Fish Oil as Healing Brain Food

Informative, Parenting, Special Needs

 

By Dianne Craft, MA, CNHP

 

Sometimes a subject comes up that is so wide reaching in its impact that it can’t be ignored. As a special educator for over thirty years, and a nutritionist, I am always on the lookout for ways to relieve suffering in kids who are struggling with learning or behavior. It has come to the point that evidence of the impact of fish oil on the brain and nervous system of these struggling children is so large that I think it deserves its own article.

Recent Trends        

The incidence of children diagnosed with food allergies (notice all the gluten-free and dairy-free items in grocery stores as of late?), asthma, autism, Asperger’s, Sensory Processing Dysfunction, ADD, ADHD, dyslexia, and dysgraphia has increased greatly in the past five years. There is a disproportionate amount of boys in this increase. UCLA School of Medicine has found that boys have a three times higher need for DHAthan girls.1 Why is this occurring? Let’s explore this more.   (more…)

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De-Clutter Your Home in Time for the Holidays!

Just For Fun, Projects

 

By Malia Russell

 

Several years ago I realized I was outnumbered. There were more people bringing clutter into my home than I could control. With five children in the house, several sets of grandparents, and lots of generous friends who would give us their hand-me-downs, my children rarely saw a day where they were truly in need of something. For that, I am truly grateful. What that also means is that everything brought into our home needed a place, or we would quickly drown in utter chaos. Add to that the fact that my husband and I both have things we love to collect. For me, it is books. He has what we affectionately call “The Cord Hoard.” He loves electronics, and sometimes decades after an electronic device is no longer functioning, we will still find its cord tucked away someplace unexpected. By themselves, cords do not take up much space, but after twenty-one years of marriage, we have lots of them. I secretly think that some other families have been leaving cords here too.

In any case, when I had only one or two children, I simply went through their rooms each month or so and would make sure things were back in their proper places. A little excess never really bothered me because it was tucked away in the privacy of their rooms, which I needed to see only in the morning and at bedtime. However, once children started sharing rooms, the excess began to spill out of the closet and onto the floor, under the beds, into my room, and into the main part of the house. Before long, I felt like I could never get the house clean. There was too much stuff to move around, organize, and dust before I could begin to vacuum, scrub, and polish.

Now that many of my children are older, I have found that having frequent de-cluttering days with challenges and prizes has been a fabulous tool.

Here is how we do it:    (more…)

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Try Unit Studies During the Holidays

Classroom Help

Written by Jessica Hulcy

Do you feel like you have no time to enjoy the holidays? Are you drawn to unit studies, but you do not want to let go of your curriculum? Solution: Turn several holidays into kid-friendly units sprinkled with learning! Learn about the holiday’s history and traditions, the songs of the holiday, the people of the holiday, the stories associated with the holiday, the different ways the holiday is celebrated around the world, and also make crafts and cook special holiday dishes. You can have your cake and eat it too!

How does one plan a holiday unit? Pick one main activity and then add to it. You will have to make choices. You cannot cook every treat; instead, prepare your favorite recipe. Remember, we are not trying for 30 minutes of art and 30 minutes of history each day. Some units are more art and some are more Bible and some are more history. Be content with the flow, and always try to combine activities to kill two birds with one stone.    (more…)

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