Please Help - readers and commentors needed.

I need your help. I haven’t been posting for a while - well not here anyway. I have been moonlighting on my other blog. Writing like there’s no tomorrow.

Why? - ‘cos I want a book deal. You don’t think that is too forward of me do you? Here is the whole story.

So I would like to ask you all, dear readers, for help. To all of the 500 casual visitors that come to my site everyday; the 18 email and the 20 RSS feed subscribers, please would you visit my other site and have a read, leave a comment and subscribe. I need a publisher to come my way!!!

Sorry to be so blunt, but times here are tough and I know I can rely on you, one and all.

In the meantime, I will be leaving this blog to simmer slowly by itself for a while, whilst I concentrate on getting down to the business of writing a narrative-style blog, over at Quatre Pattes and keeping my fingers crossed that I pick up readers along the way. So come on over, you can even read the entire thing from start to finish if you so wish (all 8 posts of it!).

It’s all about my life here and now, my decision to homeschool my children, my exploits in the mountains with my family and friends; my hopes, my fears, my funny moments. I hope it will appeal to all kinds of readers. A good web friend once told me that she saw me as a writer of children’s books set in the mountains. And here I am embarking on an autobiography of sorts, about me and my children set in this beautiful country I call my home.

Perhaps I will see it on a printed page one day. I hope so.

This post has been a bit tongue-in-cheek. I hope all you health and spiritual researchers visiting here are not too offended at my audacity, I would love to see you all over at my third home someday……its buzzin’ already.

….thank you SO much and good bye for now.

Detoxing Again

I have been feeling under the weather recently. I have been having a few slight signs of Candida again and I know this is because I have been eating far too many dark chocolate truffles ;). I thought that it may be time to do a little gentle detoxing again. I have been taking Candaway for the last two days to sort the Candida out (I used this before with great success). Unfortunately for me though, this has meant getting a cold. It started with a stiff neck - the signs I always get of a detox happening and today I woke up with a sore throat. And if anything has proven to me the fact that WE MUST NOT DETOX WHILST BREASTFEEDING, then it is this: my poor daughter had a high fever last night and this morning had spots on her chin. All signs that her little body is trying to get rid of MY waste.

I feel terrible about it. And of course, I have stopped taking the Candaway. I needed to reverse the damage done immediately.

I have been reading about CheeseSlave’s detox over at her blog and, although I have not been following the diet per se, I have decided to drink chicken stock three times a day (in the form of soup with miso added) to settle my intestines after the Candaway has passed through and remove the residue of toxins asap. I hope it will help with my cold too and settle down my baby’s fever. Fingers Crossed.

Making the Miso Soup:
Follow my chicken stock recipe then add four spoonfuls to a mug and pour in boiling water. Add a good pinch of celtic sea salt (to replenish electrolytes and for better taste) and then add the smallest bit of miso paste.

and remember, do not cleanse whilst breastfeeding!

Thoughts on UN-Schooling

Although unschooling is often described as a homeschooling style, it is, in fact, much more than just another homeschool teaching method. Unschooling is both a philosophy of natural learning and the lifestyle that results from living according to the principles of that philosophy.

The most basic principle of unschooling is that children are born with an intrinsic urge to explore — for a moment or a lifetime — what intrigues them, as they seek to join the adult world in a personally satisfying way. Because of that urge, an unschooling child is free to choose the what, when, where and how of his/her own learning from mud puddles to video games and SpongeBob Squarepants to Shakespeare! And an unschooling parent sees his/her role, not as a teacher, but as a facilitator and companion in a child’s exploration of the world.

Unschooling is a mindful lifestyle which encompasses, at its core, an atmosphere of trust, freedom, joy and deep respect for who the child is. This cannot be lived on a part-time basis. Unschooling sometimes seems so intuitive that people feel they’ve been doing it all along, not realizing it has a name. Unschooling sometimes seems so counterintuitive that people struggle to understand it, and it can take years to fully accept its worth.

from: UnschoolingDiscussionList.com

Spinning Lady Never Lies

Okay, so this is doing the rounds of the net at the moment, but I still find it fascinating to manipulate. Which way do you see the girl spin - to the left or to the right???

