 How in the world am I expected to work full time, from home, AND school my children?This is the million dollar question! And while I can't spell out exactly what it will look like for your family, I can offer some insights based on 15 years of homeschooling, over 25 years working with kids, a psych background with studies in psychoeducation and developmental stages, and my work as a college professor. I also happen to be a single mother that's juggled working and grad school with homeschooling. Your children do not need to be schooled; they need to learn. There's a huge world of difference between the two. Stick with me here... school is only one way to facilitate learning. It's designed for 20-30 kids to be educated at one time by someone who does not know each individual well. Talk to any teacher; much of the day is not spent in actual learning but in transitioning from one topic to another. The US public ed system was also designed with the stated intent (seriously; read the history) to quell curiosity and creativity which are two of the driving forces for learning in children. Until kids are taught that learning is a boring chore, curiosity and learning are as innate to them as swimming is to fish and flying is to birds. Self-directed learners or unschoolers - kids 100% in charge of their own education - get into their top choices of colleges. They graduate college at higher rates than their public schooled peers and report higher than average job satisfaction and overall happiness. How is this possible? Because learning is innate. I get that you're probably not ready to unschool your kids and might even want them to go back to school as soon as possible. That's ok. I only want to demonstrate how learning can occur without school while they're at home - or with very little of anything that looks like school. Ok, so how do my kids learn without school?Now, you've got the right question! :) How do you learn something new? If it's a deep-dive for a career you might seek out schooling. Otherwise, you learn through real life, community, and relationships. Think about a topic you were recently curious about. You probably read a book or did a Google search. Maybe you watched a documentary. No doubt you found others with similar interests and discussed it with them. It probably came up in conversation with your friends and family too. Each exploration led to more knowledge, and each conversation gave you a chance to refine your thinking and articulate your knowledge on that topic. This is how kids learn best, according to research - when their senses and emotions are fully engaged in topics they are interested in, that are relevant to their real lives. Finally, remember, your kid learned to roll over, sit, crawl, walk, talk, go potty, feed themselves, dress themselves, and heaps more without any formal education - simply by being in relationship with you and others. They can learn to read, write and explore every other topic in the same way. I think I see the paradigm shift... But what does this look like in everyday life for us?Below is a sample daily rhythm. Adjust it to meet your own family's needs. Use it as a jumping off point to add in your own ideas. Family breakfast On Sundays you have a pancake tradition and you introduced the new "word of the week". The challenge is to use this new word correctly as often as possible throughout the week. Set a good example and make it fun! On other days, you read a chapter aloud to them from Tumtum and Nutmeg or other high quality literature at breakfast. Depending on their age, you spend an additional 5 minutes noting the weather, day/month, and on a math exercise. Literally, you're looking at 5 minutes here.... for littles you might do a counting finger play. For slightly olders you might skip count, or maybe you'll recite the 6 times tables together while banging out rhythms on the table. Kids returning to school? Add in 5 minutes reviewing their spelling list daily. Then you close your AM time with a song. Not morning people AT ALL? Maybe this is best done at lunch time and in the AM you want to let your kids sleep in so you an work before they're up. Or maybe you want to get everyone out for a few minutes of fresh air in the AM. Again, adjust this as needed. Subjects covered: English language arts, math, music, maybe more depending on the read aloud Bonus: Kids are much better at leaving you alone for awhile when you've spent some time filling their emotional banks up. Work time You begin your workday. Kids returning to school when possible should probably spend 5-20 minutes at the breakfast table doing their "work" - a math worksheet and an ELA worksheet to keep them up with the public school curriculum. Next, send them outside to play, run, vent some energy.... Back inside, they can have morning quiet time where they play with whatever toys while listening to an audio book. Choose something with some history or science in it. For example, Magic Treehouse is great for learning history/social studies. Set them up with a community resource in the AM. Maybe they have an online game time with friends or take an out school class or meet with an online tutor for an hour. Have them make lunch. Make a big deal of how big and responsible they are. Subjects covered: math, ELA, PE, social studies Lunch Break You quickly eat your lunch, review what was fact vs fiction in causal conversation about their Magic Treehouse (or other) audio book. Read a short nature story or part of one - fiction or otherwise. Then you go outside for a nature walk. Note what's happening with trees, leaves, plants going to seed, animals, insects, etc. At some point, you do another math exercise. You shout as loudly as you can or use a designated funny voice to recite whatever math facts are appropriate for their level. Embrace the crazy! Get some loudness out!! Shout/spell their spelling words together. They've had to be quiet a lot....! Alternately, end lunch break with wrestling or huge squeezes or whatever form of physical contact your kids enjoy best. Then slow it down with a back rub or something that settles them down for an afternoon rest watching a movie or reading a book or whatever. Again, this is about having a daily rhythm of energetic times contrasted with quieter down times. And it's about filling your kids' emotional banks so they can give you some quiet and space to work. Subjects covered: social studies, science, math, ELA, maybe PE Afternoon Set them up with a fun activity or another community engagement activity online. Designate more outdoor time. Bribe them with extra money or a weekly takeout from a fave place if they can get everything spotlessly cleaned up from lunch (seriously though...these are rough times for everyone so make it FUN, and give them a bit of slack if it's not absolutely perfect; help the to feel like you're all on the *same team* making this work for everyone). Have them explore and watch 3 BrainPop videos. Any school teacher should be able to give you access to this for free; otherwise the subscription is worthwhile. Know your kid's rhythms... do they need downtime after lunch? How about a movie or reading time if they enjoy reading? Realize that after that downtime they'll need to move again. That's a good time for you to take a coffee break, get them outside, and blow off some ENERGY. You'll figure out how it all works best for you... be willing to experiment, to discuss with your kids what did vs did not work about each day, and how to make it all better so that *everyone's* needs are being met. Kids are pretty wise when you include them in this stuff and they feel heard. And they're more likely to listen to you when you say "I really needed more quiet at x time when I was having my meeting, but I think you were needing more activity then. How can we make this work for everyone?" Subjects covered: many, depending on activities After work.... Again, you need to focus on connection when you're done working. Let them help make dinner. This includes math skills of measuring, sorting, dividing, counting, etc. Dinner This is a good time to discuss what they've been learning about. Let it come up naturally in conversation. "What did you decide to learn about on BrainPop today?" After they answer "Oh yeah... I remember when I was a kid and learned about that _____" or maybe "Oh that's so cool! I didn't know that. Tell me more!" or "Wow! you know I read in the newspaper recently that ______." The key here is to be an engaged parent/friend not try to sound like a