January 27, 2012

Homeschool Journal: Week Two – Learning on the Road

The Homeschool Mother's Journal

In our homeschool this week…

We took our school on the road this week as our family is vacationing in beautiful Southern California. This week has been quite a lesson in lots of things for this Wisconsin mama: I’m used to January being a month of snow and below-zero temperatures, but we’ve been enjoying weather in the 80s and plenty of sunshine. While we are sticking to the Brightly Beaming lessons this week, we are also branching out into some different areas to fit our vacation experiences.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…

This week was all about going with the flow.  Our theme for the week was jungles, which is great for Southern California because of all of these exotic looking plants and fruits.  We adapted our plan a little when we visited the Scandinavian town Solvang.  We enjoyed the decidededly un-jungle-like architecture and Scandinavian treats.

My favorite thing this week was…

It is hard to pick a single favorite when you are on vacation, but I have really enjoyed seeing how adaptable Jack has been to the vacation changes.  The time zone changes, the new surroundings, new food, new bed are all a lot to get used to but he is rolling with it and still doing a great job of being social with his family in California.  Plus, we’re doing a good job of sticking with our lessons.  We’ve reviewed our flashcard shapes daily, and we’re learning some songs this week too including Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

As much as I love vacation, I am looking forward to getting back to the regularity of our daily routine at home.

1 Comment

Filed under Homeschool?

January 27, 2012

Renewing Green Passions in the New Year

TOP CODE


Welcome to the first edition of the Authentic Parenting Blog Carnival, hosted by Authentic Parenting and Mudpiemama!
In the month of January, we start afresh, a new year, new ideas. Hence, our participants have looked into the topic of “Birth and New Beginnings”. Take a look at the end of this post to find a list of links to the entries of the other participants.

***

“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy.’ They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”

- John Lennon

Sometimes I feel like I’ve lost my way on some things that I believe in very strongly.  It happened this summer with my garden:  I started out in the spring with big dreams and aspirations, and by August my interest waned and fizzled and my garden withered.  I went from washing my clothes with homemade detergent and line drying them to pouring on chemical cleaner in a plastic jug from the grocery store and running my dryer in the heat of the summer.  Even little details – like taking reusable shopping bags to the grocery – fell by the wayside.  Why did I stop?  It is as though I started to have this mental ennui towards things that were once  so very important to me.  Where did my passion go?

With the start of a new year comes new resolutions for many:  new goals, new hopes and new aspirations.  I find myself rediscovering old passions and renewing my love of things that had been put on the back burner. I am thinking about new ways to go green.  I’m making an effort to be an example to my son of living harmoniously with the planet.  I’m becoming more aware of the products we buy, the foods we eat, the choices we make.  These are all things that make me happy, that make me feel right with the world, and if I’m not doing them, then I’m doing something wrong.

With that, I have made a short list for the new year.  These aren’t resolutions or even aspirations.  They are just things that I enjoy doing because they feel right; because they invigorate me and remind me of who I am.  I’m renewing myself, resetting to a place that I like much better.

In 2012, I’m going to make more of an effort to be less of a consumer.

In 2012, I’m going to use fewer chemicals in my home.

In 2012, we’ll go through a lot fewer trash bags because REDUCE is the most important part of reduce, reuse, recycle.

In 2012, I will have a compost bin.

In 2012, my garden will be fabulous, and if it isn’t, it won’t be because I didn’t put in enough effort.

In 2012, my clothes line will grow very tired of me.

At the end of 2012, I will feel better about the person that I am – more confident, more sure, and more happy – than I was at the close of 2011.

 



Visit Authentic Parenting and MudpieMama to find out how you can participate in the next Authentic Parenting Blog Carnival!
Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:
(This list will be live and updated by afternoon January 27 with all the carnival links.)

7 Comments

Filed under Green Living

January 26, 2012

What Makes a Great Mommy Blog

I guess I’m one of “them” – the mommy bloggers.  Although natural parenting and green living are more my niche, I do tend to spew a lot of love for my son on this blog, and I think that puts me squarely in the realm of the blogging mom.  I’m in good company – there are tons of mommy blogs out there, some excellent, some awful.

So what makes a great mommy blog?  (Clearly, I’m writing this from the point of view of a mommy blog reader, not a writer.  If I knew how to write a great mommy blog, you’d be seeing sponsors in my sidebars).

