Course Sample for Our Nourishing Nuggets Homeschool Health and Fitness Course

Nourishing Nuggets Introduction/”Let Your Food Be Your Medicine”

Welcome to Nourishing Nuggets! I am so thankful you have decided to join us! There seems to be no end to the number of books written annually about what is truly healthy. It is no secret that many of them conflict. One can easily become discouraged and give up all together!! I have been tempted to! While Nourishing Nuggets is not intended to be a comprehensive course, it is designed to give you small Nuggets introducing some of the basic concepts of health!

During our busy homeschool days it is sometimes difficult to fit “Health” into our already numerous subjects! Perhaps if like me, you have tried to find a good health course and found that after a few taxing workbook pages yet another workbook tossed, never completed due to its ill fit! It is my hope that Nourishing Nuggets will deliver you brief, yet helpful lessons in health that you can use with any type of home educating style.

I intend to introduce topics and provide information in a manner that will give you a good foundation to pursue further, should you or your children choose to do so. I am writing from a Biblical perspective and hope to present a balanced view without taking you down a path into any extreme recommendations! Thank you so much for joining me and if you have questions or comments feel free to e-mail them to me [wstoller@msn.com]! Please place Nourishing Nuggets Question/Comment in the subject line for easy identification. I hope to include a Q & A and answer as much as I am able in one of the later lessons!! I want this to be helpful to you!

The writer of Ecclesiastes says, “Of making many books there is no end and much study wearies the body! (Ecc 12:12)” This could be written on the subject of health specifically, I think we could all agree! So what is truly healthy – what is the best way to feed our families to promote health and create strong immune systems? What then should we eat -one might ask after seeing the plethora of angles from which various authors encourage you to build your menus. I hope to instead give you keys that you can use to unlock areas of nutritional study. After which YOU might to make those choices based on your own individual needs vs someone else’s wide brushed opinion! God created each person differently. Just as you use discipline for your children but it may vary according to their needs or the particular situation, so does health. Your path to maintain health may meander through different options based on particular deficiencies, stress, age, or even seasons of your life. I hope to give you the keys to apply some basic overall principles -and yet tailor your health choices to fit your individual family. Let’s learn to be aware of what some of our health needs entail.

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” Hippocrates. This is the main premise from which I will write. We will first discuss the building blocks of food – I will go over what makes up our foods, I will discuss each block. I will make it practical and share a few of our favorite recipes. Not for you to copy our format but to give you ideas, and as a spring board to develop your own. I’ll spend a chapter on supplementation and explore its value. Prevalence of food allergies also affects our diet and need to be explored. Perhaps you may not deal with these – but you have a friend that does and would love to bless her – I duly note this and hope to include some recipes and links here to assist you. Each chapter is intended to be read aloud and discussed with your children, so there should be little prep in this lesson for you! Let’s keep this easy! Some lessons include a simple attention hook and so take time to pre-read for easy prep. All additional activities, research, recipes, and application can be done throughout your day and incorporated into meals, family discussions, grocery shopping, etc. to help learning flow throughout the day! Discuss the ideas with your children, bring them up during meals – ponder them aloud during outings. When the children help own the ideas and understand they will embrace the needed changes more readily. Let’s build our family where health isn’t a subject that we check off our list but instead an approach that we weave throughout our daily journey.

Let your food be your medicine – ponder this extensively. A gentleman long ago observed this, long before what we call modern science existed. My challenge (weekly nugget!) for you in these next two weeks is this; as you plan your menus or grab a snack stop and think – is this building my body nutritionally! Challenge your children with this. Is this the most nutritious option I have available to me? If I can grab an apple instead of a bag of chips – which is healthier for me? Stop by a local food stand and have your kids each pick up an interesting home grown treat to eat in the following days. We recently purchased apples freshly picked by a local Mennonite family. All the children grabbed one as we pulled out of their drive. My daughter confidently proclaimed after only a few bites, “This is the best apple I have EVER eaten!” Fresh does taste better! Consider what crosses your lips – the first step towards making changes that will help us all build healthier families for greater service to our Lord! Make better choices more readily available in a bowl on your counter or at eye level shelf in your fridge.

Again, I welcome you to Nourishing Nuggets and hope you enjoy our journey! Blessings to you and your crew. I must close with some housekeeping notes. So, a gentle reminder that: Nothing in this course is intended as medical advice or to replace the treatment or recommendations of your doctor or other health professional. Please consult your doctor for any health or medical related questions concerns you may have.