Preschool Teachers' Tricks For Staying Health During Cold And Flu Season

Imagine that you are surrounded day in and day out by little kids.  These little kids don't know how to blow their own nose, they may not even know they have a nose much less that it needs blowing.  They are learning to cover their coughs and sneezes but often forget.  And sometimes their fingers wonder to germy places like the inside of their nose and then they pick up a toy to share with a friend.  Needless to say, illness can spread fast in a school.  So, what is a preschool teacher to do to stay healthy?  I asked my fellow teachers what they do to keep illness at bay.  I am excited to share their tricks of the trade!

Each teacher had a different protocol they follow.  These are some great, straight forward easy to use remedies.  All of these wonderful women have very healthy diets and unquestionably  that is a big part of staying healthy.  Also, we all are sure to wash our hands any time something questionably germy comes in contact with them at school.  This, of course, is huge!

Here are the results ~

Teacher #1

This lovely lady takes Echinacea (2 or 3, 400 mg pills)at the first hint of illness or if she been exposed to a bunch of sick kids!  She also takes vitamin D everyday.

Teacher #2

Kick Ass Immune Activator by WishGarden Herbs is teacher #2's go to.  When she feels anything coming on she starts taking this remedy with frequent doses.  She is also great at keeping her energy straight and doesn't get freaked out when exposed to illness (law of attraction baby!).

I love WishGarden Herbs.  They are local to us here is Colorado and have simply wonderful formulas with great quality.  They also carry a Kick-It Immune For Kids that is wonderful.

Teacher #3

Teacher #3 told me she does something strange.  Well, I have research a bit about what she takes and it sounds interesting.  She takes Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS) which is a solution of 28% sodium chlorite in water.  This solution works to kill pathogens in the body:

"Kills all pathogens - viruses, disease causing bacteria, parasites, molds, fungi and even oxidizes heavy metals from drinking water. Won't hurt pipes or plumbing inside the body or out if used as directed! Won't taint the taste of your food storage or other products with that nasty chlorine taste."  Source: Discover MMS

I have not tried this at all and know only what I am telling you here including that this particular teacher finds MMS to be very effective at keeping her healthy.

Here are some more sources for your own research should you be interested:

• Linda Melos N.D.

• MMS Healthy Living

• Miracle Mineral Supplement
• Miracle Mineral 

Teacher #4 (Me!)

I have a bunch of tricks up my sleeve.  I take vitamin D everyday as well as multivitamins and fish oils.  This post "A Sniffle and a Sneeze" that I wrote last year has my protocol plus what I do for myself and my kids if they seem to be coming down with something.

Here are a couple of other tricks I use for when I start to feel sick or have been exposed, though I don't use all of them at once, I try to keep them on hand for when I need them:

• Place one drop of high quality peppermint essential oil in a full glass of water and drink it down.
• If my nose is runny, I take Bi Yan Pian.
• For general sick/off feeling I take Yin Chiao then if that doesn't work I take Gan Mao Ling.
• Also my acupuncturist just gave me some Cold Quell by Blue Poppy.  She said to take it at the first sign of illness.  Luckily I haven't had a chance to try this out yet!

How do you stay healthy during cold and flu season?  

Shared On: The Kid's Co-op, Natural Living Link Up, The Sunday Parenting Party

Alive

Today, I hoped to write a nice post about how my teacher friends at preschool stay healthy around so many little ones but... I am going to instead take the day to organize my thoughts (and my kitchen), finish up holiday shopping and take a nice long soaky bath.  Next week will be the perfect week to share all the great information I got from my teacher friends.  Until then, I want to share something my daughter said to me the other day.

Holding my hand with her small warm one, she gazed at me with her big sweet brown eyes and said, "Momma, thank you for keeping me alive."  Then she gave me a big hug full of love.

There you go, that is what is important for today, taking care and mostly love.

Gingerbread House Party

It's An Artistic Expression...

Ok, so I am not into candy, like at all.  Well, unless it is dark chocolate.  And while I don't stop my kids from having an occasional munch, I certainly don't promote it.  What I am into is kids doing lots of fun art, expressing themselves and getting lost in the enchantment of their own imagination.  Cooking with kids and getting them inspired about food is also big on my list.  So when I found out about the gingerbread house making birthday parties offered at a wonderful local cooking school, I had to jump on the chance for my little one's sixth birthday party.  She loves to cook and create so I knew this would be a great opportunity for her.

This is not only review of a very fun educational place in Boulder, Colorado, it is also a sharing of a very fun time with lots of great ideas for making your own wonderful gingerbread houses!  At the bottom of this post are links to more great ideas for making a healthy gingerbread house.   Stir It Up Cooking School offers fun, exciting cooking classes, parties and camps for kids in a homey loving atmosphere.  It is a school of great imagination and fun!  If you are in the Boulder area and looking for some cooking fun, I highly recommend you look up this great school!

