Peaceful Unschoolers

The Power Outage.

2011-08-02T08:52:00.000-07:00

This past Friday the Harry Potter movie came out in theaters. It was the second half of the seventh book. My daughter Autumn had challenged me with reading all seven books before viewing this final movie. Not only did I complete the challenge, but I found book seven to be very good. At least the last few chapters anyway. Some interesting and philosophical words in those last few pages. I actually loved them. But more importantly with this fun filled Harry Potter movie Friday, our power bill was due. Since I could not get a good signal on my cell phone, partly because we live in a swamp on a dried up fortress of a lake, I had asked my husband Donald to call the information in . So, the story unveils.

Living out in the middle of nowhere and also close to everything, does have its benefits, but getting a signal on my iphone is not one of those pluses . Sometimes I have to lay on the floor, stand in the kitchen like I am some kind of contortionist, and even go outside in the blazing heat to get a signal. (I don't do heat real well by the way as you will soon find out.) Sometimes the signal works and sometimes it doesn't. After three failed attempts to speak with customer service regarding our late power bill, and several unsuccessful attempts to pay this bill online, I got a text through to my husband at work with the information to go ahead and pay this monstrous bill. All was good, he was on it. Or so I thought.

The day went by in a flash. The girls and I had left the house around noon. We did not arrive home until after 10pm. I had to pick Donald up from work and did I mention that we are only using one car these days? (The stresses are mounting.) When we all walked into the house, the quiet heat wave was stifling. Nothing was working. I freaked! How long had the power been out? Was the food spoiled? I thought we paid the power. Anger, confusion, and bickering began to take place. Each of us with our own negative words slinging. "It's the weekend, they are not going to come turn our power back on until Monday! What about the freezer?" I continued, I was pissed. My husband chimed in, "Damn that power company, someone at work told me they sucked! Kim, I paid the power bill, you can see where they sent me the confirmation in my email." Great! " I can't check the email because the power is out!" Then the kids started. "I hate this house!" And finally, "Why is it always us !" It has been a hard year I might add.

As the rant continued, Donald proceeded to go outside in the heatwave with the mosquitoes, pig, chickens and other farm critters to call the power company. Thank goodness he had the number already set in his 'recent' calls section on his cell phone. He received a recording. Just peachy..... Thankfully, he did leave our address and phone number on the power companies message recording. But, how would that help us now?

Back inside the house the kids had started playing word games while sitting on the couches. Chloe was walking around the house filming all of us with the computer that did maintain a battery charge. She was having a blast. I on the other hand was having a personal battle with all the sand on the floor. We do not have carpet, we have cement, and sand was everywhere. Ears, toes, fingernails, and other uncomfortable bodily places. We didn't clean the house before we left for the movies, for we wanted to get there and avoid the huge lines and be on our way. We had waited so long for it's release. I could chime in that we were bonding, but at this point, we were doing whatever we could to exist in the moment. Bitching at one another was at the top of our list. This had to someone's fault. And I wasn't taking the blame.But we were over the heat and it was time for plan B.

Since Donald does work for a hotel he could get us a room, an adjoining one too! Awesome! Now it was time to find our belongings in the pitch black, hot smelly house. This takes another thirty minutes. I collapse at one point and find a quiet spot on the bed in my room. I can't take it! I need to find Chloe's insulin kit.... where the heck is it? Did I mention it is pitch dark and hot? Lord only knows where all of her supplies are located, and will I find them in the house? Where is she? I begin to panic. Why haven't I put together a emergency kit for moments like this. Where is Autumn? What is Donald doing? It sure is dark out there, in here, and everywhere. I can't see my hands!!! I begin to move myself down the hot hallway. I hear voices. It's Donald and the kids playing yet another word game. They haven't even begun to start locating their belongings, they are having fun. Yes, fun! I'm panicking that we don't have Chloe's insulin supplies, who knows what her glucose is at this point, and they are playing games. Autumn is throwing out words like its magic and I am sweating. It's hot as hell! I want a/c, and now! Donald yells out to me, "Lets just give it 15 more minutes and if the power company doesn't call, then we'll go to the hotel!" So, I dive onto the bed again and sprawl out. Gosh, I hate Florida sometimes.

