I know I’ve been a bad blogger and haven’t posted in a few weeks. There has been so much going on: I’ve been trying to learn some new technology, learning to use Twitter, as well as working on my website redesign and planning my son’s 5th birthday extravaganza with his buddy! That’s right, it was a joint birthday party for 2 little 5 year old boys.
His birthday was last week, Fat Tuesday, actually. He was born on Fat Tuesday, too. The kid likes to party!
Since his actual birthday was a weekday, the party was this past Sunday. He doesn’t go to preschool on Tuesdays so I had to plan a day of fun for him since he has no family here to make a big deal over him. It’s all up to us to do it. My husband took a half day at work so we drove down to his new office and picked him up, went to a nearby fun playground with really big slides (his favorite) and had a picnic. Did I mention it was almost 70 degrees out and sunny that day? Amazing. We played hard there for a couple of hours then went to a nearby (cheap!) movie theater that was showing 2 different animated kid’s movies and he picked the movie, The Tale of Despereaux. He LOVED it! It was a very cute movie. He ate a giant bag of popcorn mostly by himself, too.
After that, we drove into Denver to a restaurant, Casa Bonita, that is so kitschy it belongs in Vegas! South Park TV show actually did a whole very funny episode about it, too. That is the only thing I can think of when I think about this restaurant. I’ve lived in CO for almost 15 years now and have never been there and after reading about my friend Heather’s experience there recently with her kids, I knew my son Leif would love it and I was right! The food is pretty lame Mexican food (according to my husband) but we had a great time there. There is a wandering mariachi band that plays and sings while you eat and you can get free sopapillas throughout your meal. I was able to “veganize” a taco salad so my dinner wasn’t too bad!
They actually have a little show they put on approximately every 15 minutes on this tiny stage area that is right in the middle of the dining area and there is a 30 foot drop down into a pool of water. There is a waterfall and fake palm trees, too. Leif was mesmerized by the little skits and then the guy diving 30 feet off the platform into the water – he thought it was the coolest thing!
The place is enormous, rooms and hallways leading to all sorts of areas including 2 arcades (with ski ball no less – my favorite – but it’s called “ice ball” here), tons of both new and very old school video games – even Pac Man! – a mini arcade area with rides for little kids, a place to redeem the coupons you win at the arcade for little toys, a treasure chest room, vendors selling different trinkets, etc. It really was so fun!
He then had his birthday party at preschool on Friday and it’s a Waldorf school so it’s a special type of ceremony for the child. The teacher crochets a crown for him and he wears a birthday cape and holds a star wand and she reads a special birthday story and lights candles for how old he is. Each parent/teacher/child at the ceremony says birthday wishes/blessings for him as the teacher ties “wish knots” in play silks for each wish spoken and the silks surround his handmade doll she made for him. He takes the basket and unties all the silks and finds his present at the end. It’s very sweet and loving. We will miss this!
Last Sunday was the big extravaganza birthday party at a local gymnastics place that we shared with his buddy, Jackson who goes to preschool with him and lives down the street from us. His 5th birthday was yesterday. We carpool to school with him, too and they both have been talking about their party for a few weeks now – it’s very cute listening to them.
We did a flying theme (airplanes, helicopters, etc) and the party was at a local gymnastics place that Leif loves going to. We tried to “green up” the party a little by buying a zero waste event kit from our county recycling office. All the plates, utensils, napkins, cups are compostable (made from corn) and go into a huge BioBag trash bag that we return to the recycling dept. for them to compost. All the food was vegan, too. Even the cupcakes, frosting and whipped cream – it was soy whip.
They both had lots of fun as did their friends and when we went home, his buddy Ava came over to play with both Leif and Jackson at the playground and the 3 of them just had a great time! We made some homemade pizzas (3 different cheeses – cow, goat and vegan cheeze) for dinner and Leif and Ava played with all his new presents only stopping to eat pizza and birthday cupcakes. My son was a very happy birthday boy!