teacher. :) Evening Take 20 minutes after dinner to check over their breakfast ELA and math worksheets and review anything tricky. Do a family cleanup. (Aim for easy to clean dinners, use of the dishwasher, or use of paper plates.) Make it fun! Let the kids pick the music. Have a cleaning dance party. Then do an evening activity. Maybe Mondays are for baking (math); Tuesdays are family game night and you listen to music of the 50's (math and music); Wednesdays are art night. You share a favorite painting from a book/online. Everyone does an arts/crafts project. You listen to classical music or jazz music.... (art and music). Thursdays are poetry night. You read poetry while drinking tea and eating deserts from fancy dishes (ELA). Fridays are pizza and movie night of course. Pay attention to how many subjects can be learned via movies/fiction. You might be surprised! Documentaries can be fun and informative, but so can historical fiction shows you watch (Little House or Call the Midwife). Sci-fi series can lead to discussions and google searches on AI and physics and space. Keep it casual and adventurous. Subjects covered - all required and more Bedtime A 30-60 minute read aloud at bedtime can calm kids and provides an incredibly rich opportunity for learning to continue. As you can see... with just a bit of intention, your child is learning every subject covered in school and more merely by engaging with real life! :) Hmm... Got any more ideas!When learning doesn't look like school it never ends! Weekends are great for a longer walk, hike, snowshoe, sledding or other nature adventure which counts as both science and PE. And don't forget about things like feeding birds, a weekly trip to the library (ask them what topic they want to learn about; it's great seeing what they come up with!!), outdoor sculpture parks, watching a play/ballet/musical or live music event online, following live-cams online that show their favorite animals in zoos or in the wild, online martial arts or dance or other classes, and so on. There is a world of opportunities for learning just waiting to be discovered. That's why during non-covid-19 times we see the world as our classroom (it's wonky even for us veteran homeschoolers right now!). Kids grocery shopping with you? Teach them about unit prices. Let them weigh produce and estimate cost. Teach them how to analyze your grocery spending by looking at the mean, median, and mode on the receipt. Let kids help plan and execute the grocery budget and menu planning. Gently correct grammar in real life. Play MadLibs and allow all the crazy "potty" words you don't normally allow. Discuss current events. Listen to audio books in the car. The more you think of learning outside of a school context, the more you'll find it happens everywhere. Finally, remember these things: 1. Play is the single best thing for cognitive development through the early elementary years! 2. Neuroscientists have found our brains are wired to remember things in the context of stories. Read to them! Tell stories! 3. Movement should be a part of play and is vital to brain development - let your kids get dirty! Embrace rolling, skipping, dancing, tiptoeing, running, swimming, sliding, swinging, climbing etc through mud, grass, leaves, snow, water, trees, pebbles, etc So that's all I have to do to homeschool?Haha you didn't *really* think NYS was going to be that easy, did you?
You'll need to record and file paperwork to the school superintendent's office if your child is age 6 or older. Check out my How to Homeschool in NYS post which gives you a brief overview in plain English and links to the NYS regs. For more resources and ideas, check the learning resources or homeschooling/unschooling tabs on the side of this page. Finally, be wiling to have fun and be flexible! You won't get your family's rhythms and needs all met perfectly on the first try. In fact, they'll change as your kids grow. Keep lines of communication open and keep being flexible. You can do this!
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 You've decided to homeschool. You've figured out the NYS regs (or whatever state you're in). The big question now is what curriculum to use - or not use.
Disclaimer. We're unschoolers. I believe strongly that curiosity is as innate to being human as swimming is to fish and flying to birds. Children want to learn about their world and become functioning adults - unless they have been taught by schools that learning can only happen in ways that are boring and that they aren't good at. Check out The Heart of Unschooling, Q&A to learn more and to find out if it really prepares kids for college and real life. That said, I fully support that each family must find what works for them and few will actually unschool. When folks first think of homeschooling they think of replicating school at home. Ultimately, very few homeschoolers stay in this place. There's a very wide spectrum from school-at-home on the one hand to unschooling on the other hand. Most homeschoolers end up somewhere in the middle, finding out that reading/writing/worksheets/textbooks are not usually the most ideal way for their child to learn. In fact, research shows that children learn best when in relationship with others with multiple senses engaged in an activity that interests them. Think about when you want to learn something... I bet you seldom order a textbook, fill out worksheets, and take a test. ;) You probably Google, read a *REAL* book, talk to people who know more than you, and do some hand's on experimenting. You probably talk to people about what you're learning because you're excited about it and discuss it with other folks interested in the same topic. This is the real life way that knowledge gets reinforced and built upon. Most folks starting off want a curriculum at least for reference, but keeping an open mind to how learning can work outside of that curriculum is important too. Ask around on homeschool pages and you'll get 101 different recommendations for curriculums. Go ahead and choose one. Just hold it loosely. Use the wording I recommend in my How to Homeschool in NYS post so you can change things up if you find something else that works better. And be willing to follow your child's lead when they go down a rabbit hole and want to veer off the curriculum. That's the joy of learning happening right there! Celebrate it! See my post on some of our favorite learning resources along with our homeschool/unschool posts over the years for ideas of how subjects can be covered via real life. Here are a few ways learning has happened naturally, over the years, in our home.... in note form for each subject. Math - we skip counted, counted by 5's and 10's and 100's in the car. We made up stupid/nonsense/gross poems for the times tables. We watched the zany math antics dot com and the British Maths Mansion on YouTube. We played the Dragon Box app and the Prodigy math game. We read library story books on math topics such as Multiplying Menace. This got us through middle school math. For high school, my daughter meets weekly with a tutor. I don't do high school math! English - we read 1001 library books; we read books we own; we listened to audio books; usually I did the reading since my daughter has dyslexia and never loved to read. Now, at age 15, she reads just fine, but still prefers an audio book. We didn't label her as "learning disabled" just because her learning style was different from the school-norm. There was no need to label her at home. Vocabulary was learned through real life and reading. Grammar was learned through me gently correcting thing she said with explanations of why one way was correct - plus MadLibs. Everyone should play MadLibs with their kids and allow them to put in as many potty words as they want! ;) Your kid will be an expert on verbs and nouns and adjectives and adverbs in no time and you'll all be laughing hilariously! For writing, see my post on How Unschoolers Learn to Write. Social - we watched Little House and talked about what life was like in those times. We read Native American stories and stories about holidays in other cultures. We read Magic Treehouse and talked about fact vs fiction. Historical fiction - whether through books or films - has always been a HUGE part of learning history here. It's by far more engaging than the dry facts and dates in a textbook, and of course you want to look up a few facts to see what's real vs not real. Liberty Kids is great for little ones (free on YouTube). Howard Zinn's Young People's History of the US book, Crash Course videos (US History, World History, European History), and the Seeds of American Trilogy (books) are all engaging for older kids. We did use Story of the World (SOTW) for World History the first time around, but I have a lot of reservations about it, key being that it centers around "now so and so was the richest and most powerful man in the world". See my Ancient History post on how we used SOTW for discussion of who gets to write history and how we supplemented it. Science - have you ever wondered why kids learn about cells and molecules but can't tell you about the plants and animals in their neighborhood? We started with several years of natural science, focusing on feeding and identifying birds, reading stories about the lives of animals around us, learning about the seasons, learning about the migration of a hummingbird from a fictional story, going to wilderness school, foraging for wild edibles, growing a garden, and so on. Books I read to her featured heavily here - enchanting fictional stories that taught real life science about the world around us. There are so very many wonderful books! From there, Helena branched into topics like biology, regenerative ecology, and now astronomy.  