Food

I'm trying to find a balance in my life.  I've come across a lot of things about food, lately...specifically how bad our American diet really is for our health, and the way that we acquire food is basically bad for everyone.  This is worrisome to me for a lot of reasons.

First, I have two children who depend on me to give them the best foundation that I can in this world.  That is part of the reason that I am homeschooling my son.  His experience with school was causing him to become more emotionally fragile, and more closed to learning anything.  I have come to realize that the food supply has undergone a big change even from when I was growing up in the 70's and 80's.  (Of course, we all know that there is no longer "Fruit Float,"  but that is a whole different story).  The family farm  has been gobbled up by BIG BUSINESS, and our milk, meat, and vegetables are full of hormones, chemicals, antibiotics, bacteria, and genetically modified organisms.  Much of the food in the grocery stores that is supposed to be "healthy" is made up of chemicals of different kinds.  This cannot be good!

Second, I have a husband who keeps coming down with illnesses, many of them digestive.  I can't help but think that there has to be something that will help his immune system, or digestive system, or whatever system he is having problems with.

Third, I need to be healthy in order to take care of the rest of my family.

Fourth, buying food from BIG BUSINESS is only helping BIG BUSINESS, and is hurting the few family farms that still exist.  It also hurts the workers, who are many times unfairly treated.  And the environment, because of the unsustainable farming practices and the amount of transportation required for the food.  And the people in other countries who now cannot afford to grow their own wholesome food, because it has become cheaper to buy the processed junk.

I could probably think of many more reasons, but these are at the top of my list.  Now, what am I going to do about it?

First, I am researching all I can about nutrition and food production.  Here are some resources I have used:
 Food, Inc., a movie about how our food is produced in the United States,
Nourishing Traditions, a cookbook that explains how to prepare food based on time-tested natural methods (which inspired me to finally try making sourdough bread),
The Maker's Diet, a really inspiring book by a doctor about his victory over Crohn's Disease, mostly through changing his diet,and
"Feed Your Kids Right" by Lendon Smith, M.D., which I borrowed from the library and have just started reading.


Second, I am working on my garden, trying to fit as much food as I can on my half-acre lot.  (No, we are not really planting a cornfield in the front lawn!)  I also got a pressure cooker for my birthday, and plan to can as much homegrown or locally grown food as I can this summer for use in the winter.  We are also seriously considering getting chickens so that at least we will know what is in our eggs! (Okay, Mom, go ahead and comment.  I know you want to.)

Third, I am trying to find local places to acquire food that don't require going to the grocery store to buy their mass-produced and mass-transported food.

Fourth, I am trying to feed my family the best food I can find.  I've found that buying organic and natural foods does not really change the grocery bill if you are also eliminating things like chips and cookies.  I am also being conscious of planning meals better and trying to use up the leftovers better (Conglomeration, anyone?)

So that's my current obsession.  Hey - I've just noticed that it's almost time to get supper!  Healthy eating, everyone.

Homeschool Curriculum Review - Expedition Australia

 

Expedition Australia is one of the Download N Go series of E-book unit studies by Amanda Bennett and The Old Schoolhouse.  It is available at The Old Schoolhouse Store for $7.95.   http://www.theoldschoolhousestore.com/
It is a 5-day unit study based, of course, on Australia! It was written for children from Kindergarten up to 4th grade.

My first grade son and I were both excited to begin this study.  Australia has a bit of mystery about it, because it seems so very different than everything we are used to here in the United States.  This study did not disappoint us.  It was chock-full of information, and included great internet links to pictures, information, and even videos of all of the animals and places discussed in the curriculum.  The information was arranged in a day-to-day schedule, with everything written in the order that it was to be taught.  Each day included a geographical area to study, an animal to learn about, a city to locate, and an Australian word to learn.  There were also extra activities each day, including learning about the seven continents, boomerangs, and Captain Cook.  The study included printable worksheets for each day, along with printable lapbook items.  It also included a  booklist of books which could be purchased, or borrowed from your library.  (Just a note - our local library had very few books about Australia.  You may want to research this ahead of time.)  Also included are outline maps and many links to reference maps on the web.

