Tree of Life Mothering

Andrew Pudewa, my friend over at Institute for Excellence in Writing, is offering some free downloads on teaching writing. Here’s the deal, copied from the email I got (where it says to forward the email, just copy and paste this letter and forward to your friends):

If  I were starting out to find some resources on vaccine information that aren’t into scaring people, here’s where I would go:

• http://mothering.com/vaccines has excellent information, including an interview with a medical doctor
• http://nvic.org is a national nonprofit watchdog over vaccinations organization
• http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/six-reasons-to-say-no-to-vaccination/ is written by Sarah Pope, a blogger. She is definitely against vaccines. She is the daughter of an old-fashioned MD who made house calls. Sometimes she went with him. She has a perspective that is rare, one of seeing medical skill combined with a wisdom that relied on Grandma’s home remedies. She wrote a fabulous article about how to prevent and deal with childhood illnesses, you can read more about it here http://treeoflifemothering.ning.com/forum/topics/what-are-your-favorite-dr-mom
• http://www.greatergoodmovie.org/home is the link to the Greater Good, a documentary about vaccines that is balanced and not into scare tactics. It follows the stories of three families who were affected by vaccines without hysteria. It raises questions about vaccinations without giving you the answers. You can read my review of the movie here http://treeoflifemothering.ning.com/profiles/blogs/summary-of-the-greater-good-movie-you-will-want-to-watch-this-mov
• The Vaccine Book by Dr. Bob Sears M.D.  is a good starting point to show there are risks
• What Your Doctor Won’t Tell You About Vaccinations, written by Stephanie Cave M.D. is another great starting point
• The chapter on vaccines in the book, How to Raise a Healthy Child In Spite of Your Doctor, by Robert Mendelssohn, M.D. is very good.

 

Thomas Sowell (born June 30, 1930) is an American economist, social theorist, political philosopher, and author. A National Humanities Medal winner, he advocates laissez-faire economics and writes from a libertarian perspective. He is currently a Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University . Sowell was born in North Carolina , but grew up in Harlem , New York . He dropped out of high school, and served in the United States Marine Corps during the Korean War. He had received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University in 1958 and a master’s degree from Columbia University in 1959. In 1968, he earned his doctorate degree in economics from the University of Chicago . Dr. Sowell has served on the faculties of several universities, including Cornell and University of California , Los Angeles , and worked for “think tanks” such as the Urban Institute. Since 1980 he has worked at the Hoover Institution. He is the author of more than 30 books.

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The following is written by Dr. Sowell, and I quote>

“The current Occupy Wall Street movement is the best illustration to date of what President Barack Obama’s America looks like. It is an America where the lawless, unaccomplished, ignorant and incompetent rule. It is an America where those who have sacrificed nothing pillage and destroy the lives of those who have sacrificed greatly.

“It is an America where history is rewritten to honor dictators, murderers and thieves. It is an America where violence, racism, hatred, class warfare and murder are all promoted as acceptable means of overturning the American civil society.

“It is an America where humans have been degraded to the level of animals: defecating in public, having sex in public, devoid of basic hygiene. It is an America where the basic tenets of a civil society, including faith, family, a free press and individual rights, have been rejected. It is an America where our founding documents have been shredded and, with them, every person’s guaranteed liberties.

“It is an America where, ultimately, great suffering will come to the American people, but the rulers like Obama, Michelle Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan, liberal college professors, union bosses and other loyal liberal/Communist Party members will live in opulent splendor.

“It is the America that Obama and the Democratic Party have created with the willing assistance of the American media, Hollywood , unions, universities, the Communist Party of America , the Black Panthers and numerous anti-American foreign entities.

“Barack Obama has brought more destruction upon this country in four years than any other event in the history of our nation, but it is just the beginning of what he and his comrades are capable of.

“The Occupy Wall Street movement is just another step in their plan for the annihilation of America .

“Socialism, in general, has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.””

 

Thomas Sowell

One of my favorite authors, LDS mom Shannon Hale, is having a birthday today. I absolutely adore her books Goose Girl and Princess Academy. I’ve read Austenland too but think that one is more brain candy than a classic read. We listened to the former on CD on a family trip to Lake Tahoe five summers ago. It made the trip so memorable. I read Princess Academy about six years ago. It is the best girl book around! So powerful! So if you are looking for a good read, get one of her books today! I took this photo at the Treehouse Museum, where they have a life sized poster of her inside a display case with her books. I snapped it on my birthday. Right now she’s just a Facebook friend, but someday I want to meet her. She is living proof that you can achieve your dreams! Read her blog here http://squeetus.com

I am copying this from the http://healthyhomeeconomist.com site. It is so sad! The following words are written by Sarah Pope, the blogger at the link above.

If you’ve ever doubted whether many pediatricians are really just drug reps wearing white coats, you won’t anymore after reading this story.

