A Bird on Her Nest

Homeschooling and Catholicism

2012-03-25T18:10:00.000-05:00

In case you are new to the series, you can start at the series opening or the first series post.

Since I have already talked so much about the importance of homeschooling in relation to Catholicism in my past three posts,

I only have a few more things to say on the topic.

Passing on our Catholic faith is of utmost importance as parents. Our whole God-given parenting goal is to get our children to heaven. How can we do this without teaching the faith? Children should learn the Truths of the faith, the basic Bible story and timeline, and how to properly defend the faith. This can be done with the Catechism, the Bible, and a few apologetic works.

This is the most important reason to homeschool, because this duty is ours alone and in order to have a complete education, a study of Catholic doctrine, as well as apologetics and Bible history must also be included. To leave God out of the equation of education is to leave a gaping hole in our history, and more importantly in our life. It also excludes morality from all subjects because morals are based on religious beliefs. How can one say that a war was waged for the wrong reasons or a ruler was unjust without giving an explanation based upon religious tenets?

We must also make sure that our children learn the truth about sex, homosexuality, and other issues that are taught immorally and way too early. These subjects can be dealt with when appropriate and in the proper religious context so that are children are not confused.

By bringing children into the world and baptizing them in the faith, we have made the commitment before God and the community that we will teach our children. How can we then abnegate this responsibility?

For more information on homeschooling, please read the resources listed here.

Homeschooling: The Dreaded "S" Word

2012-02-07T09:15:00.001-06:00

In case you are new to the series, you can start at the series opening or the first series post.

Though the perceived lack of socialization is one of the most common objections people have to homeschooling, I am not concerned with it. Why am I so confident about my children having friends and learning how to “play nice” with others? Well, I have many reasons. That specific question can be summed up as follows: they do not need to be in a traditional school environment in order to have friends and learn to get along.

First and foremost, one of the reasons I do not want them in a traditional school environment is the type of “socialization” that goes on there. I mentioned it in this post, but it bears repeating:

“Children (and adults) have a grave need to be kept away from temptation so as not to fall into sin. Both public and private schools (secular and Christian) are full of foul language, materialism, sexual information, tolerance and encouragement of sin, and false religions. All these things can cause children to succumb to sin and turn away from their family even with a Godly, religious upbringing. The large amount of time children spend in school, school activities, and transiting to and from (seven to eleven hours on school days, nine months a year) as well as the strong urge to fit in can easily allow children to be led down the wrong path.”

School, even Catholic school, is too often the place where children learn inappropriate ideas and behaviors. Rather, children should be sheltered from such things until they are properly educated so as not to be swayed by popular opinion. As Chesterton says in the book All Things Considered, “Right is right even if nobody does it. Wrong is wrong, even if everybody is wrong about it.” Young children and even old children will have a hard time understanding this and respecting it when they are pressured by others or just want to be accepted.

Children feel a need to fit in. In schools, most children are ostracized if they do not have a cell phone, wear designer clothes and shoes, watch the latest TV programs or play the latest video games, possess the latest toys, or fulfill all other forms of materialism. This can lead to bullying and other major problems, especially when the child no longer feels accepted. Yet, this mindset of needing to have the latest and greatest is typical of the worldly, which is exactly what we as Catholics are called to avoid.

Finally, where else in life are we separated into groups based solely on age? It is certainly not done at work, church, or even college! These institutions are a mix of many different ages, races, and backgrounds; so, it would seem even to the opponents of homeschooling that proper socialization happens when the child is exposed to other children and adults of all ages. Children need to learn how to get along with and respect others of all ages. How is this being taught in a classroom of ten-year-olds?

My confidence comes from knowing children will learn proper socialization in the home and community. Homeschoolers are not shut up at home twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. They are more exposed to their siblings, children of all ages from other homeschooling families, and adults from all over the community. So now the question becomes: how is it even considered proper socialization to expose children to materialism, peer pressure, and age-class?

For more information on homeschooling, please read the resources listed here.

Homeschooling: What makes it different?

2012-02-02T20:03:00.002-06:00

In case you are new to the series, you can start at the series opening or the first series post.

After my last post, where I explained what makes homeschooling so important, I would now like to talk about the benefits that make it so different (and better).

As common sense would show, one-on-one tutoring is more beneficial than one teacher for a classroom of twenty to thirty or more students. The child receives individual attention and focus. He or she can ask questions or interrupt whenever there is a misunderstanding. The teacher will almost immediately know when the child does not understand the material. Therefore, the learning is at the child’s own pace.

All of us excel in some subjects and need more work in others, but in a classroom setting, the teacher must teach at whatever pace will benefit the class as a whole, not one individual. This can cause boredom and laziness in students who excel at the material. I can certainly vouch for that! The boredom I experienced from school turned me away from learning for quite a few years. Students who have trouble with the material will be left behind and some will never catch up. I experienced this through my “tutoring” of others in middle school and high school. In the home school, each subject is learned at the child’s pace so that he may be at a fourth grade reading level and a sixth grade math level in the same year.

The parent can incorporate the child’s own learning style into the lesson. This is especially helpful for visual or kinesthetic learners who have a difficult time learning from a lecture in a classroom. Many children lag behind in a specific subject only because they are not experiencing the material in the way they can absorb it most efficiently.

Homeschooling also allows for younger ones to be able to move around more when learning. Often times, young children, boys especially, need a break to “get the wiggles out”. You can even incorporate movement while learning if the child is really active. In a classroom setting, this would cause chaos! As I noted before, there are some schools that no longer allow recess. Many others, as discussed in this article, are trying to limit the opportunities for play. I cannot imagine the plight of those teachers!

With all the government regulation regarding school, it is no wonder why some children excel, while others are left behind. They are all forced to start school at the same age! Some children are ready to start earlier, but will be held back because they are too young; therefore, they will be bored in school, having to learn at a slower pace. Other children may not be ready until the next year, but must start at the mandated age, because that is what the government decided.

