In the spirit of helping other parents to help their own kids, one parent sent me this email recently, explaining how she managed to get funding for a Brachiation Ladder for her daughter, who has Down syndrome. Thank you for sharing Helen x

HELEN WROTE:

It may be quite different here in NSW (compared to other parts of Australia), I don’t know, but here’s what I have discovered.

First there is the new $12,000 Better Start money that just came in for our kids from 1 July this year. You need to register for that and then you will get a client no. and can use the $$ at certain registered providers like physios etc. but they must be registered with the scheme – think most will become registered once they know about it but make sure you tell any providers you use to register.

It is my understanding that you can use $2100 per year x 2 years of that money for equipment or resources rather than services so that may be one way to get the brachiation ladder funded – you may need a provider recommendation first – I am not sure how they administer that – but I am sure most physios would see the benefit and write a letter for one.

Another way I can access money for things is through our respite provider – we have Northcott Disability Services right now and previously Sunnyfield – I am not sure if you have these same organisations in Vic as I do here – but you do probably have some kind of respite provider system – ours is coordinated by RIAP – respite intake allocation process and you make a request around Feb for services from July 1st later that year – not all requests for respite get filled but I think smaller kids have more priority – I have been approved later in the allocations and often people drop out along the way and then you may get a repsite package. Click here to read more.. »

Not having a lot of time to watch the news or read a newspaper, I read headlines and the first few lines of online articles more than anything these days and from what I’ve been reading recently, the USA is far from being the land of the free in 2011. In the last few months we’ve seen people arrested for growing food in their gardens, kids being charged for setting up a lemonade stand and companies being raided for stocking raw milk. What is our world coming to…?

On the weekend, a friend in the USA sent me this article – parents rights seem to have gone out the window too. If there was ever a time to homeschool, now seems to be it.

Today Governor Brown signed into law AB499 which will allow 12 year old children to be vaccinated with out parental knowledge or consent. This currently applies to the Gardasil and Hepatitis B vaccines, but will expand to include ANY new STD vaccine that is brought to market in the future.

This means that as of tomorrow, boys and girls as young as 12 will be alone in their doctors office, or pulled into the nurses office at school, be offered a vaccine and told that if they don’t get it, they can get sick and die, the child will be given the shot and parents will never know.  This also means that parents no longer have access to their child’s full medical records, but are only able to request PARTS of their child’s heath records once they turn 12.

The package insert for the Gardasil vaccine is 30 pages long.  Take a look at it.  Gardasil Package Insert.  The state of California has decided that 6th graders are competent to read and properly digest this information, to fully understanding the risks and benefits of this vaccine, and to make an informed consent decision.  Absurd.

This is nothing more than a marketing ploy for Merck (who makes Gardasil) to get around parents who understand the risks of these specific vaccines, and the corrupt public officials in Merck’s pocket who are handing innocent children over to them for power and profit.  The California legislator that introduced this bill, Toni Atkins, took money from Merck and then lied about it when confronted on her motives for this bill.

And this morning on Fox, our friend and Canary Party member Rebecca Estepp, who is the communications director for the Elizabeth Birt Center for Autism Law and Advocacy, debated former California state assembly woman Sally Lieber, who previously introduced a bill making the Gardasil vaccine mandatory for 11 year olds.  Lieber had to remove her name from the leadership on the bill when it was discovered that her family was heavily invested in Merck.

You can read more about this here.

OK, I’m actually ridiculously excited about this – IAHP have just released some electronic teaching materials for parents to use with their children. Speaking as a parent who has to produce new reading vocabulary words and books for my son on a weekly / daily basis, this is VERY welcome news!
I’ve just purchased the first of these for us to use – for just $12 USD, I bought a booklet about Outer Space. It’s truly a fabulous time-saving resource. 36 Pages of incredible, well laid out and thorough information which can be used to make BIT Cards, books or to create word lists, as discussed in the Doman books (click here if you’re confused!). I can’t wait to use it!
You can read about this new range and a special offer which lasts until the end of this month, at the IAHP website – click here. You will see from that link that the blank cards are sold for use with these electronic products. We sell these blank cards too – click here for the cards range (much cheaper for Australian delivery through us…).

~ kristen.

All items in the range of products on this site have just been added to the Naturally Better Foods website. We’ve done this to save you shipping costs, Australia-wide.

Because Naturally Better Kids products are warehoused together with our Foodstore products, and because our shipping rates for the Foodstore are very reasonable, you can save money if you order these products together.

Many of the products on this site are books and paper products and are therefore big, heavy items, which of course are expensive to post. So it makes sense to offer this option PLUS if you’re a Foodstore member, you can get NBK products at 10% off!

So if you visit the Foodstore at www.NaturallyBetterFoods.com you will find a selection of items in the category ‘NBK Products’ which refer back to this site for product details.