My favorite section was an Introduction to Lapbooking by Stephanie Ruby.  I had heard about lapbooks, and even seen some videos of their construction, but had never attempted one, myself.  This introduction gave me the confidence to choose this method as our primary activity for the week.  I think the price is worth it, just for this page, which also contains internet links for more instructions.

We started this unit on a Monday, and finished on the following Monday (Friday was our co-op day, so we did not work on it that day).  The activities took a few hours each day to complete.  We did not do all of the worksheets, although I did go through some orally with my son.  They include short answer questions, and activities like circling the pictures and drawing pictures of your own.  There is a wide variety, to challenge children of different ages.  Much of the same information is addressed in the lapbooking activities, so we chose to concentrate on that instead.  If you have a fast worker or want to spend extra time, you could probably do it all.

One thing I liked about this was that you really could pick and choose your activities.  We tried to cover each of the objectives, but did omit some things.  For instance, there is a part each day where you can find out what the time and temperature is in the city you are studying.  We tried this the first day, but my son does not yet understand  time and temperature concepts well, so the actual numbers were lost on him.  It did give me the opportunity to explain that it was summer in Australia, while it was winter here in the U.S.  He was amazed to find out that in Australia, they celebrate Christmas in the summer!  Some of the activities were even interesting to my almost-two-year-old daughter.  She enjoyed seeing the videos and pictures of animals, and some of the links included coloring pages of the different animals.  I printed them out for both kids, and this gave her something to do while my son was working on his lapbook.  I think she enjoyed being part of "school."  My son enjoyed making his lapbook very much (except for the sticky glue, but that's just him!).  He was able to design it himself, and very proudly showed his progress to Dad each night, explaining the information to him.

In retrospect, I think I would have tried to go through the material more slowly.  There really is a lot of information, and I am not sure we covered it very well.  I tried to complete the unit in five days, as it is designed, but in doing so, we really sped through.  It might even be better to concentrate on each section for a few days, covering the information more thoroughly, or to break it up differently - i.e. geography for a week, animals for a week, etc.

PROS:  This unit was very strong on physical geography.  It had a wide variety of activities and information. Everything was well-explained and easily accessible.  It really was ready to go, and involved very little prep work.  ( I did preview the links ahead of time, and printed and cut out the lapbook items.  Some children would be able to cut them out themselves.)  I was able to download the book to my computer, and only printed out the paper items that were needed to work with (maps and lapbook items).  This cut down on the amount of clutter involved!  I was also able to start right away, instead of waiting for a book to be mailed to me.  It was very good for a visual learner who needs to see pictures and videos, or a kinesthetic learner, who can spend time making and arranging the lapbook.

My son said that the best things were that he learned about  Australia, and got to learn new words.  He also enjoyed learning about the animals.

CONS:  Five cities were introduced, but there was no information about them, other than their location, time, and temperature.  There was also little information about the people who live in Australia, aside from one link about Aborigines.  History was also not emphasized.  The pace was a little fast, as written.  I felt that we were skimming over things and rushing through them to get all of the activities accomplished in a day.  This may or may not be a problem with your children, but my son tends to work slowly.  This was not very Charlotte Mason friendly, involving mostly factual information.  It was also very media-driven, with most of the information coming directly off of the internet, much of it in video form.

My son did not really like the gluing and taping.  This was his only con!  Does anyone know how to make a lapbook with no glue or tape?  Please let me know!

FINAL ANALYSIS:  This was a well-written and organized unit study.  It was adaptable to a wide range of ages and abilities.  It was also well-researched.  It saves a lot of  prep time for the homschool teacher, and gives a very good overview of the country.  I actually learned a lot about Australia that I was not aware of!  I would recommend this study to anyone wanting to add something different to their homeschool schedule.

SPRING!!!!  The kids and I spent most of the afternoon outside, and it was wonderful!  Lily actually got more time outside, because Rory messed around this morning and needed to finish some of his school work, but he got a lot of time out, too.  I feel like I accomplished something.  I did four loads of laundry - I even hung the diapers on the line for the first time since fall!  They get so much whiter that way, and they smell nice, too.  It occurred to me that this may be the last summer I hang out diapers - Lily is almost two, and will (hopefully) be potty trained by next spring.  Actually, she got to wear her Elmo underwear for a little while today, because she went poop in the potty!  I was lucky enough to notice her face getting a bit red, and whisked her off to the potty.  She generally likes to sit on it, but only to sing songs and read books.  I'm hoping she will make the connection soon that it is supposed to have another purpose!

