Who is Carol
and why is she interested in the distractible mind?
Once upon a time Carol would have told you that it was all about her
son. He entered the world as a constantly moving, hyper-charged, non-stop
ball of energy. He endured a difficult and protracted medical
ordeal involving 13 surgical procedures before he was 3 1/2. He was
very bright. But his pace and frenzy was difficult for many to deal
with. His journey into kindergarten did not proceed smoothly. When
Carol and her husband couldn't bring themselves to medicate this ADHD child,
particularly in light of his already long medical history, Carol found herself
homeschooling. Wow...that was not at all in the initial plan.
Over time, she learned that all
of the traditional methods she knew and cherished from her own childhood
were a recipe for disaster with this very different child. So through much
experimentation, coupled with a belief that this child's energy was a gift, she
developed strategies and teaching methods that worked with his need for constant
motion.
Years later she put the knowledge gained from this experience on a website
called Carol's
Web Corner. The goal was simply to share experiences and methods that
had worked with her child. But almost instantly, she knew something unique
had happened. Letters began pouring in from all over the world.
People were hungry for a view of their child that was positive...that recognized
the delight that they saw in their own children...and that didn't start from a
premise that this child was defective.
The many requests for more
information eventually led Carol to write her first book entitled, How
To Get Your Child Off the Refrigerator and On To Learning, published by
Emerald Books (YWAM).
Some where along the line she realized that her son might be as
distractible as he was because his father was also pretty "high strung".
And come to think of it, so was her own Dad, her son's grandfather.
Years into sharing life with these two fast-paced family members,
she realized that either by inheritance or infection, Carol herself struggles fairly profoundly with her own
distractibility. <yeah...I know. No one was surprised but Carol.>
So instead of trying to take all the square
pegs of her family and shove them into the world's preferred round
holes, she is constantly on the look out for ways to see the delight in
the distractible. Things that others regard as mistakes, defects and
things to be changed, Carol looks at with an eye toward the missed gifts
and hidden advantages.
Sizzle
Bop! has been an on-going dream of Carol's---to have a place that
provides a contact point for the many people involved in the lives (and
care and feeding) of the distractible. She is delighted to have
launched a site that will not only connect us all, but
uplift and empower us as well.
Carol's
second book, "If I'm Diapering A Watermelon Then Where'd I Leave
the Baby", chronicles her own journey of distractibility, shares
unique coping strategies she's found, and promotes a view of one's self
as gifted rather than broken. Carol is now a regular
speaker at women's groups, state home schooling conferences, and is a
popular guest on radio programs such as Moody Radio (311 affiliates),
American Family Radio (200 stations), Life Talk Radio (15 markets),
Focus on the Family and
many other individual stations.
NEW
Carol's third book, The Big "WHAT NOW?" Book of Leraning Styles,
overcomes the weaknesses of many existing books on learning styles that
devote 98% of their text to identifying learning styles, then spend the
remaining 2% telling you how to apply this knowledge. They are long on
diagnosis and short on prescription. Carol Barnier knows from her own
experience and from interactions with educators all across the country that
while people are certainly interested in the "why", they are in urgent need
of the "how", or the big "what now?" They need perfectly clear and practical
information that can be applied tomorrow. In The Big What Now Book of
Learning Styles, parents and teachers will find an emphasis on "what to do
about it".
In addition to being a writer of books and
articles, Carol is a humorous and insightful speaker.
If
you have an interest in having Carol as a speaker for your organization,
check out her speaker's website at www.OpenGifts.org.
