You know your kid is ready for more advanced math when...

You know your kid is ready for the next grade level of math when she's holding the workbook upside down, working out all the problems and getting them right...

Our daughter has always had a penchant for math challenges.  We had gotten some dice to help her practice adding multiple numbers together, and make it a 'game' (which turned out to be a fabulous tool-- our son loves to throw the dice and count the numbers on it, and I've used them to introduce the idea of multiplication and division with our daughter with the dice.  With the dice being tangible, it made those concepts easier for her to grasp, so exciting to see the light bulb go off and her get it!)

*I wish I had payed attention to the dudes playing cee-lo in my neighborhood when I lived in Brooklyn, that's another life skill-- never know where life will take you, after all...

I had thought through public school that I wasn't a 'math person'.  I never knew that I loved math until I took chemistry in college and loved using Avogadro's number to calculate moles of molecules and atoms in reaction formulas.  All of the sudden it became not only relevant, but like the key to a great secret that had practical applications in the real world.  Like spying to things too small to be seen with naked eyes...

Math is like a language that unites all humanity shares, because we're all bound by the same physical laws.  Math is the bones of music and visual art.  Whether we're developing technology for space exploration (can't wait for the Mars One mission, 2023!!!), political insurgents calculating injustices and counting munitions, child care specialists keeping head count, or doctors administering medication, we ALL use math.

Check out Mars One http://mars-one.com/en/

Yaay, math :0))

Woe to Our Culture of Sugar Laden Rewards...

Okay, first I want to say that this is not about fashion, this is about health. 

Not to say I don't like fashion, I do... but if it comes between buying new clothes that hide my thunder and make me feel fancy or an hour-long car trip to a health food store to stock up on miso paste and bentonite, I'm choosing the latter.

I believe all people have their charms and beauty comes in all sizes and shapes.  I'm not perfect, either.  Without my wonderbra and makeup I look (to myself) like a 10 year old boy.  I have giant feet.  I have been thin with some cellulite since grade school.

That being said, I walk into my daughter's extracurricular activity last night and there is a box of hard candy on the table next to the teacher. 

I like this teacher, she's great with the kids, I admire her skill-- but she can't be more than 25, and is obese and balding.  She is not an I-can-wrestle-you-down, thick person.  She is not a picture of health.  I asked what it is for, and she said it's for her reward system. 

Now, I am a tall person, but I don't think of myself as a naturally imposing person.  I'm sillier than most, and most people regard me as being younger than my age-- but I think she could see the fire in my eyes (I tried to temper it with a smile) as I explained through my teeth that I pulled my child out of school because of tooth issues, and she is NOT to have any candy.  She explained that the kids would have to wait for the candy, that it wouldn't be every day-- to which I explained that I don't want my child associating candy with reward, either.

I said I would bring in some dollar store prizes for the kids like pencils and erasers, she said that would be okay... and then turned an obese parent and made some snarky comment about not wanting to send some kids into diabetic shock.

Statistics for 2011 in my area say that about 25% of people are obese in my area, but looking around at the other parents in that group, it's more like 70%.  By obese, I mean likely can't see your own feet when you look down. 

Americans have more obesity and chronic health issues than all other first world nation.  Why is it that people in schools and children's activities think it's okay to give ANY sugar??  It's an anti-nutrient, and it's setting them up for a life of sickness.  If parents want to pass on bad habits to children, that's their business, but it shouldn't be in their view in school or activities... it should be at the family's discretion as to whether or not sugar is offered; at home.

When I was a child, we got stickers in school, and star stickers if we were really good... that's why the phrase in exists, "well, don't you get a gold star".  Why does sugar have such a significant presence now?  I thought there was too much sugar in my daughter's class when she was in school up North, but it's 100 times more pronounced here in the Southeast.

Childhood obesity and diabetes are already big problems. Wouldn't it be nice if we, as a society, only supported old-school healthy nutrition, and made a conscious effort to teach the coming generations better habits-- instead of loading them with sugar, then marveling at all the chronic health issues and behavior issues they have-- like it's some great mystery. 

