My Son's Deployment

Written by Kim Olver


My Son’s Deployment One ofrepparttar most difficult struggles in life for a parent isrepparttar 137639 struggle that occurs whenrepparttar 137640 parent is attempting to keep their child safe andrepparttar 137641 child is attempting to explorerepparttar 137642 world and find their place in it, often times not inrepparttar 137643 safest manner. A discussion of Inside Out cannot occur without me sharing some of my own personal struggles withrepparttar 137644 concept. Today is one of those days. I just learned that my nineteen-year-old son received his deployment orders. He just graduated from National Guard basic training last week and in less than two months, his Guard unit is being deployed for six months of training and then on to Iraq for a year. Anyway, my son made a decision fairly early on that he wanted to joinrepparttar 137645 military. This was a surprise to me because I believed that, generally, young men and women enterrepparttar 137646 military who have some type of role model inrepparttar 137647 military. Since there was no one in my or my husband’s family who was inrepparttar 137648 military, I believed my children would not haverepparttar 137649 inclination for military service. My son began talking about being a sniper forrepparttar 137650 Marines at aroundrepparttar 137651 age of sixteen. Imagine my terror, thinking of him in dangerous situations when I had spent all his life attempting to keep him safe---mostly safe from himself as he has quite a risk-taking personality. Being a good Inside Out mother, I knew better than to try to talk him out of what he truly wanted, but secretly I’d hoped that byrepparttar 137652 time he was old enough to joinrepparttar 137653 military, he would “come to his senses.” Now I’d like to say here that I totally support our troops. I know there are brave men and women putting their lives onrepparttar 137654 line for our safety andrepparttar 137655 ideal of freedom aroundrepparttar 137656 world, but as most mothers can relate, that’s OK for other children, just not mine! I’m well aware ofrepparttar 137657 selfishness of that position, but it is what it is. Over time, my son and I had some discussions about his future plans. He was raised in rural Pennsylvania and had been hunting with his father fromrepparttar 137658 time he was three. He has a natural ability for marksmanship. He is incredibly courageous and loves a good physical challenge. With all of these attributes, I know he sounds like a poster boy for military service. Still, as his mother, I’d hoped he would change his mind. I believe he made a concession to me when, just prior to his eighteenth birthday, he decided to joinrepparttar 137659 National Guard, as opposed torepparttar 137660 Marines. Part of his reasoning was that he wanted money for college but another part, in my opinion, was that he was just looking to prove himself as a man. I breathed a small sigh of relief thinking that he would be safer inrepparttar 137661 Guard. He would do his weekend a month and two weeks inrepparttar 137662 summer and have to respond to any situations inrepparttar 137663 US requiring armed service intervention. Was I ever wrong---along camerepparttar 137664 war in Iraq. I am not making any statements here aboutrepparttar 137665 efficacy of this war. I do not know if we are there because of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism or oil fields. I only know that our county’s young service men and women are being forever changed by their experiences there and I am afraid for my child.

The Desired Effect of Music On Child: Transform Him or Her Into An Angel!

Written by Joseph Browns


To get your kids to listen to child music is a powerful way to enhancerepparttar time your kids play with toys. Perhaps you are thinking of buying music to enhance your child’s play space. You might be asking: What music should I buy for my child? Hopefully once you’ve readrepparttar 137523 following article, you can be much better prepared to shop for your child. Not only will your money be better spent, but you’ll see better results from your children as well. We can look at this issue in three parts: 1) Music for Young Child: The “Why?” 2) The Theory 3) The Practical Application

1) Music for Young Child: The “Why?”

Imagine that your child has gone torepparttar 137524 basement (or some play room) to play with his or her toys. Often whatrepparttar 137525 child will hear is either silence orrepparttar 137526 noise ofrepparttar 137527 toys An excellent way to boostrepparttar 137528 quality ofrepparttar 137529 play time of your child is to play background music.

Anthropologist A. P. Merriam in his book The Anthropology of Music says, "there is probably no other human cultural activity which is so all-pervasive and which reaches into, shapes, and often controls so much of human behavior.”(*1)

What is he talking about here?

He is talking aboutrepparttar 137530 power of music on a person.