Homeschooling is also better for the character development of the child. I cannot count the amount of articles I have read regarding parents who say their children do not have time for chores because their schedules are so full—between school, homework, and extracurricular activities. To do their part for the family, children should be assigned chores according to their ability. When children stay home, they are also more exposed to cooking and shopping and will have a better perspective on true family life (as opposed to those children who are so busy away from home that they do not even have time to help).

As I discussed in my last post, teaching our children about Catholicism is one of the most important duties we have as parents. We should not be relying on schools (whether CCD classes or Catholic schools) to teach our children doctrine. This allows error to be portrayed as truth through other people’s opinions, views, and beliefs being interjected into the teaching or from answering questions. Also, religion must be avoided in public school because of the difference between religions and the “need” for tolerance, and a weekly CCD class from first through eighth grade instills very little catechesis—I say this from experience. The ability to add our religious teaching to the yearly curriculum, without the outside influence of others, sets homeschooling apart from all other types of learning environments.

Classroom settings offer pretty much a one-size-fits-all approach. To offer anything else would be out of the teacher’s ability. Homeschooling fits the material to the child, instead of the other way around. Is it any wonder why most homeschooling students have better test scores and are even preferred by colleges?

For more information on homeschooling, please read the resources listed here.

Food, Naturally: Article VII

2012-02-01T09:21:00.000-06:00

In case you are new to the series, you can start at the beginning or the introduction.

Even though I am not currently writing for this series, I wanted to add another article I found today regarding labels (which was my last "true" post on the series): 10 Food Label Lies

There is not much we can truly rely on anymore, but if we are eating whole foods (real foods) that don't require labels (fruits and vegetables; meat, milk and eggs from the farmer) we won't have to worry so much about a label trying to sell us a product on false information!

Homeschooling: Why Is It Important?

2012-01-31T09:42:00.001-06:00

In case you are new to the series, you can start at the series opening or the first series post.

Although not everyone has the ability to homeschool (because of financial or other concerns), it is important for so many reasons and I will try to address as many of them as possible in this post; so it is rather long.

As emphasized by a declaration from the Second Vatican Council and by Blessed Pope John Paul II in two different writings, we as parents must keep in mind that we are not only the primary but also the principle educators of our children. This duty was not given by the Church but by God himself and as such this right is completely inalienable. (See Familiaris Consortio, 40.) In Proverbs 1:8, the child is told “Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and reject not your mother’s teaching.” We must teach our children from the beginning about the world and about God. It is our duty and our right to be the principle teachers of our children, not to surrender our responsibility to someone else.

Whether we want the duty or not we are the primary teachers of religion. Our attitudes, actions, beliefs, and words will form the child in his or her view of religion. Catholic schools are not designed to be the only or even the primary teachers of religion, because the child will follow the parent, not the teacher. Therefore, homeschooling fulfills the duty for us as parents to educate our children, especially where religion is concerned.

Along with this, I must emphasize the principle of subsidiarity. Subsidiarity is a principle of Catholic social teaching which states that all institutions exist for the sake of the individual/family so that whatever the individual/family is able to do, society should not take over and what small societies can do, larger societies should not take over. Below are two excerpts from writings of Blessed John Paul II.

Familiaris Consortio, 45: “But society -- more specifically the state -- must recognize that ‘the family is a society in its own original right’ [111], and so society is under a grave obligation in its relations with the family to adhere to the principle of subsidiarity. The public authorities should take care not to take from families the functions that they can just as well perform on their own or in free associations; instead it must positively favor and encourage as far as possible responsible initiative by families.”

Letter to Families, 16: “Parents are the first and most important educators of their own children, and they also possess a fundamental competence in this area: they are educators because they are parents. They share their educational mission with other individuals or institutions, such as the Church and the State. But the mission of education must always be carried out in accordance with a proper application of the principle of subsidiarity. This implies the legitimacy and indeed the need of giving assistance to the parents, but finds its intrinsic and absolute limit in their prevailing right and their actual capabilities” [emphasis original].

Thus, when parents have the ability to teach their own children, it becomes important that they do. They have the ultimate responsibility as primary and principle educators of their children to teach them the ways of the world. As Chesterton says in What’s Wrong with the World, “How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone?” Governments cannot usurp this responsibility from parents, although many states try. Parents have an obligation and a right to decide what is important for their children to study and to teach it to them. The government’s role is to make sure children are being taught, but not to tell the parents what to teach.

We must also heed the warning from Chesterton in one of his Illustrated London News articles when he says, “The purpose of Compulsory Education is to deprive the common people of their commonsense.” Looking back at my old education post, we recall this quote from the HSDLA.

“Is it merely a coincidence that the two countries [Germany and Japan] whose educational system we have most admired gave rise to totalitarian states in the 20th century, bent on world domination? Looking into the dying embers of two world wars should remind us that the utopian impulse that lures men to entrust control of the individual—including compulsory attendance and state control of education—to the wisdom of the state, sets the stage for corrupt and domineering governments. And, as experience should have taught us, this can lead to horrible results. Although today’s proponents of compulsory attendance will argue that their purpose is benign, when the power to control education is concentrated in the hands of a few, it can easily be turned toward objectives which are not all benign.”

We must be careful sending our children away for nine months a year, twelve to fourteen years of their young, moldable lives, especially when there is plenty of evidence of schools keeping parents out of the loop. How many children are graduating today, after twelve years of school, without the ability to perform simple math problems or to write articulately? As parents, it seems by giving up our responsibility to the government, we have ourselves allowed education to decline.

The purpose of compulsory education today is quite different than when it first came into law. In the 1800’s, its main purpose was to keep children out of the work force and teach them to become good citizens. Today, it seems to be solely about test scores—teachers teach to the tests as well as teaching test-taking skills. Many schools have gotten rid of recess time and some have even gotten rid of the playground. (Yes, it is true. I have read the news articles.) The authorities think more time sitting in a classroom will somehow make better students, but many of the boys are being drugged with ADHD medications in order to keep them still (more on that later). Meanwhile, many young homeschooling students are finished before lunch and have higher test scores!

