Sunday, September 30, 2012

An Order of Milk to Go?

Our family is preparing to take one of our trips to the Chicagoland area to visit family.  My life has changed immensely since my last visit.  I am no longer the homeschooling mother of one 8 year old boy.  I am now the mother of two beautiful children.

Both of those children are fans of eating.  They like to eat rather often.  One of them I’ve been feeding in Illinois and Wisconsin since he was about 5 months old as we brought him on the “World Tour” from Germany to visit the family for the first time.  By the time we came home, due to an emergency surgery, I was no longer breastfeeding and therefore was not concerned about feeding him in public.  I don’t know of a single person kicked out of a restaurant for giving a child a bottle.

Breastfeeding in Germany when he was an infant was a very different experience than here in the United States.  There women breastfed everywhere and it was culturally accepted with no hang ups.  It was just part of your daily life: walk to the store, buy groceries for dinner, stop at the park and feed the baby, walk home.  

While I have yet to directly encounter interference, I have to admit my trip to Yellowstone National Park this past month was a bit of an eye opener about how America views breastfeeding.  Caught between the opportunity to see Old Faithful erupt and a very insistent 2 month old child I laughed and said to my mother “Well, no one will be looking at me anyway”, tossed a light receiving blanket over him, and fed him giggling to myself the entire time about the story I would later have to share with the world.  

But unbeknownst to me people, men especially, were pointedly trying NOT to look.  My mother also had the giggles from two men on either side of me staring dead forward trying to look in any direction but ours.  I appreciate their respect, but it was rather funny to me.  There was nothing for them to see out in public, no point of looking away.  Perhaps it was my 6’2” tall husband standing over me staring down anyone who would dare question my right to feed my child that kept their eyes from meandering down that path.

Unfortunately the “bodyguard” I wisely married 10 years ago will not be traveling with me to visit my family.  Someone needs to stay home to care for the dogs and chickens so he will remain here which leaves me without the big scary man to protect me.  I immediately began having nightmares of people trying to kick me into my car, bathrooms, etc while on my road trip.  I’m very good at standing up for other people’s rights but I hate making a stink about my own. 


I wanted a way to kindly and politely tell them to go pound sand.  I didn't want to engage or enrage them, I merely wanted to be left alone to feed my child in peace which is my legal right in both states.

I created the attached document here to print off and take with me.  It’s a trifold brochure on breastfeeding, my rights, and where people can get more information about breastfeeding.  I figure I’d rather educate the public than cower or confront.  I also don’t want to embarrass my family or my older son with a public standoff.  This way I can just hand whomever is trying to interfere a brochure, smile, and go back to whatever I was doing. 


If you would like to print this off for your own purposes, please feel free to do so.  I would be honored if someone needs one for their state.  I have a list of the laws ready for all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands.  Just leave me a comment and I can share it with you for your particular state.













About the Contributor: Anna is our newest contributor on Raising {&Teaching} Little Saints. She is a homeschooling mother of two who lives in Montana. She enjoys reading and spending time with her children, her "body guard" husband of ten years, and her pets.

Friday, September 28, 2012

GREAT Giveaway Two $25 Amazon Gift Cards & KidsEmail.com Subscription

YAY! IT’S A GIVEAWAY!

Raising {& Teaching} Little Saints has teamed up with DenSchool to giveaway one free year of service from KidsEmail.org AND a $25 Amazon Gift Card to TWO lucky winners! Good luck to all of the entrants.

Allowing kids to have an email is such a debatable subject.  We don't want them to have free access to all the junk that's out there and lets not forget all the horrible spam emails that come in to our own.  Have your kids asked you about having their own email account yet? Are you still telling them no? KidsEmail.org is a email monitoring service to keep your children's email account safe. With a variety of setting options, you can have emails sent to you for approval first and block certain content - even if it comes from a "trusted" contact!

 

 Stop by DenSchool to read their full review.

Disclaimer: Raising Little Saints was not compensated for participating in this giveaway. Raising Little Saints was not responsible for prize shipment/delivery.











Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Healing Autism Naturally by Becky Cash {A Book Review}

No parent ever likes to hear the news that their child has some type of syndrome or illness, the initial shock of it all makes it hard to focus on the important and to find the necessary means to make life just a little better for your child.  Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is just one of those symptoms that parents have to help their children work with all of their lives, and that is exactly what Catholic mom, Becky Cash has done since the diagnosis of her daughter. She has taken all the years of working with her beautiful girl through Autism and written a practical guide for all parents.

While I don't have a child with Autism myself, I have, as a Reading Specialist, helped children with Autism learn to read so I liked this great opportunity to review Becky's book and learn a little more about Austism.  This book is packet with information, practical advise from a mom who has lived through it, as well as lots of encouragement for those first time moms dealing with ASD.

The lay out that Becky selected for this book demonstrates her knowledge of the subject-matter, she carefully crafted a well organized approach to learning, managing and working with Autism and Spectrum Disorders.  The book was easy to follow and understand and her writing style was informative yet familiar; there was never a moment I thought the information was overbearing or boring; quit the opposite!
In this book you will find Nine Chapters:
  1. Our Story
  2. An Overview of Autism Spectrum Disorder
  3. How Traditional Medicine Handles ASD
  4. A Growing Body of Non-Traditional Approaches to ASD
  5. Supplementation
  6. ASD and Diet
  7. ASD and your Family
  8. How to Handle the System
  9. Conclusion
There is also a Preface and Introduction by Becky and in the back you will find helpful resources.  The Introduction was factual, full of information but short and to the point, which I thought was a great way to get to the information without loosing the reader.  I learned a lot from the section on Supplementation and Diet for my own children.  It was also a great eye-opener for me as a friend and teacher of children with ASD and their parents.  I wish I would have read this book when I taught elementary school and ASD, I would have put a copy in every parent's hand handling ASD in their family.
Book Description: Autism is a journey. It need not be a journey without direction. The sooner our children and loved ones get the services and treatments they need and deserve, the sooner they can get on the path to healing. In Healing Autism Naturally, Becky Cash helps parents and caregivers sort through the options and map out a course of action for both immediate and long-term results. Healing Autism Naturally also serves as a much-needed guide that members of the medical and professional community can use and hand to parents. No longer are a sympathetic look and a pat on the shoulder the only tools that can be used to help parents. Healing Autism Naturally provides the answers that can help a family navigate the journey and get their children and loved ones help, faster.
In addition to this wonderful book, Becky runs an organization named ASD Perspectives.  They offer nutritional consultations to families in the Autism Community.  They have a Facebook page which was created to give information to families, parents, professionals and others interested in bio-medical and nutritional approaches to ASD.  You can contact Becky directly for a Nutritional Coaching, Family Consulting and Complete Autism Family Assessment either on her FB page or her website.
You can order a copy of her book, Healing Autism Naturally on Amazon.

About the Author:
Becky Cash, along with her loving husband and their beautiful children, call Central Indiana home. After spending many years working with children and graduating from Bowling Green State University in Ohio, Becky began a career in Youth Ministry. In 2000, after the birth of their second child, Becky went home to raise her family. However, life did not slow down. The birth of their third child and the on-set of health issues led Becky into a career in nutrition and later, to the creation of ASDPerspectives, a consulting program for families living and healing from autism. Becky has studied and worked in nutrition for 8 years and feels strongly that no family should have to spend years finding solutions. There is hope for families diagnosed with autism. Becky consults and speaks with families accross the U.S. and abroad.