However,repparttar 137531 effects of music on children are much more powerful on children than for an adult. The reason is that children are in their formative years, and therefore whatever music your child is exposed to has a much more profound result than most people would realize.

In today’s world, we are bombarded byrepparttar 137532 media. Television, movies, videos, and multimedia presentations are enhanced by music. With music either as a main element or inrepparttar 137533 background,repparttar 137534 media knowrepparttar 137535 power of music on people, including children.

“You can never get silence anywhere nowadays, have you noticed?” -Bryan Ferry

So you can really shape a very big part of your child’s world byrepparttar 137536 music you play for him or her.

2) The Theory: How to selectrepparttar 137537 Music for your child:

There’s been a lot of talk aboutrepparttar 137538 effect of music on children. How to make children become smarter. How to make them better listeners. How to get them to study better. And so on. The music industry has turned this idea into a multimillion-dollar industry, focusingrepparttar 137539 market on concerned parents and educators who wantrepparttar 137540 best forrepparttar 137541 children under their wings.

The truth is that choosing good music for your child should not be a rocket science. You don’t have to rely on scientific studies to justify your purchases. It boils down to understanding some simply principles of music.

Let’s take a closer, more fundamental look at music. In a very basic sense, there are two parts to music:A)repparttar 137542 notes and B)repparttar 137543 lyrics.

A) The Notes:

The musical note is defined here as found in dictionary.com: “A tone of definite pitch.” Musical notes can be produced by musical instruments, or any device that produces wordless sounds.

The effects of instrumental music (such as is found in classical music) on children and their aptitudes and attitudes has been under much study. Even back inrepparttar 137544 1930’s (Fendrick, 1937, as cited in Koppelman & Imig, 1995)(*2), there were studies ofrepparttar 137545 effects of music on children. Recently, one ofrepparttar 137546 better known of these studies is “the Mozart Effect”. Much ofrepparttar 137547 original work was revealed in 1993, publicized by co-researcher Dr. Gordon Shaw. It was a study onrepparttar 137548 effect of listening to music that resulted in better exam scores. Other researchers, such as Davidson and Powell (1986)(*3), showedrepparttar 137549 beneficial effects of background music in classrooms.

But let’s get one thing straight. Studies or no studies, it is pretty clear that listening to music definitely does one thing to a person: it affectsrepparttar 137550 listener emotionally.

“Music isrepparttar 137551 shorthand of emotion.” -Leo Tolstoy

Go to any classical music or rock concert, and you will see clearly that slow sad music will make a person’s emotional state turn towardsrepparttar 137552 melancholy. Fast-paced happy music will bring a person to a more cheerful state. Sorepparttar 137553 formula would actually be quite simple: state of music = state of mind. Children, beingrepparttar 137554 emotional “sponges” that they usually are, will pick up very quickly onrepparttar 137555 state ofrepparttar 137556 music being played to them.

B) The Lyrics:

The next thing to look at arerepparttar 137557 lyrics. Once again we can look atrepparttar 137558 dictionary.com definition for our purposes: “Of or relating to a category of poetry that expresses subjective thoughts and feelings, often in a songlike style or form.” Sorepparttar 137559 lyrics arerepparttar 137560 words, and therefore most often than notrepparttar 137561 message ofrepparttar 137562 song. Words are very powerful in their effect on listeners.

“Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.” -Rita Dove

This goes right torepparttar 137563 heart of what you want to expose your kids to inrepparttar 137564 world of music. Ask yourself: what kind of message do you want your kids to get? There are all kinds of songs onrepparttar 137565 market.

There are songs about being good people, and that we should all love one another. That we should learn to forgive and forget, to treat your fellow neighbor kindly. That we should seek happiness in healthy pursuits. That we should behave responsibly to one another.....

There are also songs about cool (kid) pornography and sex, hating your parents and teachers, or it’s cool to beat up other kids. That it’s “in” to smoke dope, or experiment with this or that drug. That it’s “ok” to cheat in school or on your boyfriend/girlfriend......

What messages do you want your kids to have? So we can have another formula here: nature of message = nature of thinking/attitude. Once again, what do you want your kids to have?

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