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  • Homeschooling – yay!! I’m going to be homeschooling my two boys, both now raw, one 13, one 11.

    I was teaching 8th grade in the public school until this June, and now am writing full time. : )

    I’m a single mom, been raw for 5 months, and am currently doing a juice feast, not sure of the length. My boys are loving the raw lifestyle. They saw all the positive changes happening in my life – in my outlook, attitude, looks, weight – and decided they wanted those changes, too. (Well, neither was overweight, but Mr. 13 had some serious acne going on which is clearing up nicely.)

    So…. HI!

  • Bananna1333Bananna1333 Raw Newbie

    Hi Littlebirdie! I remember seeing you over on the 811 thread, where I lurked a bit…and thanking Harley once, I was posting there at the end quite a bit.

    Anyways…amysue! Ofcourse I know Orillia! My first born was born there! I am a little south from there in Barrie. Sorry DH is Dear/darling husband. Which actually he isn’t even, we still haven’t got around to getting married, lol. We are just too busy, lol.

    I have heard some vegetarians take offense to the flexatarian title, but whatever. My daughter who is 5 is particularly hilarious with it…’I’m vegetarian!’ she will say…and then size up some ham her Dad has, which she loves and says ‘oh I’m not vegetarian anymore’ and then no sooner is she done chewing she reproclaims that she ‘is vegetarian again!’.....I can only laugh…she’s trying atleast ;)

  • Amysue: youre welcome. I’m growing quite fond of you. ; )

    Hi Bananna, Artistruth and Littlebirdie! Good to see you guys here.

    Bananna, My kids are the same, they’ll go around saying, “I’m vegan, I’m vegetarian… I’s that kosher?” It’s pretty funny, this generation will redefine a lot of things for our world.

    Artistruth, you are beautiful and I bet you miss the ocean! I’ve always wanted to visit or live in Australia. (that is where you’re from right?). You’ll find the right niche for your family in your natural parenting path. Like amysue, we have always taken a really organic path in education. I understand the system has to do things a certain way in order to get so many people through. But, I’m a big ‘questioner’ when it comes to everything so I go back to “why do we do it this way or that?” “why can’t we do it this way or that?” More on that on the homeschool thread…also, thanks for the info on bananas…

    Littlebirdie, that is great about hs! Are they coming out of the “system”? I have some thoughts on that… how long have you been fasting?

    good to see everyone here!

  • amysueamysue Raw Newbie

    Hey littlebirdie! – 8th grade. Wow. My dad taught high school science for over 30 years but said he’d NEVER teach junior high age kids. So good for you! I guess every teacher has their age that suits them. Can you tell us what you’re writing?? I’d also love to hear how the juice feast is going. I downloaded Angela Stokes e-book with the thought of trying it, I’m already practicing by having 2 green juices a day, but I did so badly on the Master Cleanse I don’t know if I would be miserable.

    Bananna – one of our friends who lives up there is fascinated by my raw diet and every time he comes he tries everything. But he’s starting to ask questions like, “I wonder where I could find chia seeds,” etc. So cool that your son(?) was born there, it’s so beautiful.

    mamamilk – staying cool? I’m a/c-ing it today after roasting at the pool watching daughter do laps.

  • mamamilk – they are coming out of the system… with a twist. My son, 13, is going into 9th grade. He skipped a grade and is extremely book smart. So is my youngest, 11, who will be going into 6th grade. I was 13’s teacher this past year, so that worked out great. :) The school I taught at is an expeditionary learning charter school, where students learn through experience and hands-on activities in addition to more traditional types of learning. It was a good year. But my boys need extra challenges, plus I’m not that crazy about our society’s culture and the kinds of things they are exposed to in the public schools. So it’s homeschool!

    I’m on week 3 of my juice feast. I think it’s between a fast and a feast. I am drinking enough juice to feel satiated, but not more than that. It’s been a bit of a struggle, but a good one. I’m doing it for both physical and spiritual reasons.

