Homeschool - First Week Re-Hash

I thought I'd better write the cool happenings of our first week down before we get into full swing this semester. I may need to look back on this week as an inspiration or motivation as we progress through what looks like a very busy schedule.

Four Cool Home school Things That Happened this week

1. We got to meet a distant relative of a survivor of the Titanic.

The great thing about it was Alex and I were just talking about how interesting the Titanic's Story was. Alex asked to go to the library to find more books to read on the event and as we were looking down the aisle we meet a lady and her three boys who were gathering books for their home school. As we chatted the subject of the Titanic came up and the sweet ladies eyes brightened as she said, "Check out Gordon Korman's books on this subject, my son has read everything about the Titanic that he can get his hands on, by the way, my Great Aunt was on the Titanic and was a survivor. "

2. We have laughed every day

We jokingly call our home school, Momma 'Shool' as pronounced by Megamind. If you've seen the movie you get the humor. Just paint me blue and envision me telling Alex to get ready for 'Momma Shool' and I hope you laugh like we do (Or maybe I am in my own humorous world).

3. Out For Lunch

We love that we get to eat and snack at home and that there is no set lunch schedule. We thought it was pretty neat we could go out to a restaurant if we wanted and not be rushed in order to get back to a class. For a treat we went out to lunch for my birthday.

4. Confidence

It is a new feel for us both but I see a new found confidence in my daughter. She tells me she likes this new feel and can't wait to see what is going to happen tomorrow.

Looking forward to Week two...

Homeschool- First Day of Fifth Grade

Well, I have a headache....

Yes, I feel like I could just go to bed and sleep and call it a day, BUT it isn't due to home school, I have the bee sting inflicted at our local pool the previous day to thank for that. The sting ensued into a sleepless night with a foot soak at a god-forsaken hour and high doses of Vitamin C to curb the pain. It felt like I rolled my ankle and touching the sheets with my foot was instant pain. I finally hobbled to my bed and managed two hours of decent shut-eye before the big First Day arrived.

With body pain behind me, the first day of home school seems promising. We were able to accomplish the first day's work in a well paced time format. No feeling rushed or lackadaisical or lost with the material. We still have our concerns about certain subjects but over all feel we have a handle and can maneuver through the gamut.

In fact, the day felt so normal, Alex associated the daily events as, "Summer but with Academics". I was happy to hear she was relaxed, to make sure there was no surprise, I gave a little foresight wisdom that the course material will get harder.

Fifth Grade Profile Picture: Growing Up 

We got up and got ready, ate breakfast together and sent Dad off with a, "love you and have a good day." We walked the dog for morning exercise, began our Reading and Writing section with Poetry selections of Henry Wordsworth Longfellow. Read Mark 1 and discussed what was going on in the chapter and took notes on the History book Discoverers and Explorers by Edward Shaw. This book opened up some pathways to my old days of school and helped me remember Prince Henry of Portugal, the Father of exploration who set up a school and launched the likes of Eric the Red.

We refreshed in Science what invertebrates and vertebrate animal classifications were about and discussed how a nervous system applies to the lesson. It was great to learn a new word, notochord; the rod of cartilage that supports your spinal chord and helps protect vertebrates nerves.

We even did a small music refresher and read a bit on woodwind instruments. I learned the piccolo is is considered by many to be the most difficult wind instrument to play.

She also was able to get a few minutes drum practice in before heading to her Math Class. (Not to mention, a run to the grocery store)

As we were at the computer, reading, talking, hanging out and giggling, Alex came up with these pros herself for homeschooling.