Suddenly, I see a flash outside. Is it head lights? I grab the side of the bed, shimmy over to the nearest wall and guide myself down the hall, stumble across the living room, slide through sand and reach a window. It's the power company!! Hurray! The kids are now pissed. They wanted to go to the hotel and stay in the swanky room. They couldn't wait to rid themselves of all the sand and sweat. Neither could I for that matter. What about all the animals? We have a zillion, not to mention a pot bellied pig, that if left alone, would eat our front door! How'd we think we were going to be able to leave the house and go to the hotel? I would have stayed in the heat invested filth pit, I guess.

The power guy finally fixed our power poll. Apparently, a limb or something, had fallen on it during the afternoon and knocked out our main line. The power outage had nothing to do with Donald paying the power bill late in the afternoon on the phone. Our food wasn't going to spoil and the animals were not going to be left for the coyotes, or eat the house. Thank goodness!

Everyone finally fell asleep around 2am. All was good in the farm house, along with the sand, the smelly dishes, and the sweltering heat. It was home and we weren't leaving. At least not this night anyway.

More family stories to continue in the near future. Here's our next event: "Kim, go get some rope so you can pull me in the Volvo with the Jeep! This way we will make it to the mechanics and save money!" Lol.....I'm serious!

Wonderful Unschooling Quotes

2010-08-15T19:28:00.000-07:00

"I recognize June by the flowers, now. I used to know it by review tests, and restlessness." -Lisa Asher, unschooled teen
"We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bellyful of words and do not know a thing." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
"My schooling not only failed to teach me what it professed to be teaching, but prevented me from being educated to an extent which infuriates me when I think of all I might have learned at home by myself." -George Bernard Shaw
"There is, on the whole, nothing on earth intended for innocent people so horrible as a school." -George Bernard Shaw
"The only thing I didn't do in school was learn." -unschooler Jason Lescalleet
"The Indian schools were like jails and run along military lines, with roll call four times a day...The schools are better now than they were in my time. They look good on the outside. More modern and expensive. The teachers understand the kids a little better, use more psychology and less stick. But in these fine new buildings Indian children still commit suicide, because they are lonely among all that noise and activity. I know of a ten-year-old girl who hanged herself...When we enter the school we at least know that we are Indians. We come out half red and half white, not knowing what we are." -Lame Deer, Lakota Medicine Man
"I am always ready to learn, but I do not always like being taught." -Winston Churchill
"I was happy as a child with my toys in my nursery. I been happier every year since I became a man. But this interlude of school makes a somber grey patch upon the chart of my journey. It was a unending spell of worries that did not then seem petty, and of toil uncheered by fruition; a time of discomfort, restriction and purposeless monotony." -Winston Churchill
"How I hated this school, and what a life of anxiety I lived there for more than two years. I counted the days and the hours to the end of every term, when I should return home from this hateful servitude." -Winston Churchill
"Youth is the time to go flashing from one end of the world to the other in both mind and body; to try the manners of different nations; to hear the chimes at midnight; to see sunrise in town and country; to be converted at a revival; to circumnavigate the metaphysics, write halting verses, run a mile to see a fire, and wait all day in the theatre to applaud 'Hernani'." -Robert Louis Stevenson
"School-days, I believe, are the unhappiest in the whole span of human existence. They are full of dull, unintelligible tasks, new and unpleasant ordinances, brutal violations of common sense amd common decency. It doesn't take a reasonably bright boy long to discover that most of what is rammed into him is nonsense, and that no one really cares very much whether he learns it or not." -H. L. Mencken
"Schooling, instead of encouraging the asking of questions, too often discourages it." -Madeleine L'Engle
"The schools ain't what they used to be and never was." -Will Rogers
"Education with inert ideas is not only useless, it is above all things harmful." -A. N. Whitehead
"A child educated only at school is an uneducated child." -George Santayana
"Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance that accumulates in the form of inert facts." -Henry Adams
"The founding fathers in their wisdom decided that children were an unnatural strain on parents. So they provided jails called schools, equipped with tortures called education. School is where you go between when your parents can't take you and industry can't take you." -John Updike
