We parents desire to see our children master the basics of education...the three Rs of Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic...as well as the other subjects that add enrichment to their understanding of life and the world in which we live. Should we not also desire that they excel in the basics of healthy, nourishing life skills? If we send our children out into the world without full knowledge of health and wellness, are they truly educated and ready to care for themselves and their future families? It is essential that we actively teach our children the three Rs of healthy natural living: Real Food, Real Medicine and Real Birth.
I used to believe that my children would just absorb, as through osmosis, the knowledge and lifestyle my husband and I model for them...that they would seamlessly adopt our nourishing and healing lifestyle. But if we expect children to grow in wisdom and understanding, we must instruct them. Anything worth knowing and worth doing is worth studying. Children need to be actively taught so they will be firmly established in correct knowledge and practices. Whether it be faith, academics, arts, music and craftsmanship, or nurturing health habits, instruction is key to developing worthwhile skills and lasting principles.
There is a war on for our children's minds and their future consumerist habits. The industrial models of food and medicine reign supreme as the established default position in our modern culture. If our children are not firmly entrenched in truth, which path will they choose? If we don't equip them with the tools of knowledge and skills, they may fall prey to our society's "trust the experts" conventional mindset. We don't want our children to be intellectually illiterate...neither should we allow them to be "healthily" illiterate. If we don't actively choose an alternate path...seek ancient and traditional and sensical and natural (and somewhere-buried instinctual) wisdom...we all end up on the Standard American Diet and our culture's standard of health care and birth practices. It is simply the truth of cultural influence, conventional education, and the prevailing established industries. [For example: Despite a cornucopia of evidence to the contrary, we still live in a society where most conventionally trained dietitians and medical students are still taught the lipid hypothesis and the S.A.D. basics of macronutrient theory. They don't distinguish between high fructose corn syrup and honey, hydrogenated soy oil and butter...they play a numbers game. If the label shows the right percentages of fat, sugar, protein, and a sundry list of vitamins, that's all that matters. Food source and preparation technique is largely irrelevant. They remain willfully ignorant of the fact that industrial, synthetic, refined, processed edible goods are not Food.]
Why would we sacrificially and lovingly invest our time and effort for the benefit of our children (from conception)...to protect their health and work to establish a strong physical foundation for their future lives...only to have them leave our home and go on to poison themselves with a conventional industrial life of synthetic food and medicine and fear-based practices? It is our duty to make sure they fully comprehend the principles of genuine health and nourishment on which we raised them. If we neglect to actively educate them about the benefits and value of traditional healthy living, can we assume they are invested in pursuing the right choices? They need to understand...before they are autonomous...the why and the how of nourishing and healing. If we care about our children, we desire for them good and not ill. We want to make sure they care and that they are capable and that they desire spouses also "in the know." Because we will certainly want the same good for our grandchildren that we desired for our children.
Many of us are pioneers in this real food, real health realm. When I left my parents' home, I was a "dumb cluck." I knew nothing about being a wife and mother, about food and health. My husband and I were blessed to grow together in our knowledge as I was mentored by older women who knew better and lived better. Before I became enlightened to the truth about nourishment and real healing, I continued to perpetrate the damage to my body that was begun in my childhood. I know firsthand how terribly difficult it is to reverse long-established chronic health problems. I know firsthand the effects of industrial food and medicine. I have suffered "garbage in, garbage out." When I learned what it meant to heal, how to do the hard work to try to reverse ailments, how to create healthy bodies from before conception, I dedicated myself to a new...a better...way of living. Would I want any less for my children? I am creating for them a legacy and I desire to see them carry the mantle forward when they are no longer under my direct care. I want more for my children, so I do the work for them now. And I expect more from my children in their future choices because they were raised in this healing lifestyle. They are being reared with a proper perspective on food and healing...much is being invested into creating for them strong and healthy bodies. They are being given a foundation for their futures. They are being given the precious gift of good health. Their quality of life, their abilities to achieve and to conquer and to create and to enjoy life, depends upon maintaining good health (physically, mentally and spiritually). Our children need to apprehend and adopt the path of nurturing upon which we have set them. They don't get to play dumb cluck when they graduate into adulthood and leave our homes. They are leaps ahead of where most of us were in our youth, and they need to understand how good they have it, how well nurtured they have been, and how grateful they should be to have the opportunity to experience life from a platform of health and wellness.
Whether you homeschool or not, you can teach your children the skills and knowledge they need to sustain the healthy lifestyle you are working so hard to establish for them. Talk to your children about the choices you have made for yourself and for them. Explain sowing and reaping. And when they are old enough, assign your children reading materials that teach the principles of Real Food, Real Medicine, Real Birth. Our children should be prepared to cook traditional nourishing food for themselves. They should understand holistic physiology and know basic botanical medicine so they can successfully deal with ailments and minor emergencies. And should they need deeper assistance dealing with disease or extreme acute trauma, they should know how, when, why and from whom to seek help. They should understand a nourishing fertility diet, and comprehend the truth behind our profit-driven technocratic birth industry. They should know why homebirth actually is safer for the majority of women and babies. They should know how to avoid being victimized by industrial medical protocols.
Teach your children well...train them now, and when they grow older they will be prepared to thrive. Don't leave it up to chance. Whatever you want your children to know, give them opportunities to explore and acquire foundational knowledge. Make them active participants in their own healing and nourishing. Don't just serve them, teach them to minister to themselves and to others. Make it fun, make it appealing, and make sure they understand why we do what we do.
Young children can begin to learn the basics of how the body works, how it is amazingly self-healing when treated properly... they can begin to learn about healing plants, and good vs. bad foods. They can be given the default position that women's bodies were made to have babies and that is not a scary or impossible thing. By the time they are in high school, children should have a basic food and healing curriculum that includes topics on traditional nourishing foods; how diet affects growth and degeneration, wellness or illness; the truth about fat and cholesterol; basic anatomy and physiology from a holistic perspective; botanical medicine; natural birth; and food and medical politics and history.
We work diligently so our babies and children are spared the devastation that the alternatives to nourishing food and botanical medicine can wreak. We are protecting our children from the S.A.D life that greedy corporations wish they would live. Let us not take for granted that our children will vicariously adopt our nurturing guiding principles. Let us actively instruct them so they will not fall prey to the mistaken elitist notion that they need some expert to take care of them or control them. Let us teach them that they can and should take charge of their own health and make their own nourishing meals and apply their own healing remedies. Let us be proactive in giving our children the tools and education they need to understand why and how they should do the rewarding work required to pursue and enjoy the naturally nourishing, healing lifestyle.
Some References for Getting Started