PROS
1) I can ask a question right away
2) I feel comfortable at home
3) I can snack whenever I am hungry
4) I can call my teacher (Mom) a wacko and she won't get mad
5) I can get my work done in about 4 hours compared to 7 hours
6) I don't really have any homework

Fifth Grade Home School Year Book: A Fresh Beginning

Mom's Pro List

1) I can be the teacher and class-clown

2) I can oversee what is being taught

3) I get to hang-out with a pretty cool person all day

4) Homeschooling lines up with my life motto: Simplicity 

5) No agenda but learning 

6) Opportunities are endless

A con we both worry about is making friends. It can feel a little lonely out here in home school land. I think we'll be fine though, pro-active people usually take a con and turn it around in their favor. 

The journey continues....

Stay tuned as we explore, discover and make new trails. We may run into a few bumps and bruises along the way but that's all part of the adventure....right?!

Health 101: Must Read to Proceed Continued...

If you did your homework and read Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, good job. I hope it had a great impact on how you think about food.

I would like to present some resources that seem to contradict Weston A. Price but when thoroughly researched shows it has some parallel correlations. Before I list them, I have found that when someone takes a hard line on one side of the nutrition extremes they can miss out on the benefits of the other side of the extreme. One of my tips in the first post was to use a form of moderation and common sense. This applies here. Hopefully, I can bring that nutrition pendulum to the center.

This end of the nutrition spectrum mostly talks about those darn vegetables that everyone snubs their noses at. The resource I am about to recommend promotes a vegetarian diet. There are a lot of different 'kinds' of vegetarianism out there.  The list consists of: Semi-Vegetarianism with sub groups of Pollo or Pesco-pollo, Lacto-Ovo, Lacto-Vegetarian and Vegan. I won't go into too much detail but refraining from meat or animal products on some level is the gist of them all.

 Before dispensing with the information I want to take a moment to give a few thoughts on this topic.

Vegetarianism: A Perspective

I'll make this cut and dry. There is a place for vegetarianism in the human food cycle, but totally staying away from animal products is a detriment. How can you say such a contradictory statement, you ask? Let me explain.

Genesis  1:29-31 refers to a vegetarian diet as the one set-up originally for mankind. Genesis 3, The Fall of Man occurs sending perfection out the door, Man as well as the Earth is cursed. God supplies Adam and Eve with their first provision through animal skins. The human race is now left to deal with the effects of the curse, God helps man through Laws given in Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Some of which reference food, Leviticus 11 is great place to read about it. Jump forward to the New Testament and Peter's vision and message from God in Acts 10 really makes a case for what food is good for health.

Where I think people get hung up on a strict vegetarian diet (especially if you are a christian) is not living in reality. Yes, God made His original creation perfect and vegan, if I must be technically correct, yet we must realize we are not in the Garden of Eden, we are still living under a cursed Earth that is in the state of being brought back to perfection. Since we are in the middle of this renovation, God being the wonderful Father He is tells us what to do while we wait it out.

This mixed diet we are allowed to consume doesn't negate the wonderful benefits of vegetarianism, since one day this will be the ONLY diet necessary (just not yet). This is why I love the following research because it goes into the healing qualities the plants and seeds can produce.

I would also like to end my perspective with Ecclesiastes 3. There is a time for everything. I do believe there is merit in eating a strict vegetarian diet to cleanse and heal the body for a time and for specific ailments, but once the healing process shows signs of a stable body there is nothing wrong with adding animal products.

Molecule Display
Photo by: net_efekt

Orthomolecular Wonders

The next phase of homework is found in the research of brilliant scientific minds such as: Dr. Abram Hoffer, Dr. Frederick Klenner, Dr. Max Gerson, Linus Pauling winner of The Nobel Prize in Chemistry and The Noble Peace Prize. The list goes on. These wonderful scientists explored the realm of vitamins, found in those pesky veggies and seeds and really took off with their research. They battled everything from Cancer, Diabetes, Heart Disease, Epilepsy, Depression; you name it they researched, tested, documented and even had their findings replicated and peer reviewed.

