Healthy Work at Home Tips For Homeschooling Families

“Many curriculum companies recommend Usborne books as part of their core curriculum, others as resource, but there is no home that will not benefit from having an Usborne Library available for reports, projects, and spare time learning and fun.”

If you are not yet familiar with Usborne Books, then y0u are in for a treat . In 1973, Peter Usborne decided that educational, nonfiction books would need to change in order to compete with TV and comics. He borrowed some ideas from these two media and hired educational consultants to oversee the writing to make sure that the books would satisfy the child’s interest but also arouse it. So began the idea of Usborne Books.

Some of Usborne’s great series include:

• Farmyard Tales - For preschool and early elementary age children
• Make Reading Fun! - Usborne’s answer to a phonics-based reading program. It is a four module series that is an outstanding value. Each module contains 3 books, 3 unique CD-ROMs, interactive exercises, informative videos (on CD-ROMs) and more. You can buy the whole set or individual modules.

Usborne was also the first company to introduce an Internet-linked book. An Internet-linked book is a book that contains Usborne-recommended, relevant Web sites, specially chosen by our editors land Web researchers, to take the reader further into the subject, adding new dimensions of information and entertainment. As web sites change from time to time, the sites recommended in the book will be reviewed regularly.

Usborne Books also puts out 8 different thematic curriculums, entitled Ten Terrific Weeks. You can purchase just the curriculum, which covers Ten weeks of activities, 5 days per week, for a particular topic such as “Space”. There is also the option to acquire the full set which includes the curriculum plus a set of books that goes with it. This is an amazing tool for home schoolers or for parents who want to work on a learning module over summer vacation.

When you purchase Usborne Books online, look for the “Internet Specials” on the right hand side of the homepage. These specials are often 40%-70% off the regular retail price. In addition, if you end up purchasing $85 worth of books online, you will automatically be given $15 in FREE books. You can also earn FREE books by hosting an e-show.

An e-show is just like a gathering of friends in your home, to look at and buy books, but instead of your home the gathering is on the computer. You receive the benefits of hosting a live show, yet you don’t have to prepare food or get a babysitter. Just go to kidsmountainbooks.com. On the lower right-hand side of the homepage there will be a link that says “host an e-show”. Just click on that follow the instruction. It’s helpful the have a list of all the friends and family that you would like to “invite” to you show. Once you fill out your information and invitation will be generated that you then send to your contact asking them to visit the link. Any books that are purchased are credited to you. When your show ends you will receive an email telling you how much money in free books you have accumulated. Don’t forget your original password. You will need it to claim your free books.

This is a great way to share these amazing books with others and also acquire FREE books for your family. It’s easy and takes only about 5-10 minutes of your time.

If you’d prefer just to visit the online site and shop, you can do that as well. There is an e-show going on as we speak. Just click on this link and you’ll be there.

www.ubah.com/HOS109112

This show will be open until March 15th.

UBAH MISSION STATEMENT:

“The future of our world depends on the education of our
children. UBAH delivers educational excellence one book
at a time. We provide economic opportunity while fostering
strong family values. We touch the lives of children for a lifetime.”

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This is part  four of a multi-part series on nutrition. If you missed the other parts, click back through the archives and read them. There are some really useful tips from a credentialed nutritionist and some lines to keep you laughing, as well.

The question for today is one that has come up in agriculture and organic food publications. Are we getting the same amount of nutrients from our food that we used to get?  I recently heard a story that  a study was done comparing the nutrients in a peach from 1955 (have they been saving it since then?) to a grocery store peach from 2007. The study indicated that you’d have to eat 50, 2007 peaches to equal the nutrient value in 1 1955 peach.

So is that story true? Who knows?  But what is known is that the big business of agriculture has moved far away from the ancient and well-proven system of rotating crops and allowing soil to regenerate. Instead, today’s conventional soil is almost dead and our crops grow in a mixture of petroleum based fertilizers and pesticides. It’s hard to imagine that our peach or our corn grown in that manner has the nutrients of a peach or an ear of corn grown in rich non-depleted soil.

The question that naturally follows this line of thinking is, “so how do we get the nutrients we need?”  As Jen Laemmel mentioned in the previous post, choosing organic food it a first good step. Growing your own vegies as much as possible is another great option. There is a growing movement of local farmers and people supporting them with a goal of trying to eat food that is grown as close to home as possible. An apple picked two days ago is far superior to one grown in Chile and picked four weeks ago, in terms of taste and nutritional value. If you attempt to eat foods that are in season, you are more likely to find locally grown foods. When you buy from local farmers, even those who do not grow organically, you are still eating foods that are better for you than those grown on huge agri-industrial farms.

