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Month: September 2010

Cyndi's Bread ~ help?

Just a quick plea for help…

Has anyone had much success with the bread recipe in Cyndi O’Meara’s book Changing Habit’s, Changing Lives? I used to make it a few years ago but stopped making it. I’ve made up the Super Mix again and have tried a few loaves but they’ve been to moist. I do remember that years ago I modified the recipe but with 3 different houses in between that time I can’t find my modified recipe.

If you make this bread and have success with it, please let me know.

Bread has become a tool for medicating the population.
~Cyndi O’Meara

Cyndi’s Bread

1 1/3 cups water
2 1⁄4 cups of flour
1 cup Super mix (see below)
2 Tbs sugar (I like to use raw)
1 1⁄2 tsp salt
1 tsp yeast
1 Tbsp oil
Bake on a large whole grain setting, about 4 hours. Cool on a wire rack, covered in a clean tea towel.

Cyndi’s Super Mix
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup sesame seeds
1 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup maize flour (or polenta)
1 cup of almond meal (I often substitute LSA mix)
1 cup soy flour (this acts as the bread improver)

You can vary these with other flours such as:

quinoa (rolled or flour) amaranth (puffed or flour) millet flour, rye flour.
1 cup linseeds
1 cup pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
1 cup besan flour (chickpea)
spelt flour, barley flour, lentil flour

Monday Meanderings

I’d like to share some links of my meanderings around the Internet this past week.

Some ask why more families don’t follow this Formula. Most parents are uncomfortable with the unconventional ideas. They teach as they were taught, unaware that such methods are responsible for many of today’s school problems. So they pay heavily for books which tie them, and their children down and burn them out.

There are several enemies of reading in the lives of boys. The educational system is largely feminized, and boys are often not challenged. We must remember that boys have always been boys, as the saying goes. There is nothing in the constitutional makeup of boys that is opposed to reading. Generations of boys grew to love books and lost themselves in stories, adventures, historical biographies, and the like.

Back to basics homeschooling

back to basic homeschool image

I’m so glad that I’m not beginning the homeschool adventure now. When I started it was a tad lonely. All networking (if it could be called that) was done via word-of-mouth and (gasp!) old fashioned letter writing and monthly newsletters! I remember fondly hearing of a family in Adelaide who homeschooled… so I hunted them down. 🙂 The family didn’t mind at all as they also liked getting together with other’s to talk about home education. Can you imagine my delight when I found out that this family also had a homeschool supply business, mainly supplying good living books? Oh my! I was in heaven.

Back then, there wasn’t a load of information available. Various families would share all the scraps of information they had. Homeschooling books would be mailed all over the country, from one family to another as they were simply hard to come by. I was part of a family based newsletter. Once a year it was our turn to write the newsletter – describing activities we had participated in and resources we were using and good books and finds throughout that year. I printed about 34 copies of the newsletter and sent them to each family on the mailing list. It was such a delight to receive a family newsletter once a month. I would eagerly tear open the envelope and sit outside in the sun with a fresh, hot cuppa to devour the newsletter. Now many of you may laugh at how primitive it all may seem but there were some advantages to this simple, basic style of homeschooling.

I didn’t know a lot about ‘learning styles‘. I didn’t know much about scope and sequences or anything else. I had a few workbooks. Ewww yuck! But before you exit the page let me tell you what was so good about those days.

Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.
You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.
You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.
You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
DEUTERONOMY 6:4-9

Not having multiple resources for each topic within a subject meant that I had to use whatever was available to me- regardless of if it suited our learning style, teaching style or even our beliefs! I had to make do. I had to get between the resource and the child. In other words, I learned to naturally adapt the material while teaching each child. I didn’t need to read a book or do a course on learning styles. By interacting with my child I naturally learned how they learned best. It was truly a natural process.

One child preferred a just-the-facts-ma’am style book while another preferred living books. One child narrated back easily while the other struggled. As a parent who is concerned for her children I simply naturally addressed those needs. I was very aware of those needs because of the close, one-on-one interaction I had with each child.

