Today is a day to remember Saint Nick.  Our family enjoys his memory.  Saint Nicholas was a man of Christian faith who truly cared about people.  He lived in 300 A.D. and was the Bishop of Myra, in what is now modern-day Turkey.  History states that he helped three poor girls by throwing three bags of gold through their window to give them a wedding dowry to spare them from a dire future.  Legend also states that townspeople would leave out their shoes so Bishop Nicholas would leave some coins in them.  Saint Nicholas became famous for his secret gift giving.  Have you ever received a truly secret gift?  I have.  Someone left me a wonderful present on my doorstep that today continues to be one of my favorite memories.  I cherish it every time I use it.  It was given in love and intended to encourage me.  It did, and continues to warm my heart even though it was many years ago.  We have been reading On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder during shared reading time.  Ma taught Mary and Laura a valuable lesson one Christmas on the prairie.  She stated, “Whenever anyone was unselfish, that was Santa Claus.”  May we all have the spirit of Saint Nicholas this Christmas.

An inexpensive gift that will give you and your child hours of fun is a paper airplane book.  We bought ours on Amazon, and I believe the shipping was more than the book!  The title of the book is KIDS’ Paper Airplane Book by Ken Blackburn and Jeff Lammers.  Both are engineers and wonderful designers of great flying paper airplanes.  The book is colorful and creative.  This was money well spent!  A class of third grade boys and girls could not get enough of it.  They were truly fascinated.  One of my co-workers, who had taught for 35 years, used to have a telescope set up on the front porch of his classroom in the morning for early arrivals.  It was neat to see the latest astrological event through his high-end telescope. (It was his Teacher of the Year prize for his classroom).  If your child/student is interested in space, consider a telescope for Christmas.  Perplexus is a maze game in a transparent plastic ball that will challenge your child/student.  We call this one the “try, try, try” game.  It will teach you about perseverance while trying to get the metal marble to the end and avoiding many challenging obstacles.  Additionally, I have listed on earlier blogs and on the Curriculum Guide page, a variety of wonderful books for kids.

Who doesn’t enjoy hands on learning?  Here are some good ideas for Christmas to better educate your family.  Board games can be wonderful learning tools.  We bought the Sorry Game to teach about math, counting, order, following rules, and good sportsmanship.  Battleship is a great way to teach the use of ordered pairs in Math.  Scrabble is a challenging game that stretches vocabulary and spelling skills.  Monopoly is a time-consuming game that teaches about real estate investments.  We bought a Science Wiz kit from Michael’s about Inventions.  There were four experiments.  The kit made an electromagnetic motor, a telegraph, a radio, and more.  Science Wiz sells other kits like Chemistry, Physics, and Electricity too.  We have enjoyed building machines with a Lego Motor and Legos.  Smart Lab sells a Motor Mania kit which has great educational potential, but is poorly manufactured.  If you are willing to take the risk, there are some neat activities showing how motors are used in our society.  One of our favorites, have been Gears! Gears! Gears! which is available on Amazon.  This will provide hours of endless learning, creativity, and fun.  For younger children, Hullabaloo teaches kids listening skills and following directions.  They can even do this game independently!  Puzzles teach children spatial skills and Geometry.  Learning Journey Techno Gears offers a variety of marble machines for parents and children to assemble together and enjoy marbles on different tracks that may glow, have flashing colors, and energetic sounds.  The assembly process is great for spatial skills, mechanics, and following directions.   A local hobby store is full of interesting projects for kids and parents to do.

These are a few ideas to help you and your family enjoy learning activities together.

Food brings people together.  In the tradition of Thanksgiving celebration, many people will be connecting with family and loved ones today to enjoy a food feast.  Food is a large part of our lives.  It involves planning, choosing, gathering, ordering, preparing and joyously eating.  Many people believe that food comes from a grocery store.  While watching my food items pass across the scanner at Ralph’s supermarket, I was awakened to what I was eating and actually appalled.  Most of the food I ate was processed and in cans.  This was the beginning of a food revolution in my life.  Desiring to provide real food (organic and whole) for myself and others, I enrolled in cooking classes and food groups to learn more about healthy eating.  This was more than two decades ago.  I continue to learn information that was never taught in any of my schools.  Talking to local moms in their garages has made me realize how little I know about nutrition and health–and how much more I can learn!  Joel Salatin, a sustainable farmer, believes that food should be aesthetically and aromatically pleasing.  In other words, farms shouldn’t stink!  Food is produced for you.  The Pilgrims understood this and appreciated it–they knew starvation and plenty while living off the land.  About 180 synthetic chemicals are used to make processed foods.  Check this out:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_2769427765&feature=iv&src_vid=jnN3ABP5XQ4&v=cp57zndbeFw  .How many of these are Americans eating today?  It is time that we reconnect to the land and think about what is best for everything growing and living.  I believe we would all be happier, healthier, and more thankful for the glorious food on our tables.  Happy Thanksgiving!