The BasicsConsidering homeschooling this year, welcome! To start, here are 6 things you should know in a nutshell.... 1. NYS does not provide or approve your curriculum. 2. You are required to teach specific subjects. The content and how your children learn is completely up to you. 3. Homeschooling does not need to look anything like school; in fact, it usually works best when it looks little to nothing like school. 4. Schools are set up so that a single teacher can assess the knowledge of 20-30 children (s)he doesn't have a deep personal relationship with. Homeschooling can be relationship based where things like casual conversation or telling Grandma what you learned can replace worksheets and tests. You know what your kids know because you know your kids - just like you knew when they were crawling, walking talking, etc. And just like they didn't need formal "how to go potty" lessons, kids at home often learn with no formal lessons and a lot of real-life involvement. If we all sent our kids to school to learn to use the potty, in a generation we'd question if they could learn without a worksheet. Can you picture it? Pick up the picture that shows the first thing you do when you go potty (child picks up picture of pulling drawers down). If this sounds super stupid it's because we've not been programmed to think kids need "school" methods to learn before age 5. Why do they suddenly need them at age 5? 5. NYS requires a Letter of Intent or LOI, an Individualized Home Instruction Plan or IHIP (pronounced eye-hip), 4 quarterly reports, and an annual assessment. They also require that your child is learning for a specific number of hours. Nobody counts those hours; we simply put that the hours were met - since learning at home occurs round the clock and on weekends and holidays too. These all go to your local school superintendent's office unless they contract out to BOCES. Ask around and people will tell you who your local point of contact is. 6. NYS does not approve your curriculum!! Some school districts don't understand this. They are only allowed to make sure you are following the regs - covering each required subject in some way and listing some sort of curricular resource for each subject. The Nitty GrittyNY requires a good deal of red-tape in terms of paperwork, but it's really quite simple once you get your head wrapped around it. You'll need to read the NYS regs for yourself (at the bottom here) but here are the requirements in everyday English.
LOI - First - you send in your letter of intent or LOI which states name, age, grade, and that you will homeschool. Sign and date it. This is due whenever you decide to homeschool. IHIP - Next, you send in an Individualized Home Instruction Plan or IHIP (pronounced eye-hip) that details the annual plan. Regs tell you when this has to be in; it's due so many days after your LOI. This can be very simple. List each required subjects. Write a sentence about what topics you will begin with or the overall goal or plan for that subject; don't be too detailed. Be sure to say "Other topics will be covered as opportunities and resources dictate". Then write "curricular resources will include but not be limited to the following" and list some resources for that subject. Those particular ways of wording things above allow you the flexibility to adjust your plan at any point in time during the year. So, if your child, for example, is suddenly obsessed with opossums and wants to learn everything there is to know about them, you can ditch what you had planned for science next and simply report a sentence or so about oppossum zoology in your quarterly reports for science and include a sentence about research in the English Language Arts (ELA) section. Without the specific wording, you are locked into adhering to your plan or reporting changes. About curricular resources - I always list a specific reference book or reference curriculum, plus videos, podcasts, YouTube videos, games, apps, field trips and things like that for curricular resources. While the book I list includes an actual title and author, I literally write "YouTube videos, podcasts, community professionals..." for the rest. Leaving it vague allows us freedom to uncover and use resources along the way. By the way... starting with things you know your kid is really into (dinosaurs for science or cooking for math) and asking kids what they want to learn about can be REALLY fun! Repeat the sentence or two summary and curricular resources for each subject. Put your child's name/grade and the date on it. Add your quarterly report dates (more below). Now you have an IHIP. (Note: Many people combine English Language Arts (ELA) into one subject; just be sure to touch on each required aspect.) That wasn't so difficult right? Quarterly reports - Think of these like report cards. Pick 4 dates about evenly spread out. For each one, you'll send in a sheet that lists each subject and includes a couple bullet points of what has been covered. State at top of the sheet that you covered the required hours and the child made satisfactory progress in all subjects. Again, less is more. The schools don't need tons of detail. They only need to hear from you that you've met the regs. Annual assessment - You turn this in with your 4th quarterly. There are two kinds of assessments - narrative and testing. Narrative assessments can be done in grades 1-3 and biannually in grades 4-8. For a narrative assessment, state that your child met or exceeded all expectations as set out in the x grade IHIP and will proceed onto the next grade. Sign. Date. Some folks add "highlights of the year included learning cursive" or something similar for most subjects. I never have. A few districts will tell you that you can't write your own narrative. When I moved to my current district, I had to have a certified NYS teacher I know sign off on it. Other times, parents make a peer-review-committee and sign off on each other's narrative assessments. Both are discussed in the regs below. A testing assessment is required in alternate grades for 4th-8th (so 4, 6, and 8 or 5 and 7). They are also required annually in high school. Most folks do the California Achievement Test (CAT) or the PASS test - both of which test basic math and ELA, like very basic. You are not required to do NYS common core testing or to test all subjects. Your child must have a cumulative score of 33rd percentile or greater meaning that they can pass if 67% (100-33 = 67) of the kids the test was normed on scored higher than them. In other words, don't sweat the tests. Below is the link for the much more complicated and verbose NYS regs. They're helpful to let you know required hours (nobody counts them bc learning happens all the time at home) and what subjects you have to cover when. I hope that provides a concise and non-scary summary for you! <3 You might not have chosen to homeschool if not for the pandemic, but this can be a super exciting and bonding experience over the joy of learning if you think outside of the school-at-home box. http://www.p12.nysed.gov/part100/pages/10010.html  April 1st... The CDC is saying we might get a bit of a reprieve this summer, depending on where we live, but to expect the outbreak to pick back up in late autumn and early winter.
