Interview with our 2014 Mother of the Year

 Here's a interview with Lila Shoemaker, our 2014 Mother of the Year:

1) What did you do with your children when they were younger that you think has impacted their lives today?
Church, scouting and music. We lived in Fullerton, CA when we got married and our first three sons were born there. I’d read to them, Dr. Seuss to learn their ABCs and Bible Stories to learn about God. Daniel had earned his Eagle Scout rank as a young man and became Scoutmaster. For a few years and we had the troop meet at our house each week. My job was to see to get a fire permit so the boys could practice fire building and campfire cooking. Our sons loved scouting. All four of them earned their Eagle rank.

I taught all six of my children how to sing. When the 3 boys were little, I’d make up songs to sing to them so they would get ready for bed or do things I needed them to do. I taught them to sing “I Want A Girl Just Like the Girl That Married Dear Old Dad”. My husband was a pretty good musician, too. The four of them sang on stage at a church variety show all dressed up like a barbershop quartet. All of us play a musical instrument as well as sing. Music was probably the best thing I ever taught them. We love camping, riding horses, swimming and playing games; all kinds of games, but we love music the most.

2) Share some experiences you’ve had with your family and/or others because of your involvement with music.
 I grew up singing with my twin sister and in the church and school choirs so it was natural for me to encourage my children to sing. I performed in the school musicals. My oldest son auditioned and won the role of King Arthur in “Camelot” his Sr. year of High School. He, the next two boys, played band instruments and marched in the school band like their father before them. Our daughters performed in their high school musicals. They loved to sing and performed for school talent shows and sang in the choirs. We paid for private lessons. We made a very nice mixed ensemble, all 8 of us. I’ve directed a church choir for many years and for the past 9 years I’ve been teaching violin and guitar classes after school at Burke Basic. It’s wonderful to see the joy on their faces when they learn how to play. Music makes life worth living.

3) What advice would you give young mothers?
Have fun! From the first moments try to make them smile. Play finger/toes games with them. Read nursery rhymes sing silly songs. The sillier the better. Dr. James Dobson said that the “dizzy blonde” moms were even better than the “draft sergeant” moms.

Routine is a good thing. Have a morning routine, afternoon routine and bedtime routine. Make it fun. Learning can be fun. If they enjoy learning (and a variety of games can teach just about anything) they will be good students all their lives. Ask me about my list of homemade games that teach things. The Weekly Reader was something my mother used with her kindergarten kids. That was a fun teaching tool. Numbers can be fun too, not just numerals but quantity. Counting things will help them learn to sequence, addition and subtraction. You’d be surprised how much fun counting can be. Colors, drawing, painting, clay molding, etc. etc. It’s fun.

4) When life gets difficult, what do you do to get things back into perspective?
I sit at the piano and play my favorite songs, hymns or classical pieces and sing. Or I go into my room and read a good book (the scriptures are always good). Mostly, I kneel by my bed or take a walk outside and pray for my family. Christ is my anchor and prayer is my solace. I couldn’t have made it without prayer. Many ideas and solutions have come through prayer.

Interview with Aubrey Kleinschmidt - 2014 Honored Mother with Special Needs

Aubrey Kleinschmidt is a wife and mother of four children under the age of 6; Tyler 6 years old, Emma 5, Jacob 2 and Gracie 8 months old.   She is blind.

Aubrey lost the sight in her left eye when she was only 4 days old.   She considered her vision in her right eye to be normal and did not consider herself to be visually impaired. Her sight limitations weren’t really noted until she was working at a dry cleaners. She had trouble matching customer tickets with their dry cleaning items because she kept reversing numbers. The owner of the cleaners suggested she might be dyslexic. She was tested as a senior in high school and found to be visually impaired. She qualified for an Individual Education Plan and went to Berkley, California (an assisted living program) for vocational rehab where she had an opportunity to learn Braille and life skills related to functioning as a blind person. It was assumed that she would lose sight in her right eye.  Aubrey says that she did not take the program very seriously. She met Michael, her future husband, while living in Berkley. 

