Website Woes!

Oh dear… Sometimes the best laid plans of mice and men actually do unravel and come astray. We were under the impression that our Order form for the newly launched literacy package, and our contact form were in working order – but nope, sorry, not to be. Thank you to the couple of people who contacted us about it, and we ‘think’ it is now OK.

On another note, we are very sad at 5energies to be leaving our favourite web guru Leah, at workingsolo.com… Fortunately for Leah she is going to be enjoying a lot more of life over the next few weeks, months and years, and is looking forward to many wonderful ambulatory strolls through her neighbhourhood and elsewhere, but we are so going to miss having her quiet support in the background of our web presence. Leah, thank you for your wonderful ability to translate our murky ideas into reality, and for helping us immensely as a growing business.

On that note, the website will be migrating to a new hosting service over the next week, so if for any reason, you experience difficulties, please return in an hour or so.

Being the best advocate you can be…

Through the week, a young couple came in wtih their son Peter, aged 6. Peter has not long been at school, but already is showing some classic signs of wanting to be anywhere else, rather than at the start of an exciting academic journey!! He fidgeted from the start, eye contact was limited, his speech was delayed and he used limited vocabulary. The teachers at his school suggested that his parents seek some guiddance as to what was happening with young Peter. As Peter is their first child, Leslie and Simon (his parents) were feeling very powerless to assist Peter.

Long story short, the screening showed up some significant developmental delays, and a solid programme with the Occupational Therapist is required to assist Peter. However, the main concern to me was how powerless Leslie and Simon felt.  So, some advice to parents of school-aged children:

• Remember that you are your child’s best advocate. You have known this little soul the longest, and you know his or her quirks, behaviours and uniqueness. You are the best advocate your child can have – but be reasonable, objective and calm when in meetings about your child.
• Remember the teachers, schools, general practitioners, speech pathologists, occupational therapists, social workers, psychologists and everyone else you may encounter while looking for some answers, are there to help. They depend on you, however, to offer extensive descriptions, to articulate the problems well, and to explain what you are doing at home to help.
• Trust your gut instinct! if you think your child is in trouble, seek help, even if you have to seek second, third and fourth opinions. While well-meaning souls might tell you that your child will ‘grow out of ‘ immature behaviours, or maturationally, next year things might improve, trust your instincts. Do you WANT to wait a year to see what might happen? Yes, things might improve – but they might also get a whole lot worse too.
• Have fun with your child. They are with us for such a short time, and parenthood is not for the  faint of heart. Our children offer us such a unique opportunity to love another little person unequivocably so enjoy the experience, as it won’t come again.

Contact us at 5energies if we can help you in any way.

Excited Parents

You will have to forgive us going on and on about the recent Consult and Collaborate Conference. There was just so much there for parents as well as teachers, and it was good that Speech Pathologists and Guidance officers were also there. We had one very excited parent come rushing up, as she and her son had been wandering down below and saw the conference – and she wanted to see what was there. Very excitedly she had wandered around to all the exhibitors, collecting valuable information for her son and family.

I guess the moral of the story is that if your child has learning delays, keep an eye on conferences for teachers as very often there is valuable information for parents as well. Many of the key speakers have private practices, so there would have been much valuable information for parents as well.

The Launch of In the Garden!

What a fantastic conference we attended on the weekend! The Consult and Collaborate Joint Conference is now over for another year, but what a time we had! As satchel sponsors, we were overwhelmed with the support that we got from conference participants. Mind you, perhaps the free highlighters and traffic lights were also enjoyed by conference participants too!

The launch of the In the Garden Literacy Package was attended by some 75 conference participants, and there was overwhelming support for our new, innovative and Australian Literacy Package.  Thank you to the MANY teachers who visited our stand, and who were generous in their praise for the package itself, but also for what 5energies is trying to do. The conference itself could not have run more smoothly – many of the presentations were very thought-provoking, the discussions and conversations were interesting, and the food was exemplary!

Over the next couple of days, I will be posting some more photos of the conference so you can see how wonderful the conference was. The information about the Conference special, for purchase of the In the Garden series, is now posted in the Resources section of the website as well. Please contact us if you want more information on this wonderful literacy package!

Consult and Collaborate Joint Conference 2009

What an exciting time we are having!  We are in preparation for the Consult and Collaborate Joint Conference 2009 at the Brisbane Conference Centre on the 18th and 19th September and we are almost leaping and squealing with excitement! It is our honour to be satchel sponsors – but what we are exceptionally excited about is the launch of our In the Garden Literacy Package!

Filled with innovative and exciting resources for teachers, this package is not just the culmination of hard work, but an absolute celebration of the value of dedicated and committed professionals collaborating to create a resource of best practice across so many domains. We will be thanking the wonderful people who have collaborated with us – from Sarah Amies (Author and illustrator), Anne-Maree Garcia (Multi-media guru), Patrick Mitchell (narrator and story-teller),  Tina Kriedemann (The Purple Jam Studio / Brisbane), Angie Sublime (Sublime Music Studio/ Brisbane) and Iris Wesling (St. Eugene Catholic College, Burpengary),  these people have given blood, sweat and tears to make this launch on Friday a spectacular success.

The Literacy Package consists of 7 in the Garden student texts, a Big Book, some visual processing Mystery Sheets, a CD of music suitable for assembly items (and tapping into another sensory learning pathway), a DVD of supported reading modes, and a teacher resource book, jam-packed with black-line masters, strategies and activities suitable for develping higher-order thinking. What can I say? We are justifiably proud of it, and hope many of you are able to join us at the launch.

Hopefully we will also see many of you at the conference – we are just so excited about being there and renewing friendships with those who attended the last conference – and meeting new conference participants.

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