Many teachers in a school setting don’t get to choose their materials and even when they do, they still must use the curriculum as a tool, as they cater to a wide variety of learning styles. I believe that attitude, motivation and teaching the child how to be a self directed and lifelong learner is much more important than learning styles and finding the perfect curriculum or resource.

One thing I taught my children early on is to have an “I Can”, “I Will”, “I Ought” motto. I don’t want to hear any excuses like, ‘it’s too hard’ or ‘can’t I use another resource?’. Adaptability, diligence, perseverance, self control, thankfulness and hard work are just a few character traits that can be learned throughout the process of tending to lessons.

I have learned that my children will do just fine without the latest curriculum or program. They can still thrive even though I’m a far-from-perfect mother… so long as I am *with them*- sharing my life with them. Want more reading on this? Read the article series by Robin Sampson.

Back then, we didn’t ‘do’ homeschooling. We simply learned things together. Homeschooling is a natural extension (continuation) of parenting.

I had very few homeschooling resources. I had less distractions.

Now, I have far too many resources. And many, too many distractions.

I’m quite glad that I’m not a homeschool newbie. It all looks too overwhelming for me.

Healthy in spirit but un…

C’mon now ladies, tell me I’m not alone here. Can anyone relate to this?

Last week I was studying health and nutrition, which is a passion of mine. (Application of learned knowledge is another story) I was up to my eyeballs in health/nutrition information… so immersed in the topic that I didn’t quite get around to cooking tea… so we had pizza that night! Of course, what goes with pizza like a hand to glove?

Coca Cola of course!

There, just in case you were beginning to think I was doing a good job of being healthy. 🙂

I'm baacckkkk

New mercies

My blogging sabbatical started by choice but it ended up being enforced, by illness. I’ve had a flu for 4 weeks and even though I am still not better I am on the mend and starting to resume to my normal duties. Four weeks ago I started getting sick but I didn’t take the rest: I had things to do, places to go, people to see. I got sicker. Every weekend I’d just start to feel better and within a day I’d get sick again but with slightly different symptoms. The flu symptoms moved from my head to the chest to the throat to the sinuses. I don’t recall ever being that ill with the flu.

Our family has been under stress for a few years now. The stress peaks and flows depending upon life and family circumstances but has increasingly peaked over the last few years. I believe that this stress has contributed to the lowering of our immune system, which is why we have gotten so sick and why we’re having such troubles recovering from it. However I have been proactive in trying to recover and build our strength. We’re juicing fresh fruit and vegetables, trying to eat healthier food and be more regular with taking our supplements. We will get better… it’s just a matter of time.

The next two months aren’t likely to be easy for our family as we continue to build strength but John also goes away for the month of October. He’s been working very long hours (14 hour days) at work, even though he too is recovering from the flu. Suffice to say that we are really looking forward to Christmas holidays!

Thank you

I want to thank each of you who prayed for me and for our family. Thank You! Despite the heaviness of the sickness I know that God is in control of our lives. Thank you also to those two lovely ladies who phoned me, just to say hi and to pray with me. You both know who you are but what you don’t know is how much your calls meant to me. They came at a time when I was feeling quite low in spirit. I was sick of being sick and feeling a bit lonely. Those phone calls, enquiring after me and praying with me really lifted my spirits. Thank you for reaching out to me. We started out as online friends but we know that we are more than that for we are Sisters in Christ.

I’m back to writing! I have missed it. I have so many things I’d like to share but as I’ve often found, when I have time, I have nothing much to say. When I have something to say, I lack time to write. Ah, what a quandary! Four weeks of being sick, watching tv, reading snippets of books and lots of time to think has meant that my mind is bouncing like the ball in a pinball machine. However I really must get my home back in order. Surely you can imagine what four weeks of Mumma being ill will do to a place, regardless of how great and helpful the children are! It is enough to say that I need to spend some focussed energy and time on the house and laundry.

Looking forward to re-joining the blogosphere!