    Thanks for the welcome, everyone!

    amysue, I have a book coming out at the end of September, a book about my crazy little town (see mytinyvegas.com for more info on my wacky town). I also have a memoir out (“Don’t Shoot! I’m Just the Avon Lady!”), which I need to get out there and market. Plus I am putting together some interesting stuff which I’ll post here soon. I think everyone will enjoy it. I also am the Arts and Entertainment features writer for my local paper.

    big hugs everyone!

    Hey, what’s everyone’s favorite kid snacks? My boys LOVE peaches and nectarines blended with a vanilla bean seed and a banana, with some chia seeds. It sets up like tapioca, they just truly dig it.

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    My son’s favorite snack/meal/whenever he can get it food is “fruit ice cream”: frozen strawberries, a little of whatever other fruit we have on hand, and a little agave & water or orange juice, blended in the vitamix until smooth & creamy.

  • Bananna1333Bananna1333 Raw Newbie

    amysue – Barrie is bigger and therefore a better resource, but if he doesn’t want to mess around trying to find everything in one place, which I find hard, what I am doing is going to one particular health food store that carries quite a lot, and ordering the rest online at upayanaturals.com. They are in toronto and it’s shipped and at your door in a matter of a couple of days. They have a fairly all inclusive list.

    Today I laid out left over pizza and watermelon. They gorged on the watermelon, I had to cut up three plates! Although they did eventually have a slice of pizza too. Just the look of it made them dance! Fruit is so pretty :)

  • vegan2rawvegan2raw Raw Newbie

    Hi to all you amazing enlightened families. We are a vegan family who went raw 2 weeks ago. We have two kiddos Linnea 3 and Oriana 18 mos. They have been vegan the whole time(as soon as we discovered dairy allergies in our first) They are loving the raw food so far lots of great recipes! Our kids fave snacks so far are the apple fries with goji ketchup(this site) and Green smoothies. To the mamma whose child wont drink the green smoothies try letting him push the blender buttons. I let the kids help me (even our 18month old) and I swear if I let them help they will eat whatever we make no matter how funky it is. We are trying to have the kids avoid nuts for a little while to make sure they are not sensitive to them, any advice on what to use instead?( I have been using sunflower seeds but that gets old) Also any popular supplements to replace fish oil, my kiddos hate the flax that has the DHA from algae but they need that DHA so I am trying to find other sources.

    Thanks everyone Peace Light and <3>

  • amysueamysue Raw Newbie

    littlebirdie – how cool are you! Can’t wait to check out your books, they sound interesting! I was a creative writing major way back when.

    Favorite snacks – banana icy with lots of ice, chopped apple with almond butter, maple or agave and cinnamon, MELON, carrot sticks with Zoe’s Cheese with spring onions, except with basil, and she loved the new Cheezy Almonds recipe, which I just ate all the rest of at this sitting.

    Thanks Bananna! I’ll pass along the link. He’s still toying with the idea and he has an apartment in Toronto but is in Orillia most of the time.

    Hey vegan2raw – apple fries with goji ketchup??!!! How did we miss that! Checking it out tomorrow. I love your button idea, you’re so right about them helping. Have you looked at hemp oil? I know nothing about DHA, my daughter gets a combination of hemp, chia and fish oil flavored capsules. As far as replacing the nuts, chia seeds are brilliant and fun to eat, lots of recipes here. Hemp is also fairly tasteless and easy to sprinkle on anything.