Okay, pardon the rabbit trail - it's just that potties are exciting to mommies for some reason.  Anyway, I also got the mulched leaves out of the piles in our yard and into the garden, filled in the large sink hole by the back of the house, picked a bunch of rocks out of the yard, bailed water out of the sand box, and pruned the apple tree (after removing the Christmas lights that were still around it).  Rory planted a hickory nut he found yesterday, put his garden flag in the middle of the front yard (where the corn will go, I suppose), helped me shovel dirt with his new shovel, washed a plastic end table, and got completely muddy.  Lily rode two tricycles, tried to follow two dogs to their houses, climbed a dirt pile, sat in all the outside chairs, and played in the soupy sand.  She also spent time sitting outside the back doors watching Rory work on his schoolwork in the playroom.  At least that's what she said she was doing.  Not a bad day's work!

Now that I am done with my tea, I have to go do the dishes, take a shower, and get to bed!  Tomorrow is another day.

Layla

Hi, everyone.  I just saw this story on another blog, and thought I would pass it along.  Please pray for this little girl
Meet Layla-

Layla's Story-

Layla has always been a healthy child, 80th percentile for weight, a great eater, a great sleeper. She is sweet as pie and a little cuddle monkey (she won’t let you put her down!). She has a very advanced vocab for her age which really helps us manage her pain and give her what she needs as her care continues.
Layla had a great 15 month checkup. At around 16 months her sleep habits and appetite started to change and she started to become more irritable. Mid March appetite began to decrease. At the time we thought we were dealing with a “picky eater”. Beginning of May Layla woke up one morning with a swollen eye. We took her to the doctor and she was treated for an ear infection and the doctor said the swelling was just a result of the ear infection. At the same time we noted that her belly was hard and somewhat distended. She had not had a bowel movement for a few days and we were concerned that she was becoming constipated.
The next day we took her to the pediatrician who put her on Mirilax over the weekend and told us to call back Monday. By Monday morning she was not eating at all, still no dirty diaper, her activity level had decreased and was rubbing her belly and lower back and saying “owie”.
Our pediatrician referred us to a GI specialist to see why she was so constipated and wasn’t eating. On Thursday May 7th as we sat in GI specialists office expecting to be told that Layla would need some kind of treatment for constipation we instead hear words like “Cancer” and “Leukemia”. A series of X-rays and tests were ordered and we were sent home to wait on the results.
That evening about five minutes after we walked in the door we got an urgent call from the GI specialist telling us that the test results were in, that things were not good and that we were to bring Layla into the ER immediately and that a team of doctors would be waiting for us.
Layla has a massive cancerous tumor (Stage 4 Neuroblastoma) in her abdomen. It extends from above her left kidney, around her side, over her belly and wraps around her aorta. In addition, the cancer is in her bone marrow.
Our sweet Layla went from normal happy and healthy to lethargic, in pain, and skin and bones in a matter of a week and a half.

Follow updates by her Mom at - http://laylagrace.org/






Each time this tutu is sold, Little Diva Tutus will send
50% ($15.00) directly to Layla's family
to help pay for her care.

Please help spread the word about this adorable Little Diva
and the beautiful tutu created to help her family!

Money Sent to Layla Grace as of March 2nd-$1,449.58!

Get your Layla Grace tutu at -http://www.littledivatutus.com/catalog.htm?item=271

Repost this to your blog and let's help this family even more!

Random Thoughts

Believe it or not, both kids went to bed tonight with not much fuss.  Lily only cried for a couple of minutes and then fell asleep, and Rory was okay as soon as he got his glass of ice water.  I hardly know what to do with myself!

If any of you have tried to comment on my posts and have not been able to, I think I have the settings fixed so that it will work, now.  If you still want to comment on any of them,  you can get them from the archives if they are not currently showing.

