Thursday, August 28, 2014

Changing Facial Growth by Changing Oral Posture

The following is a guest post by Brian Hockel, DDS. After I wrote my post about Alternatives to Conventional Braces, Brian contacted me to inform me about an orthodontic method called Orthotropics®. Because Orthotropics® is so relevant to the topic of using orthodontics to encourage facial growth, I asked Brian to write a guest post about it.

When the facial growth of a child is not keeping up with the genetic potential, both jaws tend to be down and back from their ideal positions in the face. The appearance and the airway function are both affected. This isn't really caused by genetic factors so much as by environmental factors - specifically the posture of the mouth when at rest. Normal mouth posture is: lips together, teeth together in or near light contact, and the tongue firmly against the palate from front to back. When this optimal posture is present, the face will grow forward horizontally, as opposed to downward vertically. What's more, the airway will be more open, the teeth will be straight, and the teeth will have plenty of room! Historically, the problems of too much vertical growth, insufficient room for all 32 teeth (even the wisdom teeth), and the small airways which are prone to sleep apnea are ALL more recent developments. Before the Industrial Revolution, these problems were mainly limited to the aristocratic classes whose food was more refined and cooked. It is also thought that the move away from on-demand breast-feeding and the use of mushy baby food, bottles and pacifiers also contribute to the development of poor oral posture and muscle tone.



This is where Orthotropics® comes in. The goal of Orthotropics® is both to improve oral posture and function, and to convert adverse vertical growth of the face into optimal horizontal growth. This is good for appearance, good for the jaw joints, and especially good for the airway. John Remmers, MD, the sleep specialist who coined the term, "Obstructive Sleep Apnea" (OSA) said that it is a structural disease, and that if the jaws grew to their proper position in the face we would not have the disease. There's lots of other science to support this.

Appliances used for Orthotropics® (either the Biobloc or the Adapt-LRG) are very different from pre-formed or custom Functional Orthodontic Appliances. The Functional Appliances attach the lower jaw to the upper in the often misguided hopes that the lower jaw will move forward.This would include all appliances, pre-formed or custom-made, which bring the lower jaw forward by means of connecting together the upper and lower teeth/jaws, allowing a "head-gear," or pulling backward, effect on the upper teeth/jaw. This isn't to say that Functional Appliances appliances won't work to straighten teeth. They can actually do that very well. But the cost of straight teeth using these appliances is often an adverse reciprocal effect of pulling back on the upper jaw and teeth. And the result of such movement can be a risk to the airway - a risk that many doctors refuse to take. Research and experience both show that these appliances risk pulling the upper jaw even further back from its (most likely) already-too-far-back position. This only compounds the original problem, and does not address either the underlying cause of the adverse growth (rest oral posture) nor the resulting structural damage. If the lower jaw comes forward with Functional Appliances, it is a minimal amount, and the upper is sadly pulled back in a way that ultimately limits the potential for forward movement of the lower jaw - even if these appliances would bring it forward. In contrast, Orthotropics® treatment brings both jaws forward when the child fully cooperates.

Orthotropics® treatment uses the appliances as only a part of the overall treatment regimen. Remember, the goals of Orthotropics® are twofold: modify the skeletal structure AND optimize the oral posture. Accomplishing these goals encompasses much more than simply a discussion of the appliances.

Orthotropics® is among the most difficult treatment options because it requires serious cooperation on the part of the child. It's also a challenge for the parents. I know, having done it for seven of my eleven kids. For example, the child must wear an appliance that guides his jaw into a correct position, without forcing him or her to do so. It is by voluntary formation of a habit that the child learns to hold the closed-mouth posture. Except for eating, brushing, most sports, and singing, the teeth should stay in contact. Even while speaking, the habit of keeping the teeth together must be formed. So it's not going to ever catch on as the "next greatest thing," especially when the motivation of many practitioners is to minimize necessary doctor time.

