Traditional foods::baby

If there is one thing that's confusing for me, its how and when and what to feed a baby.  I have done it all.  Extended breastfeeding and no gluten and zero solids until after 15 months.  Vegetarian only starting at six months including all whole grains.  "Whatever we have" starting at six months, including all grains.  Here we are again and I think it will be different.  He will eat like us.  Aiming for traditional foods.  He has had some juicing foam of carrots and apples.  A lick here and there of peaches, bananas, avocado, a pear but, this morning, I gave him a soft cooked egg yolk with sea salt, deliberately, off a spoon. 

Nourishing Traditions (from my amazon bookstore/home page) says it is an excellent first food for baby's brain.  If you cannot get a farm fresh, bug eating, pastured chicken egg, an omega-3 to omega-6 balanced egg from the grocery store is beneficial(that's what this egg was today for him).  Long chain fatty acids, that's what you get.  "Many researchers, most notably the eminent Dr. David Horrobin, have warned that adequate EPA and DHA in the diet of infants is needed to prevent learning disabilities and defects in visual function."  Cholesterol is needed for the "optimal development of the nervous system"  Start at four months, a daily egg yolk.  "It is the yolk that contains the beneficial fatty acids.  The proteins in the white of the egg may be difficult to digest until baby is older."  ~Nourishing Traditions pg. 605 "Feeding Babies"  The book also talks about gruel made from soaked flour/grains and meat formula made with bone broth.  I wonder the length of breastfeeding as that is not mentioned in the studies quoted.  I also think that extended breastfeeding makes a difference in offering a  new baby optimum health.  Get ready for more egg yolks Donovan!  Love you my sweetie boy!

Habit training gone wackadoo

Charlotte Mason says that habit training is...

“What you would have the man become, that you must train the child to be” (Vol. 2, p. 15)

For some time now, I have a regular routine of "morning chores"..they all know what I am talking about.  Little habits of neatness that make my day start right.  Little things that make our personal space more, happy?  Is that the word?  I do these things without thinking.  I do these things for visual harmony and also for my husband's relaxation or to induce it anyway even if we have three little indians running wild in through the house when he gets home, atleast it looks less chaotic.  More importantly, there is a time to play/make messes and a time to clean up and start over or change gears.  Anyway, the list is this:

Morning Chores

• Make beds
• Dress/hang up jammies or fold up for the next night
• Feed/water cats
• Breakfast
• Back upstairs to brush teeth/hair

And while upstairs, I get dressed and they play a game like Old Maid or Tangoes or Legos or a Richard Scarry or B. Potter video, sometimes just quiet free play and reading...there are variations on those things depending on the mood.  Sometimes I wonder if farm families really care about all this with all the land and animal chores waiting outside..hummmmm.

This is the wacky part.  For over a month, mostly consistently, the boys have been completing all before they come down for breakfast!!  Great.  Saves time and no hassle for me to lead them through it, right?  Well, this is the really wacky part.  They even make my bed sometimes!  See example below!  Remember, the boys are almost 8 and almost 5 but not yet.  Feeling good about my routine, right?  Now it gets, wackadoo.

Recently, they have confessed (is it really a confession or just they wanted me to know I think) that they get up in the wee hours of the night, get dressed, make their bed and cover themselves with a blanket and go back to sleep.  This way, the boys contend, there is less to do in the morning.  What??  Hold on now.  I do recall, in his bachelor days, their father did something similar and has told them about it.  Did they remember that sage advice?  I am not sure.

I told them that we have plenty of time in the morning since I homeschool so we are not rushing off to school.  We are here to cultivate habits and we can get these things done and they don't need to do that in the middle of the night.  They just look at me.  I have not asked recently if they have done it.  I usually get up before them and occasionally look in on them and so far, have not seen them atop the bed with a blanket and dressed so it does not happen all the time I think.

I don't think they are stressed with my habit training.  They don't get angry or resentful about it but just seem to know, it has to be done so they were being...practical.  I keep it nice, friendly but steady but maybe I am just a wee bit too habitual for my own good!  Now the details of things like putting the lid back on the toothpaste, flushing the toilet every, single time, pick up a toy in your room when finished with it (you know, the kind of toy with a 100 pieces scattered hither and yon)...things like this, well, the training goes on and on. 

I am trying to feel happy about this one gone a little overboard for now and not worry over it. It is really cute, really.

I cannot leave her out on the subject of habit training.  She is not the least bit interested in the potty which is okay with me.  The time will come when she will want to with gusto just like the boys.  She does have a habit of bringing me all supplies to change her though.  I can live with that for now.  She also unloads her dresser drawer to get dressed in the morning..thats a start.  It's fun and funny.

Is there anything you have taught your children that has stuck really, really well?  Please share!  Got ideas on the toilet flushing thing?