Children (and adults) have a grave need to be kept away from temptation so as not to fall into sin. Both public and private schools (secular and Christian) are full of foul language, materialism, sexual information, tolerance and encouragement of sin, and false religions. All these things can cause children to succumb to sin and turn away from their family even with a Godly, religious upbringing. The large amount of time children spend in school, school activities, and transiting to and from (seven to eleven hours on school days, nine months a year) as well as the strong urge to fit in can easily allow children to be led down the wrong path. This article shares a similar perspective: Parents: Beware the Danger of Peer Orientation.

We must always remember that even though we live in the world, we are not of the world. As Romans 12:2 says, “And be not conformed to this world: but be reformed in the newness of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and the acceptable and the perfect will of God.” Cultures, society, sometimes even laws must not keep us from living as true Catholics. The popular opinion, government mandates, and even “majority rule” do not imply goodness or Godliness. Let us look at James 1:27. “Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation and to keep one's self unspotted from this world [emphasis added].” It is clear that we must not live as if we are of this world and it follows that we must not allow our children to live as if they are of this world as well. Looking back at the previous paragraph, we can see that the influence of others can and most likely will greatly exceed our own as parents when the children are sent off to school.

Finally as mentioned above, the bible stresses the importance of parents passing on their faith. Blessed Pope John Paul II in his Letter to Families says, “Certainly one area in which the family has an irreplaceable role is that of religious education, which enables the family to grow as a ‘domestic church’” (16, emphasis original). We cannot send our children off to Catholic school and expect any faith teaching to stick if we are not practicing our faith and setting the example in the home. In the Second Vatican Counsel’s declaration Gravissimum educationis, Pope Paul VI states, “Since parents have given children their life, they are bound by the most serious obligation to educate their offspring and therefore must be recognized as the primary and principal educators. This role in education is so important that only with difficulty can it be supplied where it is lacking” (3).

Public schools, especially, cannot teach religion to children when there are children from twenty different religions present in the classroom. Yet, Chesterton says in What’s Wrong with the World, “It is quaint that people talk of separating dogma from education. Dogma is actually the only thing that cannot be separated from education. It is education. A teacher who is not dogmatic is simply a teacher who is not teaching.” Even when the schools are trying to avoid religion, they are still actually teaching it. They just choose, willingly or unconsciously, to teach atheism.

As you can see, there are so many immensely important reasons to homeschool our children. If you can make the sacrifice to teach your children, you should do so, for their benefit and the benefit of this country and the world. Where the family goes, society will follow.

For more information on homeschooling, please read the resources listed here.

Homeschooling: A Brief History

2012-01-18T05:00:00.006-06:00

In case you are new to the series, you can start at the series opening or the first series post.

What we consider “traditional education” today, is actually not traditional at all. As seen from my regulation of education post, compulsory attendance did not come into law until 1852 in America. Before the 1800s, homeschooling had been the main approach to education since the beginning of time, only the methods and subjects have changed. Some children, mostly those of the wealthy, were taught by tutors while most children were simply taught basic life skills and religion by their parents.

The Catholic missionaries set up schools to teach things such as reading and Catholic doctrine, and some missions even taught math and astronomy, but these schools were primarily for adults who would then go home to teach their children.

Between the 1920s and 1970s, because of the compulsory attendance laws, it was illegal to teach children at home. Homeschooling during this time still existed, but was underground and mostly in rural areas. Some parents set up small private schools as a way to overcome academic and doctrinal issues in public schools.

During the 1970s, radicals helped push for homeschooling and by 1982 three states recognized the right to homeschool. Today, homeschooling is legal in all fifty states, but more than half have moderate to high regulations.

For more information on homeschooling, please read the resources listed here.

The Importance of Education: How do we achieve this?

2012-01-16T05:00:00.014-06:00

In case you are new to the series, you can start at the series opening or the first series post.

Although it may seem like a proper education, as defined by my last post, could be achieved in any educational setting as long as those points are followed, I hope to show you with this post and the rest of this series that a true education can only properly be achieved by homeschooling and with the classical education method.

The same reasons why homeschooling students are better achievers are exactly the opposite reasons why traditionally schooled children (in a classroom) do not perform as well or even fail. I will give you two quotes from college admissions personnel to defend it.

From Homeschooling Catholic, the Director of Admissions at Franciscan University of Steubenville says, “[Homeschooled students’] average GPA, ACT, and SAT scores are slightly above our non-home schooled students. Our homeschoolers come academically ready to take on the rigors of college classes. They are disciplined in study habits that some faculty have said make it easy to identify them in the classroom or lab settings.”

The Catholic Homeschool Companion says, “At a recent Senior Visit Day, the head of the admissions department at a prominent Catholic university was heard remarking to a homeschool parent that some colleges actually prefer homeschooled scholars because they excel in all areas: academically, socially, and morally.”

Here is a third example from The Well-Trained Mind:

“At a recent conference on education in Richmond, Virginia, a top executive from a car manufacturer let fly in frustration: Why are you asking me how to prepare students for the job market? Most of the high-school graduates who apply for jobs with us can’t write, don’t read well, can’t think through a problem. We spend an unbelievable amount of money retraining these graduates in basic academic skills before we can teach them how to do their jobs. Don’t bring more vocational training into the high-school curriculum. Teach them how to read, to write, to do math, and to think. We’ll train them in the specific job skills they need.”

Traditional schools (public and private) are obviously not teaching children the skills they need for either college or the job market. The system needs to change, and in the upcoming Homeschooling sub-series, I will explain the reasons for this. Later in the series, I will explain exactly what the classical education method is and how it is imperative for a proper education.

The Importance of Education: What is a proper education?

2012-01-12T05:00:00.003-06:00

In case you are new to the series, you can start at the series opening or the first series post.

A proper education can be defined by many things, but most importantly is the retention of facts learned and the ability to speak and write coherently. To achieve these things, a few basic principles and subjects must be employed.