Where to find this glut of scientific research and case studies with patient results is on the Orthomolecular Website and through Dr. Andrew Saul's website. Read everything you possibly can on both these websites, the information can't be found in the Medical Journal of Medicine, this research has been black listed and tagged as 'quackery'.  (Hint: Use Common Sense, Why would this valuable research from very smart men who understand the scientific method be blackballed?)

As a helpful note, orthomolecular is a term that comes from ortho, which is Greek for "correct" or "right," and "molecule," which is the simplest structure that displays the characteristics of a compound. So it literally means the "right molecule."  (Studying how cell structure uses nutrients to build, repair and heal is a way to think about orthomolecular 'medicine'.)

The Must Read Resources:
Prerequisite Video: Nova's Hunting the Elements 
(A basic understanding of chemistry and how elements react)
Read this supportive article for Orthomolecular Chemistry processes
Orthomolecular.org
DoctorYourself.com

I only hope that pendulum has swung to the middle after reading these thoughts and suggestions. I hope that one can begin to see the benefit in the use of both nutritional philosophies. I find it absolutely awe-inspiring there is a wide world of nutrients found in plants and animals and both are beneficial for health and healing. Finding the balance for your own body is a science experiment in it's own right but one that can easily be done with organic, healthy wondrous food.

Update: I would like to stress, I recommend eating your nutrients in whole form BUT when you are ill or in the hospital and need to boost your immune system, I believe the ortho-molecular method is a fine method. There is great debate as to the 'natural' make-up of absorbic acid (Vitamin C) and other supplements. Read this article for more information on how Vitamin C in particular is made... The point I like to stress is made clearly in this quote,  " (to) use 40,000 milligrams (mg) of orange juice C, instead of 80,000 mg of synthetic ascorbic acid, is impractical, bordering on the impossible.  It would be too expensive, either to manufacture all this from oranges, or to eat from the oranges. It would take roughly 600 oranges to obtain 40,000 mg of vitamin C." 

When you are ill, when you are in need of nutrients because of deficiency, mega-dose vitamin therapy is a practical method to begin with. Since our food system is extremely depleted of nutrients and obtaining the amount of nutrients needed to sustain health is difficult, this method should not be ignored but implemented when needed. (the side effects, minimal if you ask me, outweigh the side effects of pharmaceutical drug therapy).


OR do this…
Make your own Vitamin C….Read article below..

http://www.naturalnews.com/049100_vitamin_C_citrus_peels_enzymes.html

Health Education 101: Must Read To Proceed

Here are a few titles for this post that obviously didn't make it but helps give a clearer perspective for those that find themselves reading it, "Since You've Taken the Red Pill..." or "Should-a, Could-a, Would-a..." or my personal favorite, "There Is A Logical Answer For That Malady And The Cure Is Based in Food... ."

Swiss Farm 

It is common knowledge that there can be extremes in fields of thought and the nutrition field definitely has its pendulum swing. Hopefully,  I can help manage this aspect of the nutrition world by stating the following tips as you read the references I suggest; common sense, moderation and learning to 'listen' to your body should be your 'filters'.

Books For The Library ( in my house, the bookshelf)

I have a hard time putting these in any particular order because they are all rich with information. I will begin with the one that was the first to open my eyes to a problem I was wondering about and dealing with concerning my daughter.

Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by: Dr. Weston A. Price

My daughter was dealing with an under bite and her top jaw was growing slower than her lower jaw. I had an over bite and needed braces when I was an adolescent and I knew my husband had braces but I was wondering why my daughter had a more severe problem and at an early age. A dear friend told me to read this book for the answers to why modern man has dental cavities and malocclusion's. I had some nutritional background from my family and knew certain aspects of what to do, what not to do but this book was the kicker for my personal journey in really understanding how important food is for health.

This book not only directed the spotlight on the answers to my questions about my daughter's dilemma but flooded me with answers to so many other questions concerning health. I was like a sponge. I was constantly in awe at the simple yet profound work of Dr. Weston A. Price. I kept saying to myself, 'No wonder there are reproductive problems, genetic abnormalities, behavioral disruptions... It all has to do with our FOOD System.'