Bible Book Song and Chore Listing

My sister sent me this link to a YouTube of Bible Songs or all the books of the Bible, in order as written in the Bible and then, set to music.  It is a funky song that somehow reminds me of The Beatles.  Listen to it here.  In fact, often I turn up some music to change the grumpy mood that can set in among our tribe.  You know mama.  One child is not happy about something and then it just spreads among the others like a plague.  So, get some music on to change it.  It works every time, every time.  I used it this morning as the boys were fussing about the almost three year little sister who was wrecking their Lego paradise.  As if that won't happen again...sigh.  This will be a fun song to play repetitively through our days so they can learn the names and maybe the order..maybe I will too.  There was a song about the 50 Nifty United States that I believe I learned when I was about 8 years old or in second grade.  To this day, I still know it and can now teach it to my children.  I used to know how to play along on my old guitar too.  I wish to dust that thing off too and play at times but that still has stops and starts to it...as you may have read in the last post, my fingers are busy knitting and what fun all that can be for me!

Chore listing.  What is that?  Charlotte Mason has written much on the value of habit training.  Go to this link to read on about natural consequences and soak up why we should value it in teaching our children.  And, sadly, I see children when I am out and about, who just have not had much training.  They seem to "grow like weeds" as a friend said to me one day.  Besides that very hands on story, what about obedience and submission to the Lord?  These values are imparative.  Children should be permitted to be messy, uncoordinated, sloppy, forgetful and silly but that does not mean that at a young age, we do not "train" them up right.  In keeping with those thoughts and beliefs, I have realized that along with teaching Financial Peace, Jr. from Dave Ramsey, order here, I needed a definitive, monetarily tied chore list.  A list that they can choose from, on their own, in order to gain cash.  So my hope is that it won't just be me doling out chores but they can choose to work and reap the benefits, and the cash money.  I also have a new reader who can read these to his younger sibs so there will be no assistance from me in choosing to take the needed initiative.  So here is my list so far, it is very short and carefully thought out, all ages and abilities considered.  It is not finished, there is plenty to add!! :

Fold laundry load and sort into piles $.75
Collect garbage cans with lids and put back behind gate, close gate $.50
Mommy or Daddy back massage ;-)  $1.00  (so far, my favorite!)

Do you have a list to share that you tie a money value to for your children to choose from on their own?  Please share as I would love the help!  I do have chores that they are expected to do and not get paid for such as get dressed, make bed, feed/water cats, brush teeth...and all the details of those chores that still require coaching.

What he did

I am still a little shocked at this behavior.  My second born was motivated by what, I still do not know and can only speculate.  My first born is still "feeling" it in more than one way.

We have a secured bookcase that the boys, like it or not, love to perch on and read/play or even take leaps to the floor..sometimes dropping army guys with parachutes..."Mom, it is the best spot!" they plead.  One morning, Winston was reading/playing on top the shelf and Gunnar was directly below reading quietly...until, all broke loose.  Gunnar wailed in pain suddenly and came to me with Winston soon behind with a tone of voice that indicated his intentions and then his words, he was sorry.  One of these,

a sturdy cedar tree section pencil holders made by John and Cheryl Amelang, right on his noggin!  Ouch.

And boy, was he hot!  He gets really mad and I would too...it was surprise attack in his mind...although, an accident.

And here is where the shock comes.  Winston made what I would call, a trail of apology..of sorts.

 As you walk along, first there is a smiley made of blocks...

 then a frown...

 then a sweet smiley again and,

 a collection of books, toys and a favorite copy of Gunnar's Calvin and Hobbes library and his own loved handmade Hobbes.  So sweet.  It made a big difference to Gunnar.  He really appreciated it and the brothers carried on their friendship! 

Focused Attention::Montessori Style

In Montessori style education, a big part of it relies on the parent/teacher creating a prepared environment. But, sometimes the environment prepares itself.

Once per month, I host the delivery, unpacking, sorting and tallying up of a large Frontier order of home and body products. This is for my family and several others. My children help me with this order more or less. Everything from using my calculator to make "tickets" to playing with all the corn and water soluble "peanuts" packing material to even kind of..sort of...helping me sort.

Today, to my surprise, we had an enormous amount of "peanuts" and the children made three box "boats" full of them for creative play while I worked on the order sorting. Much of this stuff went all over my craft room, spilling to the other two adjacent rooms too and I just kind of walk through it, contain it to the room as much as possible so it is not all over the downstairs, and then we deal with it when I am finished with every one's order.

