The DISH on Fatty School Lunches

Wow–I only recently learned about the politics behind our childrens’ school lunches when I read a book called The Culprit and the Cure.  Here’s what I learned:

• The nation’s school lunch programs are funded separately from the education programs.  They are governed by the USDA
• The USDA’s mission is to promote the American cattle and dairy industries
• This means that their job is to help sell more beef and milk
• The USDA, therefore, published the “Food Pyramid” taught in schools all over America
• You can view this pyramid here; notice how milk/cheese products have as big a slot as veggies?

Some Harvard scholars, concerned about child nutrition decisions made by a government office, compiled actual knowledge about science and nutrition to build their own version of the food pyramid.  I trust their version a lot more than the USDA’s version, because the USDA courts all sorts of lobbyists and special interest groups and has a mission to promote meat and dairy.  Harvard just wants to help kids get healthy! 

You can view the Harvard pyramid here.  (Notice how the milk and cheese products are up at the top with the junk foods??)

For all you parents out there who are concerned about so much bad food in the schools, there are two organizations which I heartily endorse–please visit their web sites:

http://parentsagainstjunkfood.org/index.html
http://www.healthyschoollunches.org/

The Perfect Books for Summer Reading!

What a wonderful series of books I have discovered!  After a gruelling semester of full-time grad school and teaching children in my home school, my mother referred me to the enchanting Mitford book series as a great way to relax and enjoy the summer.  She was right!

I wish I could put into words the inspiring, even therapeutic, effect that this book has had on my soul in recent days, but it is impossible to describe.  My advice: go out and read this book yourself!  You won’t be disapointed! 

It says on the cover that At Home in Mitford (The Mitford Years, Book 1) is a New York Times bestseller–I am not at all surprised.  Millions of readers can’t be wrong! 

What are you waiting for?  Get down to your local library and get a copy!  This book is not to be missed!

Making History FUN!

Thanks to Susan Wise Bauer’s The Story of the World sets for children, history studies are like playtime for my children!  Some days, however, I find I don’t always have the time to get to the library and obtain Bauer’s “supplementary readings” (to go with each lesson) or do all the lesson activities the way I would like to.  But without additional readings or activities, children too easily forget what was learned during history lessons.  What to do?  Here is one solution:

Last year, I started assigning the children their own “personal reading assignments” that corresponded to our current history topic.  A favorite resource for these assignments were the Magic Tree House series guides.  Even for students whose reading levels have surpassed the Magic TreeHouse series, these guides make history fun!

I also let them look at some educational web sites with interactive history activities which also helped history come alive for my children and got me “off the hook” for not making it to the library like I want to!

What other resources could I be using to help reinforce our history lessons???  Please post and let me know!

Helen Keller Discovery

Big thanks to the New England Historic Genealogical Society for making this rare photograph and its story available to the public; it really added to our recent homeschool discussions about Helen Keller and our readings of her biography as well as that of Anne Sullivan:

http://www.newenglandancestors.org/hkeller_release_feb08v2.pdf

Daily Charts For Children

I hung these charts in my daughters’ rooms and they have been SO helpful!  The girls know that these charts have to be done before they can come downstairs and eat breakfast, so I don’t have to stand over them and say “make your bed, brush your teeth!” etc:

 

Then when it is time to start schoolwork after breakfast, these charts have to be checked off before play time starts:

Great Links 4 Parents

• Healthy Muffins:Thanks to Wardeh at the Such Treasures blog for her scrumptious yet uber-healthy Strawberry-Cranberry whole grain (sugar free!) muffins–my kids love these!  (Check out her recipes link–they’re all wonderful!)
• Kid-Friendly Listening: Special thanks to Joanne for posting a link to this great site!  Now my children can listen to the records I loved as a child!
• Living Without Television: Kudos to you, sis, for tossing the television in ’08!
• Kid-friendly shelves: Thanks, Trelease, for encouraging more books, more reading in homes everywhere!