Even still, thanks to the teaching efforts of Dr. Bill Hang (www.facefocused.com), Orthotropics® has not, and hopefully will not, die out. Dr. John Mew of England is the originator of the principles and the practice of Orthotropics®. He and his son Mike teach the technique in London and around the world, and Mike has put together the website www.orthotropics.com. Almost everyone you see in the North American map of practitioners on the website for our North American group, the NAAFO, (www.orthotropics-na.org) was trained by Dr. Hang. The Biobloc is the name of the training appliance developed by Dr. Mew that is used most commonly, but a newer appliance called the Adapt-LGR has recently been introduced by Dr. Hang. There's no magic wire in any of the appliances, and the principles can be applied without having to use only certain appliances. Until the Adapt-LG, however, no appliance beside the Biobloc has fit the requirements.

Dentists and orthodontists might be misled into thinking that, if they only order the right appliance, they will be able to do Orthotropics®. This would be a huge mistake, as extensive training is required to avoid the many "beginner" mistakes that would follow such an approach. Many doctors have done exactly that over the past forty years that John Mew has taught Orthotropics®.

Before the ages when Orthotropics® is appropriate, and after the age when it's no longer possible, there are few alternatives to accomplish similar goals. Breathing and Myofunctional Therapy are options that can help. While the British practitioners say, "Eight is too late," most practitioners treat until later than that. By the time a child is ten, eleven or twelve, the ability to cooperate begins to diminish exponentially, and the treatment results are often not rewarding enough to justify the heroic efforts required. If sleep apnea is present beyond this point, surgical interventions may be the only way to optimally position the jaws in the face and eliminate the airway restriction. Given that alternative, the challenges and rewards of Orthotropics® are often the choice of motivated parents and their children.

Brian Hockel, DDS
www.hockel.com

Sunday, August 24, 2014

WINNERS of Raw Extra-Virgin Cod Liver Oil


There were 99 entries to the giveaway for the Raw, Extra-Virgin Cod Liver Oil! "Rosita EVCLO is real Norwegian cod liver oil that is fresh, raw & handcrafted from wild livers using a very rare ancient extraction technique which uses nature to separate the oil from its liver.


I used a free random number generator to select the winner.  The winners are:

Rebecca Turner in Waverly Hall Georgia

Stephanie Larsen in Silver Springs Florida 



Congratulations, Rebecca and Stephanie!  Please e-mail me at nourishedandnurtured[at]gmail[dot]com no later than August 30th. Send me your mailing address so I can ship the EVCLO to you pronto.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Our Homeschool Curriculum for 2014-2015 (with a 3rd grader and a preschooler)

This post is the second in my Back-To-School Series for 2014-2015. If you didn't yet enter for a chance to win a bottle of Extra Virgin Cod Liver Oil, there is still time to enter the giveaway.

Leadership Education is our overall homeschooling philosophy.  Since my kids are 4 and 7, they are still in the Core Phase of development, where I am not pushing them academically. That does not mean that we don't do any academics, just that I don't force or pressure anyone to do academics. In keeping with the lessons of Core Phase, I do make it a priority for my kids to learn how to be helpful, responsible members of our household through chores and working alongside me.

 