Aubrey and Michael married and began their family.   Aubrey's pregnancies, however, were stressful for the fragile retina of her right eye. Her vision began to wane after Emma was born. Despite repeated attempts to salvage the sight in her right eye – Aubrey was told, almost three years ago, that she was considered "stone blind" (totally blind).  Shortly after this news, she discovered that she was pregnant with Jacob.

Aubrey attended classes for the blind for over a year. She was taught life skills/mobility skills and Braille, etc. She has special equipment that helps her to read printed text and a very smart phone.

Since Aubrey knew that she would never visually see Jacob’s face she made a special effort to find a doctor that would let her assist with her own delivery. She had the amazing opportunity to help bring Jacob into this world. He has a very special spirit and was a very calm and easy baby to care for.

Despite the loss of her sight, Aubrey and Michael felt there was still a baby waiting to come to their family.  In 2013 she had another special opportunity to help bring Gracie into this world. Gracie has also been an amazingly calm and easy baby to care for.

  Aubrey was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on January 4, 1983.   She was delivered at 28 weeks and weighed 2 lbs, 2 ounces.  The doctor didn’t think she would make it through the night and her mom was told not to even bother to name her! Retinopathy of prematurity (ROM) was the  cause of damage to her eyes.

 

      ************************************************************************************

 Aubrey cooks, cleans, helps with homework and stays on top of the myriad of details sighted moms have to contend with. She is an amazing mom. She doesn’t see with her eyes. She sees with her heart.

Despite the devastating news of losing her sight, Aubrey was not one to wallow in self-pity.  She says her vision loss has improved her marriage and strengthened her testimony of God. She says it has made her a better mother.  When Tyler or Emma say, “Look what I’ve made," Aubrey can’t just glance over and then get back to whatever she was doing.  She stops and goes over to the child and feels with her hands what they have made. When she interacts with her children she is down on the floor playing with them in ways other mothers might skip.

Aubrey is especially grateful for the tremendous support Michael has been for her since she lost her sight. He has been her rock and comfort in difficult times. His flexible work hours have allowed him to drop everything and attend to her needs when necessary. 

Aubrey has a few tricks she and Michael have developed to keep on top of things at home:

- safety pins in all the girls clothing to tell them from the boys.

- puff paint Braille dots on the stove, microwave and washer where the instruction words are.

- always keeps spatula handle aligned with skillet handle so she knows where it's at.

- Tyler's school teacher puts a staple in the top right hand corner of school papers that need parental attention.

- if the TV is on, Aubrey can judge when she is walking in a straight line away from the sound or moving diagonally away from the TV

-Children's shoes are velcroed together and kept on a shelf.

- Aubrey has the chocolate chip cookie recipe memorized!

-Aubrey holds the baby in front of her with her elbow touching the wall as she walks down the hall and the other hand is in front of baby's face (she's bumped the baby into things before)

-Aubrey is constantly feeling her preschooler and baby's faces for smiles, running noses,or  objects in mouth that shouldn't be.

-Aubrey crawls above her baby and explores the floor with her.

-if Aubrey needs to find her younger children she'll call their name and instruct, "say moma" so she can hear where they are.

- Aubrey feeds baby food to her baby by cutting the top off the nipple to make the hole bigger.

-Aubrey is reading Harry Potter to her children with a braille copy of the book. 

 Aubrey understandably has her down days.  Life is hard for a mother with sight, and especially hard without sight.  6 year old Tyler spells out the instructions for his homework, letter by letter so Aubrey can know what he is to do.  By the time he finishes, he and his mother are both mentally exhausted before they even get to the homework.

Aubrey has an amazing outlook and attitude about her life. She states that her problems in life are not due to her blindness.  She understands that her vision loss does not affect her ability to progress in life. She does not use her blindness as an excuse for not being the best person that she can be. 

Congratulations, Aubrey, on being honored as Az 2014 Mother with Special Needs!

2013 Mother of Education - Janet McCall

Janet McCall was also honored by Arizona's AMI to be an Honored Mother of Education 2013. 

I married my high school sweetheart, and we have been married for 41 years. We have four children, the oldest is a son, and then three daughters.

Education has always been important in my family. My son will soon receive his doctorate degree from USC. My oldest daughter is a registered nurse. The middle daughter is also a teacher, and is working on her Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership at BYU. My youngest daughter is working on a degree in Special Education.