  • Hey!

    amysue: we have to run our a/c but we’re keeping it at78 with fans on. we’re right north of dallas texas and, yea, it gets hot.

    vegan2raw – good to see you! you are right about the involving kids! other than breastmilk, i don’t know good forms of dha. i’ve heard that young coconuts have lauric acid, healthy fats and electrolytes. maybe try mixing the supplements with smoothies? for the nuts – try pinenuts, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, tahini, avocado. those will give healthy fats.

    bananna – i love that watermelon is in season – sometimes thats our monomeal at breakfast!

    littlebirdie – before i saw your post, i posted some stuff on the homeschool thread. i hope your fasting continues well! my husband is currently on a 40 day fast (spiritual reasons for him too – of course there are amazing health benefits!) he’s got 2 weeks to go. he usually does 2 of these a year with other brief fasts mixed in. it is soooo weird to think he hasnt eaten in 4 weeks. weird. i’m a wimp – i whine if i go a couple hours without food – but then again, i’m nursing a one year old around the clock and i have no fat on my body to live off of. well, neither does my husband these days. heh heh heh. ; )

  • It’s been hot here, too, in the 90s, which is unusual for my area of New Mexico. I’m at 6500’ elevation, in the northeast quadrant where the Rockies dip down to the Great Plains. Usually it doesn’t reach higher than 75 in the summer. We’re all enjoying a lot of cooling watermelon at the moment – me in my juice fast, and my boys on the back porch.

    mamamilk – I’m doing a 40 day fast, too. I couldn’t have imagined doing a fast while my boys were nursing! So you are doing the right thing to eat! Your husband sounds like a strong person. Just doing one 40-day fast is kicking my butt!

  • Ha ha littlebirdie. yes it is butt kicking. just more layers of gobbledygook and flesh coming off of him. and yes, i’m eating.

    It’s supposed to be 105 today. its already almost 100. sounds beautiful where you live…

    so, i asked a similar question on the HS thread, but I’ll ask here too.

    1. What does your typical day look like as a raw mom? (challenges, victories, in home and in public) How would you like it to look?

    2. What are you goals, desires for your raw family/natural parenting lifestyle?

    3. What new foods are you wanting to give your kids today, or tomorrow, or the next day?

  • amysueamysue Raw Newbie

    Greatest challenge – finding a balance between micromanaging her every bit and letter her find her way. At a recent whale watch fundraising event I was on the dock and she was on the boat filled with people. She yelled to me to ask, in front of everyone, if she could have a ring pop. I asked where she got it and she said so-and-so’s grandmother wanted to give it to her. No pressure there. I said fine. Later she told me that an a friend of ours was horrified to see her eating a ring pop and told her she was eating poison.

    I’m very lucky right now, her personality of the week is a well-mannered English Rose. She goes through these experiments of trying out new personas and right now she’s a character from one of Madonna’s book who dresses very neatly, is very respectful to her parents and drinks tea.

  • green girlgreen girl Raw Newbie

    Artistruth..I try to hit the farmer’s market every Friday morning. I find it challenging with two little ones. My son is a wanderer with no fear of getting lost and my daughter’s favorite word is “up”. She is much too big to be carried and it makes buying my fruits and veggies difficult. My kids love to go there because they get to jump in the castle!

    I have never considered home schooling. I guess I should read up on it. My husband and I are both university grads, so it is a very foreign concept to me. I find the thought of it scary. It is such an important part of growing up, I would be scared that I wasn’t properly preparing them. I definitely need to do some research!

    I had a big success today…my daughter (2 yrs old) drank a lot of my green smoothie! I was very excited. Personally for me green smoothies are the most important part of my daily diet. I drink two blenders full a day. It may seem like a lot, but I also train to run marathons, so I burn a lot of calories on a daily basis. I will be running my first raw marathon in October. I am very excited to see the difference from my previous SAD marathons….sorry off topic.

    This thread is a great daily read! Thanks moms!

  • Hey greengirl, there’s a raw homeschool thread going on too. stop by. but to momentarily hijack this thread, i will say, amysue recommends John Holts writing about the subject. And, there is a book (I have not read it, but i’ll recommend anyway simply because the title is so very intriguing.) It’s entitled, “Morning by Morning: How We Home-Schooled Our African American Sons into the Ivy League”. All three of their sons were accepted into ivy league schools! ok, enough of that, there’s it’s own thread when it comes to home educating. ; )

    amysue, that is too funny – a ringpop.

