Nellie you said your little one also signed apple. Did you also teach her to sign. If so when did you start teaching her signs?

I started to get back into listening to music for myself and for LO. Glad to here that background music is enough as I was wondering if LO would hear it or not. I've noticed since starting to listen again that I've been singing more around the house like I used to (I'm a shower singer from way back). I also started to sing childrens songs and nursery rhymes that I remember to my husbands dismay.

 Mandabplus3  Our family lived in Papua New Guinea for 2 1/2 years when I was a kid and the only food avaliable was freshly grown from a  local's garden or our own. Everything was organic and grown in beautiful volcanic soil. No one in our family was sick when we lived there (a part from baby brothers asthma and dads maleria) and when we returned to Australia no one was sick for the first 12 months. Aferwards it was a totally different story.

Skylark I don't know how similar cough syrup for little ones is from 25 years ago but my mum was giving it to me when I was 2 years old once and every 4 hours I would come up to her and cough like i needed more. She got curious and looked on the label. It said Alcohol 17% and that was enough for her the throw it away. She thought she was turning me into an alcoholic.

lelask  my cousin was tiny for her age and she ate like a horse, she caught up in her teens as well.

I'm curious about Paracetamol (Panadol etc) for myself I try not to take if I have a fever because I recognised that if I let my body sweat out the cold it will only last 24 to 48 hours,  but if I take Paracetamol for any reason it drags out the cold for nearly a week. What I would like to know is what about babies and toddlers. Their temperature regulating system isn't fully developed and it can be dangerous if they overheat. Is it fine to let them heat up a little or should you administer childrens panadol as soon as there is the first sign of a fever.
 

I want to do something but I really don't know where to start. I'm not on twitter and very rarely go on facebook. I guess I know a few mums who are on the web more then me. I could tell them about it.

My SIL was sick constantly during the end of her teaching degree she started taking fresh parsley from her garden and now she's a full time teacher surrounded by kids being sick all the time and hasn't had much more than a cold. She makes her boys tak parsley now when they're sick and they recover much quicker.

Another trick I heard was, if you couldn't eat garlic was to crush a few cloves into some very warm water and to soak your feet in it for about 20mins to 30mins. The garlic goes straight into your blood stream. My Husband says he feels it working after 20 mins. It definatly lessens the severity of colds and flus

I would also look into getting a food intollerence test done. This is the Australia web site but it is all done from in Germany. http://www.imupro.com.au/ I'm sure there would be one for the US or what ever country your in. Its the only blood test in the world for food intollerences and very acurate. I used to get sick constantly and even had problems conceiving because my immune system was fighting the food I was eating and not the bad bugs. I found out I had an intollerence to 69 different foods. Its hard to cut out because i basically couldn't eat any processed foods, but as soon as I cut those foods out of my diet within a matter of weeks I had so much more energy, my brain fog lifted, my mood was so much better. (Some of the foods were the main culprates like gluten, wheat, sugar, milk and eggs). The best news was after two months of being on the new diet, I fell pregnant and have been able to continue that pregnancy (I had a previous miscarriage about 12 months before).

Just by reading some of the material I've realised that in my family I'm surrounded by HSP. Some who have come to terms with it and others not. My Husband is highly sensitive also, but much better at validating himself and his needs. I think its good to discover things like this about ourselves before we become parents, I belive it will help me be a better parent whether or not my little one is highly sensitive. I for one would like to get stuck into some of the books.

Frukc I too believe that I was a HSC  (Just took quiz and ticked most boxes) and also learnt to hide my emotions, be silent about my needs etc from a very young age I believe it changed me from being extroverted to be introverted. It to led to depression, self harm and sucidal thoughts (I was also stuggling with health issues). My mother always said that I was sentistive especially as a child but I don't think she ever realised how sensitive I was. I have slowly learnt to overcome my depression with the help of a very loving husband who is understading when I have had enough of people and socializing.