During a downpour, we observed a large gray Mourning Dove perched on an electrical wire outside our rear living room window.  It flew to our neighbor’s large Bird of Paradise for shelter.  The dove rested on an unopened flower under a large frond.  Suddenly something funny happened.  The bird began lifting up its long, pointed wings exposing its light golden under feathers.  It slowly alternated the right and left wings, letting the water drip from the frond down its feathers.  The bird was taking a shower!  We were humored and blessed by the dove’s comical actions.

“So he wandered away and away with nature, that dear old nurse, who sang to him, night and day, the songs of the universe.”  Longfellow

Food for thought….

NON-DIVERSIFIED FARMING CREATES NON-DIVERSIFIED THOUGHT by Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”  Benjamin Franklin

I appreciate Franklin’s maxims.  They offer good advice with occasional humor.  How true it is that time slips by if we have not wisely planned.  Writing lesson plans is easy for me, but writing meal plans is another story.  I continue to try to reach my goal of successfully planning a complete week’s worth of meals.  I can do a few days worth and as the week progresses, I start improvising based on what we have in the kitchen.  Nutrition and health are priorities in our family, so we try to cook most of our meals at home from organic, G.M.O. free ingredients.  Many years ago I attended a meal planning and cooking class.  It was very helpful.  I reflect on that class often, and continue to try to meet the goals presented in that class.  A helpful hint to meal planning, was to plan a variety of meals around different flavors/preferences.  For example, on Monday cook a chicken dish, Tuesday something with beef, Wednesday pasta, Thursday fish, Friday cheese/vegetarian, Saturday barbecue, Sunday leftovers, etc…  This has been a wonderful guide as my family enjoys variety.  Thanksgiving is a week from today.  My meal plan will be something like this:  Organic turkey from a local farm and gravy, sweet potato casserole with buttered pecan topping, Yukon gold mashed potatoes, green beans with pine nuts and lemon, steamed broccoli, and homemade cranberry sauce.  We would enjoy a cornbread stuffing if we can find some organic corn meal.  Our appetizer will be dried fruit and nuts, and dessert will be a chocolate Fondue and pumpkin pie.  While all this is cooking, spiced apple cider will be warming on the stove.  Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with love and laughter.

http://americanvision.org/9772/thanksgiving-god-2/#sthash.M3UsN2b7.zUVYvCKn.dpbs

How often do you think about the top layer of Earth?  I must confess, that until recently, not very much.  About 6 years ago, raccoons destroyed our lawn by digging potholes while foraging for their evening meal.  In frustration, we tore out our lawn and put in several raised gardens.  When we harvested our first crops, we were amazed at the taste, color, and flavor of our food.  We were experiencing “live foods” and loving it!  While growing our own foods, we discovered that soils do make a difference.  Our backyard is mainly black adobe clay.  Clay likes to absorb water, but is not a good growing soil for many foods.  We noticed that our raised gardens filled with our home-grown compost and chicken manure were becoming filled with red worms.  This is a good sign according to the gardening websites we visit.  Soil is actually a living organism.  Yes, it is full of bacteria, decaying matter, minerals, and animal life.  At the same time we built our raised gardens, we began seriously composting most of our vegetable scraps, plant trimmings, and chicken manure.  Our backyard has been transformed into an ecological paradise.  In springtime, it is amazing to observe varieties of migrating birds visiting, multiple colors of butterflies fluttering by, and the blooming garden readying to produce delicious foods.  Instead of using pesticides, we have animal life coming daily to pluck the worms off the underside of leaves, chickens foraging for bugs, and other nocturnal animals visiting to clean up our garden of harmful insects.  The soil in our yard is slowly being transformed into living topsoil.  We try to grow our food seasonally as seeds certainly do have their designated seasons for sprouting and growing.  Our yard does have micro-climates where parts receive more sunlight throughout the year and we can trick plants to believe it is another season.  We can actually grow tomatoes and peppers all year in this area.  Our yard is not very large, but we grow a lot of food and have learned a great deal!  We currently grow (or have grown):  bell peppers, jalapenos, Anaheim chiles, sweet potatoes, chives, sage, rosemary, basil, thyme, Swiss chard, spinach, lettuce, cabbage, leaks,  broccoli, cauliflower, beets, onions, garlic, pumpkins, butternut squash, carrots, corn, pinto beans,  yellow squash, zucchini, watermelon, strawberries, bananas, oranges, white peaches, Arkansas black apples (hasn’t produced yet), pineapple, blueberries, beets, celery, kale, asparagus, snap peas, and green beans.  If you currently don’t grow anything, even if you don’t have much space, we encourage you to try it.  Even a small pot on the patio can grow some lettuce, tomatoes, or herbs.  When I was teaching, I had a small strip of dirt (2 feet x 7 feet) in front of my classroom.  We grew lettuce, cucumbers (in a pot), and jalapenos.  It didn’t take much effort either.  The experience was enjoyable for the class.  The students took the produce home.  They learned about the cycle of seeds, plant growth, the difference between vegetables and fruits, that plants need good soil, sunlight, water to grow, and enjoying eating fresh produce.  Growing a garden is satisfying.  One of my favorite farmers, Joel Salatin, wrote in one of his books that his dad taught him to always leave things better than when you found them.  I like to apply that to our little garden in our back yard.  The earth in our yard is getting better and we are helping in a small way to improve our world (terra).

