How do I sift through all this Dyslexia and ADHD Information?

The response from my recent posts about ADHD and Dyslexia have been overwhelming.  I am happy to share our family's story if it helps just one more child get the help they need to make school an enjoyable place to be.

Several questions I have been receiving I covered earlier in the summer, so instead of covering them again, I will put links to all the posts here.

My son has struggled with reading since first grade.  After lots of searching and help from friends we got an answer to the question Is it Dyslexia? Is it ADHD? Help!!

Then we had to figure out How does one deal with an ADHD diagnosis?

Everything started to fall into place with a trip to the Alltech Symposium where they posed the question What if We Could Eat Our Way Out of ADHD?  Then later in the summer we saw the results of using ADHD and I had to make myself ask the question Did That Really Happen?

 After a summer of reading tutoring and adding an Omega 3-DHA supplement to his diet, I needed a way to document the changes and not just what I thought I could see happening I needed real numbers.

If you are wondering what the signs of Dyslexia are and why we had our son tested please remember that 1 in 5 kids are born with Dyslexia and there are a number of signs not just flipping numbers and letters.

Pittsburg State (Pittsburg, Kansas) has an amazing Center for Research, Evaluation, and Awareness of Dyslexia.  If you are not lucky to leave close to Pittsburg State University or you leave close to a Dyslexia testing facility, but have been told it would be 6 months before your child could be tested, know that Dyslexia testing can be done anywhere there is internet with a great online testing tool that only costs $25!!

I have a friend in California that did lots of research and decided to bring her son to Kansas for a week of testing and tutoring.  She shared her story about what she found.

I hope this puts everything in one place where you can find what you are looking for.  If you have further questions, please let me know and I will continue to update this post as I have 3 guests posts about dyslexia next week already scheduled.

-A Kansas Farm Mom

BBR-Celebrate Wheat

Celebrate Wheat is the fourth book in the Kansas Farm Bureau series of books about Kansas Agriculture after the books, Milk Comes From A Cow, The Soil Neighborhood, and Farmer and Ranchers Care for Their Animals.

Kailey is getting ready for her birthday pizza party.  She is super excited, but has a question for Grandma.  In her previous adventures, she has learned where hamburger and the other toppings come from, but wants to know about the crust. 

The book shows beautiful pictures of farmers planting wheat, when the wheat is green and growing (like ours is now) and when it is ready to harvest.

I love the picture of the combines going through the field to harvest the wheat and unloading the kernels into the waiting trucks.

Kailey learns that the wheat is ground into flour that we use to make bread, pasta, cereal and even pizza.  She also shares all her new found wheat knowledge with all of her guests to her birthday party.

The Flat Aggie report from Kim’s County Line has some very similar pictures from the book that you might enjoy.

-A Kansas Farm Mom

BBR-Days on the Farm

I work hard to find books that show an accurate picture of farm life, so when we get a great one as a gift it means that much more.  This week's Book Barn Reviews is Days on the Farm by Kim Lewis.  It is my favorite book ever given to my boys by my aunt Carolyn.

Kim Lewis lives on a farm and does an amazing job of telling the stories about the dogs that work on the farm. 

She shows relationships between farm kids and the working dogs and how most farm kids at certain points in their life can't wait to grow up to be like dad.

 

Maybe I am partial to this book because we were training 2 Border Collie pups when she gave it to my boys.  I really could see them in all of these stories.

This book is a chapter book with several stories and a higher reading level than most I have shared with you so far.  What are your favorite farm story books?  What was your favorite as a child growing up?

-A Kansas Farm Mom

Check out the rest of my 30 days of Blogging and the other farm bloggers joining me.

Flat Aggie Letter to Request a Farm Guide

I have been working with a group of teachers to bring how food is raised into their classrooms through what I call the Flat Aggie Project.  Below is a part of the how we do the project.  Be sure to click on the Flat Aggie Page to see all the details.  Here is an example of the letter I sent to my friends requesting help with the project.

Friends,

I am working with teachers at schools to bring agriculture across America into their classroom.  I would love to get a current report from your farm or ranch and find out what is taking place in a certain month.

If you are willing to do the following, please respond to this e-mail so I know I can count on you!  If you want, you can request a month when you are doing something interesting, let me know.  I hope to fill the every month of school with a farmer report.

