In So Many Words

Many of you know that I am a big fan of the parenting site Root & Sprout, and the related social network Grow Together. Over the last few months, Root & Sprout has experienced much growth and many changes, including hiring a core team of writers while still providing opportunities for both paid articles and voluntary submissions to the ezine.

Starting this month, articles will be published one or two per day instead of all on the first of the month. They will continue to range in category, covering ages from pregnancy to the teenage years and including other topics relevant to parenting. There will be giveaways each week, too, so subscribe to the feed today to stay informed!

Now that the site is using a blog platform (where you can also comment on the articles – hint, hint!), each post has its own permalink, which is great for referencing previous articles and sharing them with others. My newest article has just published today, and I have written two previous articles:

• Potty Training Your Special Needs Child – May 2009
• Using Play Dough as a Therapy Tool – February 2009
• How Did You Know? Early Signs of Autism – August 2008

I am hopeful that sharing our potty training experience will give some hope to other moms who aren’t sure it will ever happen, whether your child has special needs or is just not responding the way you think they should be. I’d love to hear what you think!

Gluten Free Twitter Party

This party has been created and organized by Bonnie at Autism Family Adventures in honor of her birthday, so be sure to thank her and wish her a happy birthday!

31 Days to Build a Better Blog

Root & Sprout

April is Autism Awareness Month

P.S. There’s only two more days to enter my book giveaway!

So the winner of my very first giveaway, in honor of Root & Sprout, is:

(drumroll, please)

Rhemashope

Here is what she had to say after visiting Root & Sprout:

Hi, I came over from 5MFSN. I have heard good things about the BOUNCE DVD’s.

The article that caught my eye was “A Case For Dress-Up Play.” I have an NT 2-year old who loves to dress up and pretend. She just got some new costumes for Christmas. It’s a new experience for me b/c her older sister with ASD seems to have no interest in this. I am hopeful that my 2 year old will be a great model of pretend play for her big sister.

Thanks a lot for the giveaway opportunity!

And thank you to everyone who entered. It was great to hear everyone’s thoughts on the articles they read. Remember to look for new content at Root & Sprout each month!

I was looking at our recent pictures and realized we haven’t downloaded the ones from Thanksgiving yet, but here’s one from before the holiday—and before his last haircut!

So another week is almost over. Michael and I were productive this morning – we played several games with the TSS to practice winning and losing, and we moved stuff out to the back porch to make room for the Christmas tree.

Being that it’s Friday, I wanted to share a few fun links (including a couple more great giveaways):

At 5 Minutes for Mom, you can enter to win a $500.00 Gift Card to Home Depot (open through December 12th) and a $100.00 Visa Gift Card plus Scott products (open through December 19th).

The December edition of Root & Sprout is out and the Special Content page this month is featuring special holiday traditions. My favorite article so far is Dreaming of a PEACEful Holiday in the Buds section. There are also some great giveaways, as there are every month, and you have until December 8th to enter for them.

I am also over at 5 Minutes for Special Needs today sharing about a fun holiday tradition we have started at our house. Please stop by and leave a comment with your favorite family tradition for the holiday season.

Usually I mention at some point each month that the new issue of Root & Sprout is up, but I don’t know if I’ve told you that there is also a community that has built up around this site and its philosophy. First of all, what is Root & Sprout?

Root & Sprout is an online site with new articles published each month, all geared towards “practical information, stories and advice about being a parent and raising a family” and based on the concept of “gentle, hands-on parenting.” Although there is a team of writers being developed, submissions are also accepted from anyone who wishes to contribute.

The articles are categorized by stages, such as Shoots for preschool age and Buds for elementary school age. And I love the special needs category name, Wildflowers. There are also sections devoted to learning and crafts, healthy living and product reviews.

Grow Together is the place to meet other parents who are dedicated to “giving kids the roots to help them sprout.” Once there, you can share your thoughts in the forum, join groups that fit your specific interests and even post to the community blog. Visit my page to check it out. See you there!

Looking for some fun stuff to enjoy as the weekend approaches??

Here’s a few links to check out:

Something Fun for the Kiddoes post at Created and Called. I never knew you could do all that with a yo-yo!

The October edition of Root & Sprout is up; my favorite article so far is “Techno Kids” on the Grow Through Laughter page, only because it is so true!

For those of you following politics, check out Clear Winner of Vice Presidential Debate? at Politics for Moms.

And today at 5 Minutes for Special Needs, I am talking about Getting Back on the (GFCF) Wagon.

What your favorite link from this week?

This is a bit of a catch-up post, since I keep thinking of all the things I have been meaning to share but haven’t gotten to yet.  ‘Tis a bit long as well; my apologies – it was either this or four shorter posts and that would overwhelm even me!

First, the Wordle

The image at the top of this post is called a Wordle – have you seen these yet? They are very fun to play around with; you just enter some text or a URL with a feed and it creates a word cloud. Then you can play around with the font, colors and the layout until you get it how you like it. Yes, I know there’s no real reason for me to make one, but they are fun!

The Timer Revisited

I posted earlier at 5 Minutes for Special Needs about using a timer, and I wanted to also share a way that the staff at Michael’s summer program are using it with him.

When he is called to an activity such as art time and refuses to come, the staff, instead of arguing or giving a timeout, will simply tell him they are starting the timer. The timer is started and not stopped until he joins the activity. Then when free play starts, the staff member tells my son, “Oh, you owe me [x number] minutes of art time before you can start playing.”

The best part is that it’s working.   Now when they say they will start the timer if he doesn’t come, he will often say, “No, not the timer!” and come right away.

Root and Sprout

Root and Sprout is a website dedicated to supporting moms and dads in providing “gentle, hands-on parenting” to their children.  New articles are published monthly, and the August Edition is now up.  Yours truly actually wrote one of the articles this month and am honored to have it accepted and published in the Wildflowers section.  If you scroll down, it is the second article. (Wait, what I meant to say was read the first article and then you will get to mine!)
Updated to add: Root & Sprout is now using a blogging platform so that each article has a permalink and you no longer have to scroll through each section.

Feel free to explore the other sections and consider submitting an article yourself.  It is a fairly painless procedure and the editor doesn’t bite (well, not that I am aware of, anyway!)

And Finally

Phew!  I am so happy to have all of that off my brain!  I need to clear the space because tomorrow will be my first day at the Penn State National Autism Conference. I wasn’t able to attend today’s opening sessions, but am all registered and ready to go in the morning.

Tomorrow I am scheduled for Asperger Syndrome: Strategies for Young Children in the morning.  This session deals primarily with self-regulation and social/emotional competence; I am figuring that Michael is high-functioning enough that a lot of this should apply to him, and if not I am sure I could use some help in this area.  My afternoon session is Strategies for Successful Inclusion of Learners with ASDs.  It is directed at teachers, but hopefully there will be some things I can offer to the team as we move forward.

To anyone who made it all the way to the bottom of this post, I really appreciate you!!