One generation ago, I lived on a long suburban street with lots of happy, healthy children.  Kids from the entire block would get together to play baseball games, take long bike rides, run relay races, play Red Rover and Hide Go Seek, do gymnastics on the front lawn and more.  It amazes me and others how times have changed so quickly.  I truly cannot remember one child who had asthma, epilepsy, or autism.  I never heard of a child dying from S.I.D.S.  Today, I live on a much shorter suburban street, but things are different.  On my tiny street there have been 2 known cases of S.I.D.S. and another young baby’s death.  There have been 3 cases of epilepsy or seizures.  My neighbor’s beautiful son has been diagnosed with autism!  There are other chronic illnesses as well.  So, what is going on?  While purchasing some flowers for my ailing grandmother in a local flower shop, somehow this topic came up.  Vaccines came up as possibly one of the reasons for this change.  Another idea that was presented from one of the customers was the food that we eat.  Chemicals around us may be a contributing factor.  In the United States alone there are about 84,000 chemicals manufactured that are legal for business.  According to the Environmental Working Group there have been 287 chemicals discovered in umbilical cord blood.  The owner of the shop became a part of our discussion too.  We agreed that the change was probably due to a combination of the above factors.  Out of curiosity, I looked up some vaccine statistics.  This is how things have changed.  Today, children get 69 doses of 17 vaccines.  In 2012 children received 49 doses of 14 vaccines.  Thirty years ago, children were given 23 doses of 7 vaccines.  In 2012, one in 50 children were diagnosed with autism.  About 10 years earlier, one in 150 children were autistic.  Farther back in 1992, one in 500 were diagnosed as autistic.  And thirty years ago, it was one in 10,000. When I was in college, I took an Abnormal Psychology course.  I remember watching a video about autistic children.  I had never seen that kind of behavior and it made me very sad to see a child suffering like that.   Today, I know of 6 boys and 1 girl with autism and have heard from others about people they know with young children with autism.  Even my dentist expressed his concern about “losing our boys to autism”.  A public school teacher of a friend of ours resigned from being a pediatrician because she was deeply disturbed by the number of children (her patients) getting autism and other serious disorders.  (Some of my friends have used the GAPS diet to help their autistic children with some success.)  So why are things so different in one generation?  I believe our small group discussion in my local flower shop answered the question. “In our society today, newborns are injected with loads of chemicals nearly as soon as they enter the world,” Elizabeth Renter reported. “In the name of ‘prevention,’ we give them vaccines that we aren’t even sure are safe.” “We deeply regret consenting to the Gardasil vaccine. We had no idea of the severe side effects some experience post vaccine. Every day, we wish we had been more informed. Parents beware of blindly following your doctor’s recommended vaccine schedule. Do not rely or expect your doctor to know everything. You must do your own research and ask plenty of questions. Our family found out the hard way that it is possible for a vaccine to have lasting and devastating effects.”(By Kim Robinson, originally published at SaneVax.org) http://www.naturalnews.com/ http://www.gapsdiet.com/INTRODUCTION_DIET.html http://www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com/ketogenic-diet-plan.html

“They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and had all things in good plenty.  For as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercised in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion.  All the summer there was no want; and now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees).  And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc.  Besides they had about a peck a meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion.  Which made many afterwards write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England, which were not feigned but true reports.”

“Edward Winslow’s letter of 11 Dec. 1621 to a friend in England describing this “first Thanksgiving” is printed in Mourt’s Relation pp. 60-5–Our harvest being gotten in, our Governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a more special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruit of our labours.  They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the Company almost a week.  At which times, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest king, Massasoit with some 90 men, whom for 3 days we entertained and feasted.  And they went out and killed five deer which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our Governor and upon the Captain and others.”

“The actual date of this festival is nowhere related.”

Of Plymouth Plantation 1620-1647 William Bradford:  Introduction by Francis Murphy page 100

Instead of watered down history books, students should be required to read this book in high school.