A few weeks ago, I was making dinner in the kitchen when my daughter came and asked me for a small bowl. Figuring she couldn’t do much damage with a little one, I gave it over to her. She quickly ran to the bathroom, ran the water briefly, then came out- no bowl in sight. I wondered what she was up to. Then she ran out in the backyard, went into a flower bed, then went back to the bathroom. After a few more trips to the backyard, I was pretty curious so I followed her into the bathroom. On the counter was a small bowl of water filled with honeysuckle, phlox and geranium petals. When I asked what she was doing, she proudly stated “I’m making perfume!”  Read the rest of this post...

We live just a few blocks away from my daughter’s elementary school, so (despite her sometimes very loud objections) we walk to class every day. I feel fortunate that we can do that, and realize not every one can. But nearly every day, I witness things that make me cringe: drivers speeding through the neighborhood, talking on cell phones, ignoring pedestrians. And what really gets me is, most of these careless drivers are parents with children in the back seat.

Guest Post by Cat Lichtenbelt

When dealing with a child’s behavior that is less than ideal in the Kindergarten world, there are a few ways to respond. I choked down the denial, and went head first into appointments, web searches, talking with parents, meetings with the Principal. I don’t regret a moment of it. Your best friends are those who guide you without lecturing you. I have one of those and I will always be thankful for her and what she gave me, a name and phone number!

Our son was the child who was unable to sit still at circle time.  He was the one who got so focused on a project he would melt down when torn away from it. His social skills were way behind his peers at times and other times he was adored by his classmates. The opinions of the educators did not match our opinions of him. He was always fixated on details of mechanical workings, recited information as if he was reading a script, yet I said his name more times each day then I had hairs on my head!  I say he thinks like an Engineer, with all the quirks and personality! He destroyed school property and built the Lincoln Memorial out of blocks from memory all in the same day. I cried out of confusion.  Read the rest of this post...

Today, our good friend Cat Lichtenbelt shared her very personal story with us about her struggles and triumphs with Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD). Cat mentioned how many doctors she had to go through before she finally discovered an occupational therapist who was able to properly diagnose her son’s disorder as SPD. So, to hopefully help others out there who may be wondering if their child has SPD, here’s a quick summary of what SPD is. Technically, SPD can be described as a neurological disorder causing difficulties with processing information from the five senses (vision, hearing, touch, smell, and taste), the sense of movement (the vestibular system) and/or the positional sense (proprioception).  Read the rest of this post...