As I shared in an earlier post, we have jumped into Classical Conversations for the general base of our homeschooling curriculum.  In the younger years, we also need to teach reading and math.  (I love watching kids learn to read – a whole new world opens up to them!)

Pre-Reading
My favorite, favorite tool for introducing phonics sounds is a dvd called Leapfrog Letter Factory.  My kids entertain me because they correct ME when I get the sounds wrong.  Can we say mommy is a tad bit tone deaf?  My littlest watches the dvd each day (give or take) while my older one works on his reading work.  She’s getting it!

I’m a fan of Leapfrog products, and we also had a lot of fun with the Leapfrog Phonics Toy that sticks to the refrigerator.  The kids plug in letters, and it says the sounds for them.  Great way to tie together letter shapes and their sounds!   I’ve found these toys on Craigslist before too.

Reading
I am focusing on phonics for reading and had heard great things about Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons.   However, since I personally have no phonics background, the book looked like Greek to me.  In perusing the reviews, one parent mentioned using a computer program called Funnix.  Score!  We haven’t looked back.   D is learning a lot, and he can do this subject WITHOUT ME.  This is often our first subject for the day.  I get him started while I try to wake up, make my chai, get my little one set up with something to do, and check my blogging work for the day.  :)

I’m excited that by the time he finishes lesson #120 (we’re on #75 right now), he’ll be reading paragraphs!  It started with sounds, and progressed to actual reading pretty quickly.

I appreciate the economics of this program too.  While I caught the company during a season while they were actually giving it away for free (can you say awesome!), it is only $38 for both levels of the program.  That includes a pdf workbook that I print out at home.  All my kids can use this program, and Iwill just print out new worksheets for them.

Bob Books
We have also been working our way through the Bob Books and he LOVES them.  They are short, intentional in how they build on what the kids are learning, and provide such a sense of accomplishment for him.  He recently made a big jump and read Go, Dog, Go.  Now he’s starting to voluntarily read parts of books we read together at night (instead of me making him).  We found the Bob Books Collection 1, 2, & 3 at Costco.

Some of the Level 1 books you find in stores that are based on popular characters, like Cars, drive me crazy because they don’t seem like they’re designed to actually help kids learn to read.  Level 1 is more like Level 3 or 4!  With the Bob Books, D literally started as a non-reader, and he’s progressing along really well!   The picture at the top of this post is after he finished his first book by himself.  He was proud.

What are you using to help your kids learn to read?  

Yes, we have joined the growing number of folks who are choosing to homeschool.  We chose it for a myriad of reasons, but it started with wanting to protect my tender-hearted redhead.  With a little girl down the street coming home from kindergarten with black eyes from the playground, and the administration turning a blind eye to it, I knew my sweet boy would have TARGET written all over him.

After researching several different programs (there is a vast number of choices!!), we have landed on several that work well for our family.  In this first post, I want to share about Classical Conversations, and how to get started in it since it can seem a little overwhelming at first.

Classical Conversations
We are participating in a co-op called Classical Conversations that we absolutely love.  It’s D’s favorite thing to do all week!  We’re snowed in here today, and D was in tears last night because CC was cancelled for this morning.  Total meltdown, I just held him while he cried, tears.  I think he likes CC.

This video was taken after just his first week in CC.

For the younger ages, it’s heavily focused on memorization and getting them familiar with vocabulary for more advanced concepts that they’ll really dive into later.  I’ve been impressed with how quickly the kids can memorize!

CC weekly memory work includes a history sentence, 7-8 timeline events, science, math, English, and Latin.   I loved hearing my two kids (5 & 3 years) sitting at the table tonight, singing 2nd declension Latin noun endings.

Biblical Worldview
CC is designed around a Biblical worldview.  The timeline cards include events from history like Adam & Eve and the flood.  Kids are taught to examine the material that they take in in light of their worldview.

Community Time
During the community time, which meets once a week for a morning, kids go over the week’s new memory work with their tutor, review previous week’s work with fun games like Hot Potato, and do fun art and science projects.  Last week, the kids painted upside down under the table like Michelangelo!

Nursery
Our community even has a nursery for the kids that are not old enough to be in regular classes (they have to be 4 by September.) My S is usually quite attached to me, and leaving her at the church nursery for service can be a challenge some days.  Not at CC!  She waved at me when she saw me (during the first week!), and said, “I play my friends!”

