hole of services and interventions for the 12-18 age range, because younger kids are covered by early intervention and insurance, and older kids qualify for medicaid, but the kids in the middle are missed because clinics are going after insurance and medicaid dollars. What a shame.)

If you have moved and have discovered a resource that I haven't included here, please leave your hint/tip in the comments section. I would appreciate more direction as we prepare to head in a new direction.

Interview with RDI(r) Mom

Listen in HERE as Kristin Selby Gonzalez talks with RDI(r) consultant Kathy Darrow

Cooking With Children With Disabilities

Cooking With Kids With Disabilities

go HERE

FREE FOR ALL COOKING

Jules E. Dowler Shepard brings us FREE FOR ALL COOKING, 150 Easy Gluten-Free, Allergy-Friendly Recipes The Whole Family Can Enjoy.

You may be familiar with Jules Gluten Free^TM, a company that supplies gluten-free flour and baking mixes for families like mine who have at least one family member with multiple food intolerences or allergies.


FREE FOR ALL COOKING is Jules's latest cookbook made available from Da Capo Press. The paperback is 247 pages, is priced at $18.95, and covers a lot of gluten-free territory.

I like this cookbook because Shepard understands families like mine, families who want to develop menus that the whole family can enjoy together, and families with more food intolerances than simply gluten-free. She gives us a lot of substitutions in her recipes, and for a newbie who isn't skilled at making substitutions, that is a real bonus. (Shepard gives us *gasp* TWELVE substitutes for eggs, with suggestions within recipes on which egg substitute works better in individual recipes. I have never seen twelve egg substitutes listed before.)

Shepard gives readers an education about which grains are gluten grains and which grains are not. If you're new to GF baking, you'll appreciate the education.

The cookbook does not require you to purchase GF flour from Jules. You may purchase flour from her or create your own blend; she gives you her blend recipe in the cookbook.

Shepard gives us a nice variety; she covers recipes for breakfast foods; appetizers and side dishes; breads and rolls; soups; main dishes; and desserts in six chapters that include everyday foods and recipes for holidays and special occasions.

There are a few pages of color photos in the center of the cookbook. Not all recipes are pictured.

The cookbook cover photo makes me want cake with sweet icing like crazy, but that's my problem, I suppose. (I will have to make a cake, soon.)

Jules blogs at http://blog.julesglutenfree.com/.

I am happy to add Free For All Cooking to my cookbook collection; inside, there are plenty of recipes that should please my picky eaters for every meal (and more).

De Capo Press sent me a copy of Free For All Cooking to review. I am not paid for this review and am not obligated to provide a positive review.

Tortillas and Kosher-for-Passover Chocolate Chips

This morning's grocery store finds

I could study the Kosher for Passover section for a couple of days.

Your Successful Preschooler: Ten Skills Children Need to Become Confident and Socially Engaged

Your Successful Preschooler: Ten Skills Children Need to Become Confident and Socially Engaged by Ann E. Densmore, Margaret L. Bauman ($16.95) is a informative book targeted to parents of preschoolers.

I propose a second audience: parents of children on the autism spectrum. As we switched away from behavioral approaches and moved into developmental approaches, I had to learn about, well, (this is obvious, but I'll say it anyway) development. What exactly, sets children with autism apart from typically developing children? I'll be blunt: it's not a behavior or a list of behaviors. Instead, the things that set apart children with autism from their typcially developing peers include self-control, self-awareness, self-regulation, flexibility, resilience, executive functioning.

The official list is
Likable
Achieving
Happy
Of strong moral character
Resilient
Flexible
Organized
Leaders
Socially engaged
Passionate about learning

And that's what "Your Successful Preschooler" sets out to explain.

The best teaching books for me have been books about typical development. Getting a picture of what typical development looks like and the importance of the parent piece in child development keeps me on track, keeps priorities in line in my mind.