I wish this were an April Fool's joke. It's not. My entire body feels heavy and tired... months with no human contact for my daughter and I apart from each other.... months of curbside grocery pickup... months of trying to feel safe just to get essentials... ((note how those thoughts make you feel for a second...)) We're the lucky ones, truly. We're surrounded by beautiful land; I have a work-from-home job that is secure, and we already homeschooled. Side note: coronavirus homeschooling is not real homeschooling. The idea of "home"schooling is a bit of an oxymoron because we're seldom home. We're meeting up with friends, going to co-op classes, at theater events, art museums, days at Yale, and much more. We get to choose what curriculum - or no curriculum - we use and don't have 4 teachers sending home 4 different kinds of work for each child. So please don't think this is what homeschooling is really like! Homeschooling is FUN - especially if you're unschoolers like us! While my daughter and I have it "good" in many ways, the heaviness is still here... the grief... the sense of loss... the feeling of some hopelessness when all of life is turned upside down. We're all feeling it at one level or another. And for those less privileged than myself, I imagine it's compounded 10x. So here's what I'm doing.... 1. Choosing My Focus - Focusing on what I *DO* want and not on what I don't want I'm a big believer in the idea that we have the power to choose our focus. I can choose to focus on the bad and all the bad things that might happen as a result of this pandemic. Those are legit and anxiety-inducing concerns! I should be aware of them for sure. You can be a realist here. I'm not saying to stick your head in the sand or the clouds... But the bad is not what I'm going to deliberately focus my attention on longer than to be aware and educated... I'm going to focus on the good, on the beautiful, and on healing connections. Scientists have found that emotion literally lasts for 90 seconds in the body. From there, it becomes more deeply rooted or passes on depending on whether or not we feed it. “When a person has a reaction to something in their environment, there’s a 90 second chemical process that happens in the body; after that, any remaining emotional response is just the person choosing to stay in that emotional loop. Something happens in the external world and chemicals are flushed through your body which puts it on full alert. For those chemicals to totally flush out of the body it takes less than 90 seconds. This means that for 90 seconds you can watch the process happening, you can feel it happening, and then you can watch it go away. After that, if you continue to feel fear, anger, and so on, you need to look at the thoughts that you’re thinking that are re-stimulating the circuitry that is resulting in you having this physiological response over and over again.” Our thoughts are powerful. We can't ignore what's happening right now, but we can give ourselves time to process the pain and grief and then take time to deliberately focus on the good and the beautiful around us. The more we think about how bad things are, the worse we're going to feel (think back to how you felt when I shared the heavy feelings and thoughts at the beginning of this). The more we feed our fears with our thoughts, the worse we're going to feel. The Buddhist mindfulness idea is to sit with a feeling... without feeding it with your thoughts... until it passes. Mantra meditation would add to this idea by also incorporating thoughts - or mantras - that focus on what you do want. This mantra in the form of a song has gone viral right now and is really great! Every Little Cell in my Body is Well! Check it out!! And remember, feelings go beyond thoughts if you're an empath. It's easy for us empaths to feel things that aren't even our own feelings... we can read the collective emotions of the world around us (even via social distancing) and it can be overwhelming. Ask yourself what your responsibility is with these feelings? Are they feelings around which you can put an energy boundary and block them - because they aren't yours to carry or process? Or are they things you need to feel and process? Only you can answer that question. The more we make choices to create beauty, create connection, and find the good, the better we're going to feel. So I'm choosing the feel-good things. It's not easy sometimes! But I'm also a firm believer that what we focus on is what we energetically feed. I want to spend my time during this pandemic feeding and building new ways of healing and being in harmony with the earth. 2. Focusing on the Earth Healing Gaia theory says the earth is a living entity. I've long said that the earth has the ability to heal herself and will do what it takes to survive. I think we all understand that the more the earth hurts, the more we hurt. What I think most folks miss is that the earth can do something about this.... So let's see this as an environmental reset. A reboot... I'm already seeing calls from mainstream publications like Teen Vogue that we can't go "back to normal" - that we must use this time to find new ways of living from the heart and in harmony with the earth. People are waking up! But you know what? If this virus passes us all by in 6 more weeks, nearly everyone is going to jump right back to the old normal without a 2nd thought. People don't like change. I've worked in psych and wellness for years now. Change is HARD for people. Conceptualizing a new way of life is HARD. Psychologists describe multiple stages of change, the first handful being only stages of contemplation - just thinking about change but not changing at all yet. This time period of social isolation is forcing people to change. And once the realization sets in that this pandemic isn't going to be over in a few weeks, people are going to start adjusting to find ways to make this new normal really work for themselves, to make it sustainable for their families. Eventually, these new sustainable ways will become habits, will become the new normal, and will, in many ways, be sustained after the pandemic is over - because, remember, people don't like to change. Ultimately, I believe we'll begin to rethink what we can do for the environment, our time with our families, growing gardens, our food production, how we fill up our time with "busy" things and don't take time to "be", the ability to work from home, much more. Already we're seeing less smog, cleaner rivers, safer wildlife, and so many more benefits. We're finding that we can make a difference and let the earth heal. What will it look like for this to continue when we can safely go back out? What sort of ways of being are you reimagining? 3. Focusing on Change to Social Systems Leading in from the above point... There's no doubt that my ability to write this is couched in huge privilege. It's a lot harder to find good things to focus on when one is without a job, going hungry, and/or in a place of domestic violence. I pray that this period of time wakes people up to the need for universal healthcare, a living minimum wage for our "essential" workers, better social services across the board, and elected leaders who value these things. Maybe more people will vote in the upcoming election! There are a whole lot of folks seeking relief right now who realize Bernie would have provided that relief. Democratic socialism isn't looking so bad... 4. Focusing on Being the Helper Remember Mr Rogers... When bad things happened his wise mother always told him to look for the helpers. If you're in a bad place right now due to the pandemic, reach out... there are various free services and people willing to help. If you don't see what you need, be bold and ask. And if you're more privileged, don't just look for the helpers. Be a helper! Ask yourself what you can do to make a difference for others. It might be meeting a major need. It might be offering a skill free or sliding scale online. It might simply be making a phone call or doing something to bring beauty, love, and light into someone's life right now. 4. Focusing on Creating beauty Do you make music, paint, draw, knit, sew, write poetry, weld, do woodworking, make jewelry... ??? Birth beauty folks! Share your beauty with the world. Create beauty in your daily lives. We set up our dining room table like a little cafe table, put on nice clothes, and "went out" to coffee the other day. It was so much fun. The week before we set up a live-online poetry reading. People are making and sharing music widely, from balconies and online. We're getting out even more to explore local parks and trails. Getting out of the house (if you're in an area where this is still safe and allowed) feels so good! Soak in the beauty of nature! Museums are putting art online. I had a great time, last night, exploring new fine-art photographers on Lenscratch. What ways can you create and soak in beauty? So there you have my thoughts... choose your focus. Focus on the good things and on creating beauty and goodness. Don't ignore the negatives. They exist. Be aware. Sit with the feelings that arise. Process the grief and be gentle with yourself. But keep circling back around to focusing on creating what you do want. Our thoughts and creative potential are powerful! <3 In truth I suppose this should be titled "How my Unschooler has Learned to Write" or maybe "Can a Kid Really Write Without Sequential Lessons?" Let's talk about curriculum for a second. Curriculum is an artifical construct - something not found in real life - that's created to progress the skill of 20-30 kids at the same time and in the same way in a classroom setting. There's nothing natural about that from the standpoint of evolutionary biology. I'm not saying we should never have classrooms or curriculum. Heck I'm finishing up my 2nd masters and have 40 doctoral credits. I'm familiar with curriculum. Thing is, I chose this path of my own free will because the degrees mean something to me. On the other hand, most kids would not willingly choose any or much curriculum if they knew there were alternatives; and curriculum is by no means the only or most natural way of learning a skill. It's not how humans generally learn. It's not how humans evolved to learn. That's what I mean when I say it's an artificial construct. I mean it's something people have made up for a specific purpose and place. We all accept that each child learns to walk and talk in their own time and their own way. If I were to propose talking classes for toddlers it would sound ludicrous to you. But what's the difference between talking lessons and writing lessons? If humans are capable of learning spoken speech all on their own can't they also learn the intricacies of written speech all on their own? Yep. They can! And unschoolers are great evidence of that. I can hear the arguments running through your head, because many of the same ran through my head at one time or another...