Materials
Curriculum can be expensive for homeschooling, and I love the way CC has structured their program.  We purchased the Foundations Guide for about $60, and that will last through all of the younger grades, for all my kids.  One $60 book for 6 years, for multiple kids?  Great deal!  We also purchased the pre-laminated timeline cards, since those are so helpful for memorization.  I also chose to get the memory work cds ($35 per cycle), since I can just play them to help him memorize.  It’s made things easier!

We also use YouTube every week!  Other families post videos of their kids singing the memory work songs and doing the motions.  D loves to watch them and sing along.

Want to join in?
CC is definitely D’s favorite part of our homeschooling.  He practices the memory work on his own (shocker!!) and I love how quickly he picks it up!

Classical Conversations has been exploding in popularity, and the odds are good that there is a community near you!  Visit their website to enter your zip code.  Registration for the fall has just opened, and communities are holding info meetings and open houses.  (Kids can join at any age too!)

Are you part of a Classical Conversations Community?  Share your experience!

I had a great ob doctor for my first two deliveries.  He wasn’t quick on the interventions, and I liked his balanced approach.  Even before all the debate about get-the-flu-vaccine-or-not, he recommended against it, because there wasn’t enough testing down on preggo mamas and babies.

Then we moved and I got pregnant with baby #3.  Rather than try to find a new ob and have to muddle through all their philosophies, I decided to investigate the midwife route.  It helped that Samaritan’s Ministries, our version of health insurance, would waive our out-of-pocket if we used a midwife/birthing center.   I started asking around and quickly came across a birthing center that seemed like it would be a great fit.

Preconceived Ideas
I definitely had some preconceived ideas about midwives before we started our natural living journey.  (No offense to all the midwives out there, I was just uneducated!)  My impression of midwives was really limited to the Amish fiction stories that I’d read.  I pictured the midwife arriving, using boiling water and scissors, and tying sheets to a bed post to turn a baby if needed.  Funny, huh?  I was sure they knew their stuff, but that their knowledge was limited to oh, the mid-1950′s.   Wrong!

Intensive Training
Midwives actually go through very intensive training, including board certification!   I’ve been really impressed with the medical knowledge and experience the midwives have at the birthing center.  My particular midwife has been delivering babies for a lot of years!  She knows her medical stuff AND she approaches it from a more natural viewpoint.   We talk about avoiding toxins, essential oils, and herbs at my appointments as well as do more ‘normal’ ob check-up things like listen to the baby’s heartbeat – SUCH a beautiful sound!! (and discuss how I should gain less weight in this coming month. <G>)

Delivery
I’m actually looking forward to the delivery.  If you’d talked to me oh, a week ago, that was NOT the case at all!  My deliveries with the first two babies were fine, in that everyone came out healthy, but it was really just something to be endured.  I was still so shaken up from S’s delivery that I cried on her first birthday, just from the memories.   The short version is that my labor went really quickly (a couple of hours from start to finish) and there was zippo time for the pain meds I’d wanted.   She came out, nice and healthy, but I had no coping skills for how to do anything to relieve any of the pain.

While you could fit what I know about natural delivery in a thimble at the moment, I have hope that it can go better than just grit-my-teeth and muscle through it!  My adrenaline was sky-high with S’s birth and I was definitely in “fight” mode.  I’d like to learn how to release those nice endorphin friends instead.  My friend and neighbor is a nurse midwife, and she is starting to talk to me about places to massage/squeeze to help release pressure during contractions, water birth, and other fun topics like that.

The Birthing Center
The birthing center itself is set up to be a peaceful place.  Peaceful.  Ahh.  Not bright white lights, laying flat on the bed.

Doesn’t that look like a nice place to deliver?  What you don’t see at first glance (or even second) is the medical equipment that is at the ready, just in case.  While they can (and do!) transfer mamas to a hospital if need be, they’re equipped to handle a fair amount of things themselves.   Several recent studies conducted on birthing centers found that they are safe and provide good outcomes for moms and babies.

Have you had experience with a midwife?  Would you consider that route for your next delivery? 