"We're drowning in information and starving for knowledge." -Rutherford Rogers
"Every day I went to school was a constant attack on my self-worth. I learned not to believe in myself. It was a bombardment from all directions; the teachers were saying how bad I was doing in their classes, my family was ashamed of my grades, and the students were attacking me about everything under the sun! I was like a plant trying to grow in darkness--it doesn't. It all left me afraid to dream my dreams-afraid to be my true self! Who wants to show their true self if they're just going to get a rock hurled at it?! The real question is: how do we undo the damage done? We have to take time to dream again, not other peoples', but our own precious dreams that mean everything to us. Our dreams are our life maps." -unschooler Jenny Smith
"Before children go to school in the first place, all of their natural learning systems are intact. This is what we can see from families who have homeschooled their kids from the very beginning. However, once children are in school for about three years, they are forced to shift over to a very unnatural system to survive the emphasis on memorization and the daily stress, rigidity, and humiliation of classroom life." -Judy Garvey in GWS #76
"But, good gracious, you've got to educate him first. You can't expect a boy to be vicious till he's been to a good school." -Saki (H.H. Munro)
"You cannot teach a person anything; you can only help him find it within himself." -Galileo
"I do not believe much in education. Each man ought to be his own model, however frightful that may be." -Albert Einstein
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
"It is... nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom; without this it goes to wreak and ruin. It is a very grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty." -Albert Einstein
"When was the last time you saw a tombstone with SAT scores inscribed on it?" -Edward B. Fiske
"The child who attends public school typically spends approximately 1,100 hours a year there, but only twenty percent of these -- 220 -- are spent, as the educators say, 'on task'. Nearly 900 hours, or eighty percent, are squandered on what are essentially organizational matters." -Homeschooling For Excellence
"Most people, most of the time, learn most of what they know about science and technology outside of school." -National Science Foundation
"My grandmother wanted me to have an education, so she kept me out of school." -Margaret Mead
"I hate, loathe and despise schools....School is bad for you if you have any talent. You should be cultivating that talent in your own particular way." -Maurice Sendak (author of "Where the Wild Things Are")
"Each day was a severe test for me, sitting in a dreadful classroom while the sun and fog played outside. Most of the information received meant absolutely nothing to me. For example, I was chastised for not being able to remember what states border Nebraska and what are the states of the Gulf Coast. It was simply a matter of memorizing the names, nothing about the process of memorizing or any reason to memorize. Education without either meaning or excitement is impossible. I longed for the outdoors, leaving only a small part of my conscious self to pay attention to schoolwork.
"One day as I sat fidgeting in class the whole situation suddenly appeared very ridiculous to me. I burst into raucous peals of uncontrolled laughter, I could not stop. The class was first amused, then scared. I stood up, pointed at the teacher, and shrieked my scorn, hardly taking breath in between my howling paroxysms." -Ansel Adams (who dropped out of school at age twelve and began taking photographs)
"Oh, yes, I went to the white man's schools. I learned to read from schoolbooks, newspapers, and the Bible. But in time I found that these were not enough. Civilized people depend too much on man-made pages. I turn to the Great Spirit's book which is the whole of his creation. You can read a big part of that book if you study nature. You know, if you take all your books, lay them out under the sun, and let the snow and rain and insects work on them for a while, there will be nothing left. But the Great Spirit had provided you and me with an opportunity for study in nature's university, the forest, the rivers, the mountains, and the animals, which include us." -Tatanga Mani, Stoney Indian
A letter from Native Americans to settlers, dated 1774:
