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Library Used Book Sales in North Texas

Lancaster – February 4-6
Lewisville – February 6-7
Wichita Falls – February 6
Cedar Park – February 20-22
Carrollton – February 25-28

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Dates of Classes: Wednesdays, March 3rd – April 21st (8 weeks)

Time of Classes: 10:00 – 11:30 am

Location: Meet at the Bear Creek Pavillion

Cost: $3/child per program

These hands-on classes will focus on the life sciences and will be interactive and engaging for all students, supplementing what is taught at home. Topics covered will include insects, wildflowers, the water cycle, soil and trees. All age ranges are accommodated during lessons.

Questions about the program? Or want to sign-up?

Contact:

Linda Dunn, Naturalist
Bear Creek Nature Park 1000 Bear Creek Road (physical address)
1700 Veterans Memorial Pkwy. (mailing address)
Lancaster, TX 75134
972-218-7339

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Saturdays, February 13th and 20th

1:00 – 3:30 p.m., Tech Lab

Center for Creative Connections, Dallas Museum of Art

Consider experiences and memories associated with private spaces like your home and public spaces like a museum.  This two-part workshop is designed for youth ages 14-18 and will be taught by Cassandra Emswiler, UT Dallas M.F.A. candidate and artist.  The workshop includes time in the galleries viewing work by artists in the Museum collection and time in the Tech Lab working in both traditional and non-traditional art media and processes.  Participants will sketch and photograph, as well as create images using Adobe Photoshop Elements software and Google Sketch-Up.  All supplies and equipment are included.  Email nstutzman@dallasmuseumofart.org to register.

This class is included in the price of admission.  Admission for middle school and high school students is $5 with a student i.d. card.

Visit the Dallas Museum of Art Educator Blog!

Baby-led feeding is an approach to solid food introduction that allows baby to explore and discover whole food on their own with parental supervision.

With baby-led feeding you give baby whole foods or foods cut into hand size spears or slices so that baby learns what is a comfortable and manageable bit size for them. This helps develop baby’s taste and texture sensations to natural food, and helps create their independence at the dinner table as well. Read More…

I, Leigh Anne DuChene, have researched, taught, and coached on holistic or natural baby-led weaning or baby-led feeding for 3 years now; through classes, online support, and one-on-one coaching.

I now offer my services through DuChene Natural Health Center’s Nourishing Origins. Our February Baby-Led Feeding classes are now scheduled, with more to come. Special offer when you register early, see below for details!

Join us on:

Baby-Led Feeding Class – Thursday, February 18, 2010 – 6:30 PM

Baby-Led Feeding Class – Saturday, February 27, 2010 – 1:00 PM

For more details and to register go to www.BabyLedFeeding.com

Worried about termites? Squirrels in the attic driving you nuts? Experts in the pest control field will give you tips on protecting your home from unwanted visitors at this Living Green class at the TRAC, Saturday, November 21 at 10am. Learn from the professionals about safe, organic insect control and humane mammal exclusion & removal. We’ll focus on practical solutions that work without harming the environment. $20 per person. Reserve your place by calling Pauline Schafer at 214-309-5815 or register online at www.trinityriveraudubon.org.

The Trinity River Audubon Center is located at 6500 South Loop 12, just about 2 miles east of interstate 45 in Dallas.

Placenta Encapsulation is a new and rapidly growing postpartum care profession. Through the extensive efforts of Jodi Selander, founder of Placenta Benefits.info (PBi), and her network of Placenta Encapsulation Specialist throughout the United States placenta encapsulation is becoming a well known and highly sought after postpartum care service. First looked at as an on-the-fringe trend, as placental use is not as common in our country as it is in other countries, placenta encapsulation is now being brought to the forefront of postpartum care as a well established and scientifically researched and sound practice that has enormous benefits to a postpartum mother during postpartum recovery. Placenta Encapsulation Specialists are self-employed and able to set their own clientele load, hours of work, and fees.

Leigh Anne DuChene, is the DFW, Texas area’s only Certified Placenta Encapsulation Specialist, and is now the area’s Placenta Encapsulation Specialist Manager, as PBi and Leigh Anne DuChene, of DuChene Natural Health Center, actively seek out interested women for Placenta Encapsulation Specialist Training in the Dallas and Fort Worth Metroplex area and other areas of Texas, as well.

As a Placenta Encapsulation Specialist you are a postpartum wellness resource to your clients. You provide a service, answer questions about postpartum healing, wellness, and care, and you refer them to appropriate resources for postpartum care when necessary. Postpartum care issues can include, but are not limited to, postpartum depression issues, physical recovery, emotional recovery, postpartum nutrition, lactation or breastfeeding, lactation nutrition, and various other postpartum issues. You are not expected to have all the answers, you are instead the postpartum mother’s resource to connect her with those who can answer her questions or assist her in her needs.

The Placenta Training Course through PBi teaches you proper preparation methods according to Traditional Chinese Medicine, educates you on the benefits of placental use, teaches you how to answer questions about placental use, educates you on the OSHA, EPA, and FDA safety protocols, requires that you get your food safety & handlers training for your area, and teaches you through hands-on training how to prepare the placenta for mother safely, properly, and legally.