We had her party late in the season last year and I have waited this whole time with oodles of great pictures to share and all the fun of the day as well.

Sue, who was the amazing woman who ran V's party, did a great job keeping the kids busy and engaged that whole time.  She started the party by having the kiddos make quesadillas and ice cream from scratch to have as a snack after all their hard work.  The kids each learned how to grate cheese and used cookie cutters to create a shape in the top of their quesadilla.  Then they quickly whipped up some wonderful ice cream and everyone watch enchanted as Sue filled up the ice cream maker.

Next they were on to making their houses.  Sue had baked up some simply lovely gingerbread house pieces which smelled heavenly.  The kids took off with painting their roofs.

After the kids finished painting their roofs of course they needed to make Christmas trees to put inside their houses.  What do you use for trees?  Ice cream cones!  Painted green, decorated and placed pointy side up, ice cream cones make the perfect tree.

Next the houses came out which were all pre-assembled on little cake cardboard rounds.  Excellent instructions were given to the kids on how to use a pastry bag for decorating.  Finally came the candies with many wonderfully creative ideas of how to use them.  The frosting made the perfect glue for decorating.  I was so impressed by Sue's imagination, she had lots of fun ideas for using the candies.

Pretzel waffley things glued together became cozy chairs for gummy bears seated around the tree.  Outside the house two little ducks swim in a pond.

Notice the presents?

Lovely siding!

Lollipops lamp-post...

V helps Sue put her roof on her house.

The class was so engaging that aside from frosting licked off fingers, no candy eating really happened except a stray piece here and there.  And once we were home the houses were just to pretty to eat.  So I guess the kids really did create a piece of art work after all.  And most important, they had an absolute blast!

Looking for some healthy gingerbread house alternatives to make at home?  

Me too!

Here is what I found so far:

Eat Chic Chicago  shows how to make a beautifully decorated house with nuts and dried fruit.

Simply Home Making   Another fun house with lots of ideas.  Also great pictures with instructions on how to bake the pieces for a house.  My favorite part is the popcorn roof with a whiff of popcorn smoke coming from the chimney.

Medomak Family Camp has ideas for a sweet little house and plus more great instructional pics.

Cooking Matters offers lots of fun ideas to use with a graham cracker base.

Shared On: It's Playtime!, The Kid's Co-Op, The Imagination Tree, Sunday Parenting Party

A Mother's Voice

When you talk with your mother what do you hear?  Under all the words, whatever they are, is a sound with resonance   I heard it the other day, again for the first time.  I had just called my mom and got her voice mail.  As I stood there in my kitchen listening to her speak I was struck by her voice.  I listened and realized her voice was the first voice I ever heard.  From deep in her womb, her voice connected and resonated with me.  Her voice is the voice I have known my whole existence.

What a deep amazing connection we have with our mothers.  A connection that goes back in so many ways to even before our birth.  A mother's voice cuts to the core.

Many women talk and sing to their babies during pregnancy.  We stroke and rub our bellies.  We love our babies before we ever see their face or hold their sweet little hands.   And our voices, our love, provide a bridge into the waking world.  A world we all come into innocent and impressionable.  When we arrive we are hopefully greeted with warm love and a first vision of that wonderful person who has nourished us all along, and we hear her voice.

Meditation Friends

Inspired by the excitement over the snowglobes we made earlier this year, I decided we should try another watery glitter project.  This one has a different purpose than to capture a bit of whimsical winter in a bottle.  Taking a cue from one of my family's favorite books, Peaceful Piggy Meditation, we decided to make special meditation jars with personality!

This was a simple happy project.  First we read our Piggy Meditation book.  We talked about how sometimes our minds just won't stop thinking or maybe we feel really sad or angry.  We talked about how taking a few deep breaths and finding a calm place inside ourselves can help us to feel better.  Then I showed the kids a Meditation Friend that I had made as an example for our project.   I shook it up and explained that the glitter swirling around inside is like our thoughts when they are overwhelming or angry or sad.  Next we took a few deep breaths while watching the glitter settle down in the jar, and while feeling our thoughts settle inside our minds.  We played with the Meditation Friend pretending it was mad or just had too many thoughts by shaking it up and then we helped our friend calm down with some big, deep breaths.

After our discussion each kid made their own Meditation Friend.

