Growing Children's Skills for Life...

The focus of Shinobijimbo: TechNinja is often about how technology helps children access their curriculum. But the necessary underpinnings for my interventions to work are that the child understands how to participate in their many varied communities. If you work with or have children ages 3 to 8, Acorn Dreams is a terrific website with quick and easy concepts for raising children. Their agenda is to be "a resource center and store for practical tips and research-based materials that help foster children’s positive behavior and lay the foundation for success in school and in life."  Sounds good to me!

I really like the section "In a Nutshell: Quick tips to help Grow Children's Skills".  With header tabs such as "Healthy Habits", "Self-Control", and "Social Skills", the reader can get quick tips to facilitate such skill growth.  As an Occupational Therapist, I can definitely see sharing these Quick Tips with teachers and parents of the students I work with!

The other segment of interest is the Acorn Dreams blog which is fairly new, but already filled with some interesting topics.  The first few blogs consider the use of praise and also weight issues. These articles are succinct, and evidence based. I'm looking forward to reading the next blog articles.

Acorn Dreams is really designed with the typically developing youngster in mind. However, so many of the ideas are generalizable for our students with special needs.  Take a look at it!

Happy parenting!

Remembering my Pepére

When I was a child, every Memorial Day, my mother would light a candle for her father, Marcel Duhamel. Marcel survived the Normandy Invasion. Quite a task for a young man from Manville, Rhode Island. The story I've heard is that a few days after the invasion Marcel was killed by sniper fire.

When my mom passed in 2006 I began lighting a candle in memory of my grandfather. Obviously, I never met the man, but he has had significant impact on my life. Like so many, he was a soldier who gave his life fighting for America. Memorial Day morning I will be lighting a candle first to honor his memory. I will share this story with my sons, as I do every year. I will be thinking of the men and women who have given their lives for our country. I will also be thinking of all the brave men and women who are serving in the forces both at home and afar.