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.

 

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 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!

School Kits for Foster Kids

We have been a licensed foster family for the past 8 years.  During that time, we have had the privilege of caring for 11 different foster children in our home.  Some have stayed for as long as 18 months, while others were only here for a few days.  It has been one of the most learning and growing experiences our family has had.  A parent's love is not limited to feelings toward biological children.  For us, that love was there for each little one, regardless of their length of stay in our home.  We loved them, helped them, taught them, then worked with them to be reunited with their families.  People ask me how I did it.  Sometimes I wonder that myself.  But it was an experience that taught me the love of family (whatever that looks like) transcends barriers, is wider than we can comprehend, and is all encompassing.

The common theme for each of these kids is that they just needed someone to care for them.  Regardless of the specific circumstances that brought them into foster care, their families are struggling, and helping those families rebuild takes work.  The state tries to help, encouraging the parents, looking for extended family to care for the kids, and offering resources for both the kids and the parents.  Many times, the state does fall short, but they are trying to make these situations safer for the kids.  Often state resources are insufficient to meet the needs of these children.  I've seen several instances where extended family members take in children - which is called Kinship Care.  These amazing families care for these kids because they want them to be able to stay with their own families.  The state funds for kids in Kinship Care are close to non-existent.   Imagine the strain on these families financially, to take in extra children and then not be given enough funds to truly take care of them.  Sometimes it is just one child.  Most times, there will be several children ranging in age from newborn - 18 years old. 

Why did I share all this with you?  The service project I am spearheading for Arizona American Mothers is to help some of these families here in Coconino County be able to send the kids in their care to school with clothes, backpacks, shoes and basic school supplies.  I would appreciate your help in making this happen. 

Over this next week, I am collecting extra school supplies, clothes (and yes we will accept gently used clothing!!!!), backpacks, gift cards to purchase clothing or supplies, and on-line donations to PayPal to the email ArizonaAMI@gmail.com.

If you have any questions, ideas, or just want to let me know you have donations I can pick up from you, please contact me at the Arizona American Mothers email - ArizonaAMI@gmail.com.  If you are not in Coconino County and still want to help with this specific project, the easiest way is through the Arizona American Mothers' PayPal account.  If you have items you would like to donate, send me an email and we can see if we can figure something out.  I will be down in the Phoenix area towards the end of the month and could pick items up then if you have something to contribute.

I know these families, the children, and all those who work with these families and kids will appreciate any kind of help they can get.

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!

2013 Honored Mother of Education, Alonna Randall

 Meet Alonna Randall, one of two of Arizona's Honored Mothers of Education for 2013.

 

Alonna is a retired Music teacher who taught music in Chandler & Gilbert for 27 years! She received the Gilbert Superintendent’s “Excellence in the Workplace” award. She retired in 2010 after 39 years!

Alonna and her husband blended families in 1984, and together raised 5 children and have 20 awesome grandchildren!  She is grateful to her husband, Mark, who made it possible for her to be a mother and teacher at the same time. She has always served as a choir director & teacher in church. Currently she and her husband are serving a Young Adult group at ASU and she is teaching piano to their grandchildren.  She is very grateful for her years as a teacher, church worker, mother and grandmother!

We asked Alonna some questions and here are her answers: 

 

How can music enrich a child's life?  I have seen that children begin responding to music at a very early age! Music is the universal language; it transcends language barriers and cultures. Responding to music is as natural as walking or talking. I feel that students who study music have a better chance to succeed in their lives! Here are ten reasons that studies have shown help children in their lives:

 

·       Music enhances the  development of language, reasoning & math skills

·       Music helps master memorization

·       Music teaches excellence

·       Music gives children a sense of achievement

·       Students who take music stay engaged and focused in school

·       Music produces a sense of success

·       Music students do better in school

·       Music builds imagination and curiosity

·       Music develops creative thinking

·       Music builds confidence.

 

What things did you do as a mother and/or music teacher to encourage your children with music? I have taught piano lessons to each of our children and several grandchildren and it is such a bonding thing. We sing together most Sunday nights after family dinner, and we love it. Looking back, the following are some of the ways I tried to encourage our children and now our grandchildren with music.

 

·       Singing out loud to and with them

·       Listening to music in the home and in the car

·       Having instruments around for the children to play and experiment with

·       Incorporating music in our daily routines: singing while we work

·       Teaching through music. Singing the days of the week, alphabet, counting, etc.

·       Taking the children to musical productions and concerts

·       Singing together at family gatherings & Christmas Caroling

 

What are your favorite music ideas to do with families or your favorite family songs?

 We have a family tradition of singing, Happy Birthday to You on each birthday, but then we add a song, “Skip Around the Room” after the candles are blown out, and the birthday child skips around the room while we sing. It is a lot of fun!

 

We also go Christmas Caroling on Christmas Eve wearing our Santa hats and colorful red & green clothing. We walk up the street caroling and delivering goodies to our neighbors. It is a tradition that we look forward to. We also act out the nativity with songs incorporated in the script.

 

Two of our favorite family songs to sing were written by my husband’s grandmother, Bertha Kleinman. Those songs are: I Have Two Little Hands and Mary’s Lullaby! We enjoy singing hymns and fun songs as well.  Congratulations, Alonna!