Wouldn't it be nice if we, as a nation, did the sensible thing and just removed sugar from the equation?  It sure would be nice, but I would settle for other people to just stop offering sugar to my kids!!

Serious Soup

Bone soup is one of the most nourishing things for your health.  I had made it on occasion, but during my second pregnancy, I really realized it's benefit.  Very early in that pregnancy, I was hit with urinary urgency, and I thought, "oh no, I'm going to be one of those women like my grandmother, with urinary issues from childbearing" (she was such a fancy pretty lady, and she refused to wear her un-fancy diapers, so there were occasional embarrassing pee accidents when we went out as a family).

I was in school for Oriental Medicine at the time, and my channels and points teacher told me to make 'bone soup'.  I immediately did, and within a week my urinary issues had cleared up and never returned, even though I had gained 67 pounds during the rest of the pregnancy!

Bone soup seems to come out better for me when I include a cow foot.  This one I got at the butcher and asked him to cut it into smaller pieces.  You can see the delineation between the bones and the connective tissue when cut in cross section...

I put the foot in my roasting pan into a cold oven, and roast at 350 degress for an hour and a half.  Using a spoon, I transfer the foot to my stock pot, add chicken or turkey carcass, and onions and celery (and sometimes carrots, if I have really sweet carrots on hand).  Sometimes I save the beef tallow from roasting the cow foot, sometimes not.

Then I cover with water (the turkey was still frozen, so I had to wrestle it into the pot as it thawed-- like the titanic going down into the North Atlantic).  I add about 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar, and this time I added a splash of red wine.  The acids in the vinegar and wine help leach out the minerals from the bones and dissolve the connective tissue.

I let the stock stand for about an hour, then I put it on medium heat and skim off any foam that arises.  Then I lower heat to low simmer and cook it pretty much for three days.

Reduction stock reducing...

Strained, finished product!  I give myself a pat on the back if it gels, if it doesn't, I take it as a sign I used too much water and didn't reduce it enough.  If it doesn't gel, I'll add some knox gelatin when I'm heating it up to serve.  It makes good gravy, crock pot foods, etc.; but to serve to the children and get the most mileage out of it, I put an inch of filtered water in a mug, stir in a tablespoon of miso paste (our kids love mello white miso the most), heat up two ladles-full of bone soup in a pot until warm (not hot) and stir together.  I've also been putting a spoonful of coconut oil into it (anti-inflammatory, super-healing).  I make sure the soup isn't too hot, because the miso is probiotic, so you don't want to kill off the friendly bacteria (they like you!).  I hold the mug, while we all take sips until it's gone.  I make it first thing in the morning, before and after each meal, for snacks... I try to get as much of this soup into us as I can.  I give us a vitamin C with the soup, figuring that the soup gives them the constituents to grow and repair anything necessary (teeth!) and the vitamin C aids healing and helps their bodies use the soup to heal.

These are some of the bones from the cow foot.  You can tell that the collagen and connective tissue holding the bones together has dissolved, along with the marrow in the center of the bones.
I wish I could say that I used all bones from only grassfed animals, I know that's the ideal and I do when I can.  When I can't, I don't want perfect to ruin good, so I use what I can get my hands on and afford.

I started picking at this batch on day 2, as our daughter started coughing.  She has had pneumonia a few times, so when I hear her cough, I get nervous.  The soup is more of a help than the Mucinex I have on hand at the Doctor's suggestion, or Albuterol or saline breathing treatment.  Yaay soup!

So Far, So Good!

Well, it's been a week and so far, so good! 

I've ordered some books in the "Things Every First Grader Should Know" series, and have started looking into the common core requirements.  My focus is on developing their critical thinking skills and exposure to lots of information-- cultivating interests, but I also know that the world we live in requires occasional standardized tests.  I want to make sure they do well when it's their time to take the CRCT's.

I was worried about the prospect of homeschooling again, because there's an element of wicked sibling rivalry with my son and daughter... and although this is comforting in a backwards way (I'm convinced that the more siblings fight, the closer they'll be in the long run), this can be a hard dynamic to manage when they're in competing-for-attention-and-resources mode.  As much as I'm able to, I try to defuse the tension with humor (one of my favorites is to tell them that I'll go get a knife and cut open my belly, and they'll have to take off their shoes and curl up small, but I'll stuff them back in; when they're fighting over mama cuddles).