I have 13 grandchildren and one on the way.

I am a fifth generation teacher. I graduated from the University of Montana and taught school in Missoula, Montana for eight years. During this time I earned a Masters’ Degree in Elementary Education.

We moved to the Dallas, Texas area in 1981, and I taught in inner-city Dallas for four years. While in Dallas, I received the Jack E. Lowe Award for Excellence in Teaching. In 1985, I transferred to the Irving Texas School District, where I taught for five years.

My family moved to Mesa, Arizona in 1990. I have taught school at Hermosa Vista for the past twenty three years. During this time, I have served on the Career Ladder Cadre and as a Career Ladder Coach to teachers throughout the district. I have also worked as a site-coordinator for the All Kids Are Gifted Summer School Program, an enrichment program for Title 1 students.

We asked Janet some questions and here are her answers.

 Your children have received advanced degrees.  What did you do when they were growing up to encourage education?

As my parents did for me, from an early age, I was told that it wasn't a matter of if I was going to attend college, but rather which college I would choose to attend. Both of my parents were college graduates as were their parents, my grandparents. Even most of my great grandparents were college graduates. 

Education has always been important in our home, and we always tried to instill a love of learning, as well as, the confidence to pursue a higher education. We also, tried to set good examples by continuing our education, even beyond advanced degrees.

Do you have any thoughts on reading aloud to children--advantages to the children, etc.  Did you read aloud to your children?

         What a better way to learn the fun and flow of our language than through reading aloud to children even before they can speak? I am convinced children who are read to from an early age, develop richer, fuller vocabularies as well as a wealth of general knowledge.

         I read aloud to my children even before they were born. I read and reread many of the children's classics to my children. We read everyday. As they grew older we often read the same books and discussed our favorite parts, Even today, we recommend books for each other to read.

How do you help children who are struggling in school or who don't appear interested?

       My father, who was a gifted teacher, taught me that children do not care what you know, until they know that you care. First and foremost, I realize that each child is a different individual with his/her own talents and needs. There is no one magic solution for every student.  When I encounter a child who struggles, I like to observe him/her for a time. I try to find out as much as I can about him/her... strengths and interests, what motivates him/herm, how he/she seem to learn best. During this time, I try to build a sense of trust eith the student, because often children who are struggling have experience lots of failures and their confidence is very low. Then, I begin with things which I know he/she will experience success, and build from there, using all the data I have gather through observations and assessments. I feel it is also important to involve the parents as a resource, and work with them. Together, parents and teachers make a stronger team to help the child succeed.

Thank you Janet!

Patricia Arnett Fine Arts Contest 2013

The Arizona Chapter is looking for mothers in Arizona to enter their essays, short stories or poetry to our literature division of the Patricia Arnett Fine Arts Contest for 2013.

A cash prize of $25 will be awarded to the winner in each category. 

Eligibility rule:  Applicant must be a mother and an Arizona resident.

Entrants may submit one entry in each category.

All entries should reflect the aspects of family life and motherhood.

Deadline is January 25, 2013.  Submit to:
Joan Sowards
American Mothers Inc. Literature Contest
1437 N. Coleman Circle
Mesa, AZ  85201

Entries must not bear the author's name.  Please submit a cover letter that includes your name, email, address, phone #, and category with each entry.

Categories are:
Essay  (under 1000 words)
Short Story  (under 2000 words)
Poetry  (under 50 lines)

September - Literacy Month

September is International Literacy month!  What a great reminder about the importance of reading.

With school in full swing, children are studying and learning and reading.  But don't forget about reading as a family.  You can give your children fond memories and the gift of knowledge and success just by reading aloud.

This site has a list of 100 best books for children listed by age groups.

Jim Trelease, the advocate for reading aloud to children, has a great website with lots of information for parents.

This site offers a list of all the Newberry Award Books from 1922 to present.

Here is a list of all the Caldecott Winners 1938 to present.

The International Children's Digital Library is a digital library of outstanding children's books from around the world.

 May your children be able to say....."richer than I you can never be --I had a Mother who read to me.