He did get a new scooter (that he’s been asking for everyday!) for his birthday which he was so excited for but he now realizes he can go farther and faster on his bike – scooters are much more work! He still loves it and even let Ava try it out at the playground. Jackson got a new scooter, too. This should be fun watching them scootering around together soon!
Little boys are just the cutest, sweetest things! I love my little birthday boy so much!!!!
Last week I read the article, “Farmer In Chief” written by Michael Pollan. It is probably the most thorough article about our current food and agricultural system here in the U.S. and what we need to do to shift the agriculture policy to make it better. Pollan calls it his “Sun-Food Agenda” and it is written as an open letter to the next president. In my opinion, this article is simply amazing. And even better, Obama read it and even quoted from it before he was elected:
There is no better potential driver that pervades all aspects of our economy than a new energy economy. I was just reading an article in the New York Times by Michael Pollan about food and the fact that our entire agricultural system is built on cheap oil. As a consequence, our agriculture sector actually is contributing more greenhouse gases than our transportation sector. And in the mean time, it’s creating monocultures that are vulnerable to national security threats, are now vulnerable to sky-high food prices or crashes in food prices, huge swings in commodity prices, and are partly responsible for the explosion in our healthcare costs because they’re contributing to type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease, obesity, all the things that are driving our huge explosion in healthcare costs. That’s just one sector of the economy. You think about the same thing is true on transportation. The same thing is true on how we construct our buildings. The same is true across the board.
Willie Nelson, the musician and the president of Farm Aid, wrote a letter to Obama offering him every resource that Farm Aid has available to assist him in creating a new farm and food policy that supports a sustainable family farm system of agriculture.
From the letter:
There is broad agreement that our farm and food system needs to be drastically reworked. The good news is that the work of building an alternative to the industrial food system is well underway and Farm Aid is proud to have been a leader in this work, something we call the Good Food Movement. The Good Food Movement has grown and thrived almost entirely without the support of the federal government. However, now is the right moment for the leadership of our country to take a role in this important movement. In fact the future of our economy, our environment and our health demand it.
I am waiting to see how this all will unfold once Obama takes office. The way things are run now is clearly not working for anyone on any level anymore. This has to and will change at the policy level and thankfully we have a very aware president-elect that will make sure at least some major agricultural changes take place at that level. It’s already been shifting at the grassroots level as you can tell by the huge surge in consumers buying organic produce, pasture raised meats, attending farmer’s markets, joining CSA’s and the rising awareness of people wanting to take charge of their health starting with nutrition and knowing where their food comes from.
I especially love that he wants to make school food come more from local farmers and be of higher nutritional quality. This is going to really help the low income families who rely on this food program sometimes as their kids’ only source of calories for the day.
Bring Farms to Schools: Barack Obama and Joe Biden will support providing locally grown, healthy foods to students as a part of the school meals program. This will both reduce childhood obesity and grow vibrant rural economies, supporting community-based food systems and strengthening family farms. They will support funding for farm-to-school projects for food, labor, equipment, and staff training. They also will allow schools to give priority to local sources when ordering food. Currently the USDA prohibits schools from requesting local products during the bidding process. Finally, they will expand commodity support to include the school breakfast program as well as the school lunch program.
The farm to school program is already being initiated in one school district in my county right now and I’m hoping my school district will be next to embrace this program.
This is just so great, I’m completely excited that finally I can be happy my government has listened to We The People and will act upon what is best for it’s citizens and not the corporate greed system that has been destroying us and our planet for so long.
This past weekend I attended a Sustainability Fair that was sponsored by my town and was completely free for us to attend. They even served a free lunch. The info I have below is really important and I feel very lucky that it was presented to us. This Sustainability Fair was a major highlight for me to have right here where I live since this lifestyle has been a passion of mine for the past 13 years.
Having lived in my conservative town for the past 6 years, I really never expected the concept of real sustainable living to reach the mainstream consciousness here so soon especially since this town is not as liberal or environmentally friendly as other places in my county. Attending this entire day long, well coordinated conference with expert speakers talking about all areas of sustainablility and how do we work together to achieve this for the single purpose of making this town the most sustainable and eco-friendly place to live was just so deeply rewarding to me on so many levels.