So far, I have actually really enjoyed this week, myself-- I have not contemplated sticking my head in the oven even once, or had any spa-vacation escape fantasies.  I have been dilligent about administering cod liver oil and feeding them only nutrient-dense foods, have a pot of bone soup going, took a field trip to a real health food store (an hour away) to procure some provisions.

The kids have been engaged in lots of fun projects-- I let them dig up my flower bed and replant them in 'flower pots' they constructed out of my garden bricks... we looked at the roots of the plants and talked about the different parts of the plant and their function; reading, math, music... 

So far, so good!

New Appreciation for Dr. Seuss

I've always loved Dr. Seuss's books.  The rhyming, the silly, fuzzy, people-ish creatures, the nonsense, Dr. Seuss really has it all. 

Sometimes when we're reading and practicing fluency, I worry that my daughter is just remembering and parroting to me, instead of actually sounding out and reading (I've caught her 'reading' books for school whilst looking elsewhere other than ze book). 

The nonsense element really keeps my daughter engaged, and I can really see her working to pronounce those kooky words and names, like, "Van-Vleck".

Cheers, Dr. Seuss!

The advantages of biphasic sleeping

The prospect of rejoining homeschooling with older children was daunting, because they're beyond typical nap age.  During the course of a normal day, I'm overwhelmed and twitching in the corner by 5pm. 

By this time my 4 year old will have taken off his clothes multiple times and will be jumping off the furniture pretending to be a 'penis bird', there will have been multiple squabbles over toys, complaining about dinner, the weather (it's too cold, it's too hot, it never snows), doing 'nothing fun', as I wrestle with them to make sure my daughter's homework is done (and my son does his best to derail the process by chirping loudly, singing, etc), my daughter tattling on my son, telling me all the bad words he's said (curses like a sailor) even though I'm in the same room and I've heard it; they're washed, and in bed by 7:00 or 7:30 so they are fresh by 6am.

This schedule left me struggling to figure out what to cook for dinner, much less study (I'm enrolled in an online program, myself).  So I have instituted a nap policy.  The first day, I had to wrestle the little one down, and after the fights over who-gets-to-cuddle-up-closer-to-mama subsided (I've never been so popular!), we actually had a lovely nap!  Eureka!  We woke up refreshed and I had more brain power to figure out what to make for dinner and study-- they were noteably less cuckoo... it worked really well!

I'm sure our cavemen ancestors were polyphasic or biphasic sleepers, this definitely feels more natural (and hard for me to accomplish on a strict time schedule).  Naps, yaay!!

Now I don't have to worry as much if they're tired in the morning, because we can get done what we can in the morning,  and resume learning after a cuddly nap :0)!

So far, my daughter fights me less over getting dressed in the morning (we still walk out friend in the neighborhood to school)-- which I don't understand, but I'm glad.

I signed my child out of public school today...

I signed my child out of public school today.  It is a wonderful school, there's a wonderful supportive learning community there-- We're in the South, so even the more difficult children have good manners here, so it's a lovely environment-- but the condition of her teeth has really suffered since she's been in public school. 

I had homeschooled her before we moved here for a year, and I think she really missed the freedom to explore that we had with homeschooling, so I was considering it as a possibility for next year... until I was in the pediatric dentist's office for a second opinion and treatment plan, yesterday.  When they started talking about root canals, and possibly strapping her to their 'papoose board', I kind of freaked out.

I try my best to be a fierce advocate for my kids, so I made sure the x-rays were explained to me, and this was not some invisible cavity problem (when I was a child, my mother was told I had four invisible cavities, and she noticed that every child in and out of the office while we were there had the same amount of cavities, and heard the dentist bragging about his new speedboat).

If the dental interventions are really necessary in the future, I'll support that-- but at this moment I have a child who is not in pain, or exhibiting any sensitivity issue, and so I'm going to do my best to strictly adhere to the principles that Dr. Weston Price advocated, and see if we can't remineralize those teeth or at the least stop the advance of decay.