Category Archives: Articles

Ohio/Kentucky Testing Dates Available in April, May

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Dr. Paul Cates, Educational Doctor, and Dr. Kirk Cates are coming to the Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio area in April and May. Limited openings are available for Getting an Educational Assessment Profile.

Dr. Paul Cates is one of the original designers of the IEP. He and Dr. Kirk are working on Individual Cognitive Plans (ICPs) to be used in tutoring, home schooling or help in public or private schools.

They will help you identify learning strengths and weaknesses stemming from cognition and academic development. They will assess processing issues, assess interneurosensory and intraneursensory issues for you and your child and help set up therapy programs to address these needs.

Tests are administered and interpreted by two Ph.D.’s with more than forty years of teaching and educational experience. The two Doctors will be available to consult and evaluate children, pre-school age to adult with ADD, ADHD, Anxiety and Stress Disorders, Comorbid Issues involving CD, OCD, Autism and other special needs.

Please call 828-435-0670 or 865-685-0658 or 772-971-1967 or email to pcates@att.net.

FCA Student Westin W. in Robotics Competition

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Several years ago, professionals in science, technology, engineering and mathematics noticed that there was a decline of students interested, studying and graduating in these technical fields. So they formed and organized BEST (Boosting Engineering Science and Technology).

Each year, BEST issues a challenge in September to the participating teams of junior high and high school students to imagine, design, build, program, promote and sell a robot that will be able to perform that tasks in the challenge. Each team receives a set of building materials and robotic components issued by the organization. Rules and specific regulations must be followed in order to qualify the robot to participate on the contest day only 8 weeks in the future.

Teams that participate are public schools, private, church schools and homeschooled kids. Each team is responsible for what has been mentioned plus documenting the process and compiling a pro fessional engineering notebook also. On competition day, professionals in these fields judge, critique and give feedback on every aspect of the challenge including teamwork and good sportsmanship. It is intense yet fun abounds!

Westin’s team River Valley Homeschool Robotics, is a newly formed group; which by the grace of God came in 2nd in our hub competition. Not 1 robotic glitch- everything went so well. Praise a God! We then advanced to Regionals. With some of the biggest and most experienced teams as our competition, his team did really well and came in 9th.

The students all worked hard — learning how to use tools, cutting materials, assembling, programming etc. All was done by students, with parents and a couple of engineers guiding and teaching. This has been such a wonderful opportunity for the students to be exposed to these career fields, these nurturing mentors, other instructors, adults and students. What an opportunity to blossom!

Westin W. is a student of Faith Christian Academy, a ministry of Faith Christian Ministries. Please contact us at 828-435-0670.

Test Taking for Anxiety and Stress Disorder Children and Adults.

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1. Don’t be too anxious about test scores. If you put too much emphasis on test scores, this can upset your child.

2. Encourage your child. Praise her for the things she does well. If kids feel good about themselves, they will do their best. Children who are afraid of failing are more likely to become anxious when taking tests and more likely to make mistakes.

3. Don’t judge a child by a single test score. A single test is not a perfect measure of what a child can do. There are many factors that might influence a test score. For example, a child can be affected by the way he is feeling, the classroom setting, and the attitude of the teacher. Remember, also, that one test is simply one test.

4. Meet with your child’s teacher to discuss her progress. Ask the teacher to suggest activities for you and your child to do at home to help prepare for tests and improve your child’s understanding of schoolwork. Parents and teachers should work together to benefit students.

5. Make sure your child attends school regularly. Remember, tests do reflect children’s overall achievement. The more effort and energy a child puts into learning, the more likely she will do well on tests….

 

For our Full Article and how to develop better testing for your child, contact us today at 828-435-0670  or email us at  pcates@att.net

The Importance of Time With Our Children  

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FCM spending time with children

A young girl has passed away and is in Heaven.  She has asked to return to earth for one day – her 12th birthday.  Her wish is granted.  Imagine you are standing with her during her visit.

She stands in the middle of those she loves — her mother stands in one corner, her father in another corner, her brother in a third corner, and her teacher in the fourth corner.