Take a deep breathe! Trust Children. Nothing could be more simple - or more difficult. Difficult, because to trust children we must trust ourselves - and most of us were taught as children that we could not be trusted. John Holt I find John Holt's quote there eternally inspiring and endlessly challenging. My daughter Helena has dyslexia. Though she could sound out a few words at 4 she didn't start reading early readers until age 8 and to this day letters still flip 360 degrees in all directions sometimes. The biggest mistake I ever made was trying an Orton Gillingham curiculum and forcing reading. She HATED it and it put a strain on our relationship. I backed off because I valued our connection and didn't want her to hate reading. We eventually learned from Davis' book, The Gift of Dyslexia, what a cool process her brain is capable of in shifting things for increased awareness and understandng. It's pretty brilliant actually! The same book also helped her be conscious of the process and able to put her "mind's eye" in the order needed for reading.
In the ensuing years, Helena has challenged everything I once believed about education and how children learn, specifically the role of reading and writing in learning. (Hint: it's super overrated!) Over the years I've learned - sometimes the hard way - to back off my fears, to focus on connection and relationship first, and to trust her. In time she's shown me that she is learning all the "basics" in ways that are uniquely and beautifully her own, on her own timetable, and not at all the way I would have predicted or planned. In 4th grade she came to me wanting to write an APA style research paper like I do for grad school. She decided she wanted to write it on snowy leopards and her primary question was "Do snowy leopards in zoos have more toxins in their blood than those in the wild due to being closer to civilization or are toxins higher in wild cats from environmental pollutants?" Wow! That sounded more like a doctoral thesis than a 4th grade project, but ok. Together we read a few library books on these cats, made notes on cards and organized them into piles of topics, and then delved into Google scholar and peer-reviewed articles. We never were able to answer her question but we did learn a ton and had fun! And her paper impressed our public school teacher/neighbor. I think it's important to note that prior to this Helena had never written more than a couple of sentences. There was on linear progression from sentences to paragraphs to essays to research papers. But what if she hadn't done this paper? No problem, she'd learn APA fomatting and about peer-reviewed scientific literature later - if and when she needed that info. After this project, Helena wrote nothing for a long time. Then in 5th grade she wanted to write fiction. She used voice dictation to write down her stories and met with local homeschool mom and international award winning author Jennifer Roy for a writing club. Jennifer wisely advised "Don't make her finish what she starts writing" explaining that she'd lose the joy in it if forced and telling me that she herself started stories all the time as a child that she never finished. Sage advice even if it did leave me hanging in suspense a number of times when not one story was finished. In 6th grade Helena wrote and published a few articles for iGen21.com and created her website Paws for Herbs. In 7th grade, thus far, she's begun one story. You can read it here on her IG account. I read it and thought, "Wow! This. Without worksheets, grammar lessons, or forced writing...!" It's a great beginning for a story!" Thoughout the years I've exposed Helena to topic sentences, making a heartmap to get ideas out and turning that into an outline, basic parts of speech by playing MadLibs, and other proper grammar and punctuation mostly by noting when it's improper in articles, books, and so on. No worksheets needed. Just living real life. Your own child's path to learning written speech might look very different from Helena's, and that's ok! Bottom line is if you're living life together with an ounce of intention it will happen. And let me tell you from exprience... there are MANY college students, graduate students even, who can't string together a coherent paragraph with a topic sentence, supporting sentences, and conclusion. 12 years of curriculum and they never learned the basics! Trust your child to learn. They mastered the spoken word in their own unique way and will master the written word likewise. A little history...About 4 years ago I developed Crohn's disease, was bleeding internally, had wasted away to 105 lbs and was so ill that walking next door left me hugely winded. Through much research, I found out there's extensive scientific evidence that a Paleo autoimmune diet and lifestyle (because if it's only food you're missing a big part of it) could put many autoimmune diseases in remission. Because my particular autiommune disease was digestive, I also adopted a low FODMAP diet. For detailed info on all of this, I highly recommend The Paleo Approach by Sarah Ballantyne PhD. For those of you into science, she has pages of references for each chapter in the back of the book. If you're looking for more specific help navigating all of the info, give me a call as this is part of my consulting work. However, despite the wonders of the Paleo AIP way, I truly don't think I'd have had so much success in putting Crohn's into remission were it not for the herbs I took as well. The herbs Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) I first began with infusions of yarrow, a known styptic and hemostatic - an herb that stops bleeding. Yarrow's astringent properties tighten up tissue to prevent bleeding of external and internal wounds. Some of it's common names are nose-bleed herb, woundwort, soldier's wort, and militaris - many of these alluding to it's use on the battlefield in ancient times. In fact, some believe that yarrow's Latin name refers to the legend of Achilles who used this herb for magical protection. I only used this herb for as long as I had internal bleeding.  Calendula (Calendula officinalis) Calendula is known primarily as a vulnerary or wound healing herb. It's antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties make it a soothing healer for hot, inflamed, irritated or even ulcerated digestive tissue. Additionally, calendula is a bitter, an herb that interacts with taste receptors on the tongue to send a message to the brain and in turn the digestive track to begin secreting digestive juices. A mostly safe and gentle herb though it might be contraidicated for folks with a strong ragweed allergy as they are in the same botanical family. Then again, lettuce is in the same family too. Sharing a family doesn't necessarily mean there will be an issue.  Chamomile (Matricaria recutita) Chamomile is one of the oldest - perhaps the oldest - digestive remedies in existence. Scientists have discovered that it contains over 100 active constituents, some of which can target ulcers for healing and inhibit H. pylori bacteria that can lead to ulcers. Yet this herb is mild enough to be used for a baby's colic too. It's an antispasmodic and carminative - meaning it relieves spasms and gas. When infused more than a few minutes bitter constituents are extracted in chamomile making it an even more potent digestive aid. Some folks note the high FODMAPs of one of chamomile's active constituents and find it contraindicated for folks on a Paleo AIP diet, but I believe this is a mistake. With over 100 different active constituents working in synergy, I believe the FODMAPs in chamomile are of no concern, mediated by other constituents. However, chamomile is quite likely to make you burp or fart, and this confuses some folks, making them think that the herb is not for them. But this is just part of chamomile at work - relieving excessive air in the digestive track. All of that said, it is possible to be allergic to chamomile and folks with a heavy ragweed allergy should excercise caution as they are in the same botanical family.   