At the fair, they had an expo area with lots of companies explaining what they do in different areas relating to environmentalism. They also had presentations in different rooms by a few different panels of experts, most of whom were local to either my county or state. The topics covered were: Agriculture, Water, Alternative Energy and Recycling. There was also a keynote speaker and then lunch then a breakout session where we went to brainstorm and give ideas on each topic.
Since there was only time to go to two presentations out of the four, can you guess which two I picked? If you read this blog regularly, you can tell I’m pretty passionate about healthy food especially seasonal, local and organic plant based foods. Agriculture was my first stop and it was great.
There were 3 presenters and the first was a man named Tom who owns a large, local farm and builds solar powered farm equipment. His designs have been patented and he is now developing a solar powered tractor. His description about his whole way of living was inspiring to me.
Another man, Adrian from our county commissioner’s advisory board spoke about better farming practices and the need for younger, sustainably aware farmers since the average age of farmers now is 55. He spoke about how all of the confined animal feedlots (CAFO) are just so cruel to the animals and horrible for the environment also use the most fossil fuels and contribute to the the largest output of greenhouse gasses (including dairy and all kinds of meat production). That’s huge and the sooner we do away with these inhumane ways to raise livestock and go back to the local farms for pasture-raised flesh foods and dairy, it’s better both for the people’s health and the greatly minimized environmental impacts. We should not be eating animals everyday, 3 times a day. Plant based foods are healthier and better for you and the planet. Limit the intake of animal based foods (especially the cheap, antibiotic-laden factory farmed meats & dairy) because they are the biggest contributors to our planet’s degradation. CAFO also uses and pollutes enormous amounts of water (which I will speak about in part 2).
Next, a woman named Cindy spoke that runs our farmer’s market here in my town of which it is part of the larger county run farmer’s markets organization and there are many of these markets here in my county which is a great thing for the people and the local CO farmers. She said on the last day of the season (Nov.1st here), our largest farmer’s market in the county made $80,000 just from selling produce. Not from the arts and crafts vendors or the prepared meals food carts. Just the farmers themselves. That is astounding to me (and to them, too!) because it shows how many people are really interested in fresh, regional, seasonal, organic foods. It is what we need for our health and what is also good for our planet. So glad it’s on the upswing.
She also spoke at length about how many people are considered “food insecure” and how food banks and shelters are adding 200 people every week in our county and it’s only going to get worse as we go into this economic depression. There was talk about some trial programs my town just did with growing potatoes in a public park area on only about an eighth of an acre and volunteers came and dug them up a few weeks ago and donated all of the potatoes to the food bank. They grew several hundred pounds with very little effort so more of this type of growing on public land will be happening in the future to benefit the food insecure.
Cindy also spoke about the farm to school program aka – the “School Food Project” that they are trying to get established in my school district. Currently, in the bigger city in my county their school district is being trained by none other than Ann Cooper from Berkeley, CA’s school district (and I posted a great TED video of her speaking a few weeks ago). This woman is an amazing dynamo in terms of getting off the processed, subsidized food bandwagon which helps to make kids fat and unhealthy and she is also teaching the kitchen workers how to cook real food again from many locally sourced food items from farmers and it’s all done on the school’s budget. She also advocates teaching and growing a garden at each school and educating the children about where food comes from. I truly admire this woman and am so excited she is working with our neighboring school district because this means that program will come to my school district at some point and I would love to help out with getting that going. This is especially great for all of those children that have to rely on the free breakfast and lunch program and who have to consume many highly processed foods everyday. This will help turn the children’s health around by eating high quality, nutritious food which will also increase their mental acuity as well as educate them about sustainable living skills, too. All win-win.
Next, in part two I will write about the water and climate change presentations I went to and the very enlightening info I learned there.
