Fern Hill Homestead

08/24/2022

https://www.instagram.com/reel/ChnrQobAOWW/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=

Breezy shared a post on Instagram: "". Follow their account to see 663 posts.

08/23/2022

"It’s more commonly known today that toddlers should be learning to walk barefooted as much as possible so they can feel what they touch with their feet and develop muscle strength. However all children receive important sensory information from the soles of their feet touching the ground as they develop— and it may now be best advice for all children to be encouraged to ditch the shoes when they can, no matter what their age."

Read more here:
https://neurosciencenews.com/motor-skill-footwear-9552/

08/19/2022

04/15/2022

Here are some fun ideas for nature journaling!

04/12/2022

Science keeps telling us to our children. It's interesting how many scientists are now focusing on the thinking that happens not in your but in your . You have spread through your innards, and there's increasing attention on the vagus nerve, which emerges from the brain stem and wanders across the heart, lungs, kidney and gut.

The nerve is one of the pathways through which the body and brain talk to each other in an unconscious conversation. Much of this conversation is about how we are relating to others. Human thinking is not primarily about individual calculation, but about social engagement and .

Stephen Porges is well-known for his “Polyvagal Theory,” which focuses on how the concept of is fundamental to our mental state. Porges tells us that those who have experienced have bodies that are highly reactive to perceived threat. They don't like public places with loud noises. They live in fight-or-flight mode, stressed and anxious. Or, if they feel trapped and constrained, they go numb. Their voice and tone go flat.

Physical reactions shape our way of seeing and being. When we're really young we know few emotion concepts. Young children say, “I hate you!” when they mean “I don't like this” because they haven't learned their culture's concepts for hatred vs. badness. But as we get older we learn more emotional granularity. The emotionally wise person can create distinct experiences of disappointment, anger, spite, resentment, grouchiness and aggravation, whereas for a less emotionally wise person those are all synonyms for “I feel bad.” A wise person may know the foreign words that express emotions we can't name in English: tocka (Russian, roughly, for spiritual anguish) or litost (Czech, roughly, for misery combined with the hunger for revenge). People with high emotional granularity respond flexibly to life, have better mental health outcomes and drink less.

Cuddles help develop emotional granularity. If bodily reactions can drive people apart they can also heal. Martha Welch of Columbia University points to the importance of loving physical touch to lay down markers of .

Under the old brain-only paradigm, we told people to self-regulate their emotions through conscious self-talk. But real emotional help comes through co-regulation. When a caregiver and a child physically hold each other, their bodily autonomic states harmonise, connecting on a level. Together they move from separate distress to mutual calm.

When we step back and see the brain and body thinking together, the old distinction between reason and emotion doesn't seem to make sense. Our very perceptions of the world are shaped by the predictions our brains are making about our physical autonomic states. And we can also see how important it is to teach emotional granularity, starting from birth.

https://cstu.io/853e81

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04/10/2022

Yes! The science cannot be refuted! Hug those little kids and babies!

Studies show a mother's affection is important for a child's development and emotional wellbeing. Here's how you can show more affection.

04/07/2022

Can only one type of play benefit kids? Or, is this a fallacy that's inhibiting parents' ability to accomplish critical goals such as problem solving for kids?

04/03/2022

Synthetic aromas are largely made up of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which float through the air, are inhaled, and then enter the bloodstream. These highly popular aromatic liquids are actually chemicals, including benzene, lactones and aldehydes, all of which have been linked to cancer, birth defects, central nervous system disorders, neurological disorders, and/or allergic reactions, including eye, skin and respiratory symptoms.

🐾 Our animals often spend their days stuck inside our homes, unable to get away from these airborne pollutants; if your goal is to remove damaging chemicals from your family’s living environment, the first place to start is by unplugging plug-ins. To learn more about cleaning up your home to improve your furry family’s health, check out our new book The Forever Dog. Available at: www.foreverdog.com

03/31/2022

One of the Best Foods to Slow Dog Aging: Spinach!🍃🐶

Folate is an essential B vitamin💊 found in food. It helps with the production of DNA and without folate new, healthy DNA cannot be created. Cell biologist and longevity researcher Rhonda Patrick, PhD, maintains that “a deficiency in folate is equivalent to standing under ionizing radiation due to the DNA damage it causes.” And DNA🧬 damage is a BIG contributor to aging.

More recently, folate has also been shown to play a role in protecting telomeres, those important structures at the end of chromosomes that are shortened with age and lifestyle choices; shorter telomeres are associated with shorter lifespan and higher incidence of disease. Being highly heat-sensitive🔥, folate is one of the first nutrients to be inactivated in processed pet food.

In addition to its many vitamins and minerals, spinach provides antioxidants tied to anti-inflammation and disease protection. These include kaempferol, a flavonoid shown to reduce the risk of cancer, as well as slow its growth and spread. Another, called quercetin, has been linked to possible protective effects on memory🧠 as well as heart disease🫀 and type 2 diabetes. Two of the lesser-known glycoglycerolipid components of spinach🍃 include sulfoquinovosyl diacylglycerol (SQDG) and monogalactosyl diacylglycerol (MGDG), which are known for their anti-cancer activity. Overall, spinach contains the second-largest quantity of total glycoglycerolipids among other popular vegetables!

How to prepare spinach🍃 for you and your dog?

Scientists say the best way to consume spinach for maximum lutein intake may be puréed. That’s because when spinach is chopped into small pieces, more lutein is released from the leaves. Older research found that cooking also impacts the folate content of spinach; boiling slashed this B vitamin level by nearly half. Steaming, however, resulted in no significant loss of folate! Cooking also diminishes the vitamin E levels in spinach (and reduces oxalates, if you want to reduce oxalate consumption) but actually increases the amount of beta carotene. So it can be served cooked or raw.

Looking for an easy recipe to get spinach into your dog? Try making our Spinach Longevity Cubes! 🍃🧊🐾

INGREDIENTS-

* 5 ounces of fresh or steamed spinach🍃 (preferably organic)
* 2/3 cup of water (even better, try bone🦴, beef🐮 or chicken🐔 broth, preferably organic)

INSTRUCTIONS-

* Add spinach and water (or broth) in a blender and puree. If the mixture seems too thick, add in extra broth.🍵
* Pour the puree into ice cube trays and freeze until solid.🧊
* Store in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Add 1 ice cube🧊 per 30lbs of body weight🐕 a day to your dog’s meal.

This is one simple and powerful way to add longevity benefits to your dog’s bowl! Looking for more ideas or recipes? Check out our new book The Forever Dog with dozens of other suggestions available here: www.foreverdog.com

03/30/2022

YES!