The traditional wisdom taught in this book when implemented can save a family financial woes as well as set-up generational wealth in the form of health. I only wish I had this book before I decided to have children. It is available for free by the project Gutenberg press. Click HERE to read it. Take your time and let it sink in and really look at those pictures, it will bring the point home.

When your done reading the research of Dr. Weston A. Price and want to start implementing your new found food paradigm, Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon and Mary Enig is the recipe book for you.

If you can't get enough information and want to delve in to highly scrutinized research the next step is to read as many articles on the Weston A. Price Foundations website as you can. (It can take a while, I'm still reading) One of my all time favorite articles is, On the Trail of the Elusive X-Factor: A Sixty-Year-Old Mystery Finally Solved, written by Chris Masterjohn. This article will satisfy the Science Geek in you; it has the tests, chemical reaction charts along with the whys and the how's.


Oh my, this post is getting long... I will have to extend Health Education 101: Must Read To Proceed for another post... These MUST READ books and articles can keep one busy for a lifetime. I'll let it sink in for awhile before proceeding with the next MUST READ selection.

Achieving Health- A Starting Point

These posts may come off as a bunch of rambling on a large topic that can take years of research and is fraught with debate. I hope that some of the rambling can take out some of the seeming complication that is attached with trying to achieve health in this modern age.

I am not a doctor, a trained nutritionist or guru of any sort.  My interest in human health has its' roots in family history, especially on my Mom's side. My grandparents grew up in the Minnesota Farmlands, ate what the land provided for them and also researched the gamut of medical and nutrition literature available at the time. My interest also stems from not being able to afford health insurance. Sure it can be fearful living not having this modern necessity but before you lecture me on not being responsible, things happen in life that may seem so wrong on the outside but push us to learn and step outside the box and trust.

My focus in this post is on chronic ailments and disease. (Injuries are another matter). I don't claim to have THE answer or claim to be the most perfect specimen and have no problems, but what I want to get across is that through my experiences and self experimentation, you can rely on yourself for figuring out how to deal with issues as they arise and heal yourself through food.

I have read accounts of people being sent home to die with late term cancer, a mother not willing to give up on her terminally ill daughter poisoned by chemicals, out of control diabetes and heart conditions all corrected and fully healed by FOOD therapy.

Photo By: Designkryt

A Basis for Critical Thinking About Health- A Starting Point

God made the human body with amazing healing capabilities. He also made an environment that produces the catalyst for proper health; FOOD. This is as simple as it gets. The quote by Hippocrates can not define it more clearly, " Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food."  He gets to the nitty gritty, no NEED to look elsewhere to heal ailments.

Where the complication in Food healing occurs is when man manipulates God's original design. When we cut corners, (pesticides, hormones, large plot farming without resting the land-which leads to soil nutrient depletion, mass-production instead of local farming, genetic manipulation) we are the ones to reap the harmful outcomes. This is why organic farming and produce is so important. When you do it right, the soil is full of ALL the nutrients needed to grow healthy produce which retains those nutrients that get passed to your system when you eat it in it's most natural state, raw.

If one living system is depleted of nutrients, the trickle down effect results in deficient nutrients. Since health and food are symbiotic, the root of illness, is nutrient deficiency and toxicity in the system.

To heal your ailment the first part of the puzzle is to clean the body (cells) of toxins so it can accept nutrients. The second part of the puzzle is to find out what your body is lacking, what your nutrient deficiencies consist of.

The simple fact is, you may not even need to know specifically what the deficiency is. Once detoxifying begins and nutrient rich foods (a fast way to send nutrients through the system is through the bloodstream, this is accomplished best through juicing vegetables or IV Vitamin C therapy) enter the system, your cells recognizes this natural function and begins to repair.


