Allison Bruning's Blog, page 4

#LTW: Back to school. Back to normal routines? #gifted #education

This can be one of the most stressful times of the year for gifted students and their parents. The Back to School season can be a terrifying experience for gifted students. Anxiety levels increase as they think about the different changes in their lives, will the teacher understand them and will their friends still be there for them. Their summer routines and rituals are disrupted as the school season begins. That can sometimes be hard enough to endure but what happens when the gifted student makes a transition from one school to another?

A simple transition can be an enormous jump for gifted students. What is a parent supposed to do to help their child succeed. Unlike their age peers, intellectually gifted students may need some additional support in order to make the transition simpler. Here are a few things a parents can do to make the experience going from summer to school season go smoother.

1) Find out when the first day of school. A month before the first day of school begin to slowly transition your child into a new routine. Have your child get up and go to bed the same time they would while they are in school.

2) Back to School Shopping. Take your child Back to School shopping with you. Show them the list of supplies their teacher has requested. Let them pick out the supplies and clothes. This gives your child ownership. They will be more than likely to use the items you bought for school if they have a vested interest in them.

3) Arrange a time with the principal for you to take your child to their new school (if they are making a transition). Have your student practice finding their room (s), locker, cafeteria and playground in the order of their school day routine. This practice allows the gifted student the opportunity to accept the new normal routine on the first day of school without have a mental breakdown. If possible, have the student meet their teachers before Meet the Teacher night or the first day of school.

4) Take it slow. Don't overwhelm your student. Take baby steps with them as he or she adjust to the new normal routine.

Back to school time doesn't have to be so stressful for the intellectually gifted student. What other methods do you know about that will help your intellectually gifted child succeed during this crazy period of their lives?

Dear Diary: In the Words of Long Arrow

Dear Diary:
In the Words of Long Arrow
(Children of the Shawnee: Lies and Deceit)

Dear Diary,
I see the world my brother dwells in but only grow more concerned for his welfare the more I do so. I'm grateful to the creator, Our Grandmother, to grant me the ability to guide my brother from the spirit world when I am able to do so. The world of my people is slowly being destroyed by the corruption spilled into it from the white man. Wasn't it enough, that my parents had their own problems only to be subjected to even more by the settlers?
I regret the day I died ten years ago. I only wish I was able to protect Little Owl from everything he had endured after my death. Thankfully, I was able to speak to him when he died three years ago. He has cheated death three times and know I learn we will speak again. I have always protected my brother. I love Little Owl more than Blue Lark and Hawk Song. How can I not? We share the same secret. 
While I loved being able to speak to him from the spirit world I do not look forward to our next encounter. I am told he has been bitten by a rattlesnake. The venom will kill him. The creator desires I expose the truth to him before his spirit is returned to his body. My heart aches to know he is suffering. He has always suffered because of who he is. But I want my brother to live a great life. I want him to become a strong war chief. I hope my desires for his success are not in vain. 

Long Arrow

#Celebratethesmallthings: #Business blessings

Life has kind of been hectic for me this week. I've been busy building my new company's website and social media pages. My greatest blessing came today in that I finally finished the website for Big Bend Productions and the social networks for each business nested underneath Big Bend Productions.

 Happy Dance time!

It's been a long journey but it was all worth. I'm ready for Big Bend Productions to take off. I'm looking forward to see what next week brings me. 

LTW: Child Prodigies #education #gifted

Thinking Outside the BoxThe Child Prodigy
Prodigy. What images does that word bring to your mind? Is the child a musician? Actor? Sport star? The word could describe any child who excels at a particular task. The world has always had child prodigies.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is perhaps the best well known prodigy. Mozart began playing the harpsichord when he was three years old. Two years later, he composed and published his first piece of music. He was tested by the lawyer and naturalist, Daines Barrington, when he was ten years old. The result? Barrington found that Wolfgang had a superior skill for sight reading. Wolfgang composed more than 600 pieces of music before his death at the age of 35. 
Pablo Picasso and Blaise Pascal are two more well known historical figures who were child prodigies.  
But what about today? Are there still child prodigies that walk among us? The answer is yes. Child prodigies will never end. While they are admired by society for their ingenuity and creativity at such a young age they are often overlooked when they become adults because they no longer surprise us with their depth of knowledge. Child prodigies can grow up to have meaningful lives if they are encouraged by their parents to actively pursue their creativity.  The impact of parenting a child prodigy can either encourage or stifle their creative abilities. 