Similar to the way unit studies connect multiple subjects to one basic theme, a proper education should be connected across the curricula so as to help the child better connect ideas and remember them. The way to achieve this is through the proper study of history. Almost every subject can be connected to history: music, art, science, literature, writing, even math problems. And the best way to study history (and consequently, the other subjects) is chronologically so that the child can place events in their proper context and also better remember past events that may be connected.

Rote learning, a technique used to memorize facts is a simple way to retain information. The major practice is repetition. One way to accomplish this through history is to break the chronology of history into four parts and repeat them through the school years. In the Well-Trained Mind, Susan Wise Bauer breaks history down in this way: ancient times, Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation, and modern era. As history is repeated, more details are learned and since history is learned chronologically, events such as wars are better understood.

A proper education also includes phonics, instead of whole word (or sight word) reading. Children are better able to read and learn new words faster and easier when they know the proper sounds for each letter or group of letters. I do not understand how the phonics method could have lost its appeal in the school system!

The use of logic and rhetoric are extremely important in a proper education. This gives children the ability to organize information properly and express their thoughts articulately, while making a sound argument. It also gives them the ability to see through fallacies and propaganda.

A study of Latin will complete the education by giving the ability to increase vocabulary and spelling. Latin words and derivatives comprise close to fifty percent of the English language, and English grammar is based upon Latin. French, Spanish, and Italian are also related to Latin and will therefore be easier to learn. From the Catholic standpoint, Latin is important in the Church and many documents, prayers, and songs, as well as the Tridentine mass and the Vulgate are in Latin.

Food, Naturally: Articles VI

2012-01-11T10:16:00.000-06:00

In case you are new to the series, you can start at the beginning or the introduction.

I found a couple articles today that I wanted to share with you, even though I am taking a break from writing new posts for the Food series.

1. Eater's, beware: Walmart is taking over our food system
A few tidbits from this article include:
* Walmart's share of the whole nations grocery market: 25%
* Walmart is short changing farmers and "charging consumers inflated prices" which has helped to drive up the food prices!
* Walmart's "local produce": "Walmart is doing industrial local," not buying from local small farmers.
* Walmart's low prices are supposed to help reduce the problems of poverty but,

"[n]eighborhoods that gain Walmart stores end up with more poverty and food-stamp usage than communities where the retailer does not open, a study published in Social Science Quarterly found. This increase in poverty may owe to the fact that Walmart's arrival leads to a net loss of jobs and lowers wages, according to research [PDF] by economists at the University of California-Irvine and Cornell."

If we had a distributist society, we wouldn't have this problem, but here in the US, capitalism is king, and along with it comes all these problems.

2. Asian Honey, Banned in Europe, Is Flooding US Grocery Shelves
Beward of Honey sold in US supermarkets. China is laundering honey and it's making its way to the US. Most of the honey is contaminated with antibiotics that are dangerous for children, heavy metals including lead, and some of the honey isn't even honey at all! Read the article to learn more.

The Importance of Education: Why do we need an education?

2012-01-10T15:48:00.001-06:00

In case you are new to the series, you can start at the series opening.

I know you are thinking this title sounds a little odd, but when I finish with this series, I hope to show you that the reasons we need an education are not why compulsory education is in place today and children are not learning much in school anymore – hence the recent article in the newspaper about “No Child Left Behind” and its failure to increase performance.

Education is immensely important, and the education system we have today is severely lacking. Why is it that children not long ago were prepared to attend college at the age of 14-16 and were able to speak, read, and write in multiple languages, including Latin, by their teens? How is it that children today can graduate high school without even being able to read properly or do more than simple math? The proof comes in the form of this quote from the article linked above: “Critics say the law carries rigid and unrealistic expectations that put too much of an emphasis on tests for reading and math at the expense of a more well-rounded education.” How is an emphasis on math and reading a bad thing, when those are two of the most important subjects taught in school and reading especially is essential for learning all other subjects! After 14-15 years of school (including pre-k and kindergarten), our school system has effectively worked more like a babysitter than an educational institution.

The old teaching techniques such as rote learning (memorization) and phonics have been cast aside in favor of new ideas like “whole word” learning. Teaching a child to read by sounding out the letters that make up the word is apparently a bad idea.

So, to answer the question, what do we need an education for? Well first of all, we need to be able to read and write properly (and we already know that our schools are lacking on this), but we also need to think logically, critically, and connectedly and be able to express ourselves clearly to others. Most importantly we need to learn how to continue learning.

To better understand this post, I recommend reading (at least the beginning section) of Dorothy Sayers’ essay “The Lost Tools of Learning”.

The Importance of Education

2012-01-09T05:00:00.013-06:00

You may think that my series title sounds self-evident, but throughout this series I hope to show you not only how important education really is, but how our current educational system and even most homeschooling methods are completely lacking the ability to teach children how to learn. I will also talk about homeschooling: how unoriginal it is, how Catholic it is, and how necessary it is for a complete education. Lastly, but not of least importance, I will introduce you to the idea of “classical education”.

As Dorothy Sayers says, “we have lost the tools of learning,” and with them, our ability to think, reason, speak, and write articulately and logically.

Posts in this series are as follows, but as always, I am sure this list will grow by the time the series is complete.

Post Topics:
Why do we need an education?
What is a proper education?
How do we achieve this?

Homeschooling (sub-series):
A Brief History of Homeschooling
Why is homeschooling so important?
What makes homeschooling different?
The Dreaded “S” Word
Homeschooling and Catholicism
A Short Look at "Unschooling"

Classical Education (sub-series):
What is Classical Education?
The Trivium
The Quadrivium
What All This Means

References: Browse for more information. I will add more as I find good sources.
The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise
Catholic Education: Homeward Bound by Kimberly Hahn
The Catholic Homeschool Companion ed. by Maureen Wittmann
The Read-aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease

Dorothy Sayers’ 1947 essay “The Lost Tools of Learning”
The Well Trained Mind (website)
Homeschooling Catholic (website)
Five J’s (a homeschool blog)

A Note and an Upcoming Series

2012-01-07T17:57:00.000-06:00

If you have not realized this yet (because I did not even put it together until recently), I really enjoy writing series! And they always pertain to things I am currently reading. Well, for Christmas, I received four books on homeschooling that I am really enjoying and my attention has been turned away from food for the time being. I will try to come back and finish out the Food, Naturally series sometime soon, but I give no guarantees. The marriage series has definitely lost its place in line by now, but I do hope to come back to it as well, eventually.

