My guest this episode is Michael (Mike) Schloff from Maplewood, New Jersey. Mike is the founder of “TheMaplewoodShop,” which is a portable woodworking system or “shop” class in a box. Mike mother, Linda has always been influential in his life. She was right by his side every step of the way guiding him through the personal, social and educational challenges. Today, TheMaplewoodshop is in hundreds of charter and public Schools, used with homeschoolers, camps and more. With the help of both his mom and dad, Mike was able to figure out activities/hobbies and “work arounds” to help him with his "Willfullness Disorder," as a professional diagnosis indicated back in the 1970's. Apparently, this was something that was a precursor to ADHD. Early on, Mike's parents had discovered that their son had a wonderful mechanical aptitude. And today, decades later, that passion has turned into TheMaplewoodShop, helping many students find their new strengths and interests.
As a child, riding, tinkering/repairing bicycles were just a few hobbies Mike enjoyed. But the woodworking project is beneficial for so many reasons. Yes it’s fun but it truly helps children and adults with distracted minds become more grounded and able to focus. Children collaborate and help one another, improve their math skills, use their hands, learn to measure and cut wood and so much more.
But it was Mike's mother, Linda, who really concentrated on helping Mike with his OCD/ADHD. He says, "she was very instrumental in trying to keep me active. It was very hard for her to see this disruptive behavior in her own child." Mike agrees that he was dealing with Impulse control negative attention issues.
Education was very important to Linda. She completed her PHD when Mike was a teen. She was determined to help Mike figure out what interested him, what his strengths and attributes were and decided to concentrate on those gifts.
Linda's grandfather had been a Rabbi in Ukraine. Her father died when she was in high school and mother had dyslexia and had never learned to read or write, so all of her past, played a major role in her passion for a solid education. She was determined to help her son overcome his educational challenges.
Linda got married at 19. In order to become a lab technician, she got her Batchelor's degree in Science and Medical Technology. "To show how important education was to her, she went back to school got her Masters Degree and then in her 40's got a PHD in "Immigration History." Mike explains, "growing up Jewish in Minnesota, was very rare. It was very interesting to see these immigration patterns that she lived through and seeing similar patterns repeating again today. Later on LInda started a historical society to study Jewish Immigration in the Upper Midwest.
Knowing her son's interests helped Linda come up with the idea for Mike to help her when she was cataloging information from those of her Jewish community who had passed away. Family members had donated diaries and personal information. These tasks were very detail oriented and she knew that was one of her son's many strengths. He created a useful database.
Contact Information for Maplewoodshop:
Email address:mike@maplewoodshop.com
Facebook -@MaplewoodshopNJ
https://www.facebook.com/MaplewoodshopNJ/
LinkedIn -https://www.linkedin.com/company/maplewoodshop/
Instagram -@maplewoodshop
https://www.instagram.com/maplewoodshop/?hl=en
Twitter-@MaplewoodshopNJ
https://twitter.com/MaplewoodshopNJ
Threads -@maplewoodshop
https://www.threads.net/@maplewoodshop
Youtube -@maplewoodshop727
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpPIu2juABNjm_2ZoMjrx4w
Tiktok -@maplewoodshop