Parents and educators who work with a child prodigy oftentimes can feel it is a challenge. These children are very curious about the world. They have their own ideas that may not agree with the rules of society. Yet, if encouraged and gently guided by the adults in their lives they can live a productive, meaningful life. If we allow them to contribute to the world they may just change it for the better.

What'sUpWithAllison: Righting What Went So Wrong #publishing

It's been another busy week for me. I'm in the process of preparing to launch my new publishing house, Marfa House, and my photography company, Castolon Studios. The opening of Marfa House has given me the opportunity to revisit my book, Calico. Calico was my first book. It went through several independent publishing houses. I endured a rough start to my writing career with publishing houses who didn't know what they were doing. I even had a house who published Calico without the formatting and they lost five chapters of the book! Needless to say, I was grateful when I had the opportunity to establish my own publishing house. I brought Calico over to Mountain Springs House but I ran into some trouble with the editor and formatter I had hired. Calico was re-released but I still wasn't satisfied.

This time I've learned from my publishing and business experiences. I spent two and half days, editing and reformatting Calico. It has a new cover, updated ending, and new chapter headings.



I did all the graphics, editing and formatting myself. I wanted only the best for my books.




In the end, it really helped me to center on what needed to be done with the second book. Some things just didn't make sense as I wrote them. That's because my timeline was off.

I'm back to writing the sequel to Calico. I'll post the links to the updated versions of Calico available in print and ebook when I have it. Have a great week!

Dear Diary: Jakob Novak of Schoenbrunn Village

Dear Diary:
In the words of Jakob Novak
(Children of the Shawnee: Lies and Deceit)



My heart is heavy with concern for my best friend, Henry "Hank" Wagner. His Shawnee name was Hawk Song Watching from the Sky. He came to us over a year ago with his dead wife's body. Brother David had married the Christian Delaware, Sarah Light, to Hawk Song with hope that she would be able to convert the Shawnee to Christianity. We had heard the rumors about the brutality of the Shawnee people. They are a vicious, militaristic people. Some of us believed Sarah's life was in jeopardy the day she married Hawk Song. Others, mainly the natives, believed the Shawnee would protect her because they honor the Delaware. When Hank brought her body to Schoenbrunn, many of us believed the Shawnee had murdered her. Yet, Hank had been shot in the hip. Our physician, Betsy Schmitt, tended to his wounds. While he was recovering he informed us of the massacre and how he had tried to save his wife and unborn child. 
Hank was so heartbroken he didn't want to return to the Shawnee. He had declared he wanted to learn more about being a Christian. I was charged with being his mentor. I taught Hank how to become a blacksmith, read in German, and act with Christian morals. He even gave us his bear shaped totem that was supposed to keep him healthy. He was baptized Henry Wagner but likes to use the name Hank. Hank married Betsy. He has a new life with her and among the Moravians. Yet, now his brother, mother and stepfather have appeared at Schroenbrunn. I don't know what to think. His brother is very ill with an infection. Betsy has been attending to him but Hank doesn't want to visit upon his younger sibling. Brother David says we have to be gracious to Hank's brother because he is a Shawnee chief. I only hope whatever stands between the two men can be overcome so we might be able to Christianize the Shawnee.
Jakob Novak

LTW: Child #Abuse in American Camps? #education

This week I am handing my blog over to Krystol Diggs. Mrs. Diggs wrote an interesting article in 2014 for CNN. The article was titled, Nate Orlowek: Do Not Touch!! The New Child Abuse. As an educator the topic of this article made stop and think. What do you think about this article? Post your comments below.


