Susiej

A list of 13 ways to deter pests and creatures from your garden.

This is what it all comes down to.  A few simple items that will either make or break our summer garden fort, made with Jack and the Beanstalk beans. I’ve been reading with horror about the varmints and diseases that will likely attack my pests once I place the plants for our 20-foot bean fort into their final growing spot at the lake. Lord knows, there are plenty of creatures up there willing to take a snack out of our foilage. The list includes deer, skunk, rabbits, groundhogs — all hungry, and ready to eat the plants.

So after fear, there comes great courage;, if you do your part to gather some research and facts. Good results come easier when you’re open yourself to moving with the flow of life, rather than against it. So, knowing that my kids will be eating many of the plants from the fort, and tromping among them with their hands and feet, I’m shying away from pesticides and herbicides. I’m going to be enviornmentally friendly, and organic, with my pest deterrent approach. Hopefully, the animals will sense what we’re trying to do and work with us to keep the plants safe. Ha! I can dream, can’t I?

This is what I’ve come up with:

1. Epsom salts sprinkled on the plants will make them bitter tasting to groundhogs and rabbits. The advantage to this method is that Epsom Salts can also be used to fertilize the plants. The downside, of course, is that the rain will wash away the Epsom salts, and I won’t be there to sprinkle more Salts, as we’ll return from the lake to tie up the school year. But, I’ll use it as long as I can.
2. Ammonia-soaked rags can be strewn along the perimeter of the garden, forming a stinky barrier to repel groundhogs, rabbits, skunks and opossoms. I am no stranger to this treatment. Once again, this will fade before I can reapply the treatment.
3. The reason the Groundhog is afraid of its shadow is obviously because he’s a fraidy cat. So, they run from any thing with motion. I might try hanging aluminum foil strips or pie pans from chicken wire. Pinwhells can even work, I’ve read.
4. Always, the best solution, I’ve learned is simply a fence. Using chickenwire, the fence will need to be buried underground, at least 12-18 inches, and 2 feet above the ground.
5. Plastic netting works for deer, raccons and opossoms. The idea is to string the netting on bamboo poles, leaving about 8 inches in front of hte garden, laid out in front like a mat. Racoons have senstive feet, and they don’t like walking across the netting.
6. Dial deodorant soap, and Irish Spring soap contains “tallow” which repels deer. Soap made with coconut oil will not repel the deer. Here’s the trick: Leave the soap in the package, to prevent the rain from washing away the soap too quickly. Drill holes in the soap so that you can run a string through the soap to hang them from trees, or the fence erected to get rid of groundhogs. Plan on one bar of soap for every three feet.
7. Castor oil is supposed to keep moles, groundhogs, chipmunks and squirrels away. Here’s a recipe. 1 tablespoon of Castor oil. 2 tablespoons liquid dish washing soap, 6 tablespoons of water. Put oil and soap in blender and mix until you have shaving cream. Add water, and continue to mix. Pour concoction in watering can, and pour over the yard. Again, the problem with this is, you must re-apply after the rain.
8. A horizontal border could be as simple as laying down crumpled black plastic, newspaper or aluminium foil, held in placed with rocks. Raccoons and skunks hate to walk on this stuff.
9. I could sprinkle black and cayenne pepper around plants to keep rabbits away. This also works for insects that eat plants. Lucky for me, I can buy a solution called Hot Pepper Wax that will adhere to the plants, and not wash away after rains. The company recommends you reapply every three weeks. This one will work.
10. Plant cucumbers. Raccoons and skunks hate cucumbers. But I wonder what will eat the cucumbers instead?
11. This one is my favorite… for slugs. Cut paper towel or toilet paper cardboard tubes and push them into the ground, around the plants, so that slugs can’t reach the stems, or the leaves! Pus the tubes into the ground so that the sleeve of the tube protects the plant from beneath, comes above the around at least 4 inches around the stem of the plant.
12. There’s no way around making this Manure Tea. Apparently, it prevents seedlings from getting diseases. Recipe: 1 shovel full of fresh or aged manure. 1 burlap bag. 1 5-gallon bucket of water. Put manure in bag. Tie the bag shut and put in bucket, and fill bucket. Leave a handle on the burlap outside the bucket, dry, so you can pull it out. Let the tea sit for 2-3 days, then pull out the tea bag. This tea is too strong to put directly on seedlings, so before using the tea, dilute it with more water, so that it looks like weak iced tea. Now, the diluted tea can be sprinkled over the seedlings.
13. Hydrogen Peroxide Spray. If a fungal or bacterial disease his hit the plants, despite the manure tea, I’ll make this spray. 1 Tablespoon of 35 percent hydrogen peroxide. 1 gallon of water. Mix the hydrogen peroxide into the water. Wear gloves when using this. You can use this to prevent disease, by spraying once a week, (or more if it’s raining a lot). But, they caution to wait until transplants are established before these are sprayed.