Common Subjects for Both Kids

Although my kids are three years apart, a significant portion of our homeschool lessons are for both of them. This is one way in which homeschooling often differs from conventional schools which are separated by grade and age. In our homeschool, to a large degree everyone is learning about the same things, though certainly my daughter often digs into things more deeply than her younger brother does.    
Responsibility, Integrity, Good and Bad, Right and Wrong
  • Both of my children are learning the most important lessons of Core Phase (good/bad, right/wrong, responsibility, etc) through working alongside me and through doing chores.  In our home, I need to have a routine and very clear expectations in place in order to facilitate my children's completion of their chores.
  • Both of my children are expected to:
    • put away their own clean clothes when I do laundry,
    • put their dirty clothes in the laundry basket,
    • take their dirty dishes to the sink after each meal, and
    • clean up their toys and the messes they make.
  • In addition, my 4-year-old son is expected to: 
    • wash lunch dishes once a week (which are then loaded into the dishwasher by myself), and
    • work alongside me on Once-A-Month Cleaning Day.
  • In addition, my 7-year-old daughter is expected to:
    • wash breakfast dishes twice a week (which are then loaded into the dishwasher by myself),
    • feed and water the chickens daily,
    • collect and label eggs daily, and
Family Read-Alouds of Books Which Teach Character and Beauty
  • Daily, I read to my children from a classic book. This reading time has become an integral part of our day, a time for us to connect while we read and discuss the valuable life lessons that are illustrated in the books we read. 
  • My children and I also participate in a monthly Classic Book Discussion Group with some friends who are also implementing the Leadership Education philosophy. In this group, the parents read the books aloud to their own children, and then we all get together to discuss the books.
Math
  • I am not using a traditional math curriculum for my children. Rather, they are learning math in the context of everyday life, through games, and through Life of Fred.
  • Everyday math includes learning math through activities such as:
    • baking, which teaches measuring and fractions,
    • grocery shopping, including price comparisons and weighing of items,
    • setting the table for dinner with the right number of napkins and utensils, and
    • earning money for pulling weeds, then counting their money and saving to buy specific items.
  • Life of Fred is a series of math books that my kids LOVE. These books tell stories about Fred, a 5-year-old math genius who teaches classes at a university. The chapters are nice and short, and the end of each chapter gives a chance for us to practice math from the chapter (which we usually do on a lap-size dry erase board). In addition to teaching math, Life of Fred also teaches much more. For instance, we learned about the Orion Nebulae in Life of Fred: Butterflies. Our new Life of Fred books for this school year are Edgewood and Farming.
  • Math games are a wonderful way to learn math while having fun. Since my son isn't advanced enough to play many of these games yet, I modify some of the rules for him. Currently, our favorite math games are: 
    • Sum Swamp - teaches addition, subtraction, odd and even
    • Yahtzee  - teaches addition, number recognition, and writing
    • Monopoly - teaches larger numbers and the concepts of buying/selling. Since it can be such a long game, I typically limit the game to one hour long and we each start the game with two properties. 
    • Milles Borne - teaches addition of larger numbers and an understanding of which numbers are greater
History and Science 
  • Because I like to have some overarching themes of what we will focus on from year to year, I am using a 4-year cycle for History and Science. (I read about this 4-year-cycle in The Well-Trained Mind; I don't recommend following the overall schooling methodology laid out in The Well-Trained Mind as that is what led us to have total school burnout, but I do still like to use some of the ideas from that book.) The cycle starts with 1st-4th grade, and then gets repeated again from 5th-8th grade and again in 9th-12th grade, with more detail and rigor each time. Although my son is still in preschool, he chooses to join my daughter for most of these studies.
  • History
    • For 3rd grade history, we are using the audio book of Story of the World Volume 3: Early Modern Times as our history backbone. I love using the audio version of these books since they allow us to listen to the history lessons while driving around town on errands.
  • Science
    • Nature study is an integral part of our science studies. It can be as simple as collecting and studying Fall leaves or paying close attention to the changes in our yard throughout the seasons. We also take nature walks, looking at the flora and fauna in our own yard and desert landscape. Each of us has a Nature Notebook, where we can write about our observations or draw pictures of creatures and plants we encounter. 
Circle Time
  • One new thing for this year's homeschool is weekly circle time. This is quickly turning into a special time in our home, when we sing songs, read poetry, and act silly together.  
Arts and Crafts
  • Although art is the subject I am most likely to forget about, I try to make sure that at least once a week my kids have the opportunity to do arts and crafts. Sometimes, art is as simple as freeform painting, and other times we do full-blown craft projects. 
  • For this school year, my kids were given a large tub of Modeling Magic so they may make sculptures and various creations. They have been loving the vibrant colors of Pelikan Watercolors (which are not washable, but they are really fantastic compared to the Crayola watercolors we've used in the past). My daughter also likes learning to draw on her own using Draw Write Now.
Free Play

 

 

Preschool Curriculum for 4&1/2-year-old son

Preschool for my son looks quite different than it did for my daughter.  My daughter is very eager to please and malleable, so I was able to push her academically from a young age.  I didn't figure out how much of a mistake this was until we were a couple years into homeschooling, when we both ended up stressed out and burned out. It is a very good thing that I figured all of this out before it was time to start homeschooling my son.