If you are interested in becoming a Placenta Encapsulation Specialist, or have questions about the training or service, please contact Leigh Anne DuChene at LeighAnne@DuCheneNaturalHealth.com.

For information on the research and benefits of placental use please visit www.placentabenefits.info/articles.asp.

Copyright – Rethinking Everything Magazine

DFW’s very own, Barb Lundgren runs the area’s yearly “Rethinking Education IS Rethinking Everything” conference. This year’s conference was held in Westlake, TX over Labor Day weekend back in September and was fantastic. Well, Barb has some great new things for her conference, including the NEW “Rethinking Everything Magazine”!

This magazine is going to be a great resource for area unschooling or whole life learning families, and homeschoolers a like!

Let’s support Barb and the “Rethinking Everything Magazine”!

For more information visit www.RethinkingEverythingMagazine.net.

Baby Bond (a brand new, updated version of Baby Matters: What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Caring for Your Baby) author Dr. Linda Folden Palmer will be speaking to Houston residents at a book signing at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 10. Want to organize a presentation for your group right here in Dallas/Fort Worth? Read more about how to bring Dr. Palmer to a meeting of your group, later in this article.

Dr. Palmer’s book exhaustively lists the scientific evidence behind attachment parenting, breastfeeding and the reality of food allergies … Dr. Palmer shows how the establishment of science-conquering-nature has caused unnecessary suffering and heartache to parents and babies alike. — Vegetarian Baby and Child

Dr. Linda Palmer’s rebuttals of current mainstream child-rearing trends (artificial infant food, cow’s milk consumption) do not stop at their negative impact on infants but rather create a compelling and well-cited argument for their links with lifelong negative complications. — Journal of Human Lactation

Read more of Dr. Palmer’s articles on healthy, natural parenting online at her web site.

Organize your own program with Dr. Palmer

Dr. Palmer is available to speak to groups of 25 or more, so coordinate with several playgroups or parenting groups and bring Dr. Palmer to your own Houston event. Presentations may be tailored to parent groups or health professionals. Dr. Palmer may also be available in Dallas/Fort Worth. Contact Dr. Palmer directly to learn more about possible speaking dates for your group of 25 or more in Texas on Oct. 9-11.

See Dr. Palmer at Barnes and Noble in Houston:

2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 10
Barnes & Noble
12850 Memorial Drive, Houston 77024
(713) 465-5616

What would happen if you let your child stay out of school to explore whatever she is most interested in doing for as long as she wanted to do it? It’s not as outlandish as it might sound. It’s called “unschooling” and thousands of families find it just the ticket to a creative, individualized education. Hundreds of unschoolers from all over the country will converge at the Marriott Solana Hotel & Spa in Westlake Sept. 4-8 for Rethinking Education, an international confluence for unschooling families.

The 13th annual event, founded and produced by unschooling parent and Colleyville resident Barb Lundgren, features nonstop workshops, activities and fellowship for parents, teens and children alike.

• Freedom and education
• Parenting and community
• Entrepreneuring
• Alternative therapies for well-being
• Sustainability
• Retirement
• Spirit
• Gobs of cool sessions and activities for kids, teens and young adults
• “One Big Apartment” for teens and young adults
• Art, music, dance

Also known as “child-led,” “interest-led” or “inquiry-based” learning, unschooling is a style of home educating that follows a child’s individual and developmental passions. “Interest-initiated learning works well for children with a deep, abiding interest or hobby, as well as for students with clearly delineated goals,” writes Karen Taylor in the California Home School Network’s The California Home School Guide. On the flip side, she admits, “Some say that unschooling results in educational gaps, holes in a student’s knowledge.”

Gaps? Many unschoolers worry about those later, rather than sooner. Unschooling is more a whole-family lifestyle than an educational approach or curriculum. Unschooling parents strive to deluge their families in a rich stream of educational opportunities and “real life” experiences. The aim is to give kids not only the space to discover their own interests but also the tools to dive in when they’re ready to “fill the gaps” with gusto.

For more questions about unschooling or the conference, visit Rethinking Education for details on its array of programs and to register for the conference.

They’re eco-friendly, they’re cute, they’re cost-effective, they’re natural … And now, cloth diapers are local, as the Real Diaper Association forms a local chapter here in the Plano area.  The RDA’s bottom line: supporting and teaching parents about diapering choices on a personal level.

If you’re a fan of the fluff, now’s the time to get involved.  The fledgling group is seeking experienced cloth diapering parents to mentor new diaperers,  as well as leaders or members of parenting or new-parent groups (moms’ groups, childbirth educators, etc.) interested in having the RDA visit their group with a show-and-tell on cloth diapers. 

Oh, and if you’re new to cloth diapering — no worries, the RDA is looking for members like you, too! The RDA is a great way to learn more about diapering options without being restricted to information about a particular product line and without any pressure to buy.

Interested? Local chapter organizer Angela Imes has launched a Google Group for Plano Cloth, with plans to hold a meeting at a public library in Plano to gather feedback on the best times and locations for future kid-friendly meetings. Contact her via e-mail or by phone at 972.310.7695.

Discover more local cloth diapering resources on our Natural Shopping page.