When I decided to cut my youngest son’s milk intake recently I was nervous. I just knew that plain water would only be tolerated in small amounts and juice would be the better option. I was right about the water issue so a juice/water mixture was my game plan but juice has a lot of sugar so I was concerned about that too. As if knowing I needed a better alternative I get an invitation from Mom Central to test a new healthy juice drink for kids called Froose. Woot!

I received a big box of of Froose juice boxes in Perfect Pear, Playful Peach, and Cheerful Cherry. This is a brand new product for children that incorporates organic whole grains and fruit to make a nutritious alternative to regular juice that is low in sugar and has lots of fiber…like eating a whole piece of fruit. It was created by a mom who was once a food company executive. She was concerned about the nutritional value of juice because her own son wanted to drink it all day long….loading up on empty calories and leaving him not wanting to eat at mealtime. So she created a juice product with complex carbo­hydrates, vitamins, minerals, fiber, AND organic ingredients. They are naturally low in sugar, they are sweetened with organic brown rice syrup, and they have 3 grams of fiber per serving. They are also gluten free and Kosher and natural coloring is used like Annatto or Elderberry so there are no red or blue dyes. Froose sounds to good to be true!

I have tasted all the Froose varieties myself and while they did not appeal to my own taste buds so much (too mild) my kids like them quite a bit. My 2 year old makes kissy faces and says “Num , num” whenever he sees them so that is a good sign. My 4 year old and 7 year old seem to enjoy them too, so I think we will have some Froose in the house from now on and I won’t have to worry so much about their juice intake.

The only thing I would change is the packaging. I am not big on juice boxes so if Froose came in glass bottles that would rock. Also, ordering them online is okay but if they had them in regular stores that would be even better….maybe someday.

This product gets a thumbs up from me! Visit the Froose web site.

[tags]Froose, juice drinks, healthy drinks, children, fiber, whole grains, organic[/tags]

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Since I had so many supportive comments about my public school issue with my son and requests that I let everyone know how things went, I thought I would give a report. I went to the school meeting this morning.

For the first 10 -20 minutes I let them report about my son’s lack of progress and the fact that they believe he is about on year behind where he should be academically. When they asked my opinion about all of what they had said I basically explained that I am just not seeing the problems they do. My son is highly intelligent and has learned an amazing amount just since he joined this school but they seem to be less concerned with progress as they are with meeting up to a predetermined standards. I pointed out that education is a journey….not a race….and I feel my son is right where he needs to be and where he should be. I point blank told them that their standards are immaterial to me. Each child has unique abilities, learning styles, and strengths.

Well, as some of the commenters from my previous post hinted it actually went over well. All three of the educators there agreed that the standards were flawed and set some kids up for failure. My son’s homeroom teacher actually mentioned that my son would be better off in a Waldorf school and looked kind of dreamy eyed when she said it. I agreed….but the closest Waldorf school is two hours away (one way). If anything this makes me regret moving from Arizona a bit because the schools were more relaxed there and they have several Waldorf schools but what’s done is done.

My son is at a disadvantage because the requirements in AZ were a far cry from what they are here. In Arizona they wanted him to know his ABCs and letter sounds upon graduation. When he transferred mid year to an Ohio kindergarten class they expected him to be reading and spelling already, which was a big shock. He also had little parental assistance during his first year of schooling because I was going through Chemo 5-6 days a week every other week. So he is behind his classmates because he did not have the same starting point or the same instruction they did. Now the school is acting like the race is on to “catch him up”.

They told me we have 3 options…retain him (not an option I told them), see if he qualifies for special ed (they were doubtful), or let him move on to second grade and get lost academically and flunk out. They all showed regret that these were the best options they could come up with. I told them I would pull him from school and homeschool before I let him flunk out or be made to feel as though he were inadequate in some way and that I would be watching that like a hawk. They seemed to like that, LOL. They kept mentioning how lucky my  son was to have someone who cared so much about his education and put so much thought into preserving his self worth.

Then the prinicipal flat out told me that I should look into TRECA. I was NOT expecting that! TRECA is a public funded digital academy that services 5-6 counties in my area. It is homeschool with an online assistance program. The big benefit of TRECA is that you work at your own pace and you schedule your schooling as you see fit even working during summer months. After doing a search I also found some support/homeschool groups for kids using TRECA or any of the other online schools Ohio has.

So…wow…I have a lot to think about. BUT it looks like unless things drastically change I will likely be homeschooling for the next school year which is actually kind of exciting. Taking my kids on the 600 mile Highway 127 yard sale from Ohio to Alabama is educational right? My homeschool ideas are kind of eclectic, LOL.

I ordered some of the books that you lovely readers suggested too. So I have some reading to do and some thinking to do….wish me luck!

[tags]homeschool, public school, educators, reading, kindergarten[/tags]

Hurray! Jen of comment #82 is the winner of The Safe Sippy cup. Congrats!!

I recieved many questions about the cups and about other BPA free items so stay tuned for information about BPA free teethers, pacifiers, plates, bowls, and utensils.

Buy The Safe Sippy.

TGIF! Have an awesome weekend everyone!

First up I want to announce the winner of the Mama Knows Breast book I reviewed. According to Random.org the random winner is commenter #6…Mama K. Woot! Congrats Kaiya…if I had done this drawing earlier I would have sent this along with the other package I just sent you this morning!