Plantain (Plantago major) Plantain is known as the bandaid plant and is one of the most astringent herbs in existence. Astringency tightens tissue, either drawing things out and/or drying things up. Plantain is a common external remedy used in spit poultices on bee stings and bug bites, in anti-itch formulas, and even in poultices to draw out stones from road burn. Internally, plantain can help to dry up diarrhea and to tighten up leaky-gut tissue. Plantain is also a bitter herb which can assist with getting those digestive juices flowing.  Marshmallow root (Althaea officinalis) Believe it or not, this herb is what the marshmallows of s'mores fame were once made from! The root is highly mucilaginous - or gooey and slimey - and gave the marshmallows their gelatinous texture. Internally, marshmallow root provides a slippery soothing coating to the digestive track that can aid in healing. While marshmallow root's properties are best extracted in a cold water decoction, I add it right to the infusion and still get good results.   Licorice root (Glycyrrhiza glabra) Another root that I throw into the infusion rather than decocting - because I only use a tiny pinch of it... Licorice root adds a bit of sweetness and has properties that help the other herbs to hit the bloodstream more quickly and effectively. However, this herb is contraindicated if you're taking blood pressure meds, blood thinners, having surgery, or are on various heart medications, have low potassium, or have kidney or liver disorders. That said, it's an amazing digestive herb with demulcent properties that can help heal ulcers and calm all sorts of digestive upsets from heartburn to stomach cramps.  How to infuse herbsAnytime I take a new herb, I start with a small dose, like a mild cup of tea with 2-3 tsps of herb infused for no more than 5 minutes. Then I'll work my way up, over the course of several days, to strong infusions. For those not familiar with herbal techniques, an infusion is used primarily on more delicate parts of an herb such as berries and leaves and involves pouring simmering hot water over herbs, capping them, and leaving them to infuse. Alternately, I usually put the herbs in the pot, pour cold water over them, bring to a simmer, turn off the heat, put a lid on the pot, and leave to infuse. For my infusion, I combine equal parts of calendula, chamomile, plantain, and marshmallow root by sight (weighing on a kitchen scale is also an option) along with just a teensy pinch of licorice root. I use 1/2 oz to a full oz of herbs per quart of water, bring to a simmer, and leave to infuse for an absolute minimum of 30 minutes - often for an hour or even overnight. For a few years I drank 1-2 quarts of this daily. It's strong and bitter flavored! I called it "swamp water" due to its appearance - though I can't complain about flavor, having finally grown accustomed to and even fond of it. Sweetening it with honey will reduce the effectiveness of the bitter herbs in it since bitters work by stimulating receptors on the tongue, but if it's the only way you can stomach it at first, try sweetening it a bit or making it milder with smaller amounts of the herbs. I found that a quart of this infusion would quickly reduce any digestive upsets and believe it was a big part of healing my digestive track. Disclaimer: Herbs are not evaluated by the FDA. All information on my blog, website, social media, writings, or in consultations is for educational purposes only and is not meant to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease. Want to learn more?
 Herbalism
as the People's Healthcare! Basic herbal knowledge for self-care is a human right, a need embedded in our evolutionary DNA, and all the more vital in a time of decreasing healthcare and increasing healthcare discrimination! I created Online Herbal Summer Camp because I’m passionate about health justice and about herbalism as “the people’s healthcare”! Health justice seeks to not just bridge gaps in accessibility, but to dismantle systems of oppression in favor of new ways of doing things that provide open access to all. Once upon a time, all of our ancestors lived in harmony with the land, depending on it for sustenance and nurturing it as it nurtured and nourished them. If they had a cut they knew which herb to pick. They knew what plant to turn to for an upset stomach or indigestion. Rashes and bug repellants were at their finger tips. In fact, etnobotanists have found that chamomile was one of the very first crops ever planted, suggesting that herbal knowledge extended back into the paleolithic era. We quite literally evolved to live in harmony with nature, using herbs! Unfortunately, systems of oppression, genocide, capitalism, and patriarchy have pushed aside the common plant knowledge and self-healing-wisdom our ancestors carried. Traditional healers were burned or hung as witches. Women were forbidden from practicing medicine. People were stollen from their land and forced into slavery on another continent. Whereas land had once been their joy and sustenance, it now became a tool of torturous oppression at the hands of those who cared nothing about harmony with the land and cared everything about capitalism. Natives here were driven from their home lands, their hunting and gathering grounds. Their medicine and their spirituality were one, and yet their religion was outlawed in the US until the 1970's (yes, despite a constitutional freedom of religion!) resulting in deep losses of healing wisdom. Native children were forced from their families into residential schools in a system of cultural genocide. Through it all, systemic racism and oppression became the backbone of where our culture is at today. The Civil Rights Movement and other moves for freedom have only begun to address these issues. As a result, few people today know the power of plants, and fewer still have access to this knowledge and the wellness it provides. The way our culture is set up at present, especially here in the United States, herbalism is an expensive, out-of-pocket, alternative healthcare modality that’s available only for those who are privileged enough to know about and to afford such things. This is further complicated by the fact that we are at times using indigenous and traditional remedies that have been lost to and are no longer affordable to the very people whose cultures we robbed them from! Again... health justice seeks to not just bridge gaps in accessibility, but to dismantle systems of oppression in favor of new ways of doing things that provide open access to all. Online Herbal Summer Camp - and my other seasonal online herbal workshops - are an attempt to build a new container or system capable of providing widespread access to basic herbal knowledge. Research shows that most folks in the developed world have internet access via smart phones and even more via libraries or internet cafes. Even in the developing world many people have internet access. By offering these workshops online, they become accessible to English speakers worldwide. Last year there were participants from 6 continents! But what about cost? I offer these workshops on a sliding scale basis to make them affordable to most everyone. In the future, I'd