Here is a Ted Video of Ann Cooper of the Berkeley, CA school system giving a talk about what she’s done and how she has changed the way kids eat school lunches. She teaches cooking classes for kids, shows them where food comes from, and has basically overhauled everything including a pie chart of what should be on a child’s plate for meals, etc. Her talk is very informative and passionate and I loved it. I feel just like she does about this subject and was so happy to see someone here in America making a difference like this and also supporting the local farmers, educating everyone on child health through good nutrition, the dangers of chemicals in our food especially on a child’s body, growing gardens at school, etc. A great video and clearly a great woman.
The Child Nutrition Act includes legislation for the National School Lunch Program, which provides federal assistance for school lunches. This act is being reauthorized in 2009, and theUSDA would like your input on what needs to change. Submit your recommendations for improving vegetarian options by fax at 703-305-2879, or online. They are accepting comments until October 15, 2008.
Well you don’t have to twist my arm to get me to give my two cents to the USDA on what needs to change for the school lunch program! I am really hoping that many people will take action and give their comments to the USDA to help all of our children receive better nutrition and more whole, unprocessed foods in every school across America.
If we can get foods with high fructose corn syrup and other additives and preservatives removed from the menu as well as adding more vegetarian food options and non-dairy fortified drink options, our children could only benefit. They would be eating more fiber, vitamins, minerals have stable blood sugar for many hours of the day and will be eating more plant based foods and less processed foods which can only help them. It will also assist in lowering the childhood obesity rate that is skyrocketing here in our country and cutting down on consuming so much pasteurized dairy will reduce congestion issues (sinus, ear infections, sore throats) and constipation, too.
Last year, the PCRM published a “School Lunch Report Card” based on their criteria for healthy, whole foods and non-dairy options in some of the larger school district cafeterias. There is a lot of good information on this report, they did a really thorough job and it’s worth it to check it out.
Another great website on this school lunch issue to check out is also researched by the PCRM and is called Healthy School Lunches.org.
Well this is some interesting news. The Lancet has recently published an article by British scientists entitled, ” Food additives and hyperactive behaviour in 3-year-old and 8/9-year-old children in the community: a randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial.” They did this to to test whether intake of artificial food color and additives (AFCA) affected childhood behavior.
Guess what? It does.
Here is their method:
153 3-year-old and 144 8/9-year-old children were included in the study. The challenge drink contained sodium benzoate and one of two AFCA mixes (A or B) or a placebo mix. The main outcome measure was a global hyperactivity aggregate (GHA), based on aggregated z-scores of observed behaviours and ratings by teachers and parents, plus, for 8/9-year-old children, a computerised test of attention.
Here are their results:
16 3-year-old children and 14 8/9-year-old children did not complete the study, for reasons unrelated to childhood behaviour. Mix A had a significantly adverse effect compared with placebo in GHA for all 3-year-old children but not mix B versus placebo. This result persisted when analysis was restricted to 3-year-old children who consumed more than 85% of juice and had no missing data. 8/9-year-old children showed a significantly adverse effect when given mix A or mix B when analysis was restricted to those children consuming at least 85% of drinks with no missing data.
Their interpretation of the study:
Artificial colours or a sodium benzoate preservative (or both) in the diet result in increased hyperactivity in 3-year-old and 8/9-year-old children in the general population.
So now when a school tells you your child needs to be on Ritalin to attend school due to their hyperactive behavior, you can print out this study and tell them that instead, you will radically change your child’s diet back to one of whole, organic foods filled with lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, grains and beans, good oils, clean protein sources and cut out the processed junk foods and soda which contain these chemicals that directly cause the hyperactive behavior the teacher is railing against. A much easier and cheaper fix and your child won’t become zombie like and super skinny from not eating which are the side effects of drugging your elementary school aged child.
I’m not saying don’t ever give your child treats again. I’m saying READ THE INGREDIENTS on everything you give your kids. Chemicals affects them much more than adults.
The best way is to bake your own treats like muffins or cookies using whole grain ingredients and natural sweeteners, incorporate more fruit and nuts and seeds into the foods or even better, just eat plain fruit as a snack.