We know that you highly esteem the kind of learning taught in those colleges, and that the Maintenance of our young Men, while with you, would be very expensive to you. We are convinced, therefore, that you mean to do us Good by your Proposal; and we thank you heartily. But you, who are wise, must know that different Nations have different Conceptions of things; and you will therefore not take it amiss if our Ideas of this kind of Education happen to not be the same with yours. We have had some Experience of it. Several of our young People were formerly brought up at the Colleges of the Northern Provinces; they were instructed in all your Sciences, but, when they came back to us, they were bad Runners, ignorant of every means of living in the woods, ...neither fit for Hunters, Warriors, nor Councellors, they were totally good for nothing. We are, however, not the less oblig'd by your kind Offer, tho' we decline accepting it; and, to show our grateful sense of it, if the Gentlemen of Virginia will send us a Dozen of their Sons, we will take Care of their Education, instruct them in all we know, and make Men out of them.
"I loathed every day and regret every day I spent in school. I like to be taught to read and write and add and then be left alone." -Woody Allen
"As far as I have seen, at school...they aimed at blotting out one's individuality." -Franz Kafka
"I was undisciplined by birth, never would I bend, even in my tender youth, to a rule. It was at home I learned the little I know. Schools always appeared to me like a prison, and never could I make up my mind to stay there, not even for four hours a day, when the sunshine was inviting, the sea smooth, and when it was joy to run about the cliffs in the free air, or to paddle in the water." -Claude Monet
"It is absurd and anti-life to be a part of a system that compels you to listen to a stranger reading poetry when you want to learn to construct buildings, or to sit with a stranger discussing the construction of buildings when you want to read poetry." -John Taylor Gatto
"The truth is that schools don't really teach anything except how to obey orders." -John Taylor Gatto
"Public school--where the human mind is drilled and manipulated into submission to various social and moral spooks, and thus fitted to continue our system of exploitation and oppression." -Emma Goldman
"There can be no education without leisure; and without leisure, education is worthless." -Sarah Josepha Hale
"I was asked to memorise what I did not understand; and, my memory being so good, it refused to be insulted in that manner." -Aleister Crowley
"Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training." -Anna Freud
"If the student fails to learn, the teacher fails to teach." -unknown
"Nothing that is worth knowing can be taught." -Oscar Wilde
"How is it that little children are so intelligent while men are so stupid? It must be education that does it." -Alexandre Dumas, fils
"Knowledge has outstripped character development, and the young today are given an education rather than an upbringing." -Ilya Ehrenburg
"Our schools have become vast factories for the manufacture of robots. We no longer send our young to them primarily to be taught and given the tools of thought, no longer primarily to be informed and acquire knowledge; but to be 'socialized.'" -Robert Lindner
"Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind." -Plato
"Education consists mainly in what we have unlearned." -Mark Twain
"It is easier for a teacher to command than to teach." -John Locke
"An educator never says what he himself thinks, but only that which he thinks it is good for those whom he is educating to hear." -Nietzsche
"The things we know best are the things we haven't been taught." -Vauvenargues
"The teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on cold iron." -Horace Mann
"Why have kids just to get rid of them? I'm opposed to the whole nonsense." -Gomez Addams, on the original "Addams Family" show.
"Education is a private matter between the person and the world of knowledge and experience, and has little to do with school or college." -Lillian Smith
"I can't give you a brain, but I can give you a diploma." -L. Frank Baum, The Wizard of Oz
"Love goes towards love as schoolboys from their books; Love from love, toward school with heavy looks." -Romeo, Romeo and Juliet, 2:2:156
"School is like a lollipop. It sucks until it is gone." -Ashley Salvati
"How could youth better learn to live than by at once trying the experiment of living?" -Henry D. Thoreau
"The more I think about it the more I think high school is seriously warped." -J.S. Feliciano, Pump up the Volume
"When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, it's a wonder I can think at all." -Paul Simon
"Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is." -Isaac Asimov
"In the end, the secret to learning is so simple: Think only about whatever you love. Follow it, do it, dream about it...and it will hit you: learning was there all the time, happening by itself." -Grace Llewellyn
"It is because modern education is so seldom inspired by a great hope that it so seldom achieves great results. The wish to preserve the past rather than the hope of creating the future dominates the minds of those who control the teaching of the young." -Bertrand Russell
"We don't need no education. We don't need no thought control. Hey teacher, leave the kids alone." -Pink Floyd
"N is for Neville, who died of ennui." -Edward Gorey, Gashlycrumb Tinies
"Children do not need to be made to learn about the world, or shown how. They want to, and they know how." -John Holt

