Allowing our children to learn and explore.

Last weekend we had Sharan’s two sisters and their partners visit and spend the entire weekend with us laughing and joking. It was wonderful, and I for one can’t wait for the next time we get together. However, without doubt the highlight of their visit was spending time with my 3 ½ year old niece, Ruby. I’m sure you can imagine how energy sapping the experience can be when you’re out of the habit of looking after young children. Our house was full of life again, and it was wonderful to be a small part of her life experience. 

Ruby will be four in September, and already she is showing traits of a natural born leader. She had every one of us running around after her and it was her who decided who she wanted to spend time with and which activity they would be doing. It was so much fun, I loved every minute of it. 

As a people watcher I was intrigued to watch the interactions between Ruby and her parents (Mimmo & Perween). I’m sure every parent goes through this but I was fascinated at how the parents balanced the delicate art of allowing Ruby to explore the world around her, whilst at the same time fighting their natural urge to keep her safe. 

This was Ruby’s first visit to our house so naturally her parents were on high alert to ensure nothing was spilt or broken. They needn’t have worried, we don’t really have anything of value so wouldn’t have minded the odd breakage and most spills can be washed out so we were fairly relaxed about everything, but that didn’t stop them from keeping a close eye on her. 

And this got me thinking of my own parenting skills and how we managed this balance between our urge to keep our children safe and their desire to explore the world. 

I’m sure my children would agree when I say this, I’m no expert in the art of raising children. However as a shopkeeper I have been in the privileged position of being able to observe thousands of parent/child interactions; and have been able to mould my own parenting skills on what I seen to work for others, whilst at the same time tried very hard to eliminate bits that weren’t working so well for either me or other parents. 

Our experience of raising our children was very different from what Mimmo & Perween are currently experiencing. For a start we were fortunate to be living on the edge of the countryside, whereas they living in just south of the River Thames. Our girls were brought up on a quite road with very little traffic; again their road is quite busy with lots of cars and traffic. Our children had the freedom to wonder into our garden as and when they chose, they have to ensure the area is free from urban foxes before they allow Ruby to play in their garden. So although our points of reference are/were very different, I’m sure our aim to nurture and raise a well balanced, rounded human being is the same.  

Children are inquisitive by nature and I feel we as parents must allow them the time and space to learn and explore their surrounding regardless of the obstacles that may be in their way. In fact I strongly feel that the greater the obstacle the more we should encourage the child to explore; otherwise they’ll grow up fearing the world instead of being able to enjoy its natural beauty. 

Could you imagine how a simple chore like going to shops could be turned into an adventure? Every bush, every puddle of water, every bird and every person you meet along the way can potentially open up a world of possibilities for the child. Could you imagine having a conversation with your child about that bird you’ve just seen, where does it live? Does it have kids? What is it doing? What does it eat…etc? Or how about that prickly bush you’ve just passed, why not stop and allow your child to touch a needle (obviously under your supervision) as you explain to them why the bush has thorns. It’s these simple things that allow our children to imagine and create a world of possibilities around them. 

Alas, I fear we spend too much time telling our kids what they can’t and shouldn’t do rather than what they can and should do. That very subtle change in emphasis is all it takes to allow your child to develop and grow. 

As for young Ruby, she is fortunate to have two loving parents and is surrounded by a network of friends and family who will all aid her in her development. She is and will be a superstar and I for one am very fortunate that I’m a part of her life and I can't wait to see her mature into a beautiful, well rounded adult.

Ammo

Micronutrients

On one of my earlier blogs I posed the question regarding Malnutrition and whether this was the cause of most modern diseases. Since then I’ve been reading a lot of different books/blogs on the subject and the evidence (although not conclusive) is very compelling. 

I’ve already spoken at length about Naked Calories by Jayson & Mira Carlton. Since then I’ve read numerous books/blogs on the same subject. One of the best books I’ve read is Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Dr Weston Price, this book was written almost 100 years ago but don’t underestimate the potency of the message, I would argue this book is more relevant today than at any time in its history.  

Naked Calories and Nutrition & Physical Degeneration have common themes running through the books. Both talk at length about nutrition, and both have done extensive studies in numerous countries which include some of the remotest communities on earth. What both books have highlighted is that there is a strong coloration between modern disease and urbanisation. To put it simply, the more urbanised the communities the more likelihood there is of that community being riddled with what are known as “modern diseases” e.g. Cancer, Strokes, Heart Disease, Diabetes, etc.  (I deliberately used the phrase urbanised and not civilised because we can learn a lot about health from these remote communities.)

The obvious question that one must ask is why? Why were these remote communities healthier than their urban counterparts?

The answer to this question is quite simple but hard to comprehend.

In the Naked Calories the Carlton’s go into this in a lot more detail than I will here but to put it simply we urbanised communities simply do not get enough micronutrients.

From seed to our plates we will always struggle to get all the nutrients we need from our food. So as an example let’s take the humble Tomato. According to numerous websites an average sized Tomato should give us around 25% of your RDA in Vitamin C. However this isn’t the whole truth, because you then have to take away what is lost because it was grown in deleted soil. What about the fact it was picked before it had a chance to ripen on the vine? Let’s not forget the distribution from the farm to the supermarket. Then we need to consider the time it’s stored at the supermarket and in our fridges. And finally we have to remember that most Tomatoes are used for cooking and not in salads. All these will deplete that Tomato of a large portion of the Vitamin C. So we may think we’re getting 25% of our RDA in Vitamin C by eating that Tomato but in actual fact we’re only getting a very small portion of it. 

The next question how do we ensure we get all the nutrients from that Tomato that we have paid for?

The answer to this question is that there seems to be a way to tell but I’ve only just discovered it and need to investigate a lot further before I am confident in explaining it. However, let me explain a few ways to ensure you get a better return on your investment. One of the things I’ve come across is that you cannot tell simply by looking, smelling or even tasting the product to gauge whether it is rich in micronutrient or not. If you buy locally produced organic products then the chances are that you have increased your odds in getting a lot more micronutrients. However, organics is just a farming method and cannot guarantee the quality of the product. 

In my next blog I’ll write about something called RBTI which stands for Reams Biological Theory of Ionization. I don’t fully understand this just yet so I’m reluctant to go into too much detail at this present time, however what Dr Reams discovered was that there was a coloration between a particular fruit or vegetable’s sugar content and the amount of micronutrient it contained. So if we go back to our example of the Tomato then if we were to examine two separate Tomatoes, then the one with the highest sugar content would also be the one that had the highest micronutrients.

But Dr Reams went a lot further than simply working out how to check the micronutrients of fruit and vegetables. He also discovered the equation for perfect health which is.

I’ve just started to read about what each of these numbers mean and I can tell you my BSometer is on high alert. However I will keep an open mind as I investigate this further.  

Ammo