Content with continuity.  Quality posts with lots of variety that manage to maintain a consistent theme make for great reading.  If I’m attracted to a certain blog, it is because I like the blogger’s topic or their style.  If the topic or style is changing with every post, I’ll lose interest.  In recent memory, some great mommy blogs have really jumped the shark by delving into the strangest tangents (did we really need the full photo tour of your new work bathroom?  Really?)  and then beating us over the head with those tangents, post after post.  When that happens, the reader is left wondering why she hears the Twilight Zone theme song playing, or whether she has missed out on some inside joke.  It sounds simple, but so many bloggers fail to do it:  establish who you are, what you do it, and then, just do it.

Humor with humility.  As a class, moms get judged harder than just about anyone because the mommy wars are out of control.  If you have any doubt, strike up a discussion about the merits of breastfeeding over bottle feeding, of cosleeping over cribs, of sleep training and cry-it-out, of infant ear piercing, of baby-led weaning versus early introduction of solids, and the list goes on and on.  A mom’s daily life is tough enough, but the icing on the cake is the judgment that so many feel and others exude.  When we want to unwind and read a little bit, we don’t want blogs that speak down to us.  We don’t want to compare our own flawed life with a magazine-perfect example of motherhood.  We don’t want to hear about your perfectly polished crystal, your impeccably planned dinner, and your angelic toddler who never managed to hit the terrible twos.  We want to hear about how your kid pitched her plate of spaghetti at the dog who freaked out, knocking over the pitcher of iced tea, staining your great-grandmother’s tablecloth.  We want to know that we aren’t the only ones with spit up on our good suits and a week’s worth of laundry piling up.  We want to know that there are others just like us, longing for that big glass of merlot at the end of the night.  Misery loves company, so let’s go have drinks together.

Pictures.  We’re moms.  We like pictures of babies, of kids, of the art projects sprawled out on a messy dining room table.  A picture really does say a thousand words, and a little quality goes a long way.  We can’t all be Kelle Hampton, but when you can show the reader instead of telling the reader, you have a happy reader.

Maintain easy ways to stay in touch.  Some of my favorite blogs have been forgotten by me so long ago that I don’t even remember that they are my favorites.  Moms are busy people and chances are, unless your post is waving at my from my Facebook page or hanging out in my Twitter feed, I’ll forget to read what you’re writing.  Encourage your readers to stay in touch via social media.  Tweet, post to Facebook, use Pinterest, create subscription options, and tag, tag, tag.

Be yourself.  You are probably far more interesting than you give yourself credit for.  Most of us read mommy blogs because we enjoy viewing the window into the worlds of others.  The daily life of a mother of four is fascinating to me, as a mother of one.  The mundane happenings of a family in Dominica interest me because life there is so different.  No one is asking you for perfection, for astounding insights into the wonder of parenthood, or for hard and fast rules by which we should model our own parenting.  We just want to hear how you juggle your job, your kids, your obligations, and still find some time to share with us something humorous that happened at the dinner table.

 

1 Comment

Filed under Lighter Side, Uncategorized

January 25, 2012

Wordless Wednesday: Jan-Boree!

Waukesha’s winter festival “Jan-Boree” was last weekend, and we fully enjoyed it!  We started the weekend by helping out at the recycle center’s informational booth at the morning pancake breakfast.  It was fun to learn more about the county’s recycling program while answer people’s questions and distributing recycle bins.  After the breakfast it was time for the penguin egg hunt.  The two and three year old kids lined up to find eggs hidden in the snow.

While I’m normally the first person to brag about my son’s skills, I’ll be the first to admit that he was a lousy egg hunter.  He didn’t find a single egg until a nice mom took pity on him and slipped me two of her son’s eight eggs to hide for Jack.  That was really sweet of her – he would have left empty-handed without her kindness.

After the egg hunt and some lunch we visited the ice sculptures walked downtown until Jack slipped off to sleep while riding on his daddy’s shoulders.  Maybe next year we’ll do some snowshoeing, ice skating and the other events that Jan-Boree has to offer.

2 Comments

Filed under Wordless Wednesday

January 23, 2012

Burger King Delivers, and I Don’t Like It.

Burger King has recently announced a pilot home delivery program which will put a Whopper in your hand for a small delivery charge.

I don’t like it.

Early naysayers have painted the image of the Discovery Channel-special-worthy morbidly obese calling in their orders for twenty Whoppers from the comfort of their recliners, but I am less troubled by that image.   Burger King isn’t marketing this new convenience towards those unable or unwilling to leave the comfort of their Lay-Z-Boy.  They are marketing their delivery service towards busy families.

There it is:  busy families.  Families with active kids with busy schedules, families with working parents, families with too much to do and too little time to do it.  At last count, that’s most of us.   But we deserve better food than that, don’t we?  A single Whopper loaded with only the basics boasts this nutritional breakdown:

510 Calories

9 g Saturated Fat

65 mg Cholesterol

11 g Sugar

22 g Fat

0.5 g Trans Fat

840 mg Sodium

Make it a value meal, or a double (or triple) Whopper, or even add some more common condiments, and you’re looking at something far more troubling.  Delivered right to your door, for your busy family.