For other freebies check out a new blog and a great new company called Generation Orange that sells natural goods. In fact we have a few of their goodies to give away coming next week but until then stop by their blog and check out their Friday Freebies! This week they are giving away a pack of Elsie’s All Natural Germ Fighter Wipes.

Also, the Sigg company asked me to mention their 100 Anniversary. They now have 100 delicious reusable bottles styles. The site will launch on Feb. 11th and last through April 22nd (Earth Day). During this 10 week period, SIGG will partner up with Laurie David’s organization, StopGlobalWarming.com, to explore 100 Significant Eco-Moments in the past century. Visitors to the site will have an opportunity to win a trip for 2 to Hawaii to attend the 5th annual Kokua Festival headlined by Jack Johnson (what mom doesn’t deserve a free trip!). SIGG will also be hosting online Q&A’s with 5 environmental activists, which include Zem Joaquin, Ed Begley Jr., P. Simran Sethi, Christopher Gavigan and Laurie David. Cool Beans!!

In other news…

I found some awesome solar lights from a company called Solar Cynergy. They really caught my eye because they fit in the ground instead of above it like lanterns AND they come in colors like pink and green. They can easily be put along a walk way, a pool, even a city sidewalk. You can drive over them and supposedly they will be just fine. Pretty nifty!

Have you been wondering about how green and natural the new Clorox Greenworks products are? Me too. A post over at Really Natural has some good information and links if you want to study up.

I recently came across a cool site at BuyMyTronics.com. The founder, Brett Mosley, buys broken iPods, Zunes, iPhones, cell phones, Nintendos, Playstations, and laptops and then he fixes them up good as new and sells them on eBay. This is awesome for someone who needs a little cash and has a broken electronic device that they will likely just throw away. Even if you decide to send your device to the manufacturing company for recycling there is the possibility that they will refurbish it and you get zilch in return or they will send to to a third world country to be recycled. I like the BuyMyTronics solution much better.

Also, according to Brett the sixth generation iPods were designed to be unfixable. The way they are made ensures that the body section of the iPod is destroyed when removed. That really irks me. When my 2 year old iPod finally bites the dust I think I might buy a different brand of Mp3 player because that goes against their whole “green” image. You can’t tell me they haven’t designed these new iPods that way on purpose so that consumers are forced to buy new. Grrr…and here I had nice things to say about them only a few days ago. Mp3 players might be eco friendly but Apple….not so much.

Well, that wraps it up…have a great green weekend!

[tags]iPods, Generation Orange, Sigg, reusable bottles, recyle electroinics, friday freebies[/tags]

I don’t have many positive things to say about public school lately. In fact I don’t have anything positive to say really. I wish my oldest son (7) didn’t love going to school so much because I personally think that it might be a bad idea.

We had a long road to travel with his vaccine injury and his epilepsy. I was told long ago that he might have some difficulties with learning later on due to his brain injury so when I sent him to school I was VERY nervous that he wouldn’t do as well as the other kids and he would be made to feel inadequate. I lucked out in Kindergarten as the program was similar to Montessori education but I am not so lucky after our move to Ohio.

He is now in the BEST school in the county which I can now see is going to be a HUGE problem. My son is having trouble reading. In my opinion this is no big deal. I have no doubt he will learn to read just fine…even if a little slower than those in his class but it is a big deal to the school, who is now pressuring me with group review meetings designed to help my son with his “problem”. In these meetings it is me, the principal, my son’ teacher, his new reading teacher that was assigned at the last meeting, a Speech Language Pathologist, and the school counselor. Basically we are supposed to brainstorm ways to help my son “catch up” with everyone else.

The problem is I don’t think he should have to “catch up”. What in the Sam Dickens is wrong with a child learning to read and write at his or her own pace. Why do ALL children have to live up to this cookie cutter definition of a “good” first grader? Grrrr. I got really angry when two letters came home this week about this “issue” and one of them basically hinted that my son is becoming withdrawn in class as he begins to feel like an outcast that doesn’t have the same abilities and skills the other kids have. Whew….when I go to that meeting next week they are going to be sorry about that one. If anything it tells me that THEY are making him feel like an outcast…if in fact he is feeling that way…which I doubt. If he is being withdrawn it is likely because they are reading aloud in class and expecting everyone to be able to do it and he can’t. Sounds like a good reason to not participate if you ask me.

So I am at a loss about what to do. I would hate to pull him from school against his will but I have no doubt that these teachers and this school WILL undermine his confidence eventually and I will be one mad mama when that starts to happen. Putting him in a private Montessori school really isn’t an option because there aren’t any here. Right now I am looking at Sylvan and Kumon for tutoring but I HATE the thought of adding more school work to his life. His weekday schedule is this….get up at 7:30, get on bus on 8:00, get off bus at 4:00, play until 6:00, eat dinner, do homework, go to his bedroom at 8:00 and watch TV till 9:00 and then sleep. Rinse and repeat. Homework last night consisted of two math worksheets, 2 books that had to be read, and one reading board game that had to be played. On the weekends I let him run free. Especially since he only gets to spend every other weekend with his Dad (who travels extensively for work).

So what I do when I don’t consider the school’s problem to be a problem? Yank him from public school? Get his some tutoring? Ignore it? I wish I knew what to do.

Anyone have any ideas, experiences, or insight to share?

[tags]homeschool, public school, reading, tutoring[/tags]