A Lesson Learned

This past summer, I was introduced to G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown stories. I read them and loved them, so when I saw this book at our little local used bookstore last week, I snatched it up. I was not disappointed.

Until I got to the end, anyway. Most of the book was exactly what I expected...interesting, fun to read, humourous on occasion, and sometimes thought-provoking.

But then I finished the book, feeling a little lost and kind of disgruntled because in the end, it didn't make sense to me. I had loved most of the book, and I wanted to love all of it, so I tried re-reading the ending before I went to bed.

I was still confused.

I thought about the book for hours before I fell asleep, and I dreamed about it "all night", so the next morning I picked it up again and flipped it open to the back of the book. On the very last page, as a publisher's bonus in this paperback version I have, there was an excerpt from a 1936 newspaper article that Chesterton had written, and this section in particular caught my interest:

Having been thus prompted, I flipped back to the front of the book to (ahem) read the title page:

And now that I have discovered what this book professes to be, I can honestly say that yes, I've read G.K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday, and I loved it!

The whole thing.

And from now on, the title page will be the first thing I read when starting a book.

(Thank you for the lesson, Mr. Chesterton!)

A Wheat Lesson

We really like our whole wheat bread around here.  We like using whole wheat in our cakes, cookies, and cinnamon rolls, too.  Unfortunately, it has become apparent in the last year or so that while all of us like whole wheat, whole wheat does not like all of us!  More accurately, whole wheat likes all but one of us.  Poor little Isaak...he's the only boy, he's the youngest, he's the only red-head, and now, he's the only one with a wheat (and barley and rye) allergy!

In January, I finally made the connection between his allergic reaction (involving pain, welts, blisters, and blood) after he ate Grape Nuts and the same reaction he had after he ate some whole grain Wasa crackers.  Barley flour was the common ingredient!  I was a little confused, though, that he would also have the reaction even after he had eaten no barley flour.  So I started paying closer attention to what he ate and when he reacted.

He reacted after eating whole wheat cake (made with store-bought flour), but not after eating fast food white buns.

He reacted after eating whole wheat bread (made with freshly-ground flour), but not after eating whole wheat pasta, and oatmeal never bothered him.

It made no sense!

First I did some poking around on the Mayo Clinic's website and confirmed that he really was having an allergic reaction.  Then I dug in and began researching wheat.  I read up on barley and rye, too, but since I don't use a lot of either in my kitchen, I focused on wheat.

Those little wheat kernels have a lot going on in them!  I had already learned that within 24 hours of grinding wheat into flour, up to 40% of the nutrients (proteins, germ oils etc.) have become rancid, and within 72 hours, up to 80% have oxidized and turned rancid.  Freshly ground whole wheat can be a natural source of protein, retains all of its natural nutrients, and tastes really good!  (That's why I bought my grain mill.)  

There are (at least) four different proteins in each grain; albumin, globulin, gliadin, and gluten.  Gluten, I thought, could possibly be the culprit (which could mean Celiac Disease), until I remembered that Isaak does fine with oatmeal, whole wheat pasta, and white bread.  Maybe it was one of the other three proteins he was allergic to, then.  That had to be it, I reasoned, because oatmeal was still okay, and all the proteins are essentially (mostly) dead in white bread...but that didn't explain why he could still eat whole wheat pasta.

So I researched the flour that our whole wheat pasta is made of, and discovered that durum semolina flour is made using only the endosperm of the durum wheat kernel.  (See a visual aid of the anatomy of a wheat kernel here.)  I had narrowed it down to either the germ or the bran that was the problem.  The same morning that I made this discovery, I inadvertently tested my new theory out on Isaak when I gave him Cranberry Muesli for breakfast, which has wheat germ in it, followed by peanut butter "candy" for snack, which also has wheat germ in it.  He didn't react to the accidental double exposure to wheat germ at all!

My conclusion:  Isaak is allergic to the bran found in the tribe Triticeae, which includes wheat, barley, and rye.  The fact that I had reached a conclusion didn't mean that I was done experimenting on him, though.  (Poor kid...)  

A few weeks ago, my friend made us a rhubarb cake, using whole wheat, and I didn't even think about keeping it away from Isaak until after he had already eaten his share.  Sure enough, he reacted. I wanted to try the recipe myself, to see if it would work to replace the brown sugar with honey, so last week I made it again, but this time I soaked the whole wheat flour in the buttermilk called for in the recipe for over 12 hours before I mixed up the batter.  (Lindsay at PassionateHomemaking.com has written an excellent blog article about soaking grains.  If you're interested, you can read it here.)

Drumroll, please...

Isaak did not have an allergic reaction to the whole wheat after I soaked it!