    I know I should tell about the wonderful living food my kids tried and loved today, but that isn’t the case… the crappy new food my kids ate today was a soft pretzel from target… so wrong on so many levels… nice…real nice.

    sometimes people hear from others how we eat and when we’re invited to their home they’re all worried about what they should make. I just tell them to make something from their culture, or their favorite ‘guest impressing’ meal. they get so excited and inspired. and usually it’s something meaty and/or cooked. : ) In eating raw foods, I don’t want to seclude ourselves from engaging in others lives…

    I’m, trying to do more green juices and smoothies as a family. We’re trying to simplify our life even more in all areas of natural parenting – and we’re pretty simple by society standards. I just question lots – why do we need this or that??? It’s personal for everyone because of lifestyle, locale, culture, whether you work out side home, sahm, wahm, single mom, etc. etc. so what one person is can’t be for another – besides diversity is the spice of life. so, with that said, I’m re-evaluating my life constantly. It’s good. my life is so peaceful and full of joy and well being. Less really is more! I will never forget when I was about 20 and I heard my aunt tell my uncle, “Do these things own me or do I own them?” I use that as my plumbline when it comes to stuff. I’m so done with stuff. I just want an active life to spend laughing, loving and playing with my kids and whoever else we come across.

  • chicorychicory Raw Newbie

    It’s so refreshing to see that some parents want to give their children fresh fruits and veggies…. I know from working in an elementary school and seeing the crap that goes into kids lunches, that a lot of parents are too “busy” and just throw in a few prepackaged bits of junk. i nannied 4 years for an exceptionally bright autistic child. He had one of those corporate independent moms, that didn’t cook except for hamburger helper. (She bought expensive gourmet foods for her dinner parties though) That poor kid never tasted a fresh veggie. occasionally he got something from a can, which he hated~ cause canned green beans are nast! I tried ti introduce him to squash and asparagus, and a few other things. He would gag every time it touched his tounge, but after a while he got a bit better with it. We live in this crazy McDonalds after school snack generation, it’s so scary. I think toys should be banned from fast food restaurants, that’s what gets the kids screaming for it to begin with.

  • amysueamysue Raw Newbie

    green girl – I was like you with the homeschooling. I thought it was something you did if your child was too ill to attend school! I come from a family of public school teachers so it was very foreign to me too. It was just one woman I met who assumed I was going to homeschool after learning about my parenting style who stayed in my head all through the preschool years. That one question led to months of reading, and for me the answer was crystal clear. Scary at first, but clear. It is very interesting reading, if nothing else.

    mamamilk – need some of your peace and joy today, I’m sooooo grumpy!! Then my daughter switched personalities 2 minutes after her friend arrived (English Rose is gone) and I did a lot of silent angry miming to her so as not to embarrass her but to very clear that I was having none of it. We’re going to the doctor later to check out some itchy spots on her face which put me into a panic right before her friend arrived. I was listening to her and looking at her and I suddenly froze and my eyes got very big, so she said, “Is something wrong?” My mind suddenly formed the words, chicken pox. What if it’s chicken pox?? She’s vaccinated, but who knows, things happen. So we’re going to the doctor, which you know is one of my least favorite things to do. Could be poison ivy but it’s more spotty than rashy.

    Hey chicory – what do you do at the school?

  • Hey, mama said there’d be days like this….

    I get grumpy sometimes too. ; ) BUT may you find much peace and joy in the midst of the yuckies.

    And, may your english rose bloom once more. heh heh. sounds like you got yourself a little snapdragon today. hope the rash is nothing…

  • amysueamysue Raw Newbie

    ...mama said…mama said!