There is a place for supplements in todays diet, yet most of the pills that we wash down end up exiting our bodies in our urine. When looking at supplements, vitamins, minerals and herbs; look for liquids and those made from whole foods rather than synthetics. Companies like Shaklee have been delivering whole food vitamins for over 30 years. Then there are the new wave of scientifically formulated nutritional beverages. You have to do your research, as many are full of sugar. Yet there are some that are absolutely wonderful. They have true scientific backing and are not just a fancied up version of sweet fruit juice. I mentioned one of my favorites in the second nutrition post.  It’s called Monavie. There is a link to more information in the sidebar.

There is also a brand new product that is based on an ancient Ayurvedic formulation. Ayurveda is a type of medical healing that has been practiced in India for thousands of years. This product is endorsed by the Chopra Center for Well-Being, which is an internationally renowned alternative health facility in Californial. The combination of the amalaki berry and 6 other rejuvenating and detoxifying herbs, make Zrii a very unique product in the health beverage market. If you’d like to learn more, click here to be redirected to an informative alternative wellness website.  Since the benefits complement each other, I have personally begun drinking Zrii regularly in addition to my Monavie, which I’ve drank for almost a year now. This has been my healthiest year by far, in over a decade.

The article below was written by Jen Laemmel, a holistic nutrition and wellness coach. She available for consultation by phone and can help you with your nutritional needs anywhere in the country. Her contact information is at the bottom of the post.

Hello, my name is Jen Laemmel. I’m a Mom of an almost 6 year old daughter, a wife, I run three businesses and am in the throws of starting another (business that is.) I mostly work out of my home and wow is it ever a busy life. My expertise is in nutrition and I am constantly trying my hardest to practice what I preach! I have found myself famished in the afternoons and realize that I forgot to feed myself. I was so busy making breakfast, packing lunch for my daughter, cleaning up and heading right up to my office that I forgot to eat. Isn’t breakfast the most important meal of the day? That sure is what I was taught and what I tell my clients. So, I’m turning over a new leaf and it truly is making a difference in my days and my life. I would like to share with you some of the very basics of what we all need nutritionally as well as some of the tricks I have come up with to actually meet those needs.

We all know eating well is so important and that we will be much happier and healthier if we make better dietary choices. Unfortunately, we all have that “busy” thing in common and it oftentimes gets in the way. So, I propose that we all pay attention to a few things at a time, such as making sure we ALWAYS eat breakfast, steer clear of those simple carbohydrate kid snacks, add some healthy fat to our meals, take out the trans fats (aka partially hydrogenated oils), try eating three healthy meals a day with good snacks in between, stretch and meditate for 10 - 20 minutes each day, stop eating 2 hours before bedtime, get plenty of sleep, drink more water, eat 80% organic, eat less red meat, exercise at least 3 times a week, and so on. I have found it best to only pick a few things to start with. Do it for a month. Really FEEL the difference it makes and then gradually add a few more good-for-you things as time goes on.

Although all of us are unique, our basic dietary needs are similar. Seven to ten servings of fruits and vegetables is a great number to follow. Focus on a variety of colors and various cooking methods. Fresh raw and lightly steamed vegetables are best with fresh frozen next and canned last. I also strongly recommend organic due to the higher nutrient content in these foods amongst many other reasons. We also all need whole grains in our diet. My rule of thumb is to buy bread that has been the least amount processed and has the smallest ingredient list. Stone ground and whole grain bread and pasta are wonderful once you get used to them and so much better for you! Choose brown rice over white rice as often as possible with white rice as an occasional treat. We need around the same amount of servings of grains as we do of vegetables and fruits per day. Dairy and protein requirements are about 2-3 servings per day. I would suggest lean means, nuts and legumes for your protein requirement and organic dairy or dairy alternatives. Good fats (essential fatty acids) are very important as well. Don’t be afraid of fats, especially the healthy ones like olive oil, flax seed oil and avocados.

So how on earth do you cram all of those foods in during the day? Well, first of all it doesn’t leave much room for the bad-for-us snacks does it? I always make a giant salad each night so there is enough left over for myself and my husband to take to work the next day. I put them in separate containers so they are ready to go. I also always have a big bowl of fresh fruit on my counter. If I have time when I get home from grocery shopping I pull the stickers off the fruit and wash them before putting them in the bowl. Anything to make it easier to grab and go, right? Before I leave the house I try to pack a bag of healthy snacks for my daughter AND myself. I also pack water bottles for us. This is key to keep from grabbing quick non-healthy items from the convenience store. We all deserve to treat ourselves well and be healthy. We all deserve to take time out for us. We all deserve to feel good and enjoy a long quality life! With just a few changes, you can truly notice a difference in your wellbeing!