After a little bit more research, now I know exactly why:

Phosphorus in the bran of whole grains is tied up in a substance called phytic acid.  Phytic acid combines with iron, calcium, magnesium, copper and zinc in the intestinal tract, blocking their absorption.  Whole grains also contain enzyme inhibitors that can interfere with digestion.  Traditional societies usually soak or ferment their grains before eating them, processes that neutralize phytates and enzyme inhibitors and, in effect, predigest grains so that all their nutrients are more available.  (Sally Fallon, Nourishing Traditions, p. 25)

She goes on to add that soaking or fermenting grains prior to consuming them has allowed many people who are allergic to certain grains to tolerate them well.

So, there you have it.  While Isaak is allergic to wheat bran, if I soak the whole wheat before I use it, he can eat it anyway.  He will still have to be careful what he eats away from home, but my otherwise healthy, happy boy can still have his cake... and bread... and cinnamon rolls... and pizza crust... and tortillas... and eat them, too!

A Means of Interest and Delight

"This habit [of using books as a means of interest and delight] should be begun early; so soon as the child can read at all, he should read for himself, and to himself, history, legends, fairy tales, and other suitable matter."

- Charlotte Mason

This week, Jaela and Macey have each read these books to themselves, in their own free time:

Anya is working on reading this:

Spell Chequer

My email buddy sent me this quote:

Dew knot trussed yore spell chequer two fined awl yore mistakes.

More From Elisabeth

"A husband asks his wife to share his destiny.  What is his becomes hers; where he goes she'll go; what he suffers she'll suffer; his privileges will be her privileges.  She doesn't often see in advance the price she will have to pay.  She sees the delights.  But both are her portion..."

- Elisabeth Elliot, from The Mark of a Man

Fair Warning: Poetry Ahead!

You who know me well, know that I have not ever been a big fan of poetry.  (Shakespeare's plays don't count.)  :)

Maybe I just wasn't reading the right poetry.

Batter my Heart, Three-Personed God 

by John Donne 1573 - 1631  

Batter my heart, three-personed God, for you  

As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;  

That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend  

Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.  

I, like an usurped town to another due,  

Labor to admit to you, but oh, to no end;  

Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,  

But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.  

Yet dearly I love you, and would be lovéd fain  

But am betrothed unto your enemy;  

Divorce me, untie or break that knot again;  

Take me to you, imprison me, for I,  

Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,  

Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

Inspiration and Motivation

The kids and I spent the day cleaning and sorting.  We got their room completely done, and my schoolroom closet sorted through and re-arranged.  My task tonight is to plan out the rest of our school week, and since I would much rather sort through another closet instead, I am posting this quote from Charlotte Mason, hoping that re-reading it will motivate me to do what I OUGHT to do before I do what I WANT to do.  :)

Charlotte Mason wrote:

It is something to know what to do with ourselves when we are beset, and the knowledge of this way of the will is so far the secret of a happy life, that it is well worth imparting to the children. Are you cross? Change your thoughts. Are you tired of trying? Change your thoughts. Are you craving for things you are not to have? Change your thoughts; there is a power within you, your own will, which will enable you to turn your attention from thoughts that make you unhappy and wrong, to thoughts that make you happy and right. And this is the exceedingly simple way in which the will acts; this is the sole secret of the power over himself which the strong man wields––he can compel himself to think of what he chooses, and will not allow himself in thoughts that breed mischief.

(I guess that means that for me, sorting a closet is mischief!!!)  :)

Chores

"A chore is something that we do to help the whole family." 

-- L. Elizabeth Krueger, author of Raising Godly Tomatoes

It wasn't that long ago that I finally realized two very important things.  The first is that the girls are actually old enough (and have been for quite some time now, actually) to have some responsibilities around the house, and the second is that I am not Super-woman and I don't need to be, either.  Shortly after this realization, the word "chore" became a part of our daily vocabulary!

We started simply.  Every morning before breakfast, the girls are all three required to get dressed and brush their hair, and make their beds.  Then Macey takes the bathroom garbage downstairs and replaces the liner, and Jaela takes the dirty laundry basket from their room to the laundry room (Anya's job is to help her if it is overflowing.)