So, if you cannot tell, my new series will be about education. This, unsurprisingly, is something I mentioned when I started writing again last year. It is amazing that I have not even referred back to that post, and yet my topics stayed within that list all year! Those topics are very dear to me and I have a passion for writing about and educating others on the important truths of our faith and life.

I hope to finish this new series before baby M comes. I have a feeling I will not have time to write for a while after her birth between a newborn, toddler, everyday wife and mothering duties, packing, moving, and getting settled into a new area!

So, please pray for me and my family and look out for my new series. I will begin writing and posting soon!

Food, Naturally: Article V

2012-01-06T16:41:00.000-06:00

In case you are new to the series, you can start at the beginning or the introduction.

Another good article to go along with my series: What's Eating Your Child?

Good information for everyone, not just children.

Food, Naturally: Check Out This Series

2012-01-05T09:22:00.000-06:00

In case you are new to the series, you can start at the beginning or the introduction.

Heavenly Homemakers is starting a wonderful series that seems to fit nicely with my Food, Naturally series! So, head over to her site and see what it will be all about.

Food, Naturally: Articles IV

2011-12-30T12:00:00.001-06:00

In case you are new to the series, you can start at the beginning or the introduction.

Here are a few articles related to government regulation of the food industry and the ability to make our own food choices. Pretty soon we may not have the ability to buy from a farmer’s market or to choose whole milk at the grocery store. (Yes, I am sensationalizing, at least I hope.)

Amish Milk: The Latest Target of the Obama Regulatory State
— Be careful where you buy milk! Sting operations are in place to catch the Amish selling raw milk across state lines!

Sugary-drink ban starts to affect S.F. sites
— I would bet that whole milk was not on the list of acceptable choices for vending machines …

Department of Transportation Sets Sights on Farmers’ and States’ Rights
— A new multi-million dollar business for the government … CDL training for all farm machinery operators, DOT numbers, and plenty of paperwork and oversight for the farmers.

Wisconsin Judge Denies Basic Property Rights and Fuels Outrage
— Now we will really have to fight for our freedom to choose our own food, even if we produce it! (If nothing else, be sure to read the judge’s clarification of his ruling in the numbered list.)

This is the direction our country is heading. Big government needs to step down or there may be another revolutionary war, unless "We the People" decide to sit back and take it.

Food, Naturally: Know Your Ingredients, Read Your Labels

2011-12-20T05:00:00.010-06:00

In case you are new to the series, you can start at the beginning or the introduction.

I talked last time about eliminating processed foods, but let’s face it; they are never going to be totally eliminated from our homes. As long as we eat real food 80% of the time, we can usually afford to compromise 20% of the time and hope our bodies will be forgiving. We should remember that the more “compromises” we make with food, the more strain we are putting on our bodies. As I briefly discussed here, the foods we eat are stressing our bodies to the point of exhaustion. But if you truly want to serve healthy, real food for your family and your budget is cutting you short, incorporating the meal blessing will give you the opportunity to ask and trust God to make up the difference.

So, what about those much talked about food labels? If I have not gotten the point across by now, I will repeat myself: do not trust them!

Here are just some of the many food label problems:
* Expiration dates: Use by, sell by, best by dates are only regulated by the USDA for infant formula. Only twenty states require dates (on some products) by law. Some dates are for store use only (such as sell-by dates) and are not an indicator of food safety. Other dates are given by the company to indicate peak freshness, not expiration and food safety.

* Trans fat: If the product has .49g or less trans fat per serving, the company is allowed to claim “no trans fat” on the box! Just a hint, you should read the serving sizes since they passed that law. Many are so small you would certainly be eating double or triple (or more) of the serving size in a normal meal/snack. So you could potentially be eating 1 - 1.5+ grams of trans fat with that one product. If the ingredient lists partially-hydrogenated oil, hydrogenated oil, and/or shortening, it contains trans fats no matter what the box and nutrition label says!

* “Raw” sugar (ex. Sugar in the Raw) is actually processed. Now how exactly do they get away with claiming “raw” on a processed food? Because there is no law that says otherwise, therefore the company can make any claim they wish to dupe you into buying their product.

* Health food claims: These are the worst. You think the product is healthy because they state all the vitamins and minerals in it, but do you stop to read the food label and ingredients as well? You should. Take children’s sugary cereals for example. They have always been marketed as “healthy” because of the added man-made vitamins and minerals (which are only added because of the poor quality of the original ingredients) and now for the “whole grains!”, but they have way too much sugar! And we all know now why we should limit sugar.

* “Wheat” products: The word “wheat” on a package does not mean anything unless the words “whole” or “100% whole” are accompanied with it. White flour, also known as enriched flour on food labels, is wheat flour. It has just been processed down to the endosperm only and bleached. Almost all the nutrients in wheat are found in the bran and germ. This is why white flour must be “enriched”!

* Multi-grain products: These are made to sound nutritious by claiming multiple grains, but usually these products are made with mostly white flour. Again, read the ingredient list.

Reading Nutrition Labels:
* Ingredients are listed according to weight, so the first ingredient is what makes up the majority of the product and so on.

* Look at the serving size. Because so many people are worried about nutrition anymore, many companies have lowered their serving sizes instead of lowering the sugar, sodium, or other content as claimed on the package. Also, many serving sizes are now much smaller than you would normally eat in one sitting (as stated above).

* Next look at the amount of sodium and sugar listed. For every 600 milligrams (mg) of sodium listed, there is ¼ teaspoon of salt per serving. For every 4 grams (g) of sugar listed, there is one teaspoon of sugar per serving. Most products include massive amounts of salt as a preservative so the product stays “fresh” longer. Sugar is included so often (especially when unnecessary as in the case of my crab) because our culture is now addicted to sugar.