Here is what you would have to do:

·        

Please print the Flat Aggie PDF.  Be sure you do full size and in color. (It should take up the majority of a 8.5 by 11 piece of paper.).

·         Trim it like you would a paperdoll.

·         Take a digital photo (or several if you have a few minutes) of Aggie seeing something in your area — the objective is for the classes to learn about different areas of agriculture so get creative! It could be something that sets your area apart, Aggie could help feed livestock, shovel snow, go to the corn palace, go to your local school, work in the greenhouses, etc.

·         Write the class an email (send it to me) telling them about some of the adventures you & Aggie had during your visit. Some of the things its good to include are: climate, geography, tourist type info, and generally any other info that would interest first through fourth graders if they were able to visit you. One thing to note, I am working with Mrs. Piatt’s class so feel free to mention that.

·         Send the email (letter and photos) by the 15^th of the month you volunteer for. We will package the letters, photos, etc up for Flat Aggie to take back and share with the class.

·         If you have a good ag in the classroom site that you would like to share, be sure to include it with your report.

Thanks so much with this project!  I will also be posting all the reports on my blog after the classes view them.  If you need ideas you can go to The House That Ag Built, she has been doing this project for several years and has all the posts about her class and Flat Aggie archived.

If you have a blog of your own, I welcome you to post the report on your blog and then simply email me the link.  I will also link back to it in several different ways.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me and I will make this as painless as possible for you!

Thanks again,

Nicole

Starting a Flat Aggie Program

I have been working with a group of teachers to bring how food is raised into their classrooms through what I call the Flat Aggie Project.  Below is a part of the how we do the project.  Be sure to click on the Flat Aggie Page to see all the details.

Here is a little about how I do my program.

Starting a Flat Aggie Program

Introducing the Flat Aggie Concept

Start by letting the teacher know that you are going to do most of the work.  Let them know that it will teach them:

         Geography, Envelope addressing, Many many standards are touched upon

Find out how often they would like to get a report from a farmer.

·         I have done once a week for the last 7 weeks of school.

·         I am trying once a month for the entire school year.

I like for the class to color their own Flat Aggie.  More on that in the teacher section.

Finding Farmer Hosts for Flat Aggie

I asked my friends to help out with the reports.  I have friends all over the US from school and with being involved with the American Soybean Association.  Here is where I would start to ask for help:

• Commonground

• American AgriWomen

• AgChat Foundation

• Farm Bureau

I worked to get a wide range of farmers.

·         Cattle

·         Swine

·         Poultry

·         Corn/Soybeans

·         Technology Applications

·         Fruits and Vegetables

·         Dairy

I really hope to get some southern farmers involved to include cotton or rice.  It would also be neat if I could get a Kansas wheat farmer in the fall when they are planting and then have a quick report as school is getting out and the wheat is getting closer to harvest.

Finishing the Reports

The first year the teacher wanted the reports on Friday. 

·         I set up the schedule for the entire time period, so the farmers could think about and prepare for FA.  I think I would do this again where corn farmers could have harvest pictures if they are going to report in the spring.

·         I remind the farmers the month before their post is due as well as the week before.  We all get busy with farmer and a quick email reminded them that a classroom of kids was eagerly expecting a report.

·         I told the farmers I needed their reports on Tuesday.  This gave me time to edit and get the pictures inserted in the correct places.  A couple of reports I had to wait on until Thursday night.

·         Most of them were really good about being on time or before the deadline, but others had issues on their farm that took time they weren’t expecting.  (We all know how that is.)

The Teachers receiving of the report and presentation

The public school that I worked with has all blogs blocked on the school server. 

1.       I posted the farmer reports on my blog. 

2.       I then copied the entire report including pictures and pasted it into an email.  I used a Word document once, but we had Apple to PC issues.  It seemed to work best to put the report in the body of the email.

3.       The teacher printed the report.

4.       Placed it into an envelope and addressed it to the class from Flat Aggie.

If the school doesn’t have blogs blocked, it would be easier to not have to email the post. 

If your farmer’s or you want to send a snack to school for the kids to enjoy on the day of the report, be careful about the school food policies.  Some don’t allow peanuts in the building and other don’t allow homemade food.  Just a little FYI.

-A Kansas Farm Mom