UPDATE ON THE ADULTS

Katie:

Many of you have asked about my online program. It's a part of my life that not many know about. I visit it between the girls' bedtime and mine. I cuddle up to my laptop and piles of articles and I ponder and read and write. The good news is, lately it feels like I'm getting somewhere! I feel like I've learned enough to start to develop a vision, maybe even a theory.

My official degree will be a PhD in Early Childhood Education. At first, I resisted this, since I have never taught early childhood (though I spent years teaching early childhood music). However, I have learned along the way that it involves much more than the teaching aspect. I've become interested in curriculum writing, program development, and most recently, doing research. My focus in all of this has been early childhood music.

I began with the fascination of how music is processed in the brain (this started when I was in my master's program, and I conducted a study on how rhythm is processed differently in musicians and nonmusicians' brains). This time I have paired it with language processing in the brain, and have become very excited about the similarities between music and language processing. From the current research that I have been studying, I have learned that music learning is very similar to language learning, especially in the early years. This peaked my interest.

Now, there's another piece of this that played into my vision. Since No Child Left Behind, there has been this big push for literacy in the public schools. Now the standards for reading and writing in early elementary are (in my opinion) far too high (do 5-6 year olds really need to be able to write 4 whole sentences before they are through with Kindergarten?). I am upset about how much creative play is taken away from the children's day in order to squeeze in reading and writing. It's my opinion that this is developmentally inappropriate, and the research I'm looking at is affirming this. Bottom line seems to be that before the age of 7, kids need play more than they need to learn to read.

So, how does this all come together? From this, I have decided to study whether music (which is naturally play-based) should be used instead of reading and writing in the early years. I realize that this is a radical notion, and I don't have grandiose visions of changing the structure of education. Since music and language are processed in the same part of the brain (before the age of 9) and because music is play-based, I think it is worth knowing whether music prepares the brain for literacy as well as early reading and writing skills do. If this is so, then teaching music for language arts in the early years seems like a win-win: the children would get back some of their creative play, and they would be preparing for literacy at the same time.

Anyway, that's a taste of what that part of my life looks like! I wonder if it makes any sense, without giving you more details?

Mark:

Mark is in his 7th quarter (that means 2.5 more years!) of chiropractic school. He is finding it to be a very good fit for him, despite the intensity and hard work for now. Last quarter was (supposedly) the end of the really intense sciences. Now he gets to get more practical in his learning. Next fall, he will take the board examination, so that marks another climax for him.

He is not only taking the Doctor of Chiropractic program, but also adding a masters in Sports Health Science as well as a certification program for Chiropractic in Pediatrics (focusing on both pregnancy and children). All of this excites him very much.

We've learned along the way that the kind of Chiropractic technique he is learning encompasses much more than what many of us think of as Chiropractic care. It seems that most people think Chiropractic care is solely for the purpose of relieving pain. Mark's program focuses much more on wellness. This mean that philosophically, we can all benefit (from birth on) from having our spine aligned. There are many more symptoms than just pain. This is a preventive health approach.

Some of the lifestyle issues that have been addressed in his program have been affirming. For example, our parenting choices so far have been affirmed in some ways, while at the same time, we are constantly reminded of how to create a more wholesome life for our children. Mark has become more aware of the holistic lifestyle, and it seems to fit with his ideals.

Our whole family is now under Chiropractic care, which has been a wonderful experience. We all enjoy going, and it feels like we are being proactive about our health. Our girls have been healthier than ever! I am really starting to understand this whole preventive health philosophy. It really is starting to make sense how many aspects of our health can be affected by misalignments in our spine. One example is pregnancy: I have hips that are tilted to one side (which is likely to be true of most people who spend much of their time with a kid hoisted up on one hip). You can probably imagine how this may affect the birth canal, and consequently how it may impair the birth experience. I am hoping that between now and October, my hips will become nice and straight, thanks to our wonderful Chiropractors!

Thanks for reading this long, wordy post! I mostly like to post pictures on this blog, but many of you have asked about these two parts of our lives, so there you go.