For a busy family, the dinner table may be one of the few places to connect, to discuss the day, to be and act like a real family.  Sure, that can be done when everyone is eating their meal from a paper bag, but it isn’t the same.  Fast food is meant to be ingested quickly, not savored.  Everyone strap on your feedbag, no time for talking.  Let’s eat and head off to soccer practice/book club/whatever it is while still chewing a last fistful of french fries.

I know this is sounding awfully high-and-mighty, and I’m sure plenty of people will argue that an occasional delivered fast food dinner isn’t going to shake the foundation of a family, nor is it going to cause a new wave of hyper-obesity in this country.  I would agree.   But if history is any sort of a teacher, I think we’ve all learned that our nation is generally pretty poor at doing things in moderation.  We are a nation of excess – excess in our wants, in our eating, our drinking, in our desires.  Our senses of portion control are so completely off-kilter that we don’t recognize that our single meal from most popular chain restaurants really consists of three full servings of food and a day or more of  calories.  And Burger King’s new delivery service just offers another convenience packed with more than we bargained for.

I certainly don’t fault Burger King for this:  the corporation obviously saw a need  and is attempting to fill it.  And it isn’t

as though Burger King is the only option out there for someone who wants a ridiculously convenient and less than healthy meal:  Chinese and pizza places have been delivering for years.  There are countless frozen out-of-the-box dinners with abysmal nutritional values that offer convenience to rival this service.  I am, however, disappointed that we as a culture have created a need for this type of convenience food.  I’m disappointed that we don’t value family time around the dinner table and the connections and closeness that come naturally with a shared meal.  I’m disappointed that in this day and age, more people aren’t reading the nutritional content of this type of food in absolute horror.  I’m disappointed that people continue to patronize fast food establishments even though there are wonderful resources in book and film describing the horrible process that brings what we eat from the farm to our table.

I’m disappointed that there’s a market for this at all.

If this service fails in the test market area, perhaps it is a sign that  we’ll have turned a tide in our fast food convenience culture.

2 Comments

Filed under Healthy Eating

January 21, 2012

I think I’ll start vetting our library books better.

Maybe it’s just me.  Maybe I shouldn’t be creeped out by this.  Maybe it is my own hangups that are the cause of my heebie-jeebies over this book, but I don’t know.  Tell me what you think.

This week we are studying cows, and since we read every cow book on Jack’s reading list long before the week was over, we returned to the library to get a few more books on the topic of the week.  I totally judged this book by its cover and decided this it would be perfect without actually reading it first:

It seemed like a reasonable choice.  The inside flap told me that the book described a day in the life of a dairy cow.  Excellent!

It wasn’t.  It was weird.  Awkward.  Uncomfortable.  Let me read from a page for you:

“Later you wait by the gate, to be the first in line, your milk-full udders aching.” Err…okay.  That’s a fact of  farmlife, I guess.  Aching udders.  But it felt weird to read to a two year old.  And the gratuitous use of commas was troubling.  But we soldiered on while I tried not to be totally skeeved out by descriptions like “pushing the food with your thick, wet tongue over and over for hours.”  Ew.  But it got worse.

“Gently the farmer cleans your udders and puts tubes on your teats.”

(At this point Jack finds the word “teats” hilarious.  “Teats!  Teats!”  Great.)

“Milk is sucked out – rich, warm, creamy milk.”

Okay, that’s it.  I can’t read this anymore.  What the hell, weird book?

I’m sticking to reading lists for awhile.

5 Comments

Filed under Homeschool?

January 19, 2012

Homeschool Journal, Week One: The Letter A and Lots of Moos

The Homeschool Mother's JournalA caveat, of sorts…

When I think of homeschooling, I picture a mother with two or three grade-school aged children reading books, taking field trips, and learning together.  I don’t picture me at my dining room table with my two year old son.  I have done a lot of soul searching on the issue of homeschooling. Can I call what we do – our simple, short lessons – homeschooling?  Jack is just two.  Isn’t this just what parents do to prepare their children for school?

I don’t have the answers to that.  But I do feel like I need to do something more organized than what I had been doing with Jack because he devours every bit of information he sees – he can’t get enough of letters, shapes, counting.  Books.  I don’t want to let him down, or let him get bored.  I want him to set the pace while I maintain the momentum.  And I do feel like I have learned a lot from the homeschooling community in terms of organization, expectations, and ideas.  Even so, I have a hard time describing myself as a “homeschooler.”  He’s only two – I’ve mentioned that, right?  Nevertheless,  here I am with a homeschool journal describing my two-year old’s first “official” week of lessons.

