Back to School: Transitioning Your Family From Summer to School

We are sure many of you have mixed emotions about school starting again. Although it will be nice to no longer have to plan 12-hour stretches of entertainment, now the stress of schedules, lunch making, homework and all that goes with a school day starts back up.

To make things a little easier, why not try some of these:

Anticipate and address your child’s anxiety. Going back to school is stressful for kids of all ages, so head off the stress before school even starts, says Renee Clausell, a child psychologist in Long Island, New York. Talk with your children about new experiences and traditions, from using the potty at preschool to learning how to use a locker “in a playful and creative, role-playing way,” Clauselle says.

Manage your own anxiety. Maintain a positive attitude about summer ending, advises Edward Christopherson, a Kansas City-based child psychologist. “If you are nervous about school starting, then your child is certainly going to be nervous about school starting,” he says. It also helps to plan fun, transitional activities to prepare your kids, says Tina Feigal, an author and parenting coach in Roseville, Minn. “Plan a fun weekend for Labor Day, and include the kids in the plan,” she suggests. “If school has already started, it’s a nice buffer vacation. If it hasn’t, Labor Day is a great time to say good-bye to summer and hello to all the good things coming up in the new school year.”

Ease back into scheduled days. When your kids are used to running around outside until dark each night, shifting to the early morning school bus rush can be a real shock to the system. To ease the transition, about a week before the first day of school, start their bedtime routine about 10 minutes earlier each night and wake them up 10 minutes earlier each morning, every day, until they’re back on track. And Mom and Dad: don’t forget to readjust your bedtime schedules too!

Stay connected to nature. Going back to class doesn’t mean your kids have to say farewell to outdoor fun. Make a habit of getting outside together after the school day ends, for as long as the warm weather lasts. When the air turns cold, hold a “camp-in” weekend evening, suggests Sarene Marshall, director of The Nature Conservancy’s global climate change team: “Set up floor pillows or sleeping bags, turn off all the electronics, and play good, old-fashioned board games.”

Seek out one-on-one time with your child every day. Yes, this one is daunting, especially when your days consist of carting Kid A to one activity and picking up Kid B from another. But challenge yourself to set aside just 15 minutes per day, per child, to enjoy a quiet activity together. Whether it involves reading a few extra books to your toddler, taking turns making up a story with your preschooler, or gazing at the stars with your oldest after the others have been put to bed, your children will savor your undivided attention. And both of you will benefit from putting yet another hectic day on hold.

An Exciting New Supplement

RESTORE is a new generation, soil-derived supplement that promotes an optimal gut environment. It is not a probiotic. It is not a prebiotic. Rather, it is a carbon-rich, alkaline liquid, comprised of Terrahydrite™, a proprietary formulation of Aqueous Humic Substances and trace mineral amino acid complexes. RESTORE has been shown in lab testing to increase and strengthen the tight junction proteins in the gut lining, our frontline of defense against environmental factors in our food, water, and even air, thereby impacting the immune system, as much of the body’s immune system is in the gut lining. Additionally, a stronger gut lining keeps undigested food and environmental elements, such as herbicides and antibiotics used in farming, from leaking out into the bloodstream from the intestines, so the immune system does not have to defend against these foreign “invaders,” which could also be as simple as undigested kale or broccoli.

RESTORE is designed to balance gut health, support respiratory wellness, combat environmental exposures, promote immune function, enhance mental clarity, and promote hydration. It is naturally gluten-free. RESTORE has been shown to create a beneficial shift in the bacteria making up the microbiome, which is what many people are attempting to do with probiotics and prebiotics. Carbon-based redox molecules from ancient fossilized soil help restore the communication network between bacteria in the gut, mitochondria, and cells in the body.

RESTORE is based in science. Our research has shown it to be non-toxic. We take the safety of our product very seriously. Our Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) Team does regular testing for bacterial contamination, heavy metals, and overall product composition and strength. We performed the “gold standard” toxicology study on RESTORE gut supplement and showed that it is non-toxic on kidney cells, even at high doses. In experiments, environmental and natural toxins — including herbicides and gluten — have been shown to degrade the gut barrier. RESTORE has been shown in cell culture to promote the strengthening of the tight junctions in small and large gut membrane cells for an optimal gut environment.

Founder and CEO of Biomic Sciences Dr. Zach Bush has been using RESTORE successfully for five years with patients in his Virginia clinics with numerous health situations. He says: “We use RESTORE as a foundation of health for a broad spectrum of patients. RESTORE does not treat any disease. Instead, it promotes strong membrane integrity through its direct and indirect effects on the tight junctions of the bowel wall and vascular systems of the body, and restoration of the bowel ecology with the unique bacterial communication attribute of the supplement. Microbiome balance and tight junction integrity are widely recognized to constitute a major portion of the human immune system, and directly affect DNA transcription of human cells to promote optimal health. The well-proven biology of RESTORE demonstrates its role as a foundational resource in your pursuit for optimal health.”

The active ingredient in RESTORE, Terrahydrite™, is a very unique element within the complex components of the rare material mineral layer. This active ingredient is a large family of carbon molecules with oxygen-binding sites. These are produced by bacteria when they digest nutrients. The more diverse the bacterial population is, the more diversity you have in these carbon redox molecules. We extract this primary ingredient from ancient, fossilized soil that once thrived with a biodiversity that we no longer see in the diminishing ecosystems of our planet. Our raw ingredients are inert without any biologic function when they arrive in our labs. We then go through a series of biochemical procedures to balance the oxygen redox potential via the addition of trace minerals. The soil extracts are pH-controlled at a high alkaline pH at every stage of production.

The result is a dietary supplement (Terrahydrite™) with unique biologic function and safety not seen in any other supplement, including other soil extracts that have been marketed under a variety of poorly-defined heterogeneous categories including humic acids, fulvic acids, shilajit, etc. We have tested several of the most popular fulvic and humic products on the market. They produced none of the biologic actions of RESTORE but did produce kidney toxicity inducing apoptosis (cell death) in kidney tubule cells. We are excited to introduce you to this first-of-its-kind supplement that delivers the health benefits and safety of RESTORE.

What is Farro?

Farro is an Italian word that encompasses three varieties of heirloom grains: einkorn, spelt and emmer wheat. These are referred to respectively as farro piccolo, farro grande and farro medio. So rather than being a single grain, farro is a collection of three grains and the term farro can refer to any of these three grains.

Which grain is better? The nutrient profile of any given food also changes depending on how you prepare it in your home; sour leavening, for example, increases the folate content of grain.

Compared to modern varieties of wheat, ancient grains and heirloom wheat berries typically are lower in gluten (though still higher in protein), as well as higher in micronutrients like minerals and antioxidants. Einkorn has a higher concentration of beta carotene and lutein than modern wheat varieties. However, spelt has a marginally lower concentration of B vitamins and phosphorus compared to modern wheat varieties.

Beyond the three grains collectively called farro, there’s also heirloom varieties of wheat – notably Turkey Red Wheat which was brought to the US by Russian and Ukrainian immigrants in the 19th century.

In terms of which is better, they each offer slightly different flavors, with slightly different attributes in baking and marginal differences in the content of their micronutrients.