If you're parenting pre-schoolers, you'll like this book. Densmore and Bauman write about what's important for parents to know in an easy-to-understand way, without a lot of technical terms (no medical or speech-language pathology translator required), and provide how-to examples along the way. They include the importance of outdoor play and all things sensory, something I did not understand until we began intervening with a child who had regressed into autism.

If you're parenting a child on the autism spectrum and have made the switch or are considering the switch to a developmental approach and want to get a picture of how development plays out, this is a good introduction, a good reminder of what experience and practice, exactly, we want to give our children in terms of remediation and core deficits of autism.

Interesting sidebar: I googled the names of the authors and discovered that author Ann Densmore knows autism. She presented at a conference just last year on the topic, Using Play to Foster Communication and Social Integration in Children with Autism. I'd love to hear her thoughts on applying concepts from Your Successful Preschooler to autism.

The first chapter of the book is available here.

ISBN: 978-0-470-49898-9
Paperback
288 pages
February 2011

Jossey-Bass sent me a copy of Your Successful Preschooler to review. I am not compensated for this review and am not obligated to provide a positive review.

GFCFSF "Milk" boxes - Grocery Store Find

Look what my girl and I found today:

The Kitchen Classroom

In the I-wish-I'd-thought-of-this-myself category, The Kitchen Classroom by Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer is a paperback cookbook/CD-ROM combo designed to help parents (and professionals) use the kitchen as a classroom with children with special needs and/or developmental delays who also happen to have food intolerances or allergies.

Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer is the kind of expert that I like to learn from. She is the mom of a child on the autism spectrum. She's an RDI(r) mom. And she knows cooking, too; she is a former cooking instructor for Williams-Sonoma who now teaches at Gratz College in Pennsylvania.

Part of her story is here. Or here.

Back to "The Kitchen Classroom": Every recipe is gluten free and casein (dairy) free. Every recipe is simple and kid-friendly. (Note: The recipes are not allergen free. If your child is more than GFCF, you will have to make some substitutions or skip some recipes entirely.)

The $22.46 paperback includes chapters about the relationship and sensory aspects of cooking. Author Kaplan-Mayer includes information about child development; about being in the kitchen with children who have developmental delays; about framing shopping for recipes and cooking; about the GFCF diet; and about kitchen safety as well.

Both the paperback and the accompanying CD-ROM include the 32 recipes.

The paperback features lots of little ideas and suggestions that parents can use, things to spotlight for the child, if developmentally appropriate, with hints about using activities as part of academics, too.

The CD-ROM features recipes in pictures for six breakfast choices; five lunch choices; seven dinner choices; nine snacks and treats; and five veggie side dishes. You may choose to look at the picture cards right from the computer, or you may choose to print them. Each recipe on the CD gives users a reminder to wash hands, an ingredient and tool list, and the recipe steps in pictures and words. The photos are full color and Kaplan-Mayer is generous with the photographs; she gives us almost 500 photos to guide us as we cook with our children.

Some of the recipes require little "cooking"; some require more. There are recipes for toast, eggs, pancakes, muffins, sandwiches, latkes (sweet potato!), salmon, rice, noodles, pizza, salad, fries, a smoothie, and more, all simple and all things kids tend to like. A sample recipe is here.

If you are a beginner in Relationship Development Intervention, I think you'll really like Kaplan-Mayer's suggestions. One of the mistakes I made a lot in the beginning is creating an activity that was too complicated. Kaplan-Mayer keeps all of these recipe activities simple. She frames the simplicity for me. I like that.

Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer blogs here, giving readers information, recipes, and how-to on video.

Thumbs up, Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer. I wish I'd had something like this in my RDI(r) beginning to help me keep activities simple. Several years into RDI(r), your cookbook is still a wonderful reminder and help.

Woodbine House sent me a copy of "The Kitchen Classroom" for review purposes. This is an unpaid review and I am not obligated to provide a positive review. I do not benefit financially if you purchase this product.

Vaccine Epidemic

Vaccine Epidemic.

I don't even know where to begin.