If you don’t have the time to cook much, buy from stores that only sell products that don’t contain artificial food additives. Even at regular grocery stores, if you look most now carry some of the brands that don’t use these hyperactivity causing additives. One of my favorite companies that not only uses good organic ingredients but also gives all of it’s profits to charities is Newman’s Own Organics. There are many other good brands such as Barbara’s, Mi-Del, Wholly Wholesome, Robert’s, etc. If you look, you will find and with no food additives, either.
The more we buy from the companies that only use the better, safer (and better tasting) ingredients, the more other manufacturers will see the trend and hopefully switch over. Of course the absolute best thing to do is to make it yourself from the best ingredients. You may be surprised, it doesn’t take that long and tastes so much better. Remember to vote with your dollars – companies are always paying attention.
I’ve been researching all the different school options out there in my school district to find the right fit for my son. He presently goes to a Waldorf preschool and we love Waldorf. it is, unfortunately, a private school and therefore, pretty expensive for yearly tuition. They are however, fully aware about eating only natural foods, organically grown and there is no junk foods or processed chemicals in any snacks they give out and there are no vending machines selling junk at the schools, either. This is important for every child.
While looking over umpteen public school websites recently, I have also looked at the lunch menus and am seriously appalled at what they are serving as acceptable “healthy” foods for children. Chicken fried steak?! Come on, who really gives that to their kid and thinks it’s healthy?
Of course, there is no organically grown produce, only fruits and veggies covered in pesticides and how about the factory farmed rGBH milk they serve up with that chicken fried steak and pesticide covered veggie? What about the junk foods and sodas sold in vending machines filled with high fructose corn syrup and food coloring and chemical preservatives all of which have been proven to cause reactions in children such as hyperactivity – but we give them Ritalin instead of taking out the offending foods!
Yes, this stuff seriously bothers me because there are such simple solutions but such bureaucratic and political nonsense that gets in the way of our children’s health.
STOP spraying toxic pesticides on school property, playgrounds and in buildings, and convert to integrated pest management practices.
KICK junk foods and junk food ads out of our schools.
START converting school lunches to healthier menus, using locally grown and/or organic and transition to organic ingredients (no pesticides, antibiotics, hormones, irradiation or genetically engineered ingredients). Offer vegetarian options.
TEACH kids about healthy food choices and sustainable agriculture through school garden projects and curriculum materials.
Love it. This is right up my alley and I’m all for this. I think all schools should grow some of their own food by having an organic garden and/or an orchard so they can learn about where their food comes from, sustainability and botany. Harvesting something you helped grow is a very rewarding feeling. The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation has a program that works with schools to do this.
The Appetite For A Change organization has an organizing kit pdf all about how to change school food policy (from the state of Massachusetts). They also have a petition printed up that could be spread around to all the parents that goes along with the action kit information. Clearly, other school districts have done this and it can be done.
Well, I think my son will be brown bagging it in the future until there will be a change in our school district’s policies on school lunches. I have to wait to get him in to our school of choice before I can ruffle any feathers!
Well, he actually turned 4 on the 24th of February, aka Oscars Sunday. We started off the birthday extravaganza with a party at school on the 21st. He goes to a Waldorf preschool and the teacher does a special birthday celebration for each child where they eat little star bday cakes and then have a ceremony and the birthday child dresses up in a cape, a crown and holds a star wand. She lights candles for how old they are and reads the story of how they chose to be born into their chosen family (and the stork drops them off at our house). Leif was way more into the cape and the wand than he was in listening to the story but it was sweet. She made him a wool felt doll and he calls it the “Prince Leif” doll.
We had a fun party for him and all of his friends on Saturday the 23rd and when I asked him if he liked his party and had fun he said, “yes I did!”.
It was a “transportation” themed party but with a major focus on trains since he’s still obsessed with them and now fire trucks and helicopters, too. When we all sang happy birthday and everyone said his name he pointed to himself and said, “that’s me!” so I feel like he really got the meaning of a birthday party and in feeling special and loved by everyone and in honoring yourself for a day. I love birthday celebrations so I’m really happy that he “got it” this year. Here are some pix from the party with some of his friends:
When we got home from the party and opened all of his gifts, it was still sunny out so we gave him one of our presents, a new bike. He was sooo stoked on this bike, I tell ya! He just loves riding it.