NATE ORLOWEKDo Not Touch!! The New Child Abuse
Many know him as a degreed historian and leader of the John Wilkes Booth DNA project. But Nate Orlowek’s professional career of 35 years has been as a religious educator and camp head counselor. He’s one of the few camp professionals left who remembers when camp was done the “old-fashioned” way. “There has been a drastic change in childcare, and it’s causing great harm to our children. An out-of-control hysteria called ‘risk management’ has taken over. The new way, under the guise of protecting children from abuse, is in fact causing a far more damaging kind of child abuse that is being inflicted on our children in camps and childcare settings,” Orlowek says.Many camps are outlawing positive and innocent practices that are depriving children of the feeling of being loved and cared about that is essential to their well-being. These extreme rules are having a serious negative side effect. “The consequences of touch-deprivation are quite severe,” writes biophysicist Dr. Daniel Russell. “Since the consequences are so severe, it seems to me that we should recognize the deliberate withholding of touch as a form of abuse.”Dr. David Cross, associate director of the Institute of Child Development declares that “just as damaging as physical abuse or sexual abuse is being deprived of normal, human healthy contact, interaction and touch.”In the last few years, Orlowek has seen the devastating effects of these hysteria-driven edicts. At one prominent New England Jewish camp Orlowek worked at, he saw a series of incidents that shocked him. One nine-year-old boy was totally turned off to religion and proclaimed, “I don’t like any of this dumb Jewish stuff, and I’m not going to do any of it.”When Orlowek engaged the boy in conversation, he saw that the boy simply needed someone who cared about him and was willing to interact with him. Orlowek offered to teach him all the Hebrew words to the Grace After Meals and sat next to the boy during the whole ceremony. To his astonishment, the director reprimanded him for “spending too much time with one child,” which, he was told, is frowned upon because “we live nowadays in a litigious society” and “we must not do anything that looks ‘suspicious’.” “Is this really what it has come to?” Orlowek had thought. It’s now “suspicious” for a Jewish teacher to inspire a student to love being Jewish and for the two of them to sit together and sing their hearts out to God? The next morning the same boy announced to his prayer group that “it’s so cool to be Jewish!” All he needed,” Orlowek explains, “is someone who cared about him and made him feel important by spending time and effort to help him.”An even more astounding incident was triggered when a camper Orlowek had counseled when the boy was in his former day camp in Maryland was at the same overnight camp and away from home for the first time.The child was feeling homesick, and during prayer services he snuggled up to Nate for reassurance. “I was trained to respond to the emotional needs of my campers. This boy was homesick and in distress. I reassured him that everything would be okay by placing my arm around him.”Another homesick child saw this and came over to sit on Nate’s other side. “After being in this profession for over thirty years, I knew that this other child also wanted some kind of affection and reassurance. So I placed my arm around him as well, and sure enough the director said to me, ‘You are good with kids, but you can’t do this anymore. You are a relic of the past.’” Since the rest of the staff was directed to withhold all affection, the kids became desperate for anyone who would give them what they so clearly needed. “You are the only adult in this camp who truly cares about us kids,” one of the campers told Orlowek.The final blowup occurred a few days later when another homesick camper ran over and sat next