Mouthwash is a popular tool that many of us use to combat tooth decay.   I’ve never been a fan of mouthwash, simply because I didn’t like the taste!  As I’ve begun learning about the chemicals contained in alcohol based mouthwashes, I’m thankful I haven’t used them regularly!

Did you know:

Long-term use of alcohol-containing mouthwashes dries and changes the pH of the mouth and throat and is associated with an increased risk of mouth and throat cancers. If a mouthwash contains a harsh detergent like cocamidopropyl betaine, this compounds the damage. Listerine contains a slightly milder detergent, Poloxamer 407, but its unique qualities – being soluble in liquids at low temperature, but turning into a gel at higher temperatures (ie body temperature) – makes it a film former, keeping other toxic ingredients on the surface of the mouth for longer.
- TheEcologist.org

Yuck!  The trouble continues – mouthwashes are chock full of synthetic colors and artificial flavorings.  People also routinely get drunk off of mouthwash!

What to do?  I was interested to hear a testimony about the power in Thieves Mouthwash when I went to a class on essential oils.  After a lady used the mouthwash consistently, her dentist was astounded because she didn’t have any plaque!  None!

Thieves essential oil is a blend of oils that have a 99.96% kill rate against bacteria that cause cavities!  Young Living, the company that makes Thieves, includes colloidal silver as a base, thus increasing the bacteria kill rate even more!

In fact, the National Institute of Health actually recommends using an essential oil based mouthwash.

It took me a few nights to get used to the taste – but I’m not an experienced mouthwash user.  I just drink a little water right after I use it and the strong clove taste doesn’t bother me at all.

I’m excited to have added a mighty weapon to my arsenal for fighting teeth decay!   Cavity-free teeth, here I come!

I have a love/hate relationship with my teeth. I love them simply because it would be near impossible to eat without them. My dislike comes in because, apparently, my teeth aren’t very strong. I brush them (and sometimes floss them) and still had lots of bad news at the dentist last month. (I try not to be jealous of my husband – he has NEVER had a cavity!). It was rather disheartening to be told by the dentist that I don’t have good teeth, as he’s filling two cavities and giving me two root canals (one of which got infected – augh!)

After that series of expensive trips, I have been a woman on a mission to make some changes in how I treat my teeth. I want to have a cavity-free dentist visit next time! A small goal for some perhaps, a big goal for me!

I’m taking a two-fold approach to helping my teeth. I want to eliminate the bacteria that are creating the decay. I want to do that in a natural way, that won’t harm my body as well as the bacteria! I also want to strengthen my teeth so they don’t get eaten up by the bacteria in the first place!

I’ve written before about healing cavities naturally through fermented cod liver oil and butter oil.  I still believe strongly in this and know that it works – if you actually take the capsules!  Ahem.  That’s where I run into trouble.  

Enter: Earthpaste

Earthpaste is a new brand of toothpaste developed by Redmond Trading Company.  It leaves out undesirable ingredients like fluoride, propylene glycol and sodium laurel sulfate. Redmond Trading Company was kind enough to send me a few tubes to review and I’ve been really happy with what I’ve found.  Since I’m already ‘trained’ to brush my teeth every day, simply using a different brand is an easy switch!

The ingredients in Earthpaste are top notch:

• Purified Water
• Food Grade Redmond Clay
• Xylitol
• Redmond Real Salt
• Tea Tree Oil
• Menthol (peppermint and wintergreen flavors)
• Essential Oils (Cinnamon or Peppermint, depends on flavor)

I had already been interested in trying out Bentonite clay, since it’s naturally detoxifying and contains a number of necessary minerals. It’s helpful to get a daily dose of it in my toothpaste! It’s also a natural polisher that has antibacterial properties.

Since Earthpaste doesn’t contain any artificial colors, it’s earth-colored! That doesn’t bother me at all. The flavors are nice too – even though it has a brown shade, it doesn’t taste anything like dirt! It tastes like, toothpaste. Of the three flavors, I liked Wintergreen the best and my husband prefers the Cinnamon. I sent some samples home with a friend and her family gave the taste two thumbs up as well!

If you’d like to give Earthpaste a try, you can order it directly from Redmond Trading Company (use coupon code TryEarthpaste to get a 15% discount), and shipping is free for orders above $35!   You can also find it on Amazon for $4.38 per tube!

* These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.