Baby Stacy and her twin sister Lesly were born one month premature by C-Section.  Stacy needed to be resuscitated after birth and she and her sister spent four days in an incubator.

Stacy’s parents, who live in Belgium, decided to follow the advice of their doctor in December 2011 and have the babies vaccinated at 8 weeks old.  Both babies were living at home by that time and were doing well.

On the day of the vaccinations, Stacy had a cold and was not feeling well.   Stacy’s parents were told not to worry and that vaccinating a sick child would be safe.  There is also a history of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and allergies in the family, but it is not clear whether the doctor even bothered to ask about this.

Shockingly, both twins received Rotarix, a shot to prevent severe gastroenteritis, Prevnar, a dual vaccination for meningitis and pneumonia, as well as Infanrix Hexa, a SIX IN ONE jab containing diptheria, tentanus, polio, pertussis, hep B, and Haemophilus type B – all in a single day!

Stacy became unwell one week after receiving these shots with a fever of 103.8F.  The parents decided to reduce the fever with Perdolan.   As Stacy continued to not do well, the parents took her to the hospital.

At the hospital, Stacy was diagnosed with a blood and chest infection but her parents were told it was not serious.   Stacy was given medication and put on a drip feed and remained in the hospital for observation.

Stacy’s father was told that the vaccines had nothing to do with Stacy’s illness and all attempts to link the two events were strongly denied.

The pediatrician told Stacy’s parents that she was fine and probably just suffering from gastroenteritis, which she was already vaccinated against.’ 

(read the rest here http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/preemie-dies-after-9-vax-in-one-day/

Just got this today from one of my favorite homeschooling mentors, Mary Ann Johnson. She is presenting tomorrow in Bountiful. Come and learn a ton about how to have a better homeschool day! Go to http://treeoflifemothering.ning.com/profiles/blogs/have-your-kids-beg-to-do-school

Here’s what I copied from her email:

 

 

 

majcoach@gmail.com

Here is the link for our discussion today:

 http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/731553-headgates-discussion

We are starting at 2 PM Mountain Time. We are discussing the articles called “The Headgate” and “Parenting” by Keri Tibbetts. We will end at 4 PM.

Last Tuesday night I went and heard one of my favorite presenters, Mary Ann Johnson at my friend Amy Ihrig’s home. Mary Ann is the Home School Coach. She has a super fun blog here http://home-school-coach.com/. She was so inspiring. If you missed her, never fear, you can still catch her, 

 in person here:

Thursday Jan. 26, 2012

Bountiful Height’s Church

390 North 400 East

Bountiful UT

Call Anne at 801.499.9124 for more information and to register. This is a FREE event.

or you can listen to a recording she did here http://www.tjedmarketplace.com/forums/slc/2011/adult-forum/closet-part-nuts-bolts-putting-closet

When I first started homeschooling 13 years ago I didn’t know what I was doing and I had our educational materials out all the time. I later learned that was a big mistake.  The kids got bored of them quickly and the littler ones would get into them. When I moved to Layton UT I got a closet in my new home to put all my stuff in. I also locked it.  Later I learned that “the closet” is actually an ingredient in a home that focuses on a classical education, and I was doing the right things by corraling our homeschool materials into a closet and locking it. I was excited to find that Jo used a closet in the story of Little Men, or was it Jo’s Boys, for Sunday afternoons. Right now I have a box of old Friend magazines for our Sunday closet but sometime I will make it into something more official.

I learned from Mary Ann the Five Rules of Engagement for the closet. They have made it so that my kids beg to have school time!

You can get the 5 Rules by coming to the workshop above or by going Mary Ann’s site http://home-school-coach.com/ and entering in your name and email on the right hand side for her free article.

Saturday January 14 was a great day for the Freedom Bowl, sponsored by http://ayli.org, and http://rootsoffreedom.org.  I get positively giddy about competitions like this. It’s my inner nerd. I just love academic competitions!  I am so thrilled that my kids have picked it up. These kids had to answer questions about the founding of our nation and the Declaration of Independence. My son won in his age division, the juniors,ages 12-13. I am soooo happy about that!  Now he gets to go to AYLI’s Simulations Week for free in June! Here they are in all their glory.

My daughter has won first place for three years in a row  (twice in seniors and once in juniors) and my oldest child, a son, has won first place three times, I think, and second place once. They both have moved on to bigger and better things, now that they are 16 and 18, and doing Williamsburg Academy (http://wacademy.org) and college (http://gw.edu).

Here’s the third place team, also from Davis County. We were well represented, with four teams there and three teams that placed, two in the junior’s division and one in the senior’s.  I missed the pictures of the second place junior team.

The champions in the senior division was the team that my two older kids beat last year and the year before. They came back and won this year and are all 18 now and so this was their last year. Some of them were on my son’s team the first year he competed and won with him.