My son is very independent and determined, yet he is also sensitive.  When he has decided (or decided not) to pursue a course of action, trying to change his mind is like trying to move a mountain. Pushing my son academically would have been a complete disaster!  One of the beauties of homeschooling is that I am able to tailor my approach to the very different needs of my two children. In addition to the Common Subjects listed above, I also focus on the following with my 4-year-old son.
    Reading
    • I encourage a love of reading in my son with by:
      • reading picture books aloud to my son daily,
      • reading my own books daily, so he can see that reading is something that everyone enjoys,
      • reading aloud quality chapter books to both my daughter and son daily, and
      • allowing my son to select library books about his own interests (usually vehicles of all kinds, especially cars and diggers, insects, and animals).

    • When he chooses to do so, we have formal reading lessons. This typically happens about twice a week. Currently, we are using the following early reading resources:
    Fine Motor Skills
    • About once or twice a week, my son chooses to do some work on paper. This builds his fine motor skills, which will be necessary once he starts writing. I primarily use Kumon workbooks for teaching fine motor skills. I've used Kumon workbooks for both of my kids, starting when they were two years old. Both of my kids have loved using these books.
    • Kumon books are great because they use a very gradual progression to teach basic coloring, pencil skills, cutting, and gluing. I love the Kumon workbooks for preschool work; I don't like them at all once they get into grade-school type work as they are too repetitive and suck the fun right out of school.
    • My son's workbooks for this year are:

    3rd Grade Curriculum for 7&1/2-year-old daughter


    It's been 16 months since I started implementing Leadership Education into our homeschooling.  In that time, my daughter's attitude about school has changed dramatically. She used to dread math work in particular, and was starting to exhibit a general dislike of school. Now, she loves school and loves to learn. In addition to the Common Subjects described above, I also focus on the following with my 7-year-old daughter:
    Transitioning into Love of Learning Phase
    • My daughter is transitioning into the next phase of development, called Love of Learning, so she is becoming increasingly interested in learning about a very wide variety of subjects.  
    • According to Leadership Education: the Phases of Learning, "Love of Learning Phase naturally follows the establishment of a solid core. During the Love of Learning Phase, the student falls deeply in love with learning, studying, knowing and learning even more... each young person has the opportunity to freely fall in love with the joys of learning and to experience first-hand how wonderful learning can be. These are the years when children dabble with learning, getting to know 'what's out there.' If they have come from the Core Phase in good order they are usually fearless, feel almost everything will be interesting and believe they will be able to do whatever they set their minds to."
    • Because she can read very well on her own far ahead of her grade-level, exposing my daughter to new ideas can be as simple as checking out a variety of books from the library. My daughter loves reading, and she typically chooses to read for a minimum of 1-2 hours each day. To meet her needs as she moves into the Love of Learning Phase, I make sure she has plenty of new things to read, and then watch to see which subjects she becomes particularly enamored with so that I can encourage her in those interests.
      Writing
      • My daughter is not required to do any writing; nonetheless she chooses to write about twice a week. I encourage my daughter to write in the following ways.
        • I make sure that my daughter sees me writing in my own notebooks on a regular basis. This makes a huge difference in the amount of writing my kids choose to do themselves.
        • I provide many writing options, such as writing in a Nature Notebook, writing letters to friends/family, and writing poems.
        • We play writing games, such as:
          • Hang-Man - One of us comes up with a word or phrase, and the other person has to guess the right letters to solve the puzzle before the man gets hanged.
          • Writing Conversation - We pretend we cannot hear, so that we write to each other to have a conversation. To make this work, my daughter uses a chart of words that help her if she gets stuck on spelling out what she wants to write.
      Math
      • In addition to the math resources described above, my daughter also has a couple of math workbooks for this year. I do not require her to do any work in these books; she is free to use them when she wants to. She chooses to do math work on paper an average of once a week. She sometimes goes several weeks without doing any, but then she will have a random week where she does math work every day. The math workbooks my daughter chooses to use the most often are:
      Bird Watching
      • Recently, my daughter has become very enthusiastic about bird watching and reporting her observations on ebird.org. Although this was not part of my original "plan" for the school year, I am encouraging my daughter to pursue this interest as far as she wants to take it, even if it displaces some of the other things I had planned. In the Leadership Education model, the child's own interests take a high priority in schooling, and the parents must be willing to lead the way by increasing their own education if necessary to effectively mentor their children.
      Egg Business