Ingredients List: What to Look For
First, always look for partially-hydrogenated oil, hydrogenated oil, and/or shortening. If any of those words show up in the product list, don’t buy it! I promise, you can find crackers, tortillas, and other baked items without trans fats. You just have to look harder.

Next, how many types of sugar can you spot? Sugar may not be listed first, but that does not mean a product is not mostly sugar, or at least made up of too much sugar. If the company uses many types of sugar, they could all add up to being the main ingredient. Sugar words to look for include (in no particular order): sugar, fructose, sucrose, glucose, dextrose, maltose, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, cane syrup, and honey.

One more thing to look for is monosodium glutamate or MSG. The only problem with this is it can be found among so many names. If you think you are ready to spot them out, read the article linked in the previous sentence and also this Truth in Labeling table.

There are many other ingredients to stay away from in processed foods such as food dyes, chemical additives and preservatives, nitrates and nitrites (in processed meats), and others. If you are ready to tackle all of those, one of the best things to do is start looking for products listed as “natural” or “organic” and read only those food labels. It will narrow down your search, making it a little faster. I will talk more about natural and organic products in my upcoming posts.

For more information on ingredients and food labels, please read the books and blogs listed here.

Food, Naturally: Eliminate Processed Foods

2011-12-19T05:00:00.004-06:00

In case you are new to the series, you can start at the beginning or the introduction.

As I have discussed previously, processed foods are something we should avoid for the reasons listed below and many more!

What is Real Food?—processed food is not and cannot be real food!
Why Eat Real Food, Part I?—God made real food. Man made processed food. You decide!
Why Eat Real Food, Part II?—How can we trust experts and researchers to tell us the truth when they are worried only about their own interests?
Article I—The truth about the food industry. We all probably know it, but do not want to believe it.
Article II and More—Do you need more to convince you of the problems with the food industry?
Vegetable Oils and Bad Fats—What type of ingredients are found most often in processed foods (besides sugars)? Vegetable oils … man-made foods.
Article III and More—More about vegetable oils and their problems
Natural Sugars and Eating Less of Them!—The other most common ingredient in processed foods? Sugar, of course!

So, after all that information, I still have more to share, or elaborate on, about processed foods. Most of the links below (but not all) correspond to the pages already linked to above.

The word “processed” should steer us all away from these foods for the simple reason in Why Eat Real Food, Part I. But since some of us need more encouragement and reasoning than that, I will elaborate. Many of us (myself included) love convenience. We crave convenience because we have become so used to it, as our society has “progressed” (and I am using the word loosely here). The other reason we “need” convenience comes from the problem discussed a while back in this post about women. It basically comes down to priorities—what they currently are and what they should be.

Many processed foods can be made at home quickly, cheaply, and far more healthfully than what we would buy at the store. I will start putting links on my Recipes post (found at the top of every page) for “typically processed” foods so that you can see how quick and easy things such as salad dressings, cream of ____ soup, or even mayonnaise are to make yourself! I would also like to point out that breads, muffins, and pizza crust (things we would typically buy already made or mixes for in the store) are quick and simple. The rising time for breads can make them “time-consuming”, but the fact that you get to do other things while the yeast works by itself, equates to a simple, easy, cheap real food option! I already have links available for some of my favorite “bread” recipes.

The other problems with processed foods (on top of too many vegetable oils and sugars) are the chemicals, additives, preservatives, and food dyes found among the ingredients. Are these ingredients safe? Can we trust the people who say they are? Are they God-given? Have they been around for thousands of years, like real foods, or just the past few decades?

Like I discussed here, companies want to make a product cheaply. They do not care about the ingredients they put into the product. It is more profitable for them to use white flour and fortify their food with vitamins and minerals than to give you the whole wheat version because whole wheat is more expensive and will turn rancid faster giving it a shorter shelf-life and thus less profit (because they have to worry about the product being sold quickly). Look at the crackers the next time you are in the store. You will notice the ones with whole wheat expire a lot earlier than the others. Another example is the overuse of soybean and corn oil—two of the cheapest oils available, but both are recent, man-“made”, and can be hazardous.

The third problem is with labels and the distrust they create between consumers and the companies. I will talk next time about reading/deciphering ingredients and labels.

For more information on processed foods, please read the books and blogs listed here.

Food, Naturally: Natural Sugars and Eating Less of Them!

2011-12-16T05:00:00.015-06:00

In case you are new to the series, you can start at the beginning or the introduction.

Some sugars are okay, others can be dangerous in large quantities. Care to know which ones you should choose?

Honey – A natural, God-given sweetener with anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-fungal properties. It treats cough and upper respiratory infections, may promote better blood sugar control, contains antioxidants, improves HDL, boosts immunity, and taking 1 T raw honey made from within 100 miles of your home fights seasonal allergies. Honey also contains trace amounts of vitamins and minerals. The most interesting thing about honey is it never spoils! It has been found in Egyptian pyramids still edible!

Maple syrup – Also a natural God-given sweetener that contains antioxidants, 100% DV of manganese in ¼ cup, and is high in zinc. It raises HDL, supports the immune system, has anti-inflammatory properties, helps with male reproductive health and prostate support, has potential benefits for Type II Diabetes, and more than 20 compounds in maple syrup are associated with human health and also believed to have anti-cancer, anti-diabetic, and antibacterial properties (source). Pour that 100% pure maple syrup on your pancakes!

Sucanat – This is dehydrated raw cane sugar. It is better than white sugar (but not much) because it is simply dehydrated cane juice – unrefined, unbleached, and molasses-retained (not added back in). Therefore, it also retains some (minute) amounts of actual nutrients and is metabolized a little slower than white sugar. “Raw sugar” in the store is not the same as sucanat. “Raw sugar” is actually processed. I will talk more about food labels in a future post.