  • Hey everyone. My husband and I have 6 kids between us(14, 12, 7, 6, 5,and 2).. and we just transitioned them all to raw. I went raw to help manage my multiple sclerosis, and we’ve seen such a positive change in my symptoms that we started wondering what 100% raw would do for my 2 mentally ill, and learning disabled step kids. My step son (7)is on the Autism spectrum, and my step daughter (6) has bipolar disorder along with eating disorders. The kids have been vegetarian and mostly raw for 2 years, so we figured the jump to 100% would be no big deal. So far, it’s going well. After one week, my stepson is talking more easily, no more stuttering or inability to speak, his behavior is a lot more typical for a kid his age now, too, and he seems to be thinking more clearly. My step daughter just flipped to her manic stage, so we won’t know for a couple weeks how the new diet is affecting her.

    Oh.. and we also homeschool. All 6 of the them. I’ve been a hsing mom since my 14 yr old was 2.

    So glad this thread was started.

  • Great to see you here msraw! I have 6 bio and 2 nonbio children. big families are great and natural parenting is so nourishing!

    best to you in this journey – seems like you are well seasoned in it all. we can learn much from you i imagine… Have you found that the autism is better when he’s casein and gluten free? looking forward to updates on your daughter. peace.

    The homeschool thread is on the “other stuff” forum where we speak more detail on homeschooling, and raw life.

  • Hey Everyone. I am mummy to a 10year old (girl) and 5year old and 12month old boys. My husband has been vegan for 9years and myself for 8. We have been going backwards and forwards with being raw now for about 2 years. My hubby is currently 100% raw. Myself and the kids are at about 80 – 90%% raw. We are in California. Any other California mums?

  • mamamilk- we’ve all been completely gluten and mostly casein free for a couple years. Yeah, there was a huge difference in him, and his bipolar sister off the gluten and casein. Mostly in behavior, they’re both much calmer without the gluten and casein. Avoiding food additives helped a lot , too. The diet changes have been a long process. When my husband and I met he and his kids were eating a typical SAD. My 3 kids and I were veg, and I made it really clear that I would not be changing that, as a result, his 3X a week fast food trips stopped. And I’ve been slowly changing the kids’ diets ever since. (it’s been 4 years to this point). My husband’s great, though. He’s gone raw with me and the kids, because he sees the difference raw has made with my multiple sclerosis, and sees the other diet changes have helped the kids. We have an understanding.. I’ll go out of my way to find raw recipes he’ll like and he’ll only do fast food for lunch at work once every 3 months or so. I’m hoping being raw helps my step daughter, although I’m concerned about her getting enough calories. She has anorexia and bulimia as well as the bipolar disorder. So far, I’ve noticed she’s eating more than usual, but the kids have only been eating 100 % raw for a week and a half. I’ve been raw for about 6 weeks or so

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    I’m a frustrated raw mom, right now! My son just decided on Sunday that he wanted to do only raw food for 106 days (started at 100, then he went up). Four days later and a horrible temptation at a friend’s house (I didn’t think about warning them or him because it was a spur of the moment run to the neighbor’s house to play), and he doesn’t want to do it any more. He doesn’t want popcorn with olive oil and sea salt; he is screaming for junk food! He doesn’t want to go with out popscicles, ice cream, cake, hamburgers…He’s got a cousin with a birthday party this Saturday, and then a family potluck the next day. These things are regular & won’t go away or get healthier any time in the foreseeable future.

    I’m wondering how to handle this, especially when school starts – he will take his own lunch, but he will be in a class with people bringing birthday treats, class parties with cupcakes & suckers…I WISH I could homeschool him, but I’m a single mom going to school – it’s not happening. I AM planning to talk to his teacher about the things she provides and I may offer to provide all the class snacks/treats and prizes if she is unwilling to do healthier stuff. I want to suggest to her that rewards be things like cool pencils or something, rather than our children being taught that filling their bodies with toxins is somehow a reward for doing a good job at something. I just know my son does soooo much better in school and everything else, if he doesn’t eat processed foods, and I want him to have every advantage possible to help him follow his dreams and accomplish the good things he will want to do in life. Another issue with the school treats – people aren’t allowed to bring home-made stuff; only pre-packaged. I’m discouraged & frustrated!