like to explore scholarship and/or grant opportunities that can further bridge the gap for people from other nations. I'd also like to partner with herbalists from other nations to offer a similar structure but with herbs that might be more easily accessible in other nations/climates. If you are an herbalist interested in this work, do let me know! And if you know more about grants for such work, I'm all ears! By participating in all four seasonal workshops, participants gain a wide body of basic knowledge empowering them to use herbs for themselves and their families - and a foundation of knowledge on which they can easily build further, should they choose to. Online Herbal Summer Campwww.rebeccagraceandrews.com/online-herbal-summer-camp.html - participants learn herbs, recipes and techniques for basic herbal first aid. Online Herbal Harvest Fest - we cover basic herbs, recipes, and techniques for immune fortification and cold and flu symptoms. Online Herbal Winter Retreat - this session focuses on herbs and recipes for mood boosting, sleep, and exquisite self-care - an R&R session. Online Herbal Spring Awakening - in the spring we cover herbs for rejuvenation, cleansing, and energy - following the burst of new life around us. Each session is 4 weeks in length and held online, on a private Facebook page which provides an online room to chat, post photos, request feedback, and network with others in one's corner of the world as well as with folks around the world. I post a few fun herbal quizzes and conversation starters as well as the course info. On Mondays the herbal info goes out - PDF info files and sometimes instructional videos. This year we'll also be making use of the live Facebook video feature! In addition to the Monday herbal info, Wild Wednesdays focus on nature connection and bonding around sharing of photos and art inspired by one's time in nature. Finally, each week there are special activities just for the sweet children amongst us - for they are our future! 💕  Dear Readers,
I'm appalled at the vast amount of misinformation being spread about ticks, tick borne diseases, and lyme! I recently read an article by a mom who claimed to have gotten her info from interviewing an Harvard MD - and the info was all wrong! In fact, I refuted it quickly with a handful of journal articles and the parenting FB page that had posted it removed it and thanked me! As you all know, I'm not a licensed medical professional. Herbalists aren't licensed in the US. So I don't diagnose or treat diseases. What I do is educate you to make informed choices so you can experience thriving health body, soul, spirit, and in relationship with the earth! If this information saves just one more person from the rigamarole of seeing 5 docs before an accurated diagnosis (that's the average) and ending up with chronic lyme, organ damage, disability, and so on... I'll be grateful. So I offer this in the hopes that you'll find it informative and use it to dig deeper and arm yourself with knowledge! Ok... here's the 101 you should know! 1. Never cover a tick or smother it with anything to get it to back out, such as but not limited to alcohol, soapy water, essential oils, or vaseline. Why? Research shows that smothered ticks are more likely to regurgitate blood they've sucked, along with toxins and disease - back into your bloodstream. Yuck! And speaking of tick bites - about 50% of those with lyme will not recall ever being bitten!! 2. Recognize the bull's eye myth! Only about 20% of folks who get Lyme will get a bull's eye rash. You're statisically more likely to be misdiagnosed with depression with Lyme than to have a bull's eye rash. 3. Speaking of which... know the symptoms! I'm not in agreement with everything on this website. (For example, research shows DEET is not safe for 2 year olds!!!) But this is a good list of possible symptoms that demonstrates how lyme has come to be known as "the great imitator"! 4. The idea that a tick must be embedded for 24 hours to transmit disease is FALSE!! Ticks transmit far more than Lyme and some diseases can be transmitted in just 15 minutes. Furthermore, research is suggesting that Lyme can be transmitted in much less than 24 hours as well. 5. Remove ticks with a tick key or carefully with tweezers. Be careful not to squeeze the body and be sure to get the head out. 6. If bitten, a bit of andrographis tincture and green clay or other antibacterial ointment might help prevent infection. 7. Research suggests that taking astragalus from a reputable source such as Oregon's Natural Harvest can help to prevent Lyme disease by boosting your immune system. It might be contraindicated, however, for some folks with Lyme or autoimmune diseases. (See Buhner's books on Lyme for more info.) 8. Research suggests a single dose of doxy might not be prudent as a preventative measure. 9. Advocate for yourself since your MD might be using outdated info. This link to International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS) is very informative in understanding why there are so many misdiagnosis! 10. The Western Blot is the most accurate Lyme test covered by insurance but gives a false negative in a large percentage - up to 50% - of Lyme cases. A Lyme diagnosis should be a clinical decision, based on a variety of symptoms not just tests, and made by a fully Lyme-literate doctor who also tests for other tick borne diseases. 11. Read Buhner's books on Lyme and coinfections. Knowledge is power! Some folks choose herbs (available in easy-to-use capsules from Green Dragon Botanicals) if they think they have Lyme - rather than waiting for a diagnosis. The longer Lyme goes untreated, the more dangerous it becomes. 12. Think about tick prevention: wear light colored clothing tucked into socks; do tick checks. Consider making a repellant made with apple cider vinegar (ACV) and geranium essential oil. Some folks choose permethrin as a repellent thinking it's 100% safe. It's not. But is it safer than risk of tick disease? That's something for you to research and be the judge of. Personally, I believe we have tick issues due to environmental issues and imbalances; so I believe that using permethrin or other pesticides that harm bees and pollinators (permethrin kills them also) and contaminates water is only going to further harm the environment and exacerbate the problem. That said, I get why people feel comfortable with permethrin. It's a personal choice. As for DEET - that's super dangerous so please don't go there! Getting out into nature is so beneficial to our mental, emotional, and spiritual health (if you're a research junkie go to the "research" tab here on my website and check out my lit review on ecopsych). Ticks are vile insects - out of control due to environmental imbalances. I hope this info helps you to feel more comfortable in navigating this issue in a way that makes you feel confident and safe! ❤️  This post is part 3 in a cursory overview of some historical ideas about breasts. Look for my health enhancing breast butter coming out soon! Ayurvedic It seems the Eastern view of the breast might have been much different from the Western view. While this article did not reference ancient views, it gave the overall idea that the breast is an object of nourishment belonging to the woman and that breast imbalances or cancer are, in part, a result of failing to recognize the power of the breast and failing to nourish oneself (Devani, 2017). In addition to the emphasis here and in Northrup’s writings, I offer the idea that the breast is equally about power not just nurturing and nourishing. I can’t help but recall a favorite slogan from my breastfeeding years “I make milk! What’s your super power?!” Whether a woman has breastfed or not, her breasts are symbolic of her power to sustain life! Northrup Dr. Christine Northrup adheres to this Eastern view of the breast as a symbol of nourishment, not just in the power to nourish life, but as a symbol of a woman’s power to nourish herself. She notes how the current patriarchal, medical model is one of looking for problems with the breasts Mercola & Northrup, 2013). This is something I’ve seen myself quite often - women wondering what their risk factor is and viewing the breast largely as something problematic. It’s either too small or too big or too saggy or too milky with a strong let-down or too dry with an (often mythical) inability to breastfeed. It’s a cancer risk, a health risk. It needs to be painfully squashed on a regular basis to be sure it doesn’t nefariously take over your life. And you better check it regularly yourself too, keeping in mind how dangerous it is, how likely it is to hurt you. Honestly, before reading this particular interview with Dr. Northrup, I’d never thought of BSE as something negative. I just love what she had to say around this. Total lightbulb moment for me! I’ll quote a portion of the written interview between Mercola and Northrup below. "There was a huge study done in China that showed that teaching women how to examine their breasts did not decrease their mortality at all," she says. "In fact, all it did was increase the number of biopsies for benign disease. So, there's no data that breast self-exam helps with anything." That said, she still encourages and recommends a monthly or weekly "self-love breast massage," but not to specifically look for anything, or with the expectation of finding something wrong. Instead, she suggests just gently and lovingly massaging your breasts and up under your armpit, where the lymph nodes are located, while taking your Epsom salt bath. The best time to do it is just after your period, when you have the least amount of hormonal stimulation. "Massage this with love. You're not looking for anything," she says. "The average woman will find something. We know that breast self-exam, or just a woman finding something because she knows her breasts, is just as good as all of these other screenings for finding the fast-growing tumors. See, the problem with screening is it finds the slow-growing ones that may regress or wouldn't go anywhere anyway. So, for a part of your health, you want to start a practice of bringing your breast home to your chest. Get to know them in health lovingly. Don't use your fingertips, by the way. Use your palm. Otherwise, you're going to feel every little gland and freak out. And then if you do find that you have what's called a fibrocystic disease where your breasts get tender, start eating some kelp tablets, because the iodine really helps that in a huge way.” (Mercola & Northrup, 2013) Knowing the power of the psychneuroimmunological pathways in our bodies doesn’t it make vastly more sense to view the breast as something to be nurtured and nourished rather than something to be worried over? I think the Ayurvedic idea and Northrup’s philosophies hark back to some of the earliest views of the breast, long before the Medieval or Renaissance views. In the infancy of human civilization, long before the advent of patriarchy, “God was a woman” to use the title of a book (Stone, 1976). Art and archeology hailing from that era show us a breast that is honored as the source of nurturing and the nourishment needed to sustain life. The breast was seen as the seat of female power as evidenced by statues of goddesses not just with large breasts, but often with many breasts. The goddess, as the source of power and life, was represented by the image of a woman. In the creation of my breast butter, and all of the women’s products I’m currently and simultaneously developing, I want to recapture this idea - that our femininity is a source of power and life and to be embraced, not a source of problems to be feared or parts to be shamefully ignored under patriarchal taboos.  Once again, I'm in the process of developing a new product, a wonderful breast butter that enhances breast health and lymphatic flow. I found my research on breast history interesting so here's a bit more... The quotes are awesome!
Late 1600’s By this era, ideals had changed and breasts were beautiful, though not always in their natural form, and only as sex objects for male pleasure. This quote from The Ladies Dictionary in 1694 lays out the ideal: Breasts that hang loose, and are of an extraordinary largeness, lose their charms, and have their Beauty buried in the grave of uncomeliness, whilst those that are small, plump and round, like two ivory globes, or little worlds of beauty, whereon Love has founded his Empire, command an awful homage from his vassals, captivate the wondering gazer’s eyes, and dart warm desires into his Soul, that make him languish and melt before the soft Temptation (in Loofbourow, 2011). Talking about differences and similarities in understanding... all I can say is “Seriously?! We’re still embracing breast ideals from the 1600’s!!?! How antiquated! Women need to wake up!” In it’s defense, the Ladies Dictionary did contain some of the first information on breast health for women. Or was it for men? Therefore to reduce those Breasts that hang flagging out of all comely shape and form, that they may be plump, round and smaller, bind them up close to you with caps or bags that will just fit them, and so let them continue for some nights. Then take carrot-seed, plantain-seeds, aniseeds, fennel-seeds, cumin-seeds, of each two ounces, virgin’s honey an ounce, the juice of plantain and vinegar two ounces each. Bruise and mingle them well together. Then, unbinding your breast, spread the composition plaster-wise and lay it on your breasts, binding them up close as before. After two days and two nights, take off the plasters and wash your breasts with white wine and rose-water (in Loofbourow, 2011). The Ladies Dictionary goes on to reference ways to make the veins in the breast more pronounced so the male lover may trace them. While many of our breast ideals hark back to this antiquated period, this is one different. Today women are more likely to see their plastic surgeon to have these veins cauterized. 1700’s During the above 1600-1700’s period physicians discovered the lymphatic system and Renee Descartes became the first to propose that imbalances here caused breast cancer, not the “black bile” of unbalanced humors that earlier physicians ascribed to. By the late 1700’s the lymph theory had become the prevailing view (Lukong, 2017). The first radical mastectomies were performed in this era with a crude scythe-like instrument. By the 1700’s corsets that nipped in the waist and accentuated the breast were the height of fashion. Something new I learned... not only did the corset produce cleavage, some women wore their corsets and dresses not just with the upper breast showing but also with the nipples out! This seems to have been when the church and society introduced the idea that breasts were evil, an idea that breast feeding moms today still have to counter. The Ladies Dictionary was not so embracing of this trend, “There is always danger in attentively looking upon a Naked Breast, and there is not only a great danger, but a kind of Crime in beholding it with attention in the Churches” (Loofbrourow, 2011). Next up... breasts in ayurvedic and holistic views... |
Rebecca Grace AndrewsWelcome! I'm a college professor, herbalist, writer and photographer. Archives
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