White sugar (can also apply to sucanat) – Since she already did the research and wrote it out, you can read here the bad things about white sugar. Bottom Line: Sugar is an empty food devoid of any nutrient value. It only tastes good and is used far too often in processing today.

Artificial sweeteners – As with everything else, do we trust the research that says they are okay or listen to the research that says they are harmful? Remembering what God made and gave us on this earth will go a long way in using common sense on which sugars/sweeteners to avoid!

Why do we need to eat less sugar?

“Eating sugar depletes B vitamins, which leads to premenstrual symptoms and depression, and promotes Candida albicans, a systemic yeast infection. Sugar also causes bone loss, and of course tooth decay—but not for the reason you might think. Sugar upsets the balance of calcium and phosphorus, which causes teeth to rot from the inside out. … Last but not least, by raising blood sugar, triglycerides, and cholesterol, sugar leads to obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.” (Real Food, 216, emphasis original)

Sugar should never be a staple in your diet and does not even have to be included at all. If you want to include it regularly, at least choose honey and maple syrup over other types of sugar, but everyone’s sugar intake should be reduced overall. Try adding only a quarter or half the sugar called for in recipes and look for ways to reduce your dependence on processed foods (almost all of which contain too much sugar). Just for example, I bought artificial crab the other day for a meal—and what was included in the ingredients? Sugar! The generic brand also had almost twice as much sugar as the name brand so I opted to pay more for less sugar.

For more information on sugars, please read the books and blogs listed here.

Food, Naturally: Article III and More

2011-12-15T09:57:00.001-06:00

In case you are new to the series, you can start at the beginning or the introduction.

I thought I would give you some additional information on vegetable oils, in case you are interested in reading about them.
**Are Polyunsaturated Oils Healthy? from Kitchen Stewardship

My Thoughts: I find all the information so fascinating that I have come across recently. And I am quickly learning that what we put into our bodies affects so much of everything else. If we all started eating healthy (the way people did a few hundred years ago and more) many of the diseases we see now would disappear. But the even bigger shocker is that, according to what I have read, this would not happen overnight. We have hurt our bodies so much through our food that our children and grandchildren will suffer, even if they eat right! I think, if that statement does not motivate you to research and change your eating habits, nothing will!

I also think that researchers today are sometimes blinded by the fact that "the government" or "experts" have said that particular foods are healthy or safe so they do not even look at food as a cause for so many of our diseases any more. From my reading, many modern diseases including many cancers, diabetes, cholesterol and blood pressure problems, obesity, and heart disease are soley caused from the food we eat. We need to change our eating habits. We need to eat real food. We must demand better for our children, our nation, and our world. Eat Food, Naturally.

Food, Naturally: Vegetable Oils and Bad Fats

2011-12-09T09:36:00.002-06:00

In case you are new to the series, you can start at the beginning or the introduction.

Almost all vegetable oils today are recent foods. They are not found in traditional diets, and for good reason. What are these industrial fats? Soybean oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, and any oil or fat (including lard) that is hydrogenated. These fats can cause major problems when eaten in large or small amounts as stated below.

Both omega-6 fats (found mostly in vegetable oils) and omega-3 fats (found in fish) are essential to good health, but the problem is that we should be eating equal amounts of these two types. Instead our grocery stores are bombarded with “low-fat” vegetable oils in every processed food available and we are told to use vegetable oils in cooking instead of saturated fats so we end up eating too much of them.

Because of their properties, too many omega-6 fats cause inflammation, obesity, insulin resistance, premature labor, infertility, blood clots, and depression. They also constrict blood vessels and encourage platelet stickiness and clotting leading to heart disease.

On the other side, our diets are also lacking omega-3 fats found in seafood and fish. Not enough omega-3 fats can cause major problems such as dyslexia, poor motor skills, ADHD, even depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.

Because of the amount of vegetable oils we consume, consequences of imbalance can affect even breastfed babies as shown here in the quality of breast milk:

Ideal ratio of omega-6 fats to omega-3 fats = 1 to 1
2 studies done in the US show ratios of 67.4 to 1 and 175.0 to 1

Another problem with vegetable oils is their fault with heating. Unsaturated fats are easily oxidized during cooking. Oxidized fats contribute to cancer and heart disease. They can also cause diarrhea, poor growth, loss of hair, skin lesions, anorexia, emaciation, and intestinal hemorrhages. The best fats to fry in are beef fat, butter, or coconut oil because they are highly saturated and therefore stable during heating.

We all know trans fats cause health problems. We should avoid them at all costs as they have no health benefits and are dangerous in any amount; even the government health agencies will admit that point, but have you ever looked at the processed food you buy from the store? You will quickly see how they are nowhere near eliminated from our diets as they should be. All hydrogenated and partially-hydrogenated oils ARE trans fats. (I will talk more about food labels later.) Most pretzels, tortillas, crackers, cookies, cakes, and other baked goods are full of hydrogenated oils. Go ahead, look at your labels. I’ll wait.

The problems with trans fats:

Lower HDL
Raise LDL
Raise Lp(a), which promotes atherosclerosis and clotting
Reduce blood vessel function
Promote obesity, diabetes, and hypertension
Alter fat cell size and number
Reduce fat content of breast milk (a necessary nutrient for babies’ growth and brain development)
Reduce fertility and correlate with low birth weight
Increase asthma
Reduce immune response
Interfere with conversion and use of DHA and EPA (omega-3 fats)
Disrupt enzymes that metabolize carcinogens and drugs
Damage cell membranes
Create free radicals

When we eat the foods we are supposed to, and avoid all these new man-made concoctions, we will avoid many of these debilitating diseases that now plague our society. It is only when other countries start incorporating the “American way” of eating that they begin to see problems in their health. So what do we do? Eat real food, naturally!

For more information on vegetable oils and other fats, please read the books listed here.

Food, Naturally: Article II and More

2011-11-30T10:19:00.002-06:00

In case you are new to the series, you can start at the beginning or the introduction.