Remedy for nasty childhood warts....

2010-08-13T21:05:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know, gross. But, I 'm reading the book, Eat Pray Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert and I am at a part where she visits a natural healer who cures an infection she has on her knee with leaves. So, I jump up, run to my laptop and log in thinking, I've got to share, I need to share something seriously important with my friends and parents of children, quickly, before I forget!

When Autumn was younger, she was always getting warts. Planters on the bottom of her feet, on her legs, arms, and fingers. We would have them burned off, cut off by her physician, only to have them grow back, or leave a nasty scar. She actually has a very annoying scar on her left hand, where her someday wedding band will go, and it is a huge personal issue with her.

Anyway, to make it simple, Autumn decided last year when she was aggravating over a few more warts that had come up on her fingers and arms, she was going to try something homeopathic. She researched and came up with an amazing inexpensive alternative to more burnings and cutting marks left by the docs.

Apple cider vinegar on a cotton ball taped over the wart and removed daily for three weeks...Yes! It only took three days and all her warts not only disappeared, but they have never returned!

Needed to share, it was bugging me and I couldn't fall asleep. I know, I need help!

The Adolescent Squeeze

2010-08-03T09:52:00.000-07:00

Psychologist Robert Epstein argues in a provocative book, "The Case Against Adolescence," that teens are far more competent than we assume, and most of their problems stem from restrictions placed on them.

By Hara Estroff Marano, published on March 01, 2007 - last reviewed on May 29, 2007

The Adolescent Squeeze

Before 1850, laws restricting the behavior of teens were few and far between. Compulsory education laws evolved in tandem with laws restricting labor by young people. Beginning in 1960, the number of laws infantilizing adolescents accelerated dramatically. You may have had a paper route when you were 12, but your children can't.

1600's.

1641 Massachusetts law prohibits people under 16 from "smiting" their parents

1800s

1836 Massachusetts passes first law requiring minimal schooling for people under 15 working in factories
1848 Pennsylvania sets 12 as minimum work age for some jobs
1852 Massachusetts passes first universal compulsory education law in U.S., requires three months of schooling for all young people ages 8-14
1880s Some states pass laws restricting various behaviors by young people: smoking, singing on the streets, prostitution, "incorrigible" behavior
1881 American Federation of Labor calls on states to ban people under 14 from working
1898 World's first juvenile court established in Illinois—constitutional rights of minors effectively taken away

1900s

1903 Illinois requires school attendance and restricts youth labor
1918 All states have compulsory education laws in place
1933 First federal law restricting drinking by young people
1936 & 1938 First successful federal laws restricting labor by young people, establishing 16 and 18 as minimum ages for work; still in effect
1940 Most states have laws in place restricting driving by people under 16
1968 Supreme Court upholds states' right to prohibit sale of obscene materials to minors
1968 Movie rating system established to restrict young people from certain films
1970s Supreme Court upholds laws restricting young women's right to abortion
1970s Dramatic increase in involuntary electroshock therapy (ECT) of teens
1980s Many cities and states pass laws restricting teens' access to arcades and other places of amusement; Supreme Court upholds such laws in 1989
1980s Courts uphold states' right to prohibit sale of lottery tickets to minors
1980 to 1998 Rate of involuntary commitment of minors to mental institutions increases 300-400 percent
1984 First national law effectively raising drinking age to 21
1988 Supreme Court denies freedom of press to school newspapers
1989 Missouri court upholds schools' right to prohibit dancing
1989 Court rules school in Florida can ban salacious works by Chaucer and Aristophanes
1990s Curfew laws for young people sweep cities and states
1990s Dramatic increase in use of security systems in schools
1992 Federal law prohibits sale of tobacco products to minors
1997 New federal law makes easier involuntary commitment of teens

