Tuesday, August 13, 2019

To Parents of NICU Babies: My Story



Many people believe that when a child is born and needs time the
neonatal unit they are destined to have a hard life. I can tell you
some of that very true but, some of it isn't. When I was born on
October 11th 1965 I would literally more than 6 weeks early. My
mother's due date was December 18th. I was born at 9 a.m. in the
morning I weighed in at 2 lb 5 and 1/2 oz and a nurse gave me
mouth-to-mouth resuscitation for 2 and 1/2 hours before I breathed
on my own. The doctor came to my mother's room at 11 am to consle
her on my loss. He thought I was stillborn. He had no idea the n
urse had work so hard to save my life. He warned my mother that I
would probably be sickly and die at an early age.At that time as
an infant my mother couldn't breastfeed me for various reeasons
so my diet consisted of boiled and pulverized white rice, mashed
bananas, and weak tea. I would prone to seizures and also just
very sickly as a child.I was put on phenobarbital at that time
to prevent seizures and while there's not a whole lot to be
said the seizures I had as a child I can tell you that two
things resulted from being on phenobarbital. The first is the
medicine kept me awake. My parents would drive me around at
night playing classical music to get me to go to sleep. That's
I've been trained to fall asleep at classical music. I took my
Mom to see The Nutcracker; for her 70 birthday.My whole life
I've wanted to see the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy live and
I fell asleep. Ironically, the second issue also has to do is
sleep. Wen they took me off the phenobarbitol at age 5 my
mother said I slept for three days.


It is believed that most children who end up in the NICU
will end up falling somewhere on the of autistuc soectrum.
I learned that at a conference a few years ago. Since then I
have recognized that thus us true or me as Id sometimes
don't pick up on social cues. However, that hasn't
kept me from being very successful at the coach and the
teacher. Nor has it kept me from helping 10000 + parents
develop a stronger and more powerful parenting relationships
with their kids.


The lesson I'd like you to take from this is that even if
your children start out in the neonatal unit nobody can say
where they will end up. The key is to recognize that your
children may have some limitations. However, it does not mean
you should not have abd hold them to high expectations.
When parents believe in their children and place high
standards on what they can and should be able to achieve
within what ever limitations exist children work to get to
the highest level they possibly can. It is empowering for
children they believe in themselves because you believe
in them.


I promise you there will be many well-meaning professionals
in your life who will tell you that your child is going to
be limited in some way. But, I can tell you that in my case
the medical professionals were wrong. My mother believed
in me. She pushed me; held me to high expectations and
while I didn't always meet them. It was never because she
didn't believe in me. It is because of this belief; that I
firmly believe that it is my job to affect my generation to
be the absolute best parents they can be.


So, I want to encourage you. Pray tp the only person who
really knows why your child is capable of and what they've
been sent to the planet to do God himself. If you ask Him
to show you how to guide your child so that they can hit
the target that He has set for them and their lives. So you
understand the purpose, and the reason he sent them Earth
He will. More than likely a little bit every day you will see
something new and different and almost miraculous in your
baby, your child, the teen they become,and the adult
prepared to do the plan for which He sent them.

God gave you this particular child because He trust you to
struve through whatever difficulties or trials they may
have. So in the ehd they can to hit the ground running and
taking off to work int their generation and making a
difference in the world. You can do this! You have everything
in you to do this even if it feels like you don't!
It's there reach down deep pull it up and get on with it.
My parents did it in 1965 without all the help and
support parents have today to raise premature children.
You have help. you have a do you have support, There
are parent groups all over the world. You can start
by looking at this website Parent2ParentGA . If you
feel aneed to talk to me make no hesitation to reach
out to me my email address and educatepta@gmail.com.
I believe in you and I want you to do everything you
can to be the best mom and dad you can be.

Believe in your Parenting

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Tuesday, August 6, 2019

Conversation, Reading, and Education



Over the years many parents have asked me what is the key to my child being succeesful in school. I have given a variety of answers, however new research has changed my thoughts on this topic. The new research says:


  1. Children need to hear 3 million words before they enter Kindergarden in order to be ready to read. (The words during screentime do not count, it is in person to person communication.)
  2. Children need healthy social/emotional development to be able to properly engage in the classroom.
  3. Children who can recognize and write thier name before they go to Kindergarten are ready to read.
  4. Children need to read 8 million words from First Gradethrogh eighth grade inorder to do well and be ready to engage in the high school classroom.
  5. Children need to engage in activities where they use math and math conacepts on a regular basis. The easiest ones at home is cooking, woodworking, and games like sudko.
  6. Playing games like Junior srabble, Scrabble, Upwords, and crossword/word search .
  7. The more children have discussions with others the better their ability to engage with language in real time conversations at school. 
  8. Spending time as a family engaging in games, activities, and using teachable moment regarding lanugage and math, gets kids to practice almost without thinking about school. It gives them a better undersatanding of how school is really preparing them to live in the world.
Each of these eight areas can be a blog all on its own. So, over the next few weeks I will be taking each topic and creating a more expansive post for each. Let me just say this. There are two things you can do for your children to improve thier schooling. Read in front of them, read to them, and make them read at least one book a week, or a month if it is a chapter book. Chapter books you can actually read as a family; discuss what is happening in the story and talk about thoughts and feelings regarding the story. Which leads to my other thought talk to your kids, have conversations with them on a regular basis. Make it about interesting things that you like and share together.

  1. Sports
  2. Cooking
  3. Hobbies
  4. Cars
  5. Fashion
  6. Current Events
  7. Vacations
  8. Outings
  9. Family Fun time or Issues
  10. What you and they dream of having in your lives.
I guess you can see a theme throughout this blog reading and coversations are fundamental to supporting your kids education. It is a simple and as difficult as that.

Believe in Parenting