Supposedly you use either the left or right side of your brain to make this 2-D image look 3 dimensional, depending on which way the girl spins. In reality, the woman just swings back and forth with no bias whatsoever to a turn. But does it really indicate that you are more ‘creative’ if you see the woman rotate clockwise (using the left side of your brain)?

From the original newspaper clipping at Perth News:

The Right Brain vs Left Brain test … do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise?

If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa.

LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS (anti-clockwise) uses logic detail oriented facts rule words and language present and past math and science can comprehend knowing acknowledges order/pattern perception knows object name reality based forms strategies practical safe

RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS (clockwise) uses feeling “big picture” oriented imagination rules symbols and images present and future philosophy & religion can “get it” (i.e. meaning) believes appreciates spatial perception knows object function fantasy based presents possibilities impetuous risk taking

Recently I had an email from a friend about this dancer, but it had another test added - how easily can you change from one direction to the other?

If you try to see it the other way and if you do see, your IQ is above 160. Then see if you can make her go one way and then the other by shifting the brain’s current. BOTH DIRECTIONS CAN BE SEEN. This was proved at Yale University, over a 5 year study on the human brain and it’s functions. Only 14% of the population of the US population can see her move both ways.

Hmmm…..not quite sure about this. Where are the results of this study? I would like to see them. But anyway, it is fun to try and get her to change directions.

So, I see the dancer turning predominantly clockwise, though if I relax, sit back and let my focus soften, I can make her spin back and forward randomly in each direction. Some people experience the flip as they read below the picture, focus on the feet, close their eyes and visualise her turning the other way or just come back to it at a later date. I think that people coming to this image after reading a few pages from the internet will be in a logical, analytical state of mind, so will automatically see her moving anti-clockwise. But if we can go and do some random creative task (even just doing the dishes) and come back to the image in that frame of mind, then we may see the dancer spinning clockwise. I have tried this and it works. So perhaps there IS something to it after all? I am going to ask my 5 year old which way she sees the dancer moving, plus my left-handed partner. I’ll let you know what they see in the comments section. I have thought of listening to music, or looking at a flower and then seeing how easily I can change the direction of the spin.

If you still are really stumped and cannot make her change directions, look at this page:

http://www.randominc.net/spinninglady/

p.s. I sometimes get this effect happening in every day life - spinning car wheels that look as if they go backwards and when the light is right, other objects which gyrate in bizarre ways.

Speech Therapy for an UnSchooler?

I have a dilemma. M needs speech therapy. She has been referred by her teacher to a therapist here in France. I recently booked her in for her first seance, but I have decided to cancel it. M was very upset last week, coming in from school in tears saying that people had told her she “couldn’t speak right” (she has a problem pronouncing her ‘t’s’ and her ‘c’s’ - and this shows up when she speaks french, but is more marked when she speaks english). I explained to her that we could go to see a nice lady who would practise saying some sounds with her, but she backed off straight away. She isn’t into ‘formal’ lessons of any kind (she rejects ski club and skating lessons outright, even though her friends do it).

We feel stuck. Do we push it and take her to the therapy, knowing in the long run that she will benefit from better speech and possibly more confidence, or do we leave it and respect her wishes, which at the moment are telling us she wants to speak ‘properly’ but doesn’t want to have the nice lady help her?

J’s sister has had some experience in this area and has given us some exercises to do at home already, but I found it very difficult to do with M. Perhaps it is now a question of persevering with this.

But then this begs the question, should we be trying to ‘improve’ her speech in order for her to fit into a way of speaking that we feel is correct, even though on the whole she is quite happy speaking in her own way? And if she starts to show considerable stress about the way she talks, should we then step in to intervene, exposing her to something that she doesn’t like doing, yet doesn’t understand how it will relieve her stress?

The therapist was very understanding when I explained to her on the phone that M was very frightened about the idea of seeing her and suggested that we try again in a month or so. Perhaps that is what we will do.