2000s

2000+ New laws restricting minors' rights to get tattoos, piercings, and to enter tanning salons spread through U.S.
2000+ Tougher driving laws sweeping through states: full driving rights obtained gradually over a period of years
2000+ Dramatic increase in zero-tolerance laws in schools, resulting in suspensions or dismissals for throwing spitballs, making gun gestures with hand, etc.
2000+ New procedures and laws making it easier to prosecute minors as adults

Currently spreading nationwide:

New rules prohibiting cell phones in schools or use of cell phones by minors while driving
Libraries and schools block access to Internet material by minors
New dress code rules in schools
New rules restricting wearing of potentially offensive clothing or accessories in schools
New laws prohibiting teens from attending parties where alcohol is served (even if they're not drinking)
New laws restricting teens' access to shopping malls
Tracking devices routinely installed in cell phones and cars of teens
New availability of home drug tests for teens
New laws prohibiting minors from driving with any alcohol in bloodstream (zero-tolerance)
Proposals for longer school days, longer school year, and addition of grades 13 and 14 to school curriculum under discussion

I am That Mom......

2010-07-27T13:27:00.000-07:00

~I am That Mom who would not allow her child to be put in daycare almost 17 years ago..... even when everyone in my family was pushing me to. I quit my job and my husband got three more.

~I am That Mom who allows every kid in the neighborhood in my house, lets them sleep over and have camp outs on my living room floor for days at a time.

~I am That Mom who lets her children color their hair, pierce their nose and drives to the store at 3am for another color of nail polish.

~ I am That Mom who watches South Park episodes one after the other with her kids.... while laughing hysterically.

~I am That Mom who allows her children to have rats, cats, guinea pigs, dogs, a pet pig, hamsters and stray animals because they love them and cherish their needs.

~I am That Mom who has moved over 26 times so that her husband could expand his career while allowing me to be home with my girls 24/7. One time from Florida to Chicago in the middle of winter! That was hard.

~I am That Mom who when asked by her younger daughter to take a 30 day raw food challenge, did successfully, and still doesn't eat meat and avoids cooked food because Chloe insist.

~I am That Mom who is weird about her children being around people or family members who are drinking alcohol...... because I am a person who has survived an alcoholic upbringing, and it freaks me out....

~I am That Mom who still allows her kids to sleep in her bed or on her floor all wrapped and cozy because they want to.

~I am That Mom who has almost lost both of her children..... Autumn (then age 2) in an accidental drug overdose at a family function and Chloe, from type 1 diabetes-DKA, Diabetic ketoacidosis.

~I am That Mom who doesn't push her daughter to drive just because she is 16. She'll learn when she is ready.

~I am That Mom who will sit back and watch her children become who they want to become ,without the worry of what other people think.

~So there! :)

~

Our Volunteer Experience~

2010-07-19T15:13:00.000-07:00

This past week my daughters and I volunteered at Ocala Civic Theater. It started out to be something that we anticipated would be a wonderful lesson and a positive experience, but unfortunately we ended our weekend with a sour taste in our mouths.

First, I would like to point out that we started our adventure in a Board Meeting. The room was filled with tension and stress. Basically what we learned there, which should have been a foreshadowing of our next three days, was that the theater is not just a fun and exciting place to learn for passionate kids and adults, but a place that is full of cliques and political bullying from people who are burnt out and frustrated. $$

Without explaining in great details about each day, I will say that for the most part Autumn and Chloe had a nice time. We took a special liking to a teacher/volunteer named Jeff Sensat. Jeff made us feel welcome and part of the crowd! We had a wonderful experience talking with him after the board meeting on our first visit to the theater. He took us behind the scenes of the stage and made us feel special. I also volunteered during the week. For three afternoons I helped paint the Footloose set with two men who work for the theater and several older men who volunteer their time to help create and construct the actual sets. Super nice folks and I am glad I had the pleasure of working with them.