On Using Time Wisely

Let’s talk about free time and how it is spent.  From my own informal polling, I have learned that most people spend it in front of the television, watching a movie, or reading a book if not out with friends to eat, drink, or see a production of some sort (stage, cinema, concert, etc.)

Philosopher Mortimer J. Adler often voiced concern about the way we use our leisure time.  In times past, laboring families worked from sun up to sun down to keep their families alive while wealthy classes enjoyed “leisure time” and gentlemen were considered “men of leisure.”  Today, however, ALL social classes are allowed time for leisure, but we don’t use it as Adler thinks we should. 

First of all, Adler said, we tend to confuse leisure with rest, mistakenly thinking that we have been “working for the sake of play, which is certainly a misconception of leisure [as] free time to kill in pleasure seeking.”   In the past, a person of leisure was one who spent their time learning the arts: science, mathematics, philosophy, theology, languages. etc.  (Think Thomas Jefferson, who, when not working as a politician/statesman, made himself into an expert architect, entomologist, linguist, and more–that’s how he used HIS free time)

So why do so many of us squander our time in pursuit of entertainment and amusements?  Why do we dedicate most of our “Free” time to pleasure-seeking pursuits?  Who taught us to seek constant entertainment as soon as we are done with our day’s work?

“There are limits in our recreation beyond which we cannot safely go.  They should be guarded in character and curtailed in frequency to avoid excess.  They should not occupy all, nor even the greater part of our time; indeed, they should be made incidental to the duties and obligations of life, and never be made a controlling motive or factor in our hopes and ambitions.”  —Joseph F. Smith (1838-1918)

Adler says our free time should be dedicated to learning.  I agree!  Once I got rid of the television, I started reading good books.  I followed the adult study program in a book called The Well-Educated Mind and I LOVED the things I was learning!  I soon found that without TV I had SO much free time that I was able to go back to school in pursuit of my Master’s degree–a much better way to spend those hours of leisure, no?

We have a family in our neighborhood whose father built them a large, new home and he did it in his spare time!  Every evening after work, instead of plopping down in front of the tube, he went to the library to study architecture and construction (he had never built anything before) and then he bought a plot of land and went to work.  It took him two years because he only had a few hours he could work on it each day, but those evenings were so well-spent that he is now going back to school to pursue a doctorate because he needs another project to fill his leisure time–he doesn’t want to find himself seeking amusements like so many do.

How else could a person use their leisure time?  Please comment and let me know–once I’m out of school, I don’t want to fall into the “amusements” trap again! 

*Author’s note: I am still a work in porogress; once finals were over last semester, I devoured three seasons of The Office on DVD–I’m still not as good at using my time wisely as I need to be!

The RIGHT way to use a calendar

If you have a bulletin board that looks like this, listen up!  My life got a whole lot easier after I learned the right way to use a planner/organizer.  Before, I used to write things in my planner, then forget to look in the planner, thus missing appointments, forgetting to return library books, and sending belated birthday cards to relatives and friends.  Now, however, I am much more organized because of Deniece Schofield’s organization ideas!

 In our world, according to Schofield, list-making is a popular pastime, but it rarely gets us anywhere.  All those grocery lists, to-do lists, reminder notes from school, wedding invites, and newspaper clippings, can cause us to lose control of our life and the home can get cluttered.  Schofield describes this mess perfectly:

Before you know it, you are overrun with lists and reminders.  You have recipes and lists written on the back of check deposit slips, on the bottom of Kleenex boxes, and in the margin of the newspaper.  The refrigerator is covered.  Notes on bulletin boards are stacked club sandwich style, and there’s a rubber band around your wallet to keep all the papers from falling out.  –Confessions of an Organized Homemaker: The Secrets of Uncluttering Your Home and Taking Control of Your Life,  p. 36

And so I implemented Schfield’s system and now I am able to juggle all the lists just fine.  Basically, you have to live out of your planner!  If the dentist gives you an appointment card, hurry and jot it in the calendar section of your planner, then throw it out! If you get a wedding invitation, jot it in the calendar then throw it out.  If you have library books to return, don’t set them on your countertop as a reminder (that makes clutter!); simply put them back in the bookbag and jot a reminder in your calendar to take them back.  If you have a coupon for a free loaf from the bakery, don’t stick it on the fridge!  Put it in your wallet, then jot a note on your errands list (also in the planner) to remind you to go get the free loaf.  Soon you’ll be looking in your planner more often, because you use it for everything!