to Orlowek at the camp’s July 4 celebration and, in a desperate attempt to receive “normal, human healthy contact, interaction and touch” picked up Orlowek’s arm and draped it around his little shoulders. Orlowek realized that he would be fired on the spot if the director would see this, but he was sick and tired of having to deprive children of something so critical to their well-being.The boy looked up pleadingly into Orlowek’s eyes—the same look he had seen thousands of times in the past from campers expressing the desire to be allowed to sit on his lap. But that was during the “old-fashioned” times, when allowing a camper to sit on a counselor’s lap was not only permitted but encouraged.Orlowek felt frozen into place by fear of the hysterical director and our “litigious society” and wasn’t sure what to do. Then, the boy climbed onto Nate’s lap and gave him a big hug. “I knew I had reached a defining moment. Do I violate my conscience and shatter this poor child’s feelings and sell out to the hysteria, or do I do what I’ve done my whole life—stand on the side of caring and kindness and Jewish values?“It was no contest. I was raised to stand up for what is right. Just as my dad once faced down a racist mob to protect an innocent black man being threatened with harm, I knew on whose side I must be on. He didn’t back down or sell out. I could hear his voice saying to me: ‘Don’t break that little boy’s heart.’ But unfortunately, the advocates of the ‘new way’ don’t mind breaking little kids’ hearts.”Within 30 seconds an angry supervisor swooped in, dragged the boy away and scolded him so fiercely that the child staggered back to the table literally unable to speak. In a recent blog essay titled “Camp Counselors Should Be Allowed to Hug Kids” famed child advocate Lenore Skenazy wrote: “And so we have sexualized and criminalized and crazy-ized a lovely thing that, as it turns out, is pretty darn innocent and even good for kids.Many distressed parents wrote in and shared their reactions:“Of course children need affection and (appropriate) physical contact. I cannot believe it's come down to such ridiculous rules. The fear-mongering media is turning our world into a paranoid, sterile and disconnected place. Children are missing out on such wonderful connections with important adults in their lives.”“What a sad, small person it must take to deny children innocent physical contact from those who care for them. At our camp kids were hugged, sat on laps. One kid said ‘It is hard not to have fun here.’“Perhaps the camp directors should present kids with legal documents explaining why a simple hug or sitting on their counselor’s lap is a legal offense. Maybe we should all gather ‘round the camp fire and read the documents. I'm sure the legalese would be a perfect substitute for genuine caring. “I fail to see how any of these things could possibly be detrimental; honestly, I think the level of interaction and affection (obviously non-sexual, though it seems some people are too weird to understand that) the kids at my camp get are more beneficial to them than 99% of the actual stuff we do at camp.” “How do we tell a young camper that these natural incidents of innocent contacts aren't allowed because of 'out-of-control' fear? How do we erase the sadness in a child’s eyes when he jumps on your lap or begs for a hug and is rejected? How will we ever heal the pain in his heart?”Being a citizen of the United States, I never knew about this new form of child abuse. I have read many stories, but this story, in particular, really peaked my interest because I used to be an educator. I thank Nate Orlowek for sharing these painful stories with me. This form of child abuse shouldn’t be tolerated. We must free ourselves from this insanity and return to providing love and warmth that all our children deserve.To contact Nate Orlowek:Nate Orlowek: nateorlowek@yahoo.com