The issue that caused our sadness and frustration began on Friday when we were asked by one of the teachers, whom Autumn had worked with all week, to come out on Sunday and observe and hopefully gain a volunteer spot behind the scenes of the play, Footloose. She had taken a liking to Autumn and had expressed her gratitude in families that allowed their children to evolve into people naturally without stress or personal persuasion. We have great admiration for this particular teacher, we only wish she could have kept her word and showed up on Sunday like she had promised. We NEVER would have gone on Sunday if we had not been invited. But even without her presence on Sunday, the below situation should never have happened.

We showed up at the theater promptly at 2pm:

While sitting in the theater observing pictures being taken by the local news paper and talking with the light tech, my daughter Autumn approached me choking back tears telling me that we needed to leave. She said that the stage manager had approached her and was nice, but explained that she had enough help with the rehearsal and that Autumn could leave. Can you imagine? The stage manager of the play is only 17 years old, very sweet, and I know that the direction of this comment did not originate from this young girl. It was from the director of the play, an adult who should have more compassion and love for someones feelings and dedication. Autumn wasn't in the way, she was observing......and at that moment her spirit was robbed. This particular individual had observed Autumn volunteering all week and not that this means anything, but also myself, so she knew who we were, not strangers to the set. How mean can someone be? One extra person for one day observing and learning........Sad, sad, sad.

Shame on you..... Mrs. Director!

Chloe's Dr's visit.

2010-06-19T21:23:00.000-07:00

This past week we had Chloe's three month check up along with her six month lab re-checks. All of Chloe's lab work came back perfect. Six months ago her Dr. was not happy with her cholesterol, her thyroid functions or her a1c score. Since eating raw for only 10 days prior to her labs being drawn, amazingly all her ranges came back normal and her a1c was the lowest ever, 6. Her Dr. was not thrilled about us becoming raw food eaters and did give us a lecture that I tuned out 1/2 way through. When I analyze what I remember of her lecture, she basically said that we can not continue to eat raw because even though Chloe's lab work showed miraculous improvement, she didn't grow an inch. How could her Dr. make make an accurate speculation based on only 20 days of raw food eating?

Chloe did try eating Ezekiel Bread one day this week only to find that it caused her glucose to cascade out of control. We also found that agave nectar caused a tremendous problem with her glucose and this was tossed as well. These two products proved to be very difficult to control even though they are advertised as low glycemic products. Wrong.

I just find it difficult to digest that we humans need to kill and eat animals to grow efficiently. Every book, article, journal, blog etc. that I have researched contradicts this old myth.

I think we really need a dehydrator. This will increase our raw food options immensely.

Peace to you,

Kimberly :)

Peaceful Unschoolers: Day 15~Raw Food Challenge.

2010-06-11T20:29:00.000-07:00

Peaceful Unschoolers: Day 15~Raw Food Challenge.

17 Days & Strong.

2010-06-11T19:17:00.000-07:00

    Well, we seem to be regular raw food eaters now. I'm very thankful for this challenge and never realized how good I could feel by becoming a raw food eater. Chloe's insulin doses were steady all day today, but the other night at her 2am check, I had to actually lower her 'basal' (amount of insulin drip from her pump in a hour) to the lowest it has ever been. Her pre-dawn basal is a little higher then her night time basal only because our bodies naturally release glucose from our liver before dawn to give our body energy for our morning. ( The Pre-Dawn Effect). I am finding that in the early afternoons her requirement for insulin has dropped as well. Her body is regulating itself on its own for evening. Yay!
   Autumn seems to be adjusting, but I find that I have to remind her to eat. She is never hungry, and although that is a first for all of us, she needs to eat. She is reading a lot more and keeping herself occupied with her studies which is fabulous. She is swimming laps now in the pool daily and finds herself more energetic. She does have headaches every now and then, but she was a big time caffeine drinker up until two weeks ago so I am sure she is still detoxing.
   Donald is losing weight and continues to support the family by remaining a raw food eater even while running a restaurant. I can not imagine that torture, but he does have access to some pretty healthy raw salads so it can not be that bad. His gout is flaring up though and this is driving him nuts. We are trying to pinpoint the source of the uric acid problem, but so far can not. He is drinking cherry juice and doing all that he can to help his pain. (Frozen cabbage soaks)
   Me, well, I'm reading a ton, swimming a lot with both girls and find myself cleaning the kitchen constantly! Raw food eating is messy! Fruit flies and stinky trash cans. It's all good. :)

Day 15~Raw Food Challenge.