Jen Laemmel, BS. MS. is a holistic nutrition and wellness coach.
She lives at almost ten thousand feet in the Colorado mountain town, Crested Butte. She lives there with her husband and daughter and together they enjoy a life of recreating, hard work and peace. Jen gained her passion for nutrition several years ago when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. This journey with her mom made her more and more aware of how important diet and wellness are. She received her bachelor of science in food science, human nutrition and dietetics. She recently completed her master in holistic nutrition and is currently undergoing a PHD. program in philosophy of nutrition. She recognizes how important continued education is, especially in an everchanging field like nutrition. Education is also the main focus of her practice. By giving people the information and clearing up the confusion, clients are able to use these tools to make better decisions for themselves. Her practice also focuses on the positive. So many times, people worry about what they should NOT do, what they should NOT say, what they should NOT eat. Let’s focus on what we do well and what we can do and good things will come our way. So working with Jen will be positive, exciting, new, and a bit oovy groovy, but it will also be scientific and will provide the most current information available. Contact us today and get started on your path to wellness!

contact Twist Nutrition by clicking here

If you’ve been enjoying the posts on nutrition, never fear…they will continue. This is just a quick post to inform you about a video on Youtube that you might find interesting. I’ve put one segment of it onto this post. The other two segments can be found on by going to Youtube.com and searching for “moms making millions” .

If you’ve ever been to Europe you may have noticed that the European’s relationship with food is very different than ours is here in the US.  Here, food is often whatever we can throw in our mouths easily while also doing something else.  In other countries food is about nourishment of both the body and the soul. Meals are prepared, tables are set and people eat sitting down (at a table, not in the car).  The eating of food in old world cultures is about more than just calories, it’s about social connection and taking time to honor oneself and be thankful for the bounty on the table.

When you think about it that way, our quick dash through the drive-thru or the toaster tarts we eat standing up for breakfast, begin to appear rather obscene. In keeping with the theme of good nutrition for busy moms,  how do we keep all of our balls in the air and also change our relationship with food?  To begin I think we need to change our belief system. You are worthy of a sit-down lunch. Many months ago I wrote a post about taking care of yourself. One of the ways to do that is to honor yourself with a real meal and time to eat it.

It may be a meal by yourself while your kids are outside or working on their schooling, or it may be one where you all sit down together. People are becoming more interested again in creating time for family dinners, I’m also talking about breakfast and lunch. Think of the message you are giving your children if they see you making the effort to cook a nice meal for yourself and then sit down and eat it without doing anything else at the same time. Isn’t that the way you want them to treat themselves when they grow up? As I’ve written before, modeling a type of behavior is the best teacher.

So start small tomorrow. Decide which meal it will be. Pick a menu. Have the kids help you cook. Arrange your business appointments with a block of time set aside for a meal. Use glass dishes and put flowers on the table. Chew your food and savor the flavor. You’ll realize that the extra 1/2 hour you just spent gives more to your day and to your life, than it takes away.

Even with the best intentions it’s often hard to get all the nutrients that we need. Watch this blog for an upcoming post by a Master’s Degree level nutritionist. She is will be writing an article about how to choose healthy foods and cover all your nutritional bases. In the meantime, there is a vast amount of evidence that shows the necessity of at least 7 servings of high quality fruit per day. High quality means fruit that is grown organically or wild, and in non-depleted soil. The fact is that this is not the fruit we purchase at the grocery store. Our supermarket fruit has often sat in trucks and warehouses for weeks before ending up in our homes. It is often grown with large amounts of pesticides, in soil that has not had a chance to regenerate in many years. There is a product that I drink every  day that solves this problem. Just 2 ounces twice per day gives me the equivalent of 7 servings of wholesome/organic fruit in terms of antioxidants and phytonutrients. I really love this juice. If I skip it for a few days I can feel my energy level dropping. The product is called Monavie. Here is a link to read more about it. You can also purchase it directly from the company, on this website if you would like to try it. Click here to learn more.

OK, be honest here…how many of you eat the bread crusts your children leave behind and call it lunch? Or what about the half eaten apple, or the very bottom part of the banana? I have a friend who makes beautiful box meals for her kids when they are away from home for lunch but she is lucky if she remembers to throw some almonds in her pocket when she is running out the door. At least it’s almonds and not M & M’s!!