The next morning, his actual birthday, he crawls over to me in bed and kisses my cheek and says, “I love you so much”. Aww. That just melted my heart. I feel like that was his way of thanking me for the party. He was just so happy the whole weekend with the party and then on his actual bday on Sunday we went to the zoo.
The weather was nice the whole weekend and the zoo was crazy! It was so packed we had to park about a half mile away. We discovered an enormous castle like playground that he wanted to play in and I kept saying, let’s play here instead of the zoo and the birthday boy said let’s play here and go to the zoo, too! He won out, of course since it was his day and he loves the zoo but it was really crowded and I will never go on a nice weekend again. Only weekdays. Or maybe never at all. I actually hate zoos. I think it’s so cruel to the animals to be in such small areas with tons of humans gawking at them all day. They seem depressed to me and some seem to have gone insane, too. I find it heartbreaking to watch. I have a really hard time being at the zoo and reading the energy of the animals. Sorry, I digress.
I can’t believe what a little person he’s turned into in such a short amount of time. His inquisitiveness, his amazing memory for everything! His wanting to always engage in conversation and watching his mind process words and formulate the next sentence when we are having a conversation is pretty interesting for me to watch. He’s got a funny sense of humor and really enjoys a good laugh. He’s also very compassionate to his fellow human being and (usually) all animals, too. He still is very cuddly and loves to be held or touched, even just holding hands. I can’t wait to see him blossom and grow more as this year unfolds.
I think this is a fun age, they are like mini people but still with cherubic faces and extreme innocence and are just so adorable but can really interact with you so much now. It’s definitely been a rewarding 4 years with my little guy who I love more than anything!
Here is an article written by Cynthia Keyes from a newsletter I receive and it is something that I agree with completely. She makes very important points that I felt needed to be shared so I am reprinting it here in it’s entirety because I could not find anywhere online to link to it.
Saving Our Children by Cynthia Keyes
Once again, our planet has come full circle, bringing us to the beginning of a new year, a new cycle. Each time we experience one of Nature’s great cycles, we are reminded that we are part of the natural world and as such, we need to be nurtured by Nature to grow and flourish. If we don’t, we may be putting our health and wellbeing at risk. And this applies even more so to young, growing children.
Yet, it seems that we are increasingly allowing our children to go without Nature’s bounty, and they are paying a great price as a result. One thing that has been making headlines lately is the obesity epidemic in children that is sweeping our country. Along with this increase, we are seeing an alarming jump in obesity-related diseases such as type II diabetes, which until now was almost exclusively, an adult disease. The primary cause of this rise in childhood obesity is a drastic change in diet that is being fostered onto these children by adults. Instead of nurturing them with food that is healthy and nutritious, they are being allowed and sometimes encouraged (by food processing companies, and fast food establishments with their commercials geared to children) to eat overly sweetened, and overly processed items that fill them up but do not nourish them. In addition, many of our school lunch programs rely heavily on processed foods as part of their menus.
As a result children’s bodies are not getting the nourishment they need to grow and mature into healthy adults. Instead the lack of nourishment and the massive amounts of sweetners (including one of the worst offenders, high fructose corn syrup), trans fats, vegetable oils and refined grains are taking a huge physical toll on these young growing bodies. They are becoming more and more likely to become physically ill with chronic diseases caused by poor nutrition. In addition, their brains are not being properly nourished, so there is an increased risk of developmental problems and learning disabilities.
