Internationally, 9 to 10 years of compulsory education is required in most countries, starting from age 5 or 6.  One notable exception is Germany, however, where homeschooling is illegal (and has been since 1930).  This is somewhat ironic, since Germany is the homeland of Rudolph Steiner and Waldorf Education, a very grass roots age-appropriate approach to education which a strong emphasis on the arts.  There is also a movement in the US towards unschooling and natural learning, which is a curriculum-free philosophy, coined in 1977 by American educator and author John Holt in his magazine Growing Without Schooling.  These approaches are more of a “learn by doing” approach which integrates real life into child experiences rather than using textbooks as a basis for education.

Brian Ray of the National Home Education Research Institute explains why US homeschooling families now include more than 1.4 million children. Ray reports the typical homeschooled child is involved in 5.2 social activities outside the home each week. These activities include afternoon and weekend programs with conventionally (typically publicly) schooled kids, such as ballet classes, Little League teams, Scout troops, church groups and neighbourhood play.  And with respect to book learning, homeschoolers, on average, score 30 to 37 percentile points higher than conventionally schooled students on the most commonly administered K-8 standardized tests.

Homeschooled children are much less preoccuppied with peer dependence.  Emotionally, homeschooled children tend to draw their main social identity from their membership in their family rather than from their peers.  And as Gordon Neufeld reinforces in his book, “Hold Onto Your Kids.” his 35 years of child development experience (plus 5 kids of his own) point out  ”Why Parents Matter More than Peers”.  His book explores the pivotal importance of children’s relationships to those responsible for them.  Neufeld  highlights how devastating child’s lives can become when they get their teachings from peers rather than parents or adult role-models. His book also confronts such relationship devastating devices as time-outs and using what children care about against them. Neufeld essentially offers an attachment parenting perspective, offering strategies for preserving and restoring the child-to-parent relationship.  Home-schooling can really help foster strong parent to child bonds.

David Guterson talks about the issues around peer dependence in his book, “Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense,” (Harcourt-Brace Jovanovich, 1992). Guterson reports that the kids in his conventional school often have difficulty navigating the turbulent social scene at school, with “its cliques, rumors and relentless gossip, its shifting alliances and expedient betrayals.” Guterson says that their preoccupation with peer acceptance often encourages young people to become “acutely attuned to a pre-adult commercial culture that usurps their attention (M-TV, Nintendo, fashion magazines, teen cinema)” and frequently fosters a sense of alienation from people of other ages.  Many parents of “distant” or “aloof” teens often wonder what they’ve done to deserve this treatment.  Children who receive home education don’t get a chance to sever this important bond with their parents.

I see elements of peer-influenced mass media when my kids interact with others in the playground. When another child talks about the latest Disney or shoot-em-up action hero movie, my kids are often caught off guard.  Being a no-screen family, my kids listen with mouths open as other children describe the various violent scenes that their adult action hero has making mince-meat of whatever villian they are facing.  I am happy to shelter my kids from this kind of school-yard discussion of passively absorbed media.  I have a friend who’s child’s play was changed forever after watching Star Wars. Some families take young (age 5 and under) children to movie theatres where they are blasted with wall sized ads, violent cartoon scenarios and general over-stimulation. Any child development specialist will tell you that child brains simply can’t handle this at a young age.  Simplicity Parenting founder Kim Payne highlights the emotional similarities between media ravaged kids and children raised in from war-torn third world countries.  He also points out a direct correlation between children diagnosed with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and their hours spent in front of “the box”.  It’s sad to hear school yard banter talking about gossiping characters in the latest reality TV series vs what they actually did themselves last weekend.

Educational researcher Susannah Sheffer of Cambridge, Mass., says facilitating peer-dependency is part of “how schools shortchange girls”. In a recent study of self-esteem among adolescent girls, Sheffer found that unlike their conventionally schooled counterparts, homeschooled girls did not typically lose confidence in themselves when their ideas and opinions weren’t embraced by their friends. And we know that it’s not just self-esteem, but an increasing importance on self-compassion which makes girls and boys more emotionally confident and mature.

Learning at home never stops.  Not only can it be tailored to the individual child (vs a classroom of 30+ kids), but it can mostly happen outside the classroom.  There is also more time to study subjects in depth, without the worry of a bell ringing (Pavlov’s Dog anyone?) or lunch arbitrarily stopping a lesson exactly at noon.  Homeschooling strengthens the most important bond of all, the family bond.  Interestingly, 30% of homeschoolers in the US do so because of religious reasons.  I found this shocking, maybe just being Canadian, but it does make the point that many parents want to share their own personal, spiritual or religious beliefs with their children, and not have them be force fed someone else’s ideals.

