Keystone - Home Education Foundation

disciples of all nations, going as ambassadors of Christ,preaching a message of reconciliation and personallyministering reconciliation in all that they do. That is tosay, they will be turning the world upside down! Nowthat’s the kind of task, long-term and with objects inview such as seeing the king of Saudi Arabia sosoundly converted he influences much of the Muslimworld to do the same.....that is the kind of thing we mencan really sink our teeth into. Right dads? Let’s get toand do it!Homeschooling &Preschoolers:Do They Mix?by Sharon DrinnanThe book basically deals withHomeschooling when you havepreschoolers. It is split into 3 sections. Thefirst deals with organising your home(getting the housework done), organisingwhen a baby is arriving, involving yourpreschoolers in your schoool, going withlifes ups and downs, etc. The second dealswith ways to avoid burnout and stressthrough belonging to a support group,setting realistic limitations, recognisingyour own needs, etc. The third is a list bysubject of ideas you can do with yourpreschoolers that are inexpensive and usematerials found mostly at home. It hassome of my own amusing stories in there aswell! By Gods grace, it has been favourablyreceived so far, with some non-homeschoolmums buying copies too! The ideas workwell with preschoolers whether youhomeschool or not.Its cost is $10 +$4 for P&POrder from: Sharon Drinnan, 171 Ara-kotinga Road,Brookby, RD 1, Manurewa, Auckland and include acheque for $14. If you would like to speak with us firstbefore purchasing the book (manual really) you canemail us at drinnan.family@actrix.co.nz or ring on (09)530-8119.LearningDisabilitiesThe Winning Of Little Lynny (Part 2)By Tom and Sherry BushnellLynny had been with us for 2 years total now. Ourfamily stopped taking Lynny’s anti-social behaviorpersonally. She had no spontaneous expressive verballanguage, only echolalia. Nor did we feel sheunderstood what we said. She would fixate on soundsor “words” for days, “cursing” under her breath innonsense phrases over and over. We learned to steelourselves to do what was good for Lynny despite herprotests and incomprehension.We started using Biblical child training even if we feltit wasn’t working that day. We kept at it. We lovingly,consistently spanked her for obnoxious behavior andfor pouting, crying or screaming to get her way. Wegave her a very simple verbal response that she was touse instead of screaming. At times we would wrapLynny up tightly in a blanket like a sausage. Sheseemed to like this and would stop screaming and startlooking around.We taught Lynny to “come”. This active choice to obeywas a big step for our independent, “I don’t needanybody,” little girl. She could not walk, but hadlearned to scoot on her bottom, pulling her useless legsalong with her good right arm. It took several days tolearn to “come”. She resented having to move when wewanted her to. Even if our family tried to make it funshe became angry and pouted. We spanked her just likewe would any of our other children with a wrongattitude. She did not respond to our loving verbalpraise, gentle pats or hugs. Instead she would startpouting all over again. We learned to use food orsimple toys for reward.Tom was home full time by now, running NATHHAN.This enabled us to truly operate in “team parenting”. Itwas the secret for our family. We were able to be veryconsistent, giving Lynny the amount of daily trainingshe needed along with the rest of our crew of 8children, ages 12 to new-born Sheraya.Lynny was 4 1/2. Life settled into a flexible routinewith less emotional stress. Our whole family was on ourfirst NATHHAN trip down the west coast. Visiting afamily for a couple days, we decided to try Lynny intheir swing. She really seemed to enjoy it, actuallysmiling for real. Each time I lifted her up letting her go,I would say, “Go!” I stopped her momentarily to talk toour friend, suspending Lynny in mid air. Out of thissilent girl’s mouth came the word, “Go!” I let her goand stood there shocked. We played this game foranother 15 minutes, with Lynny saying “Go,” justbefore I let her go.Her speech snowballed quickly. Within 1 year she wasKeystone Vol. VII No. 4 Page 10 July 2001