Whenever the dishwasher is clean, I call all three girls to help empty it.  Lately, Isaak has taken over the assignment of putting away the silverware and utensils, and he actually has developed a pretty good grasp of which drawers things go in!  The hard part is then filling the dishwasher with one hand and trying to prevent him from putting the dirty silverware and utensils away with the other!  :)  His desire to help combined with how well he completes his self-appointed task have made me begin to question WHEN.  If he does this task so well and eagerly at 17 months, when do I begin to give him ACTUAL responsibilities...chores of his own?  Not TOO soon, but then again, does he need to know that it's not necessarily supposed to be fun?  :)

All three girls take care of their own laundry.  I wash and dry it, then sort it into their baskets for them to fold, hang up and put away.  It sometimes takes them a while to get their basket emptied, but the system has worked well so far!  I'm thinking that they might be ready for some new challenges.  As capable as my children have proven themselves to be so far, the possibilities are endless!  :)

Beginning Narration

The concept of narration as a learning tool is not a new one, but as I learned today, it is a very effective one!  Charlotte Mason wrote that a pupil should learn to be able to "grasp the sense of a passage of some length at a single reading: and to narrate the substance of what they have read or heard." (from the appendix of School Education, Volume 3 of her series).  Narration is:   "Quite simply, it is the art of 'telling back' what you just read or heard from a book." -- from Lindafay at Higher Up and Further In (Which, by the way, is my favorite Charlotte Mason method homeschooling blog.)  :)

We do our Bible readings every morning before we do any of our other schoolwork.  It's the most important thing we learn, so we do it first to make sure it gets done!  :)  It takes so long for me to read it aloud, though, that I have started assigning chapters for Jaela and Macey to read on their own in their NIVs, while Anya reads a Bible storybook.  They read so quickly that when they told me they were done with their SIX chapters this morning, I asked them to narrate to me individually so I could make sure that they actually read it.  (My mom is thinking right about now that this sounds awfully familiar!)  :)

They read the first six chapters of Exodus today, so I told them to start from the beginning of the story, and pretend that I didn't know anything about Moses.  Macey went first, and it was like pulling teeth to get any details out of that child!  She had the storyline completely correct though, and told me everything in the right order, but it took a lot of prompting and patience on my part to get it all told.  Jaela, on the other hand, went into so much detail that I found myself thinking more than once, "I'd forgotten that!", and even "Did I ever know that?".  She too had the storyline in perfect chronological order, and they both proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that they had read what they were supposed to!

I have to admit that the differences between their narrating styles really surprised me, although I WAS forewarned that there could be such differences.  Lindafay wrote about her own children on her blog in a post titled Detailed Narrations and The Summary:  "One of my children loves to give very detailed narrations.  She can remember details so well that when she narrates, she sounds like the author....However, she shows a weakness in her ability to summarize a passage so that just the most important people and events are mentioned.  My other daughter has the exact opposite strength and weakness.  She summarizes beautifully but doesn't pay attention to details as much as she should."  

I am so grateful (as a mom and as a teacher!) for Lindafay's insight!  While I might have considered one narrating style only a strength and the other only a weakness, Lindafay points out that BOTH styles have equal parts strength and weakness, and she lays out a method for me as the teacher to use to strengthen the weaknesses and teach the proper use of each style.  Not only that, but in her post she continues on the subject of narration, giving more ideas and backing them up with examples from her (and her children's) experiences.  I really, really like her blog (can y'tell?!?).  It's nice to have an example to follow as we're beginning this new method of homeschooling, and yet I don't feel compelled to do everything the "Lindafay way", either.

And, OH, this new method is fun!  :)

Oh! This is going to be FUN!

I just started reading Home Education Training and educating children under nine, Volume 1 of Charlotte Mason's 6 volume series on homeschooling and education.  I'm only into the Preface, and I am already finding gems!

"A discontent, is it a divine discontent? is upon us; and assuredly we should hail a workable, effectual philosophy of education as a deliverance from much perplexity."

Famous Last Words

Mike heard a story on NPR today, and we listened to it again on the computer when he got home.  The news story was better, but I found an article online that sums it up fairly simply:

"After 4 years as Vice President to Truman, Barkley retired from politics, seemingly forever. But he longed to return to this Chamber which had seen his greatest successes and his most ignoble defeats. So he ran for and won reelection in 1954, ousting Republican John Sherman Cooper.

Alben Barkley died on April 30, 1956. He left this world doing what he loved--giving a speech.

In his final moments, he explained to a crowd of students at a mock convention at Washington and Lee University that as a newly elected Senator, he had refused a seat in the front row of this Chamber, despite his decades of service.

"I am glad to sit in the back row," the 78-year-old Barkley said. "For I would rather be a servant in the house of the Lord than to sit in the seats of the mighty."

Those were Senator Barkley's last words before he collapsed. The crowd's applause was the last thing he would hear, before suffering a massive heart attack."

--Senator Mitch McConnell, Rep., KY

Just thought that was cool -- what a way to go!  We found on Wikiquote a list of famous people's last words before dying, too, and some of them were pretty funny!  A few:

• Wait a minute…Who: Pope Alexander VI
• I just wish I had time for one more bowl of chili. Who: Kit Carson, American frontiersman