#WhatsUpWithAllison: Chasing Dreams

It's been a crazy week for me but a very productive one. Have you ever had a dream that you wanted so bad you could taste it? I have.




I started my writing career eight years ago only thinking I wanted to become an internationally known bestselling author. Seems like an easy enough goal. But as I grew in my writing skills and obtained my MFA that dream changed. I had opened my publishing house with the dream of giving back to the literary community. I wanted a safe haven for new authors to publish their work. Mountain Springs House was born. I made many naive mistakes with my business. Three years later my dream evolved into something even greater. I closed my publishing house and moved to Texas.

I am still writing. I still want to be a well known author with New York Times bestselling books. BUT....now I not only want to be that and have a publishing house. I want to write, direct and produce film. I want to do professional photography. I want to do graphic design. I want to have a company that does all of that. This week, I've opened a new company in Texas called Big Bend Productions. It has four companies underneath it. Marfa House (publishing), Castolon Studios (photography), Lost Mine Films (film), and Boquillas' Window (graphic design). I haven't launch the websites or social media for these companies yet. I'm so excited to be chasing my dreams. I plan to officially launch these companies sometime this Fall. So be on the look out.

Writing wise - I am still writing. I have a dedicated time in my day where I can work on my WIP. I'm can't wait to launch Lies and Deceit. I think you all will love the second book in the Children of the Shawnee series.

Keep chasing your dreams and never let them go.

Dear Diary: In the words of Duchess Rose Anna de Clare Arnes

Tilda Swinton as Orlando photographed
by Karl Lagerfeld for Vogue, July 1993.Dear Diary:
In the words of Duchess Rose Anna de Clare Arnes
(Children of the Shawnee: Lies and Deceit)



Dear Diary, 
I have had the most dreadful of circumstances befall upon my husband and I as we made our way from France to Virginia. After everything Remy and I have gone through in France I had very much doubted our fates could have become worse. My grandfather has demanded I uphold my royal obligation to provide my husband what an heir. I have quite enjoyed the experiences. Yet, a month into our trip I became serious ill. The ship's physician told Remy that I was experiencing sea sickness. When Remy asked why it had taken so long for me to exhibit the signs of such affliction, the physician kindly informed him that the simple fact that I was King Louis' granddaughter made me susceptible to being ill in harsh conditions. My frail body simply didn't need to be subjected to such harsh conditions such as life at sea. Little did the physician know that I was adopted by the king's son ten years ago. I had been born in the backwoods of Kentucky to French duke and English countess who desired the life of savagery rather than one at their prospectus courts. 
To this day I can never understand what drew my parents to leave their noble lives and assume life in the wilderness. It had been the dangers of the wilderness that had stolen their lives from me and my twin. Sigh. My twin. I have ever so missed Calico since I assumed my place in France. What an idiot I was to leave her with the Shawnee.  Calico deserves a better life than she has with them. It has come to my attention from our English spies that General Paul Braddox has issued a warrant for Calico's arrest. Calico murdered one of his officers. I knew King George wanted Calico and I in London so we could assume our mother's place as Lady Turner. I had thought her safe as long as the English king believed she was one of his most valuable possessions. But it seems King George has grown tired of my family. He has allowed General Braddox the privilege to try and hang her (if found guilty which we all know she will be) for murder. I have to rescue my sister. The only safe place for her is in France. I only hope she will be willing to agree with me. It has been ten years since we have seen, spoken or written to each other. How much has Calico changed? Will I even recognize my own twin?
Duchess Rose Anna de Clare Arnes

#CelebratetheSmallThings: Blindness Blessings

Happy Friday! 
This week has been very busy for my family and I. I have spent the week in El Paso visiting a cousin and going to my husband's eye appointment. My husband has open ended angle glaucoma in a severe stage. 


He's been dealing with his glaucoma since 1996. He's only 53! His case is very strange. No one can figure out why he has it. There's no family history of it. He's never had a traumatic eye injury. He only became Diabetic and have High Blood Pressure years AFTER he was diagnosed with Glaucoma. 
My husband has been through three eye surgeries and had a tear duct plug placed in his left eye. He became legally blind in 2013. We've gone through the surgeries. We've worked with the Department of the Blind in Kentucky and Indiana. My husband was a nurse for 20 years but can't do that anymore. He's in school to get a Bachelor of Business Science at Walden University. Life was going great until his eyesight started to decline yet again. We had contacted the Department of Blind Services in Texas. 





They have taken his case and are helping us out. In the meantime, my husband has decided to attend Penn College while attending Walden University so he can learn to become a motorcycle repair tech. His dream is to own his own motorcycle repair shop in his hometown. 
This week, we learned my husband will have to go through two more eye surgeries. Thankfully, the shunt in the left eye and the trabulectomy in the right eye are working. He only has about 10% of the optic nerve left in his left eye. Thankfully, that hasn't declined. The doctor said he has a secondary cataract behind his artificial lens in his left eye and a cataract in his right eye she wants removed. He's going to get an artificial lens in the right eye as well. This means his cloudy vision should clear up just enough he can be independent again. I AM SO HAPPY! It can't replace the nerve damage but it can make his vision clearer. Praise God for modern technology.