      • Nearly a year ago, my daughter decided to start an egg business to earn money.  Starting a business can take awhile, especially if you are only 6 years old!  My daughter tends to have many, many new ideas, but she isn't always so good on following through with them. So I wanted to make sure she was really serious about this before she got into the egg business. 
      • In the last year, my daughter has:
        • saved up money to buy chicks, 
        • proved to me that she could be responsible for taking care of the chickens by being responsible for our two laying hens, 
        • called the local feed stores to determine which breeds of chicken were available locally, and
        • purchased her seven chicks.
      • My husband and I agreed to invest in our daughter's business by providing housing and whole-grain food for the chicks. Now our daughter has been tending to her babies for a few months, and in about 6 weeks, she will start having eggs to sell. This is a fantastic homeschooling opportunity that is teaching my daughter about business, finances, and marketing. 
      That's our plan for the year.  In a following post, I'll describe our weekly and daily homeschooling routine.

      What changes have you made to your homeschool for the coming year?

      Links to Amazon are affiliate links. If you use these links, your price remains the same, but I earn a small commission. Thanks for supporting this site!

      Sunday, August 17, 2014

      GIVEAWAY: Two Bottles of Extra Virgin, Raw Cod Liver Oil

      I'm giving away two bottles of Extra Virgin Cod Liver Oil!  


      Cod liver oil is a true superfood: this nutritional powerhouse provides Vitamins A and D, plus Omega 3's, DHA, and EPA.  Weston A. Price's studies showed that the diets of traditional people contained ten times the amounts of Vitamin A and D present in modern diets, and this higher nutrient-content was likely the reason that the people had robust health with virtually no cavities, heart disease, or cancer.

      You probably already know that my family stopped taking fermented cod liver oil a couple years ago because it was giving us digestive issues. These digestive issues had something to do with the process of fermentation, which produced an oil that not only smelled bad and tasted bad, but obviously gave my family problems.

      This new Extra Virgin Cod Liver Oil (EVCLO) is made differently than the oh-so-popular fermented CLO. According to the EVCLO website, "Rosita EVCLO is real Norwegian cod liver oil that is fresh, raw & handcrafted from wild livers using a very rare ancient extraction technique which uses nature to separate the oil from its liver. No chemicals, solvents and mechanical devices are ever used during the extraction process. The oil is completely unrefined and produced under the total absence of heat, a process that protects its nutritional value."

      EVCLO isn't for-sale on their website yet, but it is planned to be released for sale in the next few weeks. In the meantime, though, I have two bottles to give away to some lucky blog readers.

      Because of shipping costs, this giveaway is only open to people who live in the continental United States.  There are three ways to enter this giveaway:
      • Leave a comment below including your location and your first and last name. Entries that do not include this information will be excluded from the drawing.*
      • Pin this giveaway on Pinterest and then leave another comment to let me know that you have done so. 
      • Share this giveaway on Facebook, and then leave another comment to let me know that you have done so.  
      This giveaway will be closed to more entries on Saturday August 23rd. I will randomly select 2 winners on Sunday, August 24th. 

      *In one of my previous giveaways, multiple people claimed the same entry.  To prevent that from happening again, I am requiring people to include both their first and last name, as well as their location.

       Links to Amazon are affiliate links. If you use these links, your price remains the same, but I earn a small commission. Affiliate Disclosure: As of May 2015, my family likes the extra virgin cod liver oil so much that I have signed up as an affiliate for EVCLO. The link to EVCLO above is an affiliate link.
      Thanks for supporting this site!  

      Sunday, August 10, 2014

      Leadership Education in Our Homeschool, and Our Top 10 Read-Aloud Chapter Books

      This post is the first in my Back-To-School series for 2014-15.
       
      The coming school year will be our second year since I started implementing Leadership Education (also known as Thomas Jefferson Education) in our home. The changes in our home since we started using this philosophy are myriad:
      • I have stopped pushing my kids academically
      • My children are learning to be helpful, responsible members of our family through chores and through working alongside me. Previously they dabbled with this, but now it has become a more central part of their homeschool experience.
      • I trust in my children's innate curiosity, allowing their interests to lead the way in what they are studying. 
      • I recognize that children do not learn in the same way as adults, and that play is one of the most important ways that children learn.
      • Reading classic books aloud has taken a more prominent role in our schooling.
      • I am leading out by pursuing my own Leadership Education, through intensive self-study of classic works and through the 7 Keys Certification.