Pitfalls of Modern Health

• Due Diligence: Failing to do your own thorough research
• Wanting the 'expert' to fix it for you
• Believing you are not smart enough to figure out what your body needs 
• Reverting to a placebo (pills) 
• Accepting band-aid treatments instead of dealing with the root cause
• Not going the full distance

I hear this saying almost as if it was a 'mantra', "Being healthy today is so complicated." There is some merit to this saying but it is not entirely true. The complication stems from scientific gobbledygook, ignorance, suppression of information, oppression of truthful case studies and treatments or lack of self- discipline. Please understand, I do not say this to diminish experts in their field, or bash the medical field, or make you think I'm better than you and really have a handle on this health thing. I struggle with this saying as well but know that it is not to be used as an excuse.

So how does one filter out the propaganda, the quackery, weed through the jargon and really get to the nitty gritty of it all?

It DOES start with research, laying fear aside so you can think clearly, setting up a system of checks and balances, implementing your findings through self experimentation, allowing flexibility in tweaking to your bodies needs and a stubborn resolve to discipline yourself.

This is a Starting Point...Next, where to begin educating yourself...

Self Education Encouragement

BEN FRANKLIN

Photo By: Designkryt

I read, The Autobiography and Other Writings of Benjamin Franklin as part of my Summer relaxation by the pool.  It is a small hobby of mine to learn what people thought and what influenced them to think a certain way; Ben is a big character to tackle. Despite the plethora of information about this multi-talented man I wanted to focus on his views of education.

This year is a big year for my daughter and me. Fifth grade will commence with school held right here under my own roof. We've taken the leap, started something fresh and we feel the gamut of emotions typical of a new adventure. I thought reading about Ben's successful accomplishments may just give a morale booster as we prepare for the unknown.

First, let me list some of those accomplishments. Keep in mind he only had two years of formal schooling and the rest of his education was self taught.

• Printer and Tradesman (He was so successful he retired comfortably at the age of 42)
• Alderman; councilman, Burgess, justice of the peace (elected member of Municipal Council) 
• Founded public institutions: fire company, militia, college and hospital
• Inventor, Scientist: Electricity is his best known interest but he also dabbled in; Medicine-yellow fever, cancer. Weather -astronomy, The Gulf Stream,  formation of raindrops, hot-air balloons. Studied- sleep, magnetism, surface tension, demography, heat absorption. Invented- tool for retrieving books from high shelves, a 'copy' machine for handwritten devices. Writer of various topics- Agriculture, chess,military strategy, literary style, silkworms, ice boats etc... He wrote pieces for his brothers newspaper under the name, Mrs. Silence Dogood' at the age of 16. He also wrote Poor Richard's Almanac.
• Post Master General
• Public Library Founder
• Received by five Kings
• Awarded Honorary degrees by six Universities
• Philosopher
• Founding Father
• Ambassador to France

This information tells me quite a bit. It tells me with the proper motivators and self discipline education will happen naturally. 

A letter written to Ben Franklin from a close friend (Benjamin Vaughan) encouraging him to write his autobiography explains the gusto behind Ben's large success. Vaughan calls this, "man's private power..and goes on to say, "But your biography will not merely teach self education, but the education of a wise man.." ( pg. 80) essentially he is advocating personal responsibility.

Although Franklin never comes out and says it in plain terms, thinking for oneself is a virtue. (Critical thinking in today's terms)

Vaughan compliments this thought with his supportive statement, "School and other education constantly proceed upon false principles, and shows a clumsy apparatus pointed at a false mark; but your (Franklin's) apparatus is simple...."

The simplicity of the thought that learning should be enjoyable and unhampered with agendas is refreshing. Finding out for oneself, taking responsibility, asking questions, observing other's with foresight are all virtues to aid in our upcoming adventure in homeschooling.

Franklin's list of accomplishments is a bar to be admired I can only wonder at what we will accomplish?