From Michael Pollan

The American paradox: we obsess about food constantly, but have the highest rates of obesity and diabetes in the world

UPDATE: Need another reason to support locally-owned, small, sustainable farms? Read the two stories here about MRSA and honey bees.

My thoughts: Why would big companies want to change their behavior? They are making money and do not care about the consequences. Big companies care only about their shareholders (which means they need a big bottom line). The FDA does not even want to be involved because they obviously get a lot of pressure from the pharmaceutical companies who do not want to lose (at least) 70% of their antibiotic business! Did we need another example of why capitalism is bad? It's time for distributism to take hold.

On another note: It is acceptable for arsenic to be found in apple juice as long as it is below the levels that somebody else deemed to be safe. Do you really trust their research based on what you have read so far in this series? (Like this post or this one.)

Food, Naturally: Meat, Eggs, and Good Fats

2011-11-17T05:00:00.002-06:00

In case you are new to the series, you can start at the beginning or the introduction.

Because there is so much controversy and false information out there, I will again start my post with a reiteration (from the introduction):

“There are so many false sources out there that it can be hard to sift through them, but one of the most important things to remember is this. Do they have a political, financial, or other gain that may be obtained by making these remarks regarding what we eat?”

And I will also remind you to read this article talked about in my last post, if you haven’t already.

One of the most important things I learned through my reading is that all traditional fats are healthy in moderation. Not just neutral or “unharmful”, but rather beneficial.

What are traditional fats? (Fats that God gave us)
Lard, beef and pork fat, poultry fat, cream, butter, extra virgin olive oil, unrefined palm oil, and unrefined coconut oil

All these fats have been eaten for thousands of years and yet heart disease was rare before the 1900s and the first heart attack in the United States was not until 1912. Then by mid-century, heart disease became the number one killer! What did people start eating around that time? Trans fats (in the form of hydrogenated oils) and an excess of refined vegetable oils. Yes, these are the killers and I will talk more about them in the next post.

As talked about here, the so-called research evidence stating that saturated fats and cholesterol cause heart disease is false. Please read Real Food by Nina Planck (listed here) to discover more about this.

What are some benefits of saturated fats?
They are required for the absorption of calcium and other minerals. The body is better able to retain omega-3 fats when saturated fats are also eaten. Saturated fats build the immune system by fighting harmful pathogens. They lower blood levels of lipoprotein (a)—which leads to clotting and atherosclerosis. And when you eat too much saturated fat, the body converts it to monounsaturated fat which lowers LDL and does not affect HDL. How’s that for reasons to eat more bacon and butter?!

As always, for more information on good, traditional fats, please read the books listed here.

Food, Naturally: Article I

2011-11-16T14:18:00.000-06:00

In case you are new to the series, you can start at the beginning or the introduction.

This article, Confessions of a former Big Food executive, based on The Blog of Bruce Bradley, who is a former food marketer for some of America's biggest food companies, is a must read to go along with my series.

Marriage Series: Soul Mates

2011-11-14T05:00:00.001-06:00

I do not have any Catholic sources for this post, only my own thoughts and ideas. But I believe my reasoning is based on common sense, reality, and faith—and that is where I will start.

So many people have this idea of “soul mates”. They feel, as I used to, that somewhere in this huge, ever-growing world there is only one person that God designed for them to marry. And somehow we will “just know” when we meet the right one, the only one, for us.

Why would this be a false idea? How could this become a problem? A few things Catholic come to mind. First, in the Bible, it states that if you become a widow, you are free to marry again, because the marriage bond is broken through death (and only through death). How could we marry another if there was only one God-created spouse out there for us?

Second, what if, with all our human faults and failings, we marry the wrong one? Then one day we meet the “perfect one”, our soul mate? Shouldn’t we be able to divorce our current spouse to marry this one person God created for us? Well, as stated above, it is only through death that the marriage bond is broken and since killing is a sin, we will be stuck with our spouse until they die naturally!

This idea has hurt so many people and so many marriages. People think that when someone “better” comes along, they should divorce their current spouse and marry the lover. But the grass is not greener, as “love” comes in stages and the first stage of love is the only one most people actually consider love. (If you don’t have those butterflies in your stomach or the cheesy grin on your face, you must have “fallen out of love”. I will talk more about this erroneous notion later.)

So if we do not have a soul mate, how do we know how to pick a spouse? Courtship.

Up Next: Courtship vs. Dating

For full texts of the documents used, see my Marriage Series: Introduction

Food, Naturally: Raw Milk and Other Dairy

2011-11-11T05:00:00.047-06:00

In case you are new to the series, you can start at the beginning or the introduction.

I have talked about the benefits of raw milk previously, so I did not want to repeat myself, but much of this is too important not to share again.

I feel like I should start off with a realization. Raw milk is almost a completely different product from pasteurized milk. In pasteurized milk, all the enzymes and beneficial bacteria and almost all the vitamins have been “scorched” out of the milk. The A and D vitamins found in store bought milk have been added back in. The enzymes found in raw milk help the body digest the sugars and proteins found in the milk. This is why many people who are lactose intolerant find they are able to drink raw milk without any issues. The bacteria found in raw milk help the digestive system and immune system similar to how yogurt works.

Many people think drinking raw milk is unsafe, but this is not true. When cows are fed a natural diet, (read: free-grazing, eating pasture) they rarely get sick compared to cows given a space not much bigger than they are, required to stand and lay in their own waste, and fed an unnatural “grain” diet (i.e. usually corn which a cow would rarely, if ever, eat in nature). This combined with other factors including small farms where the farmer takes care to make sure he does not contaminate the milk means that drinking a local source of raw milk is safe.

Drinking raw milk actually means drinking whole milk. We should be drinking the fat with the milk as this is where the fat-soluble vitamins are found and also because some vitamins require fat in order to be used in our bodies. I will talk more about fat in the next post.

Other dairy products that are good for you and should be eaten regularly (daily) include raw (or at least organic) cream, real butter (preferably made from raw cream or at least organic cream), yogurt or kefir, crème fraiche (sour cream), and raw milk cheese.

For more information on dairy please read the books listed here.