In our homeschool this week…

I really felt like I needed to get organized, so I found a lesson plan that I liked:  the Brightly Beaming Letter of the Week plan, modified for a two year old.  I was drawn to it because of how it is organized:  each week features a letter, a number, a shape, and a theme.  Each weekday features a certain skill, like fine or gross motor skills, or a concept such as a letter or number.  The lesson plans even include a recommended book list based on the week’s theme.  This week’s theme was cows, so Sunday meant a trip to the library (via sled, no less!) to load up on cow books. Our motor skills included doing some yoga cat-cows (complete with animal sounds), and Jack has learned the letter “A” with mucho gusto – he has been having a great time identifying it everywhere we go.

I am inspired by…

My son’s love of books astounds and inspires me.  We had to return to the library mid-week to pick up new cow-themed books.  And with every trip we take, I get a few books for myself, so my own reading list has increased in turn.

My favorite thing this week was…

Sunday’s trip to the library was such fun.  We had some snow so we took our sled to the library.  Our library has a great pre-readers play area, and Jack found lots of little boys and girls to enjoy his time with while I picked up the books we had put on hold and even browsed a few books for myself.

Questions/thoughts I have…

I discussed my question at the outset:  is this homeschooling?  I don’t know why I have such hesitation with the concept.  And it isn’t that I have a problem with homeschooling – not in the least!  My husband was homeschooled for part of his school career, and if our home circumstances were different, we’d be planning on homeschooling through elementary school at least.  I just don’t know why I’m struggling with this question so much.

Things I’m working on…

I’m working on getting into a rhythm with this.  I already have the books preordered at the library for next week’s theme:  the jungle.  I have the lessons printed out, I have appropriate flash cards and toys readied.  It will take a little time, but we are getting there.

I’m grateful for…

The Waukesha Public Library.  It has everything we need.

I’m looking forward to…

Our community’s winter festival begins this weekend with events downtown, at the library, at the planetarium, the nature center, and more.  But even more exciting is our first foray into volunteer work as a team – my son and I!   I approached the recycle center with my desire to show my son the importance of volunteering, and they have found a place where he and I can volunteer together.  Our first volunteer event is Saturday, and I cannot wait to report back on it.

 

 

19 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

January 18, 2012

Wordless Wednesday: Best Granola Ever

Do you like granola from the store?  You won’t after you try this recipe.  Seriously, it is fantastic.

You’ll need:

Take the first five ingredients and combine them in a big bowl.

Then, microwave the butter and maple syrup (or substitute honey for maple syrup!  I use a half and half mixture myself – yum!) until it is pourable.  Then pour the mixture over your dry ingredients, and stir.
Spread the mixture onto a lined baking pan, and bake about 10 minutes on each side.
When the baking is done, return the hot mixture to the bowl and toss with some dry “goodies” of your choice.  I chose cranberries and chocolate chips.
When it cools, try not to eat it all at once.
I was hoping to include a picture of my kitchen helper in his sweet little kitchen apron, but he wasn’t having any of it.  I managed to get this blurry photo before he said “Oh, my Phone!” and ran off with my camera phone.

 

2 Comments

Filed under Wordless Wednesday

January 17, 2012

A Bittersweet Milestone

I am having a really hard time with how much growing up that Jack has done.  I’m so proud of his growth, of the person he’s becoming, but I’m wistful too.  I feel like everything has gone by so fast.

We had another bittersweet milestone this week.  Long before Jack was able to vocalize his thoughts, we did some baby sign language.  He occasionally used signs for “more” and “milk” but mostly he picked up on the one whimsical sign I taught him:  fan.  Every time he saw a ceiling fan, he’d make the sign.  He even expanded it beyond just fans, using the sign when he noticed an airplane propeller or windmill.  Pretty neat.  Even when he had nothing else to say, if he saw a ceiling fan he’d make the sign, look to me for approval, and I would nod and agree “that’s a fan.”  Long after he started mimicking our speech and picking up words, he still signed “fan.”

This week I was enjoying a cuddle with him when he looked up at the ceiling and said “fan.”  No accompanying sign, just “fan.”

One by one, he’s shedding the trappings of babyhood.  It is so bittersweet.