This is going to be a lot of work. But, I’m up for it. So, any ideas you’d care to pass on from your own experience? I need them!

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It’s sad. The two older boys are gone all day, and when they finally do get home, I’m too tired to keep my eyes open. Trying to prepare/prevent the afternoon drowsies, I start gulping tea around 1:30, and I make cup after cup, trying to keep the sandman away. But, it’s to know avail. Still, it doesn’t help that there is enough going on in the house to make Mother Teresa run for cover. Yet, I’m so tired that sometimes tears fall from my eyes because I yawn so much. Once my eyes start to water, I’m just a breath away from a good hard cry about how hopelessly tired am.

I mentioned this to a neighbor, and she asked a simple logical question: “Do you take a multivitamin?” Well no, I admitted. This was my first step toward a life of beyond Rip Van Winkle.

But wait, there’s more… The people in Siberia have coped for thousands of years with their bitter cold, dark life by taking a tincture of Rhodiola. Even the Vikings used to take it. So, I began adding some drops to my morning cup of tea.

Research says that rhodiola rosea, also known as golden root, and arctic root, improves mood and improves depression and mental performance …. and, here’s the bell-ringer… reduces fatigue. It tastes awful. But, I don’t care… I’ve been through much worse. Yet, it does comes in pill form, but I like the idea of taking it like a shot.

It’s seems to be working nicely. I actually sat down to play a game of Monopoly with them after school… and I got so wrapped in the game that I forgot to loose, and ended up winning. Then, my kindergartner got mad at me. Geesh. I was just trying to have some fun.

If you want to try Rhodiola, remember to buy one that says Rhodiola Rosea only. Avoid Rhodiola Sacara, as it doesn’t work. Take it in the morning, so it doesn’t interfere with the rest you need at night, although this has never happened to me. I never have trouble falling asleep.

If you’re interested in how to find talent in your family tree, read my post at Midwest Parents, here.

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Do your cucumbers wilt on the vine before they even start to grow? Do your tomatoes get big wormholes before you get a chance to put a slice on top of your freshly grilled hamburger? Then your veggies need some friends, or companions, as gardeners like to call them. Here you’ll find a list of 13 plants, with their beneficial combinations.

Why? When you combine certain combinations of plants, they attract beneficial insects and birds, which keep pests from eating your seedlings down to nubs. This is why planting chives around your roses keeps the roses from getting diseases.

As I began researching “happy” plant combinations, I soon realized I had opened a can of worms. Companion planting is really “enemy science,” and creating a garden plan this way is like creating seating arrangements for a forced holiday family dinner that includes two volatile guests that “must be separated.” To truly understand a plant’s companion, you also have to understand the plant’s enemy – not just bugs, but actual plants. For example, I learned that Dill repels the squash bug that has killed my pumpkins for the last five years. Yet, be careful where you plant it, as dill will attract the tomato hornworm. Here are a few more “beware” combinations:

• Mint and parsley are enemies.
• Keep onions away from peas.
• Keep potatoes and tomatoes apart as they both can get early and late blight contaminating each other.

Companion planting was beginning to sound more like the very bickering and sibling rivalry I had hoped that my future 20-foot green bean fort would help me avoid all summer. The seeds may be called, “Jack and the Beanstalk,” but there was no magic in the packet, so to ensure their vital growth, I’ve figured out my summer fort’s companions here. I will not be growing corn, but I’ve included it here, just in case you may want to try it – because it seems to be very important garden friend.

