Website Review
Dr. Sears

This is site promises a little more than it delivers. Member-submitted recipes page is actually just one recipe a week (I didn't see archives), the listing of events consisted solely of a cruise with Dr. Sears (as if we could all afford that!), and not all the links work. The glossary holds promise, but I still need another dictionary to understand his definitions (not being medically trained.)

If you're on the diet, you'll want to know where this site is, but a user group would probably be much more useful.

Book Review

The Zone : Revolutionary Life Plan to Put Your Body in Total Balance for Permanent Weight Loss by Barry Sears (Author)

Well researched, excellent diet, but difficult to understand and follow. My M.D. has had many patients on this diet, and he told me that only 4 of them have been successful in following it with precision -- and those four individuals are all engineers.

The research that Dr. Sears has done is extensive -- and from the few months that I followed this diet to the letter, I can say that it works. I felt very, very good. The only problem is that it does take extensive planning and continual calculations. I was pregnant with baby #5 at the time, and felt really good -- but could not continue following a diet so closely for long. My life is just too busy for that.

I did come away from this experience with a very good idea of what I *should* feed my family, and I do keep pretty close to this diet with family cooking. I actually do better on Atkins, personally, so I follow that for myself, while keeping my kids on more of a Zone diet. I can't say that they are actually "IN" the Zone at all times, but their diet is much more balanced now than it was before I got this information.

The book can be difficult to understand in some places. Sears does an excellent job in explaining why this diet works, but for the layperson it can be an awful lot of information, and a lot of technical/medical terminology. Be sure to have a good dictionary on hand when reading this one!

It also deals with "macronutrients" - the relationship of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates and blood sugar and metabolism. It doesn't go into vitamins and minerals, so in my opinion, it's only half the story, but an important part of nutrition that is too often overlooked. It should be helpful to anyone with blood sugar or metabolic disorders, such as diabetes, hypoglycemia, obesity, that sort of thing. It's also a diet that ANYONE (not just overweight or ill) people can use safely and with great results.

I would recommend that EVERYONE read this book, and decide if this diet will work for them, based on their experiences.

Website Recommendation

When Mom is Sick; Christian Homeschoolers with Chronic Illness

This is part of a larger website, that ministers to all Christians with chronic illness. The article gives really good, practical advice for handling life when mom is ill. The author particularly discusses pregnancy-related illness. This is really useful for any homeschoolers who are dealing with pregnancy, or any other condition that might make things difficult in terms of consistency in keeping a homeschooling schedule.

I enjoyed reading this very much.

Book Review

Phonics Writing Desk by LeapFrog

My 3 year old was having trouble remembering the "ABC song" until she got this toy for Christmas. After playing with it for a few weeks, she could sing her ABC's. Her little brother now knows all the letters of the alphabet by sight, and I think this toy helped him with that.

The letters are very bright, the toy is really pretty and the plastic is nice and shiny. The letters are affixed, so there aren't any pieces to lose. Attached to it is a sort of a pen (not sharp, the point is rather rounded) which is used to write the letter on the little writing pad (it's magnetic - no ink!) There is also a little display where the computer directs the child as he or she writes the letter -- it will say, "A" then the letter "A" is written in the display, so the child can see HOW to write it. You can choose upper or lower case.

There are several levels here - just touch a letter and the voice says it's name and writes it for you. Or the voice says the letter, and you have to find it and push it. The voice is very pleasant, as well.

We are very happy with this toy, but the writing pad has become difficult to use, but honestly, we have 6 kids here and no toys last forever. We had this one about 6 months before the writing pad got messed up, and it has been played with a great deal.

All in all, I think it's a wonderful product. The only thing I would complain about is that it doesn't do letter SOUNDS at all - only letter names, hence the 4 stars for educational value.