Here’s another of my secrets:  The best planners out there are the Franklin-Covey planners, but they cost way too much for a frugal gal like me.  Luckily, Franklin-Covey sells more economical versions of their awesome planners at Wal Mart and Target.  (Note: I find the Target versions to be cuter–with matching totes and purses–, more durable, and with better page styles than the Wal Mart versions.) 

Thanks to Schofield’s book, my fridge has a clean, white front and I don’t have a bulletin board anywhere.  I do have a large calendar on my wall for “family” reminders so the kids know the date when doing homework and so husband knows what our plans/appointments are (because I don’t want him disturbing my planner!).

This next semester will be my first as a full-time grad student, so I am starting now to get my calendar pages and planner pages in order for the upcoming semester.  This is very important because in addition to grad school, I am still teaching my children at home, running a business, volunteering as president and newsletter editor of our homeschool group, training for a marathon, and taking piano lessons.  It all worked fine when I was a part-time student, but full time? Who knows?   I’ll let you know how it goes . . . . .

A Secret to Happier Children

  I say “A” secret because there are actually several secrets to happier children.  Today I am mentioning only one: reading.

According to best-selling reading specialist/scholar/textbook-writer Jim Trelease, “every time we read to a child, we’re sending a ‘pleasure’ message to the child’s brain.”  Contrast this with electronic media (television, video games, computer) which trigger adrenaline rushes instead, and decide which type of media is better for your child: print or electronic?

Studies cited in Trelease’s book, The Read-Aloud Handbook, also show that Americans have five more hours per day than they did ten years ago (24), so we cannot claim “I don’t have time to read to my kids!”  Reading just one story only takes three to five minutes, so there really is no excuse to let a single day go by without reading aloud to a child.

Not only does story time make children happier, but it also conditions the child’s brain to associate reading with pleasure, instills in the child background knowledge on a variety of topics, and builds the child’s vocabulary.  Electronic media does none of these!

“The Reading Mother” 

You may have tangible wealth untold:

Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.

Richer than I you can never be–

I had a mother who read to me.

                                                    –Strickland Gillilan

P.S.  Trelease’s book is the best guide for parents; it shows the best ways to read to each child (do you stop to explain new words or wait until after the story?), reviews children’s books so you can decide which titles to pick, and offers a ton of data on how reading will improve the life of your child . . . once you read this book, you’ll find turning off the television a lot easier!

The Successful Nap Time

I almost had a breakdown when my first child reached the age when she no longer napped.  How was I going to survive without those two hours of peace, quiet, and time to myself?

Thank heavens for good friends!  I learned from another mother about “Nap Time Backpacks.”

This mother told me that no matter what the child’s age, nap time is required of all her children (even older children still in the home because they homeschool).  For those who were too old to sleep during nap time, mom prepared a backpack full of things to do: books, crayons, notebooks, headphones and books on tape, even a non-messy snack.

Since I started using nap time backpacks, my children have continued to experience a “quiet time” of sorts in their rooms with these backpacks.  My gradeschoolers (who I am teaching at home) get backpacks filled with assignments that they can do on their own (reading, penmanship, etc.) and this is their quiet study time.  Either way, the children learn to be quiet for a spell and mom still gets time to herself.

I have a 3 year old daughter who will be four next year, but I am not dreading that age the way I used to!  I now know that I she will still work quietly in her room during nap time, even if she doesn’t want to sleep–yay!