So much money is spent on research to create high-cost drugs used to alleviate symptoms of diseases like type II diabetes and heart disease, when so often getting rid of the diseases themselves is just a function of proper nutrition. Yet there is comparatively little independent research on just what constitutes proper nutrition. As an example, dieticians and nutritionists, when referring to bad fats, will almost always lump trans fats together with saturated fats when there is a world of difference between them. Trans fat, (Crisco and margarine) which used to be touted by these same people as a healthy fat has finally gotten the bad press it deserves, but not before it made untold numbers of people sick. However, saturated fat (unprocessed tropical oils and animal fat including butter and cheese) when eaten in moderation is natural and necessary to our health. If the fat comes from animals, it needs to be from those raised the way Nature intended, on green pasture and without hormones, unnecessary antibiotics and overfeeding with grains. Saturated fat is a natural fat that we, humans have been eating throughout our evolutionary process. Furthermore, children need these healthy fats, which are full of vitamins A and D, and omega 3 fatty acids to grow properly, and for proper brain development.
It disturbs me when I see schools responding to the obesity epidemic by restricting children’s intake of whole milk. Children need the saturated fat in whole milk, butter and cheese. What they don’t need is trans fat and fat from highly processed vegetable oils like corn, soy or cotton seed oils that are so often being used as substitutes for trans fats. These oils are delicate and become rancid when heated through processing or cooking. When that happens they produce free radicals, which wreak havoc within our bodies, triggering illness and disease.
Children, above all, need fresh, organic fruit, vegetables, milk, butter, meat and whole grains to grow and be healthy. They also need sunshine, fresh air and plenty of exercise. That means incorporating time for recess and physical education as a necessary part of school activities. In too many instances young children are denied recess as a form of punishment for misbehaving. Yet, the very reason for their perceived misbehavior may be that they are not getting enough physical activity. Even when they are home there is often too much time spent sitting in front of the tv or computer instead of running and playing outside.
One of the biggest violations of children’s natural development is what has been happening to the youngest of our children, since the advent of “No Child Left Behind”. Because of the rigid time table of standardized testing that is in place as part of that program’s requirements, children in preshcool, kindergarten, and first grade are being forced to learn reading skills before their brains’ natural pathways have developed enough to do so. It is like expecting an apple tree to bear fruit before it even grows branches. It is impossible.
There is an excellent article, Teaching our Children to read, Write and Spell by Susan Johnson, M.D. in the autumn issue of Lilipoh that goes into the relationship between children’s physical development and the development of the brain. According to the author, it is the movements of the body that create the pathways in the mind of reading, writing, spelling, mathematics and creative thinking. By looking at whether or not a child can carry out specific physical movements, we can determine if a child is developmentally able to accomplish certain mental tasks like reading.
If we as parents, grandparents, educators and legislators don’t begin to recognize that our children need to be nurtured and raised in accordance with their natural developmental requirements, which have evolved since the beginning of the human race, we are dooming ouselves to a failed society. One in which illness and mental disabilities will be predominant eventually causing an economic crisis beyond anything we can imagine.
To stop this from happening, we need to recognize that for proper brain development our children must be allowed to run, play and develop physically and these activities need to be incorporated as part of the requirements for academic achievement. We also need to take the responsibility of feeding our children away from agribusiness and food processors, and insist that the food we give them be healthy, natural and highly nutritious. In order for that to happen, it would be helpful to get some comprehensive, independent studies on what actually constitutes good nutrition. There is so much confusion, and so much misinformation often slanted in favor of special interests like the big pharmaceuticals, and the food industry that it is no wonder people are confused as to what they should be eating. But when in doubt, natural, unprocessed foods are always a good choice.
I’ve been going around xmas shopping lately and I’ve noticed in some stores there are large displays of “pretend hunting” accessories and military stuff like big toy rifles, hand guns, army fatigues and helmets, etc and then there is the plain ole water gun, too. I am so turned off by these type of toys. I always say that we won’t have toy guns in our house for our son to play with but my husband says it will be inevitable that he will play with a toy gun or sword or other type of weapon while still young. I remind him that it won’t be by us promoting it in our home.
Why is this promoted by parents? Why is this ok to have your young child exposed to weapons and learn early on how to be aggressive towards others or animals and that this is fun, productive, imaginative play? I can think of many other types of fun, productive, imaginative play that my son -even when he’s ten yrs. old – can do besides role playing killing animals or his friends.