  • Hey Raw105! Good to see you as a fellow breastfeeding mom. My youngest is 14 months and still on a monodiet of booby-juice. : ) You look to be about my size too – teeny tiny. You are cute. It’s nice to see your whole family eating healthy. Many of the people here have SAD partners. You and I are the few blessed ones whose husbands love raw and natural parenting!

    Angie!! Argghhh! Stay firmly planted – he won’t starve – even if he goes on a ‘food strike’. Have mercy, his behavior is just the yucky food talking – he’s just momentarily possessed by it. LOL. With gatherings, parties, events, it’s not as easy to stay all raw or even healthy and often you have to go with the flow, picking and choosing the best of the worst at the event, giving him lots of water, coconut water, and green juice (if you can get it in him) to flush his system. Now with school, I suggest you do what you already know to do – elect yourself the class mom! Do the things you’re thinking of – nonfood rewards; and when it comes to snacks for the class – try some of the discount chains that have the pre-prepared veggie/fruit trays, big fruit baskets with easy peel fruits… That sucks that you can’t bring home-made stuff! That is limiting! You will be inspired, I just know it. And when it comes to being at lunch around the SAD eaters – he’ll be making the decision since you won’t be there – that’s the part of letting go that is hard for all of us moms! Blessings and peace!

  • amysueamysue Raw Newbie

    Hey msraw! So good to hear about your experiences, I think it will be so helpful (I started to type hopeful, maybe that too) for others to hear how it goes for you, wow. Keep us updated, it’s fascinating.

    Raw105 – you have quite the range too! Lots of adventures, I’m sure.

    Oh angie, this is happening in my town right now! There’s a big battle going on in the schools, dueling petitions about whether there should be schoolwide policies about food in the classromm for holidays and birthday parties, or if it should be left up to the teachers. A lot of it has to do with kids with allergies but there’s also concern about the abundance of sugar being served in the classroom as treats. I can imagine how frustrating that must be for you. I went through it when my daughter went to preschool. It was a coop and we took turns bringing in the snack. They had some restrictions, but generally our kids got some kind of sugary treat every day, especially on birthdays. As far as your son not going 100%, that could be a good thing for now, only because if he’s feeling so indecisive right now it might be better if he sticks to the middle ground rather than going from one extreme to the other. My mom raised us with mostly healthy homemade food, sent us to school with healthy lunches, but in second grade a friend of mine brought me a Twinkie every single day. Talking to the teacher seems like a great start, very proactive of you to offer the treats! Hopefully some other raw moms with kids at school can help you with the problem. My only suggestion is to do what I do, and what mamamilk suggested and FLUSH IT ALL OUT when he gets home with the best possible foods. Try to realize that if he has one cupcake a day and the rest is healthy, that’s a small percentage of what he is eating. There are kids eating just the opposite on a daily basis.

  • Amysue, are you having a better day? ; )

  • amysueamysue Raw Newbie

    Yes yes, thanks for asking. Yesterday was just a toxic day all around. Tomorrow we leave for Martha’s Vineyard for a wedding so I’m starting to get excited. Did my food shop, will probably be the only person bringing bags of food on the ferry, I’m sure they eat there, just don’t want to be without my food! The dehydrator’s cranking with Cheezy Almonds, Ginger Almonds and soon…Kale Chips.

  • Mamamilk,

    Yes I do feel pretty fortunate we are both into health. It definitely helps especially with the kids. I know it would probably be a tad bit confusing if mummy was a health nut and daddy lived on SAD.

    I noticed the pic of your family. You must be one busy mama. How on earth do you do it?

  • green girlgreen girl Raw Newbie

    Both of my kids have been drinking a little green smoothie for two days straight!!! I am very excited! This is a long transition period for me. I have been 100% raw for 7 months now, but transitioning my kids is sure a challenge. This is a great day!

    My daughter also loved her banana carob powder popsicle yesterday too! Chocolate messy face…sooo cute!

    Hope everyone else is having a great raw day!

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