Homeschooling means also that children are not just exposed to others their exact same age, but are also integrated with younger and older children and elders constantly.  From a health perspective, being in a low stress environment with home-cooked meals is much more desirable to many families.  And most importantly I think, is the ability for children to engage creatively in their own play.  Free and active play has always been heralded to being key in any healthy child.  They need time to digest their own learnings, experiment, pretend and be creative on their own time.  Many feel that this play is when the true learning occurs, and what better setting for that to be than in their own home.

As parents who are doing little vaccinating with our kids, no one in our family is likely to get the H1N1 vaccine. But it doesn’t mean we aren’t concerned about our children getting sick. The conversations around the poker table, with doctors and research scientists, at classes or gatherings with other families, all seem to come back to similar advice. Clean yourself… thoroughly. And don’t touch your face, let alone your mouth. I can be sure my two young children, who are orally obsessed, should remain healthy through this flu season. Here we go!

Our pro-vaccine GP, a really thoughtful and smart family acquaintance, suggested we not get the H1N1 vaccine for our two-year old who has chronic inner ear infections. We haven’t been doing flu shots for anyone in our family. But with my son’s persistent, super funky  ear infections, I wanted to be sure we were still making a good choice. He did suggest strongly that we get up-to-date on our standard vaccines. I continue to consider this issue. Friends who run a vacation retreat consulted with their virus expert, a relationship they developed because of a Norwalk outbreak at their lodge. After also consulting the same GP, they are vaccinating the adults in their family who will be at their lodge with visitors. They will not vaccinate their children, and keeping prescriptions for Tamiflu for them on file should it become necessary.

Our pharmacist friend is vaccinating herself, but not her husband or the children. I have yet to talk to anyone who is vaccinating their children, but the CBC is daily interviewing people in line for the vaccine who are. Today I was told about GPs in British Columbia getting paid $15 per prescription of Tamiflu. I’m trying to get confirmation of this claim and another one about this drug having neurological effects on the Japanese who are using it a lot. It feels to me as if we would be using our children as guinea pigs, to test a drug we know very little about. I’m sticking by some more productive and less political advice for our family.

Here’s an excerpt from a circulating email I’ve seen from different sources:

These are the words of Dr. Vinay Goyal who is an Intensivist and Thyroid specialist with clinical experience of over 20 years. He has worked in institutions like Hinduja Hospital, Bombay Hospital, Saifee Hospital, Tata Memorial, etc. Presently, he is heading the Nuclear Medicine Department and Thyroid clinic at Riddhivinayak Cardiac and Critical Centre.

“The only portals of entry are the nostrils and mouth/throat. In a global epidemic of this nature, it’s almost impossible not coming into contact with H1N1 in spite of all precautions. Contact with H1N1 is not so much of a problem as proliferation is. While you are still healthy and not showing any symptoms of H1N1 infection, in order to prevent proliferation, aggravation of symptoms and development of secondary infections, some very simple steps, not fully highlighted in most official communications, can be practiced (instead of focusing on how to stock N95 or Tamiflu):

1. Frequent hand-washing (well highlighted in all official communications).
2. “Hands-off-the-face” approach. Resist all temptations to touch any part of face (unless you want to eat, bathe..)
3. Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine if you don’t trust salt). H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in the throat/nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms. Simple gargling prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling with salt water has the same effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu has on an infected one. Don’t underestimate this simple, inexpensive and powerful preventative method.
4. Similar to 3 above, clean your nostrils at least once every day with warm salt water. Not everybody may be good at using a Neti pot, but blowing the nose hard once a day and swabbing both nostrils with cotton swabs dipped in warm salt water is very effective in bringing down viral population.
5. Boost your natural immunity with foods that are rich in Vitamin C. If you have to supplement with Vitamin C tablets, make sure that it also has Zinc to boost absorption.
6. Drink as much of warm liquids (tea, coffee, etc) as you can. Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the reverse direction. They wash off proliferating viruses from the throat into the stomach where they cannot survive, proliferate or do any harm.”

So I’m off to rub my hands down with alcohol hand sanitizer. Forget about the swine flu… the toxic smell is enough to kill me.

Yoga and Pregnancy

My yoga practice as a parent began when I was pregnant with my first baby. Apparently barfing and yoga do not go hand-in-hand, so I learned how to practice non-physical yoga. Being pregnant was a yoga practice in and of itself because to do it well, I had to be aware of my limits and abilities and aware of my actions and emotions on my baby.  Books and videos helped me start up the physical practice in my second trimester. Guidance was important at this stage because I needed to learn how to adjust positions to accommodate the new body I was in. My emotional practice helped me in choosing a home birth, because I could look my fears right in the eye and come out the other side with a confidence and trust that I could birth safely.