      The Parents' Education is Paramount

      The foundation of the Leadership Education philosophy is the 7 Keys of Great Teaching:
      1. Classics, Not Textbooks
      2. Mentors, Not Professors
      3. Inspire, Not Require
      4. Structure Time, Not Content
      5. Quality, Not Conformity
      6. Simplicity, Not Complexity
      7. YOU, Not Them 
      The last key, "YOU, Not Them", is fulfilled when the parents focus on actively pursuing their own educations, and this goes a long way towards fulfilling the 3rd Key - "Inspire, Not Require". When parents are leading out by pursuing their own educations, the children will naturally follow. I have seen this work repeatedly in our home: the more my children see me reading, writing, and doing math, the more they spontaneously want to do those activities themselves.

      This was a real epiphany for me. Previously, I spent so much time trying to figure out ways to get my daughter to do her schoolwork without complaining. I kept thinking that if I found the "right" curriculum and if I kept pushing hard enough, she would eventually get there.  But this just led to burnout for both of us.  When I focus instead on pursuing my own education, I am energized and excited, and both of my kids become energized and excited to do the same.  I am currently working my way through the 7 Keys Certification, which is a fantastic way for me to solidify my own homeschooling paradigm as well as kick-start my own education in the classics.

      The Lessons of Core Phase and the Importance of the Family Read-Aloud

      In the Leadership Education model, up to around age 8, children are in Core Phase. "During this phase attention should be given above all to the nurture of a happy, interactive, confident child through the lessons that occur naturally during work and play in the family setting." [from A Thomas Jefferson Education] This is not to say that there are no academics during Core Phase (and I will talk more about that in a later post), but the most important things children learn in Core Phase are right and wrong, good and bad, true and false. My kids are learning these lessons through being accountable for doing chores, through play, and through working alongside me in running our household.

      These lessons are being reinforced through our family read-alouds.  We are careful in our selection of books, so that we are reading books which epitomize the values we want our children to learn. We avoid reading aloud "twaddle", which was Charlotte Mason's word for books which are second-rate and may even reinforce negative values. Instead we focus on reading classic books, which are books that demonstrate beauty, love, and character.

      Books That Teach Values, Character, and Beauty


      Some of our favorite read-aloud classic books for Core Phase are:

      Do you read chapter books to your kids? What are your favorite read-aloud chapter books for young children?

       Links to Amazon are affiliate links. If you use these links, your price remains the same, but I earn a small commission. Thanks for supporting this site!

      Sunday, August 3, 2014

      Morning Glory Muffins

      While my husband could happily eat the same foods over and over, I myself crave variety. These Morning Glory Muffins are my latest favorite. I've combined some of great flavors: zucchini bread, carrot cake, and raisin muffins. The result is a delicious, nutrition-packed muffin that makes for a fantastic breakfast.

      Morning Glory Muffins
      Makes 12 muffins
      1. Melt the butter in a small pan over low heat.  Then turn off heat and allow to cool a bit.
      2. In a large bowl, combine the coconut flour, ground nuts, Einkorn flour, sucanat, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. Whisk it all together well and break up any lumps.
      3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Line a muffin tin with paper liners. (I love to use If You Care unbleached muffin papers because the muffins do not stick to them!)
      4. In a medium bowl, combine the eggs and sour cream. 
      5. Peel and shred the carrots using a box grater. Then shred the zucchini. Stir the melted butter, carrots, and zucchini into the sour cream and eggs.
      6. Zest the lemon using a microplane zester. Add the lemon zest, vanilla, almond extract, and raisins to the egg mixture. Stir well to combine.
      7. Using an electric mixer, mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix just long enough to combine, and do not overmix.
      8. Divide the batter among the 12 muffin cups. I find that a 3-Tb scoop makes this very easy and effortless.
      9. Bake the muffins at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes, until they are medium brown on top.
      10. Remove from the oven and allow to cool a bit before serving.
      11. Serve alongside a glass of raw milk and enjoy! I typically refrigerate the leftovers and re-warm them in the toaster oven before serving.

      Links to Amazon are affiliate links. If you use these links, your price remains the same, but I earn a small commission. Thanks for supporting this site!