Let’s look at the difficulties involved with eating nutritiously as a busy mom. Personally, I’m not a food lover so if I am really busy, feeding myself is the first thing I “forget”. I also have a child who likes to eat constantly. I figure that if I nibble on her small left-overs, that should be enough to hold me until dinner. Thank goodness my husband likes to cook, and likes to eat meals as well. No corn flakes and milk for his dinner. So every night he cooks us a nice meal and we all sit down and eat together. Family time and nutrition in one easy package.

I do not feel I am alone in this manner of eating. When we have a ladies night out, we often share stories about nibbling on the lunch box remnants in the car on the way home. Are we really that self-sacrificing that we cannot take time to nourish our bodies? Work at home moms are especially prone to this problem since we are often don’t spend much time with other adults. If you work in an office, at lunch time most people eat. They either go out, or sit together and enjoy the meal they brought from home. Lunch at the office is both nourishing and social. Office people also take coffee breaks. Even though excess caffeine consumption can be a concern, these breaks are primarily about snacks and socializing.

At home most of us do not do this. We are so focused on our children, our home schooling (if we are doing that), our home business and all the other responsibilities of caring for a family that we often do not create a schedule that includes breaks for ourselves specifically designed for eating.

So what’s a mother to do? Stay tuned to the next few post and learn some nutrition basics, some time savers and some healthy eating tricks. By the time this nutrition series is done, hopefully we will all be taking better care of our bodies and our health.

It does not matter if it’s in the kitchen or the office; there appears to be a difference in the way that men and women handle multiple tasks. No offense to all you dads out there reading my blog, but I believe that most women feel that we do it better. (Please dads keep reading…I have good things to say about you as well).

Recent psychological studies have looked at this perceived difference.

A study by Dr. Glenn Wilson (2005) was performed for Hewlett Packard to explore the productivity of multitasking. What he discovered is astonishing. The average worker’s functioning IQ, a temporary qualitative state, drops 10 points when multitasking. That is more than double the four point drop that occurs when someone smokes marijuana.

Interestingly, the functioning IQ drop was more significant in men participating in the multitasking study by Wilson. This brings us to the controversial debate over if there are differences between genders in their abilities to multitask.

Below are some excerpts from a study performed at Missouri Western State University in 2006. The results are summarized in the abstract and the brief discussion below. They make for some interesting thoughts which I will share with you.

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN MULTITASKING
BRANDY R. CRISS
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY
Missouri Western State University

So what does this mean? In my life as a mom with a home business and a child that I’m homeschooling, I find that I am more likely to multi-task than my husband. I often play with my daughter, make lunch and answer the phone all at the same time. My husband finds that he has trouble focusing on making dinner unless our daughter is occupying herself. Most moms I know can get the whole family out the door to go skiing and arrive at the destination on time with everyone’s ski gear, warm clothes plus assorted snacks. Most of the dads I know would choose to live in Florida if they had to do that.

Moms tend to multi-task because they have to. Since they don’t often have the opportunity to do just one thing at a time, they have learned how to do many. The downside is that men seem to be more able to screen out other needs and distractions and truly focus on a task. As the research stated, their productivity is just a good as women’s. I think in some ways men might ultimately be more efficient since their focus is more directed. Then again, women might have the capacity for the same level of efficiency (or even greater?!) when they have the opportunity to focus uninterrupted.

When you work home, whether you are male of female, it is important to clear space when you can concentrate on your tasks for the day without distractions. Especially when you need to make business phone calls, or do any kind of writing or analysis, having clarity of thought allows you to be more professional and proficient.

In terms of overall brain functioning, there are a number of herbs and fruits which appear to help. Ginko Bilboa is one. Another is a relatively unknown (in the western world) Chinese fruit called schizandra, which is stated to be a superior “brain tonic”; and mental function enhancer.

Schizandra develops the primary energies of life, and generates vitality and radiant beauty when used regularly for some time. If used for 100 days successively, Schizandra is said to purify the blood, sharpen the mind, improve memory, rejuvenate the Kidney energy (especially the sexual functions in both men and women), and cause the skin to become radiantly beautiful.

Schizandra can be found in the new liquid Ayurvedic formulation called Zrii. You can read more about this Ayurvedic drink and it’s nutritional benefits by clicking here.

Whether you are multi-tasking or singularly focused working at home with the addition of homeschooling takes its toll on the best of brains. Remember to take time for self-care. That means good nutrition, exercise, sleep and fun.

I know there are some regular readers out there. If you like what you’ve been reading on this blog and would like to share it with people who may not spend time reading things on the computer, there is a solution. I have put an ebook on ebay which is basically a compilation of all the posts in the blog with some minor changes. It is called Notes From a Work At Home Mom. Who knows, maybe another mom or dad you know might appreciate it as a gift. (Just go to ebay and put “notes from a work at home mom” into the search bar).