Yoga and Birthing

Birthing my first baby was made easy because of yoga. With practised Ujjayi breathing I could ride the pain of contractions and remain focussed and confident. I remember my midwife telling me to push at one point during active labour, and I confidently said ‘no, another little bit and I will be ready.’ Baby was crowning and it felt to me that if I just pushed through when she suggested, I was going to tear. I was dancing with baby and only I could know when to do-si-do. The awareness of my body I had learned through yoga (to push myself to the edge of my physical ability, just before hurting myself) allowed me to understand where baby was and what was needed from me to get her out. I was good at going inward to find my strength and disciplined to rest between contractions, even before I was tired.

My second baby came a lot faster and with much more intensity, and I wonder if it was because my yoga practice was much less integrated in my life as a new mom. Breathing during active labour came more in the form of deep pursed lips and bulging eyes as my girlfriend stared me through the tough contractions… but I digress. Although I had to work harder to find my breath, it was still a useful tool. More importantly, when I was finding the birth difficult, I had a knowing voice inside me that reminded me to surrender to the pain and to live in the moment of each step that was necessary to bring baby to us. Thinking I couldn’t possibly make it to the end was of no use to any of us. Although it was a tougher birth, yoga allowed me to birth at home and without drugs a second time.

Yoga and Parenting

As a parent, it has become increasingly clear to me that I can only be of quality service to my family if I am loving myself. Yoga has been the only solution to my woes and gives me a place to go when I need help. So here I am with a two and four year old, trying to integrate a physical yoga practice back into my life. Not only do I suffer some body image issues that will be helped, I miss the time on my mat I use to meditate and get myself grounded emotionally. When things are spinning, I like to spin them down out of my head, through my body and down into the ground. My husband and I will pull out our mats and do some poses with the kids – they love it and I hope to find classes for families to attend soon. But of course, doing it with the kids does not allow me focus to set my intentions, and then move through a series of postures that help me to integrate the intentions. As with anything I want to do these days, I need to schedule it.

Unconditional love of our kids is touted in attachment parenting circles. Helping our kids work through their problems, requires us to be able to sit their with them through the tough stuff. We’ve been known to lean on bribing and incentives to encourage movement through unwanted behaviour – ‘treats’ are motivators in our family. I’ve learned though that this is just a temporary distraction and of now use to them in learning to work through things. So now that I’m loving myself, I’m figuring out how to guide my kids to love themselves and life. Wanting to be a good role model for them, yoga is giving me tools and knowledge to guide:

Awareness – I want to be able to demonstrate to my children how to find awareness on all levels: physical, emotional, and spiritual. Yoga is the only practice that I know integrates all of these well, making if very efficient.
Intention Setting – I want to be able to teach my children how to identify meaningful goals for themselves.
Finding Presence – My children teach this to me every day. I want them to continue to appreciate what they are getting out of every moment, for the rest of their lives. 

Root Concept

Do any of the words or phrases – presence, awareness, surrender, let it go, pick your battles, blessing or intention – mean anything to you? If so, then I contend you are living a happier life, and one that already includes yogic practices.

Yesterday, I ran into one of the many instructors I have had over the years and she asked how my yoga practice was going. It is so easy for me to bemoan how little I get on my mat. So I was happy that my answer was a simple sweep of my hand towards my laughing children. She nodded with a knowing smile and no more was said.

Related Resources

Yoga for Pregnancy by Sandra Jordan

Aqua Yoga for Pregnancy – I really learned to care for myself and connect with baby in the aqua yoga class I did while pregnant. 

This one looks good for sharing yoga with children – My Daddy is a Pretzel by Baaron Baptiste

Teachings about Presence – The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Teachings about Awareness - Mother’s Breath: A Definitive Guide to Yoga Breathing, Sound and Awareness Practices During Pregnancy, Birth, Post-natal Recovery and Mothering by Uma Dinsmore-Tuli. 

Written By: Nicole LeBlanc Charlwood

But give me a break, wheat and dairy are my two favourite food groups. I remember first questioning dairy as a good food source when I read that the Canadian Food Guide was developed by the dairy marketing board. When I was diagnosed with Endometriosis, my surgeon recommended removing wheat and dairy from my diet. When researching advice on how to help reduce the frequency of ear infections our  one-year-old son was getting, we read in many source that removing wheat and dairy may help. Our three-year-old daughter was having hearing issues, and again we read the same recommendation for her. When we are eating these foods infrequently, I have very little abdominal pain, my son has fewer infections and my daughter’s hearing improves. Friends have told me that they don’t feed their kids these foods to manage M.S., yeast infections, allergies and other issues. So the following are some of our favourite products that we can find locally.