Monday, September 3, 2012

Blog Award to Receive and Give


I was awarded the Liebster Award by Maria @ Four Blessings Academy.  This is the Liebster Award (as near as I can figure out it is an "I love you/love your blog" award of coolness). It is given from one blogger to another and involves a number of random, cool things about them and you. If it is awarded to you, you have to post 7 random things about yourself, answer the 7 questions asked by the person who tagged you and tag 7 bloggers that you like and come up with 7 questions for them to answer. And it can only be awarded to blogs with less than 200 followers. It could also be just a fun game for the self promotion of small blogs--I'm okay with that!  Now I'm supposed to answer Maria's questions and then I'll award seven bloggers and they will do the same:

Seven Random Things About Me:
1)  I wasn't born in the United States, but I am a US citizen.  Although,  I do look Hispanic but for some reason when I am with my gringo DH, no one thinks I am Hispanic.

2)  I like cross-stitching, though it's been some time since I've engaged in it.  I might have to just teach my daughter to do it so I can get back into it again.  :)

3)  I love Sci-Fiction movies and HATE chick-flicks - gag!  (DH is really happy about this!)

4)  I am a reading specialist but as a teenager I hated reading.  :p

5)  I taught in Catholic, Charter, and Public Schools for 15 years before staying home with my kids and home educating them.

6)  I love lesson planning and grading - yes, I am a dork!

7)  I miss being a student, one day I would love to go back to school and get a PhD in curriculum planning.  (shhh...stop calling me a nerd!)


Seven Questions Asked by Maria @ Four Blessings Academy:
1) What's your favorite breakfast food?  Coffee.  Okay that's not technically food but I really love a cup of coffee in the morning.  I am not a breakfast food person but I guess I do love bagels with cream cheese or eggs, especially Huevos Racheros (a Mexican dish that is fried eggs with salsa on top served on a tortilla - yum!)

2) Do you prefer Italian, Mexican, Oriental, or another cuisine?  I don't like Italian.  I like Oriental.  Mexican is my favorite both to eat and cook (and I'm actually pretty good at it.  My pastor is of Mexican descent and when he came over for dinner I made him home-made Mexican and he loved it!  Total compliment!)  I do love me some Sushi though :p

3) Many people habitually sit in the same section every Sunday at church. We normally sit on the right side (facing the altar) & in the second row from the front. So, what is your seating preference...left or right; front, middle, or back?  We love second row on the right too!  Cute question.  It's really important with little ones to be close to the altar for them to see Father and pay attention.

4) In your opinion, what does 1 + 1 equal? (Think outside the box!)  1 + 1 = 7, in our family, so far.  Our love for one another has created more love - our five children, thus far (because we pray that the Lord blesses us with more babies! and NO we aren't crazy, just in love!)

5) Let's talk chocolate...Do you prefer dark, milk, or white?  Of course I like chocolate and my favorite is white because I like fatty chocolate but I don't eat it as much because of this reason...but it is my favorite...so DH likes dark, so we just buy milk as a compromise.  :)

6) What was your favorite school subject & why?  My favorite school subject to teach is Reading (hence why I got a Masters in it, lol).  My favorite school subjects to learn are Algebra & History.  I love the logic behind Algebra (note not all Math makes sense to me, lol) and History is just amazing without it we don't learn what our future will hold because we learn from the past.  Religion is my life so I don't add that as a subject ;)

7) Have you ever met anyone famous? If so, who?  I have, I met Christina (the Hispanic Talk Show Host) and Alexis Arguello (RIP), a Nicaraguan boxer.  But I'm not into glorifying famous people, never have been.


Now to nominate others (I wish I could do more than seven):
2)  Alisson @ Totus Tuus
5)  Birgit @ Designs by Birgit
6)  Kerri @ My Life's a Treasure
7) Catherine @ The Harvest is Abundant

Questions for you?  I'm going to copy the ones Maria asked me except for the last one, he he he.  :)  
1) What's your favorite breakfast food? 
2) Do you prefer Italian, Mexican, Oriental, or another cuisine?
3) Many people habitually sit in the same section every Sunday at church. So, what is your seating preference...left or right; front, middle, or back?
4) In your opinion, what does 1 + 1 equal? (Think outside the box!)
5) Let's talk chocolate...Do you prefer dark, milk, or white? 
6) What was your favorite school subject & why?  (both to teach and to learn)
7) Who is your favorite saint?  Why?