Much more to my surprise, with less coaxing than what can be more typical with a dirty job unwanted, I suggested to my seven year old that he get a trash bag, his dust pan and, begin to shovel it and bag it up. The bag pictured is the result and that is a tall kitchen bag full and tied by him without complaint! He even told me he was hungry but was going to finish. I could not help but to tell him after he had worked for quite a while that we would have cookies and milk afterwards....but, I have to say, he did not seem to be too concerned about the snack but more about focusing on getting his work done. He even was patient with his little brother in admonishing him for his help...sometimes, there are blessed times like these.

Thank you Lord for ways, unforeseen, unplanned but very useful to teach (in a relaxed playful way) focused attention. I believe these little exercises have potential to transfer to academics as well. We shall see.

Book Review: The Calorie Counter

More philosophy, er, ahem..evaluating.

"People cut calories by 10% when they simply write down what they eat; 30% to 50% of those who keep a food diary, change their eating habits."

Boring and extra work for me, but apparently it works. I kept a food diary in my first pregnancy and low and behold, I only had 12 pounds extra by about two weeks post-partum so I think there is some truth to this assertion. No more excuses. For example: I was only 33 yrs old at the time versus my age now... Easier said than done when the going gets tough but I am ready to deal with it. So there is an emotional component to this food thing?

"There is less risk in activity than continuous inactivity."

Time to stop and evaluate what I am doing and start to improve upon it so I can lose that extra weight gain which could eventually cause a chronic illness..the list is scary enough to motivate me. Heart disease, cancer, diabetes and others I cannot remember. But mostly, I just want to wear the pants my mind thinks I can still wear. But I don't want this to be about vanity in the midst of our lean/skinny celebrity culture either. I just want to be physically stronger. I just want my core to be stronger and my back challenges to be over. I have had intermittent chiropractic care since Win was born so that has been several years. I believe the weight loss and exercise will do wonders. Sounds simple, right? Why is this so hard?? In comes this book. I like the title. The Calorie Counter. Straight forward and to the point. My sister and I always say, as you get older you have to eat less and we know that but making it happen is going to take some work. Who knew? I don't think that this is the best book on the subject necessarily but it was available and I got the 4th edition here as a starting point. I prefer a book to something like Nutri Mirror as you see here. My midwife Toni has had great success using this online tool.

Back to The Calorie Counter. The book talks about what a calorie is and why it is important. It demystifies things like did you know..the French are getting fat? And, your metabolism does not slow down if you yo-yo diet. Okay..I can buy that. Seems to me the formula is simple. Less calories + more activity = weight loss and even muscle gain. Muscle burns more calories than fat even at rest. I like this idea. So first, I will evaluate my activities because I seem to think I am not active enough...huh? don't I have three small children??

Here is a list of activity and limited sedentary inactivity to qualify me as a moderately active woman:

• Grocery shopping
• Gardening: I sweep, pull weeds, trim hedges
• Tae Kwon Do 2 Xs per week
• 5 hours t.v. per week (too much t.v. generally = inactivity that could be activity..duh)
• House work
• Three small children = chasing, diapering (chasing to diaper) I am not sure how to break this section down into calorie burning units but I know there are some there.

The book illustrates how many calories per minute burned in an activity and encourages you to keep a goal of calories to burn each week and keep track of it. I just want to know how many calories my activities burn because my goal is to burn calories already. The list above is not an extensive one and I have other activities planned that don't always happen so I know that I can increase my calorie burn if I do them. Callenetics, Zumba and yes friends, I bought a Shake Weight! Hmn....maybe this is the problem? I need to do them? You are to aim to burn 500 to 1,000 calories per week and then double that as you become more fit. Okay. Tae Kwon Do. Let's analyze. The book gives you a table of activities. There is a top row of pounds listed. It says to take the activity you have done and the pounds/weight closest to your current weight, then multiply the calories burned per minute by how many minutes you were active....phew!, okay then if I practiced Tae Kwon Do for 45 minutes, then by my closest weight of 125 lbs. X 10.6 calories per minute = 477 calories burned and twice per week = 954 calories burned per week roughly. By the book, I am doing pretty well and that is just one activity! Whoo-hoo!!! What I like is that I can look up an activity that maybe I don't normally do and find a caloric burn for it to add to my total for the week. Done.

Now the food part. Ick. This is where I think I am having the problem. Too much food for the activity level to equal weight loss. Man! I love to eat! This would seemingly be easier to manage..eating less, rather than adding more activity to my day. I already mentioned my three very young children right? I will begin this today to log the calories I take in each day for one week..maybe two, to see what I am getting. I will not try to make it better by not eating something simple because I am logging but rather eat like I usually do and log it. I will add up calories at the end of the day, every few days or even at the end of the week to keep it honest. By my calculations, I should be getting about 1400 - 1500 calories per day. I do not count breastfeeding anymore since the nursling is now getting better than half her calories from table food by my count. Breastfeeding requires about 300-500 extra calories per day but I think shaving off about this much per day on my intake could just set the right trend for me without compromising her. If breastfeeding, there are other online ways to decrease calories while making sure your baby is well nourished and I would go there for that type of calorie counting when a baby is under one year old. The book list gobs of food with portions and corresponding calories. I cook often so don't know how I can qualify that part. I will have to see how this will work.