Make sense?!!

~ kristen.

In this video, uploaded over the weekend, Jamie discusses Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in time for the UN Summit 2011, which is about to happen in New York. Jamie says “NCD’s are things that affect your environment, you’ve got smoking, drinking, and of course the biggest one, diet related disease – obesity.”

Jamie says there are 2 things that can make a difference – education and legislation.

Jamie is asking for people all across the world to join the Food Revolution and help get countries and global leaders to work together and improve education & legislation in order to reduce the number of deaths from NCDs and obesity related diseases. www.jamiesfoodrevolution.com He’s pleading for help in spreading the word about his food revolution. “It’s not a joke, it’s not just a TV Show”

DID YOU KNOW that America spends $10 million dollars an hour on obesity??? I had no idea.

Please watch.

Yoga for the Special Child, developed by Sonia Sumar, is a method we used with great success in the first year of Gryffin’s life.Next month, the Yoga for the Special Child® team is returning to Australia with the basic training workshop to be held in Melbourne at Ceres Community Environment Park 9-15th October 2011. The 7-day workshop, limited to 20 participants, is practical, hands on and reflective with plenty of time for discussion.

PROGRAM DETAILS AS SUPPLIED:

Yoga for the Special Child®, LLC is a comprehensive program of Yoga techniques designed to enhance the natural development of children with special needs. This style of Yoga is gentle and therapeutic – safe for babies and children with Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, Microcephaly, Autism and other developmental disabilities. These methods also provide an effective treatment for children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder, ADHD and Learning Disabilities.
Therapeutic program includes:
· An integrated series of balanced Yoga poses to increase body awareness, strength and flexibility
· Specialised breathing exercises and relaxation techniques to improve concentration and reduce hyperactivity
· An early intervention program to assure the healthy formative development of infants and toddlers

For more information please refer to the Yoga for the Special Child website www.specialyoga.com. A course outline can be found by clicking on 2011 programs, providing an overview how each day runs. For enquiries and workshop registration please contact Kirdi Dalgliesh 0412 571 024 kirdi@bendyed.com.au. Jo Manuel will be teaching the Melbourne program. Jo founded the beautiful Special Yoga Centre in London www.specialyoga.org.uk

Cost:
Early bird – before the 21st of September 2011 $1200AUD
Late bird $1350AUD

The workshop is suitable for parents of a child with special needs, educators, therapists, yoga practitioners & teachers. No previous yoga experience is necessary.

Yesterday, a comment was posted on my facebook page as follows:

Did you know that 95% of our vitamins and minerals are chemically produced and synthetic, made from coal tar and petroleum? Only 1% of people taking them know this yet we are putting these toxic substances in our families!

I’ll be the first to agree that much of what is marketed to us as ‘supplements’ is pretty ordinary in terms of quality and potency. And who knows, maybe some of them are dangerous as this comment suggests. I personally spent much time and money on poor quality supplements before my research for Gryffin went into full steam (and I considered myself an informed consumer even then). I am now very cautious about what I will give to my family.

Click here to read more.. »

Dr Isaac Golden, PhD in childhood homeopathic immunisation, speaks with Dr Simon Floreani, Chiropractor, about homeopathy, complementary therapies and the potential for these methods to work hand in hand with mainstream medicine. This is already happening in some countries, Australia needs to get with the program!

Thank you Dr Simon for sending me this link :)

I’ve just received an email I must share with every parent I know.
The email comes from the Australian Vaccination Network, and it begins like this:

“I am hoping that everyone who reads this email will share with all of their friends and family. This is happening in Australia right now but it is planned for most Western nations down the track and if it is allowed to stand…well, that doesn’t really bear thinking about.

The Australian government has just instituted a requirement for all parents to bring their child into a GP for a health assessment. Compliance with this requirement will determine whether you do or you don’t get the family allowance. Letters are going out to parents this week – some have already been received…Please read this excellent blog for more information on this situation – Unfit Until Screening And Intervention Says Otherwise!”

The blog, by Dr Joe Kosterich, begins like this:

“It is not often that something makes my blood boil but this has. I received a letter from the Federal Government Click here to read more.. »

I have copied this article directly from the AVN website – www.avn.org.au

Please read, share and help spread the word that this is NOT OK.
~ Kristen.

URGENT ACTION ALERT – preliminary – please share widely

August 20th, 2011

I am hoping that everyone who reads this email will share with all of their friends and family. This is happening in Australia right now but it is planned for most Western nations down the track and if it is allowed to stand…well, that doesn’t really bear thinking about.

The Australian government has just instituted a requirement for all parents to bring their child into a GP for a health assessment. Compliance with this requirement will determine whether you do or you don’t get the family allowance. Letters are going out to parents this week – some have already been received.

Click here to read more.. »