I really wish I had known about HSP sooner though. I realised long ago that I cannot be in a group of more that a few people and still continue to add to the conversation. My mind is too busy trying to absorb all the information, i just listen to what everyone is saying. There is so much I pick up with out realising until I go back and reflect on the conversation later.

The other thing is since my pregnancy I have noticed that I have become more sensitive to things. Or perhaps I always was sensitive but my pregnanacy has made me more aware of it. Makes me wonder if LO is going to be a HSC.

So much helpful information. I've been inspired by the mummy blogs I've been looking at recently. I think it will be such a great thing to do once my own LO has come along.

Hi Em, Loved the point about teaching the underlying priciples. As a child and  still today as an adult I am able to pick things up quicker and more likely keep them in my long tearm memory if I know the hows and the whys behind things. I'm wired up that way. In my case I really enjoyed maths in school until I had a really incompetent teacher in grade 9 who actaully wasn't a maths teacher. He couldn't tell my why and how things worked and I went from being a straight A student in Maths to a D student. I found most students where happy being told that this is what works and this is what we use but I wonder if they every retained any of that knowledge for the long term.

The other thing that hindered me retaining things for the long term was teachers saying silly things when students asked if they were ever going to use what they learn in a real life situation. I even recall in primary school teachers replying that no they will never used it in a real life. If only the teacher took time to realise that math skills and commuincation skill are so important if you want to be sucessfull in so many different areas of your life.

Daddude I know for me something like spaced repetion (especailly for the subjects I loved) would have helped me to retain information beyond exams. I never truely studdied even at university and retained enough information to pass (in subjects I wasn't really interested in) and sometimes even achive high marks (in subjects that I really loved) in an exam. But ask me about it now 5 years down the track and I wouldn't have a single clue. On the other hand ask me about the books that I own in my library and I would be able to give you detailed information simply because I read them approximately once a year. The ones that i received in childhood and haven't read for a few years would be the same.

I really enjoyed that article. I plan on Homeschooling my children for as long as I can.

As a child I experienced going to public, private (christian) and homeschool. Homeschool was based on a set curriculum, based on the public school curriculum of the State of Queensland were our family was from originally. I must say out of all three  I still enjoyed HS the best.

Growing up I always felt dumb because my brain wasn't wired up to learn the way that school teaches us. I spent most of my early school years gazing out of windows or at walls. My mother who didn't know any different, didn't realise that the way things were being taught through repetition was just plain to slow and me having to read through copious amounts of information (in HS) was too boring. I was more of a hands on practical learner as well as an auditory learner. I noticed this for myself as I would be able to recall facts taught in classes of interest to me in  Public High School for exams with no study at all. I began to realise that actully I was quite intelligent but had never understood the system. I also took a IQ test on the internet by a reputed website and found that I actaully had above average Intelligence.

I now know intellignece is so much more than recalling facts and have eagerly devoured books and other information regarding various aspects of the mind, how it works and focussing on a persons abilities and strengths, whenever they have come across my path. Since coming across this websight I feel I should have been a little more proactive in my research for my own future reference.

One book I thouroughly enjoyed was by Robert Kiyosaki titled "If you want to be rich and happy don't go to school" He focused more on the pitfalls of the education system. How it didn't prepare people for the practical aspects of life and how it trained people to think in only one way.

Hi, I'm a soon to be mum, I'm living in Western Australia. I became interested in early learning after seeing YBCR  advertised on day time television. I was frustrated by the school system due to my own experiences and made up my mind to one day homeschool my own kids for at least a couple of years.  I really didn't start researching early learning until after I became pregnant. I'm looking forward to become what Domain calls a professional mum since I discovered my own love of learning when I was in University and can't wait to see my own children discover learning for themselves.

This is such a great idea. My LO isn't even born yet but I have been facinated by early learning. I would be interested in exchanging postcards in a few years. I hope you'll be willing to revisit this idea when my LO is old enough. I live in Western Australia.