She goes to her mother and is beaming. She asks her mother to spend time with her.  Her mother replies, “Can’t you see I am busy? I am busy with the preparations for your birthday party. Please leave me alone or there won’t be any birthday cake for your party.”

She then goes to her father.  “Will you spend some time with me?” she asks.  Her father replies, “Can’t you see how busy I am?  I have bills to sort and much to do.  There will be no money for your party if you don’t leave me alone.”

The little girl then looks to her teacher.  “Will you spend some time with my on my birthday?” she asks.  But the teacher says, “I have many students.  I have a 1 p.m. class that I must prepare for.  I don’t have time to spend with you.”

The little girl is crushed.  She goes to her brother.  She feels that he will at least have time for her.  But he has many friends and baseball to play.  He tells her, “If you don’t leave me alone, I won’t come to your party.”

She goes to her mother once more.  And, again her mom is too busy to bother with her.  She is now is heartsick and crushed.

It is her biggest day and everyone is too busy preparing for it to spend any time with her.  Her last words are, “please take me away from this place. Everyone is preparing for the future but no one sees my needs of today.  Please take me away.”   She then goes back to Heaven.

My prayer is that our children not ever say what she did.  May we in education and with our families remember to make time for and with our children.  May we this year and in the decade that lies ahead do things differently than the people in this story.

May we realize and meet the needs that are asked of us.  This is a real challenge but together with God directing the family, we can achieve His original desire.

What do you struggle with in your home school? Take our 3-minute survey >>

Educating the Autistic Child – Case Study

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If you are wondering if the insurmountable challenges associated with autism can be overcome through education, please see this video of Ethan Bailey.  The video is a little choppy in places but that was beyond our control.  Much of what you see Ethan doing in this video they said he would never do.  If you’re the parent of an autistic child, be encouraged…

Don’t Change History

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SHALL WE HIRE A MONUMENT ENGRAVER TO GO TO ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY AND ADD THE MISSING WORDS?

THIS IS A MESSAGE FROM AN APPALLED OBSERVER:

Today I went to visit the new World War II Memorial in Washington , DC . I got an unexpected history lesson. Because I’m a baby boomer, I was one of the youngest in the crowd. Most were the age of my parents, Veterans of ‘the greatest war,’ with their families. It was a beautiful day, and people were smiling and happy to be there. Hundreds of us milled around the memorial, reading the inspiring words of Eisenhower and Truman that are engraved there.

On the Pacific side of the memorial, a group of us gathered to read the words President Roosevelt used to announce the attack on Pearl Harbor:

‘Yesterday, December 7, 1941–a date which will live in infamy–the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked.’

One elderly woman read the words aloud:

‘With confidence in our armed forces, with the abounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph.’

But as she read, she was suddenly turned angry. ‘Wait a minute,’ she said, ‘they left out the end of the quote. They left out the most important part. Roosevelt ended the message with ‘so help us God.’

Her husband said, ‘You are probably right. We’re not supposed to say things like that now.’

‘I know I’m right,’ she insisted. ‘I remember the speech.’ The two looked dismayed, shook their heads sadly and walked away.

Listening to their conversation, I thought to myself, ‘Well, it has been over 50 years; she’s probably forgotten.’

But she had not forgotten. She was right..

I went home and pulled out the book my book club is reading — ‘Flags of Our Fathers’ by James Bradley It’s all about the battle at Iwo Jima .

I haven’t gotten too far in the book. It’s tough to read because it’s a graphic description of the WWII battles in the Pacific.

But right there it was on page 58. Roosevelt ‘s speech to the nation ends in ‘so help us God.’

The people who edited out that part of the speech when they engraved it on the memorial could have fooled me. I was born after the war! But they couldn’t fool the people who were there. Roosevelt ‘s words are engraved on their hearts.

Now I ask: ‘WHO GAVE THEM THE RIGHT TO CHANGE THE WORDS OF HISTORY?’

Send this around to your friends. People need to know before everyone forgets.

People today are trying to change the history of America by leaving God out of it, but the truth is, God has been a part of this nation, since the beginning. He still wants to be… and He always will be!

If you agree, pass this on and God bless you!