I tried a new grocery store today, called Trader Joe's.  I had expected the prices to be high, but they really weren't.  Most of the items in the store were Trader Joe's brand, and all of them are all natural, which is a good thing.  I try to buy natural products whenever I can, and it was easier knowing that I didn't have to read all of the labels!  I spent more money than I do sometimes at the local store, but I also bought more specialty items than usual, just to try them out.  I had also been very frugal the last couple of weeks, which meant we were out of a whole lot of things, so I had to stock up a bit.  We had some of the food for supper tonight, and it was all quite good!

I think I've decided on a curriculum for Rory for next year.  Geography Matters carries a curriculum called "Paths of Exploration," which uses biographies of different explorers to teach the history and geography of America.  The curriculum basically ties in all the subjects except for math, so that will be helpful.  It is supposed to be for grades 3-5, but they say it can be modified for 2nd and 6th.  I looked at the samples, and I believe Rory will be able to handle most of the third grade work without modification, anyway.

Rory is convinced that the calendar and Punxsutawney Phil are both wrong, and spring is already here.  I'm tempted to agree with him!  It has been warm for the last two days, and most of our snow has melted.  We're both getting the gardening bug.  Rory wants to plant a corn field in the front yard.  We'll see how that works.  Maybe hubby won't be too upset, because it will keep him from having to mow that part!  I don't think Rory knows exactly how difficult it will be to dig up the whole front yard, but maybe it will keep him out of trouble for a while.  We haven't really had good grass there since we had construction done on our house, so it wouldn't be a great loss.  The corn might actually look better.

We are planning to go ice skating with our homeschool group on Monday.  Rory has never been ice skating, and I haven't been for about 20 years, so this should be interesting!  Hopefully neither of us will break anything but our egos.

No one has gotten back up yet, so I am going to take this opportunity to get ready for bed, and actually get some sleep myself!  Good night, all!

C-O-M-P-U-T-E-R

It's been a few days since I've written, but I feel like I've been attached to the computer.  For one thing, I am attempting to write a book about the history of New York state.  Rory and I have been studying it this year for school, as it is a required course in New York.  I ended up creating my own curriculum for the year, based mostly on biographies and literature.  A friend of mine is actually using the curriculum with me, and we have gotten together for a few of the activities.  Anyway, I got to thinking that if I had trouble finding a curriculum I liked that was already put together, maybe there is a need for this sort of thing.  The curriculum I had written for myself was basically a list of books and activities organized into categories for me to follow.  I am trying to expand on this with some basic information to make it usable for other people.  I think I will try to publish it as an E-book, with options for paper copies if people don't have internet access.  If anyone would be interested in looking at what I have done and giving me feedback and suggestions, let me know - I would appreciate all the help I can get!

My other project is that I am "trying out" to be on a review committee for The Old Schoolhouse magazine. It is not a paid position, but they are trying to get a lot of people involved in reviewing curriculum and getting the information out to other homeschoolers.  They accepted my application, and sent me two of their unit studies to review.  If I end up being selected, I will be receiving free curriculum to review from different companies.  I am supposed to review the things on my blog, so you will all get to find out what I think about them.  The first one is a five-day study called "Expedition Australia," which we started this week.  It has all sorts of internet links, so we have seen videos and pictures of places and animals from Australia.  Rory has enjoyed being able to spend time with the computer.  He's also making a "lapbook," something I have heard about but never tried before, so there's a bit of a learning curve on my part!  I'll let you know when we're done how the week went.  The other study is about being a firefighter.  It should be interesting.  The fun thing is that these are things I hadn't really considered teaching this year, and it's giving us some variety in our studies.

On a house note, I finally got the trim painted in the kitchen!  Woo-hoo!  The last wall is finally done!  Now, I'm looking at the floor and ceiling trim....oh, well.  Also, the living room is looking rather shabby.  Boy, it's never done, is it?  Mike has informed me that if the kids and I will kindly leave for a week or so, he could get some of this done.  I'm not quite sure how to take this...Anyone up for house guests?

I've realized that Lily is a ninja.  She somehow managed to break a plant pot with her head this morning, with no visible marks on her head.  It took me several years of Tae Kwon Do classes to learn how to break a piece of wood with my hand without mauling it (my hand, not the wood) to pieces.  I'm a bit jealous. I guess it's a good thing she didn't become a model.  She could have missed her calling!