What you need to make your own ~

• Bottle or Jar with water tight lid (I used plastic water bottles to prevent breakage but glass would work fine as well.)
• Water
• Glitter or Glitter Glue (Glitter glue will make it take longer for the "thoughts" to settle down.  Use warm water if you choose to use glue)
• Googly Eyes
• Decorations (We used peel and stick foamies)
• Ribbon or Yarn
• Fabric Scraps

Simply place water and glitter in the bottle and secure shut.  Then have the child decorate their bottle to look like a face with googly eyes and any other materials you have on hand.  I used peel and stick foamies because, well, they are easy!  Then give the new friend a hat by securing a piece of cloth on top of the bottle with ribbon or yarn.  Easy Peasy!

 In the days following this project, I had a number of the students who made these tell me that they used it when they felt sad or lonely or mad and, that it helped!  Yeah!

Please Note:  This activity was based on an activity at the end of this amazing, fun book.  My six-year-old loves this book.  We re-read it often when she is going through a hard time in her life and it seems to really speak to her.

Peaceful Piggy Meditation

Shared On: Kid Lit Blog Hop

The Power of a Mother's Love

When did I first learn about love? Did it happen with my baby's first belly jiggling laugh or when she first looked into my eyes and said love you? Perhaps it was when I meet my now husband over Thanksgiving break from college.  And I felt a searing pain in my heart every time we had to separate while I finished out that long school year away from home, away from him. Or was it even when a stranger passing by on the street offered me the honor of a heart-felt smile?

The love I found in all of these profound experiences was based on a foundation built long ago near the beginning of my life.  And it was my mother who taught me about love, as most mother's do.  She was my hero, my everything when I was a small child.  All that sweetness she had poured into me everyday filled me up and one day was solidified while I played in our backyard.

Nestled securely in the middle of my beloved tire swing, I was twisting the tire round and round.  With each successful turn a delightful popping kink of the hanging rope would gratify my efforts.  I struggled to keep my feet in place with each turn as the tension from the rope sought to undo all of my hard work.  Finally the rope, being all bunched up with tension, would go no further.  Looking forward to my destined ride, as I had a hundred times before, I lifted me feet from the ground, held on tight and with eyes closed I began a fast spin.  This time though, something went terribly wrong and in an instant I was slammed to the ground tangled up in tire and rope.  The rope had broken and I, being a very small child, was trapped beneath a tire to heavy to move.  Feelings of shock and pain began to consume me when an angel appeared to free me from the tire.  The angel was my mother.  I couldn't imagine where she had come from or how she had known I need help but she was there right when I needed her.  Such a feeling of love and appreciation filled my heart that I was overwhelmed.  Turns out she was folding laundry and watching me from the window that looked out underneath our porch, while I had no idea she was anywhere nearby.  This was the moment, this moment when I really needed someone and that very special someone was there.  This was the moment when I learned about love in a deep yet conscious way.  While she rescued me from the swing, I felt the world become a safe and beautiful place.  I knew that she would be there for me when I needed her, that I could trust and believe.  And, as I moved forward into my life I carried this deep knowledge and used it to recognize love everywhere.

Even now I am blessed to learn more about love everyday.  Everyday with my kids and husband there is more to learn, more to experience.  Each day I witness acts of kindness and caring in the world, cherishing even the smallest of gestures.  Mostly what I am learning about now is love for myself and appreciation for life simply as it is. With each breath and each step I endeavor to appreciate and love myself, those around me, my world and embrace being alive.

 Thanks Mom!

Shared On: The Sunday Parenting Party

Puppy Magic for a Little Girl ~ In Honor of National Puppy Day

This is a story of how a sweet puppy helped a little girl along her way; the power of an animal in the life of a child.

The summer of my 10th year I spent largely beneath my bed or at least that is the most memorable part of that time.  I had someone very special with me, a new puppy.  Her name was Heidi.  She was a small miniature schnauzer, covered in soft light gray fur, with a bushy white beard and deep brown eyes; just perfect for a girl like me.  We would climb under the bed and snuggle down together in the mist  of the discarded toys I had hastily shoved into place under the bed while "cleaning" my room.  I would lay on my stomach, throw my arm over Heidi's back, rub her and talk to her.  She would always listen to me with great care, never seeming annoyed by my lengthy speeches.  My family was going through a tough time and Heidi helped me feel comfortable with myself and the world.  She helped me to  retreat into this special place of calm and love.

Later I would take her on long walks to the park and train her to play me on the slide.  She slept in my bed with me, her back to mine.  She had a way of slowly edging herself up against me as the night wore on and I would often awake to find myself perched on the edge of the bed while she had the rest of it to herself.

Heidi was always there for me.  Sad or happy, lonely or distracted by friends, she was always there.  I loved her very much and was surely a lucky girl to have a dog like her.

In honor of National Puppy Day and mostly Heidi!

Shared On: The Sunday Parenting Party