I know this is a touchy subject and that many people are into hunting. Did you see on the news this past week how in the Mid-West there was talk of a rare, albino deer roaming around. Some woman thought, yeah, let’s kill the rare white deer and she hunted it down and killed it. This seems f*cked up to me because it was a RARE being, maybe it should have stayed in the forest instead of being a kill for you? And a woman did it. That seemed more odd to me bec. woman are the nurturers and are usually more intuitive. How out of touch so many people are. I find it very sad and even barbaric that someone wanted to kill such a rare and beautiful being. I don’t even think she was going to eat it, they didn’t say in the story. It was all about the “get” and her family being so proud of her kill.
I personally think if we can lead by example and teach to take life for food and sustenance in a humane way for the hunters and not in a cruel way – killing just to kill – then maybe we don’t need to be indoctrinated into thinking that playing with weapons are fun toys and won’t cause harm when the kids move into the real deal with real guns.
I can say that at one of the preschool programs my son attends there are some toy water guns that are small, they fit in his 3.5 yr. old hand very well and he and this older (5 yr old) boy play with them alot. They run around and pretend to shoot the animals roaming around the grounds there. Usually in the area they are playing are just cats, dogs and chickens but there is talk amongst them to go over and shoot the horses and other farm animals. Obviously, the 5 yr old knows about guns and what they do and has shown my son what to do and my sweet boy is totally into playing like this. I get upset that he is exposed to it without my knowledge, plays with it and most of all, enjoys pretend killing. The 5 yr. old’s mom seems to have zero problem with this behavior.
Sometimes, when we leave there, I have to say to him, “put the toy gun down, we have to go home now, put down the gun”, etc. He is so hyped up and aggressive it’s hard to calm him down and he even bit my arm when I was strapping him into the carseat the other day! Needless to say, (for several reasons not jut this one), I am not re-enrolling for the winter.
I just don’t think something controversial like a toy gun should be around very young kids without a parent knowing about it. Obviously, I am hyper-sensitive on this subject and other moms are not. I think guns are a controversial subject like religion and politics and if he was exposed to that without my knowledge, I would be pissed over that, too. Why should aggressive play with guns be ok to not tell the mothers about it? Why can’t the teachers step in and say, be gentle to the animals? Or are they just not paying attention?
It’s funny, he goes to a Waldorf program, too and is always so happy and gentle and seems very aware when there and even when we leave there. He’s very easy going so the aggressive behavior is really out of character for him. He even said to me when I dropped him off at the other program the other day, I want to go to (the waldorf program) not (other program). Maybe he’s aware already of the different energy he is exposed to and what he is preferring even though he does wind up having fun at the other program and he’s there only for 3 hours. I still get a sick feeling in my gut when I see him playing with guns and hunting down the cats and dogs and chickens and making gun noises when he pretends to kill them (although he says he’s “getting” them, maybe he thinks it’s like tag?). I find it even worse when there are like 4 little boys playing this game running around being so aggressive.
I know, I’m a pacifist pansy, I’m in the smallest percentile of this country’s view on what is ok to expose our kids to. Guns, to me, are just not ok or something I can overlook or feel good about that he is learning in school.
Since his actual birthday was a weekday, the party was this past Sunday. He doesn’t go to preschool on Tuesdays so I had to plan a day of fun for him since he has no family here to make a big deal over him. It’s all up to us to do it. My husband took a half day at work so we drove down to his new office and picked him up, went to a nearby fun playground with really big slides (his favorite) and had a picnic. Did I mention it was almost 70 degrees out and sunny that day? Amazing. We played hard there for a couple of hours then went to a nearby (cheap!) movie theater that was showing 2 different animated kid’s movies and he picked the movie, The Tale of Despereaux. He LOVED it! It was a very cute movie. He ate a giant bag of popcorn mostly by himself, too.
Well you don’t have to twist my arm to get me to give my two cents to the USDA on what needs to change for the school lunch program! I am really hoping that many people will take action and give their comments to the USDA to help all of our children receive better nutrition and more whole, unprocessed foods in every school across America.