1 Comment

Filed under Natural Parenting

January 16, 2012

The Terrible Danger of Commercial Hair Dyes

In 1996 I opened a box of Clairol hair dye – a gorgeous shiny black – and proceeded to color my long brown hair as I had previously done for the past several years.  Except that time, it was different.  I couldn’t sleep well that night.  My skin felt like it was crawling, itching, burning.  My scalp and ears became hot to the touch.  Within hours, welts began to appear on my forehead, neck, ears, and all along my hairline.  I felt sick, queasy and drawn out.  The welts traveled down my back to my waist – the length of my hair – and didn’t subside.  As days passed, the welts began to weep.  I finally went to the doctor, who recognized that I was having an allergic reaction.  I was given a shot, topical ointment, and a regimen of pills.  The symptoms subsided, but I was never healed.  My ears wept for most of the year – I was constantly dabbing them with tissues and always changing pillowcases.  My skin would rash and swell when I came into contact with things that never bothered me before:  makeup, moisturizer.  I was changing eye shadow every few weeks, as what worked for me for a time would suddenly cause an eyelid to swell shut.  In 2003 I spent three days in the hospital when my eye and chin mysteriously swelled relentlessly.  While there was no official determination of the cause, the consensus was that I had rubbed my face while wearing a new pair of black leather gloves.  Even now, in 2011, I am severely restricted in what beauty products I can use.  My skin never recovered – I am constantly battling dry patches and horrendous flaking that had never been an issue before.  It has been fifteen years, and my body, my skin, isn’t the same.

What happened?

Para-Phenylenediamine (or “PPD”) is a chemical omnipresent in commercial hair dye:  it helps the color penetrate the shaft of the hair.  It is also a known allergen, and if some experts are to be believed, extremely carcinogenic.  PPD can be sneaky:  many people dye their hair for years with no reaction, only to react severely without warning (which is why the instructions included with hair dye advise the user to do a strand test to check for an allergic reaction even if you have used the product before).  Perhaps even sneakier, PPD can go by many different names, making it difficult to recognize in an ingredients list:

  • PPD or PPDA
  • Phenylenediamine base
  • p-Phenylenediamine
  • 4-Phenylenediamine
  • 1,4-Phenylenediamine
  • 4-Benzenediamine
  • 1,4-Benzenediamine
  • para-Diaminobenzene (p-Diaminobenzene)
  • para-Aminoaniline (p-Aminoaniline)
  • Orsin™
  • Rodol™
  • Ursol™

I am not alone in my PPD allergy.  The news in recent years has recounted story after story after story after story of severe allergic reactions to PPD.  In other countries, this has led to calls for banning its use in hair dye.  Allergic reactions have prompted Germany, France and Sweden to ban the use of PPD in hair dyes.  In the United States?  Not so much.  While the FDA has not approved PPD for use in topical skin products (such as the henna used in temporary “black henna” tattoos), it does approve its use in hair dye.  Interesting that they allow that distinction, even though by necessity hair dye will touch your skin no matter how carefully you apply it.

The initial allergic reaction isn’t the only problem that people with a PPD allergy face either.  Cross-sensitivity has been found in individuals who have PPD reactions.  For my part, I have reacted to a pair of leather gloves, and on an unfortunate trip to Las Vegas I discovered that I had also become allergic to sunscreen.  This site has an extensive but terrifying list of things that PPD-sensitive people can react to, including orange peels and anesthetics.

I have spoken out against commercial hair dyes for a long time.  They are an absolute danger, and most users are blissfully unaware of the terrible chemicals that they are putting on their bodies every six to eight weeks.  Unfortunately, for people who want to dye their hair, there just aren’t a whole lot of alternatives.  While articles on the topic state that PPD is found in “most” permanent dyes, in practice that’s an understatement.  Except for henna-based dyes (which frankly I find hard to use and a poor substitute) and extremely temporary “one-week” hair colorants, I have yet to find a semi-permanent dye that doesn’t contain PPD.

What can you do?  I’m a firm believer that no beauty is worth the price of your health.  For me, that means I don’t dye my hair (and frankly, I couldn’t if I wanted to – at this point, my allergy is much too strong).   I have also contacted hair dye manufacturers with my story and implored them to look for alternatives.  I have tried a number of different dye alternatives, and while I’m still looking for a reasonable substitute  I’m sure one has to come along eventually.  Ultimately, if you do decide that you want to dye your hair, always do a patch test.  Every single time.  The consequences are terrible.

Looking for more information?

The dangers of black henna (with great but graphic photos of PPD allergies from henna tattoos).

Study linking hair dye use with bladder cancer (link is a PDF file).

Suggestions for all natural ways to color hair.

One woman’s recent and personal story about her PPD allergy.  (With photo and good research).

 

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Leave a Comment

Filed under Green Living, Healthy Eating, Uncategorized