1. Beans: My prize plant; the foundation and roof of our fort. Beans help all the other plants by enriching the soil with nitrogen. There is a summer trio that makes a great combination: beans, sweet corn and melons. The three plants like the same conditions warmth, rich soil and plenty of moisture. Peas, and carrots, and Basil are also good companion plants. The herb summer savory is important to keep away bean beetles, while improving the growth and flavor of the beans. However, keep the onion, chives – all the alliums away from the beans. (See, I told you this was kind of complicated.)
2. Tomatoes: Basil is not only the perfect friend to your antipasto platter, but it’s also the perfect pest-deterrent herb to plant alongside your tomato plant. But, keep the corn away from the tomato plants.
3. Carrots: Plant with pole beans, radishes and onions and tomatoes. However, if you are planting the carrots with the beans, you must keep the onions away from the beans. Also, keep the dill away from the carrots.
4. Cucumbers: Plant with beans, cucumber, corn, nasturtiums but no strong herbs. Farmers will sometimes let the cucumbers grow up and over your corn plants, so they need no staking. Cukes also do well with peas, beets and carrots. Dill planted with cucumbers will attract beneficial predators. (But once, again, keep the Dill away from the carrots and the tomatoes!) Nasturtium improves growth and flavor. Keep Sage away from the cucumbers.
5. Chives: A workhouse in the garden that is known to prevent apple tree scab, and black spot on roses. (Give it 3 years to complete its work.) In the vegetable garden, chives will help carrot and tomatoes taste better, and will keep away aphids, Japanese beetles and carrot rust fly. Every year, my cucumbers are ruined by powdery mildew. This year, I’ll make a chive tea to prevent powdery mildew from taking over my cukes. (Cover chopped chives with boiling water. Cool, strain and put in a spray bottle and spray plants two or three times a week.)
6. Watermelon: Grow with corn, nasturtiums, peas, sunflowers, squash, cucumbers, pumpkins and radishes. Nasturtium deters bugs and beetles. Oregano provides general pest protection.
7. Dill: Dill repels the squash bug that will kill your pumpkin vine. You can always scatter dill leaves on your squash plants. However, dill does ATTRACT the tomato hornworm; so keep it far AWAY from your tomatoes.
8. Garlic: Garlic, like chives, is also the friend to the rose plant, as it repels aphids. The garlic plant accumulates sulfur, a naturally occurring fungicide that keeps your garden soil from preventing disease. Time-released garlic campuses, planted at the bases of fruit trees, supposedly kept deer away… so I may have to try this one for the garden.
9. Nasturtiums: An edible flower that is one of the best at attracting predatory insects. Expert gardeners plant nasturtiums as a barrier around tomatoes, radishes, cabbage, cucumbers, and under fruit trees. The leaves, flowers and seeds are all edible.
10. Petunias: I’m including this here, because this is my favorite summer annual, (I also love their smell) so I might as well put it to work. Petunias repel the asparagus beetle (nope, not growing it, but just thought I should know) and tomato worms. Apparently the Petunia also repels Mexican bean beetles, and the leaves can be used as a tea to make a potent bug spray.
11. Pumpkins: Pumpkin pals are corn, melon and squash. Marigold deters beetles. Nasturtium deters bugs, beetles. Oregano also provides general pest protection. As noted above, Dill can help me get rid of that squash bug… yet, once again; I have to make sure the pumpkins are far away from the tomatoes to do that.
12. Soybeans: They add nitrogen to the soil making them a good companion to corn. They repel chinch bugs and Japanese beetles. Plus, my kids love them!!!
13. Confuse the pests: I learned this from a wise gardening friend: Mix up your plants, flowers with the vegetables. The mingling scents will confuse the pests, and make the garden much nicer for you to look at.

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A true picture of Motherhood. My favorite jeans are now a casualty from crawling on the floor one too many times to retrieve lost puzzle and bionicle pieces, scrubbing stubborn stains on hands and knees, and the wear-and-tear from endless airplane rides. My son took this BSM picture.

An article in Wired (Peak Water, May 2008), says that the production of a single pair of jeans takes 2,866 gallons of water. (A single sheet of paper requires 3 gallons of water.) A friend of mine, who works for a clothing retailer, says sales stay high, even when they sell cheap-quality clothes. So no, it isn’t just you, you’re clothes really are wearing out faster. Retailers across the board are lowering quality (who cares, just buy new!) leading to quicker wear-and-tear, more purchases, and ultimately increasing the depletion of our most valuable resource, water.

