Amazing performance! The rifle is the Garand M-1.
Precision Marching-Norwegian Royal Guard
I spent all of junior high, high school, and two years of college in a marching band, with a French horn. Perhaps I’m biased, but this seems like an extraordinary group of people.
Learning Challenges? Try Music Therapy
Guest post by Bette Miles-Holleman
As a parent of two children on the Autistic Spectrum, I am always looking for ways to help them achieve their full potential. During my research, I read about Music Therapy and its applications for children (and adults) with learning challenges.
Music, with its powerful effect to stimulate the brain by triggering memories and emotional responses, can also help special needs children physically, by improving relaxation, muscle coordination and range of motion, and a host of other positive benefits. Studies show that Music Therapy is particularly effective for children with Autism, as well as dyslexia and ADD/ADHD.
Music Therapy can include singing, playing an instrument alone or in a group, or just listening to various music selections. Some children with learning challenges show great musical abilities, so why not encourage them in a pastime they can both enjoy as well as learn from?
My kids, Ben and Hannah, have been taking music lessons for the past year. Since then, their speech has dramatically improved. Ben, who plays the snare drum, had a stutter that has completely disappeared, and our budding pianist Hannah’s sentence structure and pronunciation have gone up exponentially.
Music has helped them in their school work, too. Their concentration levels are longer and more intense, and they can work without interruption to finish their homework. Ben plays with a local bagpipe and drum band, and Hannah studies the Suzuki Piano Method through our local junior college.
Bette Miles-Holleman is a home schooling mother of of 5, living on the West Coast. She is editor/CEO of Beauty Culture Magazine, a Giant Squid lensmaster on Squidoo, and is a guest contributor on many websites such as DealingWithLearningDisorders and HealthyFoodForHealthyLiving.com.
NOTE FROM JUDY VORFELD: Here’s a dynamic article on Music Therapy published yesterday in the Washington Post.
Ethel Crook – My Wonderful Mother
This is a day to pay tribute to people past and present. In a way, it is both where my beautiful mother is concerned. Up until recently, she was living by herself, with a little help (she turned 96 last November).
Sure, her memory was fuzzy, but it was always energizing to be around her. Her life was sparked by her love of music, and in this picture I took in January of this year, she is discussing music with my son, Ron Simpson, who (among other things) is a gifted musician.
Not long ago, she was quite ill with the flu, and fell during the night. This was a catalyst for her, life is forever different. This beautiful, talented, feisty, spunky woman became shrouded in the horrible fog of dementia, and it appears family and friends have lost that part of her that made communication with her so vibrant…