Here's what gets my attention, from Chapter Ten, "The Greater Good" by Allen Tate:

"It is indisputable that the vaccination schedule has never been tested for safety in its entirety, or in the way that it is administered. In other words, while the government reviews, licenses, and compels individual vaccines, it does not test--or require vaccine makers to test--the safety and efficacy of vaccines given simultaneously or the cumulative effects of multiple vaccines." p. 83.

Not tested for safety in the way that it is administered as a full schedule? Not tested for safety in the way it is administered as six vaccines in one visit for an infant? I never dreamed that my team of pediatricians would push me to inject my babies with substances in ways (six or seven organisms at once in four or five vaccines on the same day, for example) that are not tested for safety.

Additionally, I believed that if someone in my family were injured by a vaccine, that help would be readily available. I was wrong on so many levels.

Almost every sentence is a sentence worth quoting for you; that would be impractical in a blog post. Borrow this book from the library. Buy it. You need to read it. You simply do. We all need to consider this information, and now.

If you're the parent of a child on the autism spectrum, you may know some of this information already. You may have been to a conference where one (or three) of the Vaccine Epidemic authors spoke. We may have been there together. I've read a lot, been to more conferences and workshops than I can count, and I can tell you that Vaccine Epidemic contains authors and perspective that I have not considered in such depth.

Vaccine Epidemic is a book about vaccine choice and informed consent; it's not so much "anti-vaccine" as it is "make an educated decision". And you will get an education. There is so much I didn't know about vaccines and vaccine policy. You too?

And yes, I want to quote almost every sentence.

Vaccine Epidemic spells out for readers not only what the current medical, legal, and ethical issues are, but history of vaccines and vaccine policy, along with some real-life stories from vaccine injured people, and not just autism-related vaccine injuries.

Vaccine Epidemic is a 350 page hardback, with 26 chapters edited by Louise Kuo Habakus, M.A., and Mary Holland, J.D. and written by 20+ different professionals, parents, and individuals who have studied issues surrounding vaccines; some of the parents and individuals have been affected negatively by vaccines.

The book is arranged in three sections.

Part I covers The Case For Vaccination Choice and includes 10 chapters by Mary Holland, JD; Sookyung Song; Louise Kuo Habakus, MA; James Turner, JD; William Wagner, JD; Carol Stott, PhD, MSC (Epidemiology), CSci, CPsychol; Andrew Wakefield, MB, BS, FRCS, FRCPath; Robert Johnston, PhD; Vera Hassner Sharav, MLS; and Allen Tate.

Part II is called "Narratives and the Echoes of 'Omelas'" and includes chapters by Ursula K LeGuin; Gay Tate, PhD (Biochemistry), LSW; mom Amy Pingel ("My Daughter is 'One Less'"); Sonja Hintz, RN and Alexander Hintz; Captain Richard Rovert, USAF (Ret.), with afterword by Colonel Felix M. Grieder, USAF (Ret); and a chapter that reminds individuals to keep your receipt if you get a flu shot at a drug store by Lisa Marks Smith entitled, "Get Your Affairs in Order". (I'd read part of Lisa Marks Smith's story here; she has Chapter 16, "Get Your Affairs In Order".)

Part III covers The Topics in the Debate and includes 10 chapters by Michael Belkin; Ginger Taylor, MS; Boyd Haley, PhD; Kim Mack Rosenberg, JD; Twila Brase, RN; Sherri Tenpenny, DO, AOBNMM; Annemarie Colbin, PhD; Louise Kuo Habakus, MA; Mary Holland in a cliff notes type version of the whole attack on Andy Wakefield; and Andrew Wakefield, MB, BS, FRCS, FRCPath.

There are so many facts I find incredible; there is so much surrounding vaccines that I trusted blindly without researching. Had I done my research, I would have chosen to vaccinate differently, skipping some completely, delaying some.

If you're researching vaccines and vaccine safety, make sure to include Vaccine Epidemic on your list of books to read and consider.

Skyhorse Publishing sent me a copy of Vaccine Epidemic for review purposes. I am not paid for this review and am not obligated to provide a positive review. I do not benefit financially if you purchase this book.