Here we go! Wish me well!

Habit Training and me

Habit of (somewhat) cleanliness and orderliness. Removing shoes (and bike helmet) at the door by W3. Now to show him the boot rack. ;-)

“Each of us has in his possession an exceedingly good servant
or a very bad master, known as Habit” (Vol. 4, Book 1, p. 208).

I just downloaded and began reading today, Charlotte Mason's free e-book, Smooth and Easy Days. I really appreciate reading it and knew it would be one of those encouragement books (in addition to daily Bible study) which is what a mother of very young children like me needs daily. Encouragement. Click here for more about Sonya Shafer's interpretations of Charlotte Mason on Smooth and Easy Days.

The book begins by mentioning how we teach our children a routine or schedule all the time. In the morning we brush our teeth, get dressed, make the bed, pick up our room and maybe, brush our hair. It is a routine I guide my little ones in daily, even the one year old with her six tooth brushing, and plan to add to in time. It is training in good health habits that in time I will not have to supervise as much and I have passed on the value of self care and dental care. It is important but Charlotte Mason takes it further. She talks of cultivating habits that are much larger in nature. Instead of tooth brushing, cultivate cleanliness. Instead of bed making, cultivate neatness. Instead of only daily living skills, deliberately (passively and actively) cultivate their character.

“Educate the child in right habits and the man’s life will run
in them, without the constant wear and tear of the moral effort
of decision. Once, twice, three times in a day, he will still, no
doubt, have to choose between the highest and the less high,
the best and the less good course. But all the minor moralities
of life may be made habitual to him. He has been brought up
to be courteous, prompt, punctual, neat, considerate; and he
practises these virtues without conscious effort” (Vol. 2, p. 124) from Charlotte Mason's books on education.

We know these things but for me, evaluating my progress is much more difficult. I am constantly striving to introduce more and cultivate (I love that word!) more but rarely see my children's progress or I am oblivious to it. Or maybe I just keep my eyes ahead and tend not to evaluate too much too soon. How often do you evaluate when your children are in the company of others? The checking up on their skills should be done in front of others and at home in privacy as well. Our standards should not only be improved by the behavior of others but we must develop our own standard as well and that requires self checking now and then to see where we are..where we are going and what to leave alone as age appropriate and what to work on today. Until, today and reading this book, I did not think enough about what I have accomplished without the positive prodding of my encouraging husband or a few good home school mom friends. How often are we more eager to criticize ourselves (and our children) than others are?

The book talks about making habits in the brain and compares forming habits to the habit you have of driving to the grocery store but not knowing how you got there...good example. Habits in you child can be created the same way. At some point they are habits..the child acts on auto-pilot.

“Every time we do a thing helps to form the habit of doing it; and to do a thing a hundred times without missing a chance, makes the rest easy” (Vol. 4, Book 1,
pp. 208, 209).
It stands to reason, then, that if you allow your child’s neurons
to take a wrong turn, you will not be reinforcing the correct route (in the brain).
To put it in habit-training language, the longer a habit is performed
without lapses, the stronger it becomes. So try to correct any
“wrong turns” immediately.

G6's habit of boots at the door. Cleanliness, orderliness? It counts.

“What we must guard against in the training of children is the
danger of their getting into the habit of being prodded to every
duty and every effort” (Vol. 3, p. 39).

Oh dear. Ha! Wasn't I training?

“Fred must train himself, and you must feed him with motives.
Run over with him what we have been saying about attention.
Let him know how the land lies; that you cannot help him, but
that if he wants to make a man of himself he must make himself
attend and remember. Tell him it will be a stand-up fight, for this
habit is contrary to nature. He will like that; it is boy nature to
show fight, and the bigger and blacker you make the other side,
the more will he like to pitch in” (Vol. 5, p. 96).

(re entry to this post today, February 2, 2010)

Attention is something we need to work on for good lifelong habits.

I am currently using the analogy of the 'fight' with G6. In his mind, he must use his swords and knives to fight his brain from wanting to forget and not remember some daily living skills that he needs to master. It is working with stops and starts. Until he finds a willing adult to let him relapse. I cannot stress enough how you must take time, energy and risk upsetting other adults in the young ones life to tell them about the things you are doing with habit training. One adult who is not clued in can set back the process. Fiddlesticks! Mom has to retrain ( and take the pains, time and energy to train) when that happens and mom is not a superhero..no, not really. She needs support and encouragement and more importantly, improvement from her child.

The habit training can begin as early as this. But first, a good nap improves all things. ;-)