2010-06-09T21:34:00.000-07:00

Well, we've made it half way through the challenge and we are all doing terrific! Chloe's insulin dosages continue to decline and our family is feeling great. Autumn continues to explore new recipes she finds on youtube and has also started her own blog. In the beginning of this challenge I think the only real struggle for Donald, Autumn and I were the caffeine withdrawals. The headaches for all three of us were horrible. Chloe was the only one who was already a vegan and caffeine free so she didn't have the pain. It feels good knowing that we are doing everything we can to help Chloe live with type 1 diabetes and at the same time we are all experiencing something incredibly miraculous. I'm thrilled.

RAW~ Our Thirty Day Challenge.

2010-06-07T14:02:00.000-07:00

Over two weeks ago a friend of mine emailed me a link regarding a Raw Food Eating Challenge and it's benefits with the treatment of type 1 and type 2 diabetes. My daughter Chloe, age 10 was diagnosed 6/06 of type 1 diabetes, so this challenge naturally caught my attention. Since our physicians have never mentioned this method of treatment, I was extremely skeptic. Well, we went for it and here are the results just after 12 days.
Day 1:
*Insulin Basal: 24 units per day. 20-40 units for food a day.
Day 2:
*Insulin Basal: 12 units per day. 5-8 units for food a day.

Chloe's insulin has already been cut more then half just after 12 days!

I keep getting grilled on the protein factor of raw food eating. Here's the skinny!

Protein from meat. Myth! Here is a short list of food that can provide your body with protein besides meat.

Sprouts
Spinach
Kale
Broccoli
Parsley
Cucumber
Artichokes
Celery
Hemp Seeds
Flax Seeds
Pumpkin seeds
Tomatoes
Almonds

For anyone interested in more information regarding our families challenge, please watch the documentary provided in this link.

http://www.documentarywire.com/simply-raw-reversing-diabetes-in-30-days

More later,

Kimberly

First post...revised a million times! :)

2010-04-09T22:04:00.000-07:00

   Almost four years ago my daughter Chloe started breathing rapidly. Since Chloe had been diagnosed earlier that year with asthma I thought she needed a breathing treatment. I was very wrong. When her breathing became worse, my husband Donald and I decided to drive Chloe to the hospital. After reaching our local hospital, Chloe was then put into another ambulance. She was driven to The Childrens Hospital in New Orleans. Chloe was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, a diagnosis that we never expected, but were able to digest. We would all need to learn about the disease and how to take care of Chloe in a entirely different way.

   Donald and I started thinking about homeschooling both the girls after the diagnosis but we had so many concerns. Could we possibly provide our children with a proper education at home? What about the laws on homeschooling? Cost? What would family members say? Looking back now it all seems so silly.

   While all of the drama with Chloe was unraveling,our daughter Autumn sat patiently. Autumn hated school even though she was a straight A student and had tons of friends. Autumn felt that if Chloe were going to have the choice to homeschool then she wanted that right too!

The most difficult challenge for our family when we started homeschooling was the bullying of the outside families.

We started home schooling the girls in August of 2006.

"The basic right of all human beings is the right to choose what to learn and think." ~John Holt

Going vegan.

2010-04-09T20:58:00.000-07:00

It has been over three weeks since Chloe decided to become a vegan and an animal rights activist. Being her mom I felt I should follow along. Have you ever eaten vegan? Nightmare for me at first. But, once we tossed out all the food products in our house and restocked the shelves with better choices, things became easier. I must say that I actually like cooking with fresh veggies,beans and tofu. I used to never cook, only microwave. Yuck!