Favourite Alternatives for Wheat and Dairy Foods

Earth Balance spread – instead of butter
So Nice unsweetened organic soya milk
almond milk
Silk for Coffee – instead of cream
quinoa (a fabulous complete protein) and rice pastas
sourdough bread – has wheat but is easier to digest
Nature’s Path gluten-free frozen waffles and cereals
Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free flours and baking mixes – I’m experimenting currently with coconut flour and pancake mix
tamari sauce instead of soya sauce (which contains wheat)
semi-sweet and dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate
ices and sorbets as ice cream alternatives – check out Little Miss Gelato’s Lemon Mint Sorbet
Glutino lemon waffers and pretzels

Sources of Wheat and Dairy Free Recipes

Dairy Free - godairyfree.org/Table/Recipes/
Gluten-Free  - celiac.com/categories/Gluten%252dFree-Cooking/
Wheat Free - wheat-free.org

We have found that baking with predominantly rice flours results in grainy and dry baked goods. I recommend experimenting with other flours such as buckwheat, chickpea, soya and coconut for more interesting texture and flavours.

Let us know your favourite wheat and dairy free recipes and products in the Comments section below.

Written By: Nicole LeBlanc Charlwood

Food for Babies 0-6 Months Old

The World Health Organization and many international health decision makers, recommend breastfeeding exclusively for the first six months of a baby’s life.  Of course, not everyone is able to breastfeed, but if you are it is a good minimum goal to set. We had large babies and chose to begin slowly introducing solids one at a time, for several days, before introducing the next new food. We started at four months to help me meet the volume they demanded. This allowed us to be sure our children didn’t have any allergies to anything they were eating.

Food for Babies 6-8 Months Old

Hypoallergenic foodsvcontaining iron: 1-2 tablespoons per day. Cook and puree/mash vegetables. Freeze tablespoons full in ice cube trays, then store frozen cubes in labelled freezer bags or reusable freezer safe containers. Thaw by adding small amounts of water in a pot and warming on the stove.

carrots                         squash
cauliflower                 sprouts
zucchini                      asparagus
broccoli                       artichoke
yam (a favourite in our house)

Foods for Babies 9-11 Months Old

Foods high in zinc and good for the immune system: 2-4 tablespoons per day. Cook all foods, including fruits, except bananas. Mix rice or oat cereals with water and cook well (see below for more details). Breast milk can be added once cooked. Use single foods, not mixtures.

papaya                          blueberries             pears
nectarines                    blackberries          apricots
prunes                           cherries                  oatmeal
banana (very ripe)     grapes                     beets
kiwi                                plums                      rice cereal

Foods for Infants 12-17 Months Old

Foods high in zinc and bulk: 4-10 tablespoons per day.

acorn squash              cabbage                   chard
parsnips                       avacado                   quinoa
egg yolk                        split pea soup         apple sauce
peaches                        rice                            string beans
seed butters: sunflower, pumpkin, sesame

Foods for Infants 18-20 Months Old

Foods high in B vitamins and calcium.

tofu                         raw goats milk         tahini
eggplant               spinach                       kelp
chicken                beans                           buckwheat
teff                         barley                           rye
spelt                      rhutabaga                   lamb
fish: white, not shellfish                       goat cheese

Foods for Infants 21 Months to Two-Years Old

Additional foods high in protein.

egg                         almond butter          cashew butter
turkey                    wheat                         brewer’s yeast
walnuts                almonds                    oranges
strawberries        pineapple                  yoghurt

Foods for Toddlers Two to Three Years Old

corn                       lentils                        tomato
peanut butter       soy                             duck
cottage cheese

The purpose of digestion is to break foods into non-allergic simple sugars, amino acids and fatty acids. Babies are unable to do this efficiently until 6 months or so and the notions that solids help them sleep the night is just a myth. They will sleep when their digestive system is healthy. The more mature the infant’s digestive system is at the time of the introduction of a new food, the more likely they will be able to tolerate them. The introduction of solid foods, especially those which have shown to create many food reactions, should be delayed as long as possible – e.g. dairy, wheat, shellfish, many nuts, tomato, corn, strawberries, egg. New foods should be given not more than once every four days. Give only a bite the first time, increasing the amount with each feeding if no adverse side effects are observed.

Food reactions can include sneezing, rashes anywhere on the body, a change in stool, or even in personality.

Cereals should be well cooked. there is evidence that poorly cooked grains such as wheat, corn, rice and oats are responsible for many of the food sensitivities in adults.

Extracted from writings by Dr. Brenda Gill, Naturopathic Physician, Nelson and Rossland British Columbia.