The same water that existed in the world millions of years ago is the same water we have today. We learned that rule in fifth grade science class, and we used to joke that we were drinking the same water that George Washington drank. However, the perils of global warming are subtly altering that reliable cycle of evaporation and precipitation. We don’t know, yet, what the ultimate effects will be.

Add the burden of more businesses, more homes and more water-intensive products and processes, and you have the very recipe that is creating our world-wide water reservoir decline. There are 1.1 billion people today who do not have access to safe drinking water, and that number is expected to increase. During the drought in the summer of 2006, London’s water authorities considered towing icebergs down from the Arctic, according to Wired.

With Earth Day approaching, I also learned, from the book, True Green: 100 Everyday Ways you Can Contribute to a Healthier Planet, that cotton is our most chemical-intensive crop, requiring 10 to 18 applications of herbicides, insecticides and fungicides. One-quarter of global pesticide use is on cotton crops. It also requires 3,800 gallons of water, per pound of cotton produced.

Chemical-free organic cotton, linen, wool and hemp is the only solution. And, perhaps, maybe to stop giving so many airplane rides to your kids.

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Picture by Mike Esterl, for the WSJ.

As I sit by the light of the computer, with my 12-year-old at my side, who is still laboring over his homework, long after his brothers are asleep, I stumble across the slide show of the fortunate little kindergartners featured on the front page of the April 14, 2008 edition of the Wall Street Journal (German Tots Learn to Answer Call of Nature.) This kindergarten class (the US-equivalent of preschool) is held in the woods, following the original philosophies of the original kindergarten opened over 150 years ago by Friedrich Fröbel, the German educator. “Playing in nature, rather than focusing on letters or numbers, was best for young children,” he said. That’s a sure-fire antidote to our stressed-out preschoolers.

My favorite line in the WSJ article is this quote from one of the kindergartner’s teachers, Ms. Schnaar, when asked about the children outside, four hours each morning, in 40 degree weather. “There is no bad weather, just bad clothing decisions.” Interestingly, the fresh air seems to keep them from getting sick as often. (The German children wanted to know also, if the American reporter, Esterl, was a cowboy, or an Indian.)

Quite a dichotomy I feel as I watch these young children play in the woods in the slide show, exercising their imaginations, while I worry that the only tree my 12-year-old experiences lately is our wooden kitchen table. As his mother, watching him suffer to keep his eyes open, while the pending doom that he may miss a homework deadline looms. I feel as if I’ve been punched in the stomach.

But he’s a big kid now. Right? He no longer needs to play, explore and to have enough free time to decide he wants to make a lance out of a stick, and then to make one.

Still, I can’t help but wonder, did I stuff his time with enough moss, tree stumps, and dried leaves in the small allotted time I was given? Or has the onslaught of homework wiped out all the nature that was poured into his soul?

Another time, I will write about the house I left behind, the fairy-tale house in the woods that my two older sons relished in. They’re running here in this photo below. Can you tell this was years before I got my new camera? Can’t help but notice our little lovely Max there, down in the right hand corner.

True, we do have the lake, but I’m starting to wonder if even that’s a “sure thing.” Strange, how we have school vacation in the summer, yet the coaches are already mandating sports schedules that start in July. Don’t these people ever take vacations? Ever heard of them? A three-hour commute may be tough. Will there be a summer at the lake?

Inspired, and a bit “scared straight,” after reading this article about the importance of the outdoors to our children’s emotional well-being, I vow to take the kids to the woods everyday after school. Through sleet, snow, ice and rain. My oldest can do his homework there in the woods, sitting on a tree stump. As if it were real, I can almost hear the pain in my son’s voice as he proclaims how “embarrassing it will be to do that.”

Still, knowing that fresh air and green grass, is so beneficial to the mind, I’m sure that doing homework outside, while his brothers build tee-pees and castles around him, could probably help him get the work done so much faster. This will be a tough sell. Especially if it is sleeting, and his homework does get wet, and ripped, and I have to write nightly notes to his teacher, “I’m sorry, but the homework got beaten up in the hailstorm yesterday afternoon. Again.” I guess, I could just give him a stack of notes, pre-signed, that he could keep in his backpack and whip out whenever needed.

Now, I think about that house we looked at five years ago, just a few blocks away from this one, that sat directly in a woods. We turned that house down. Terrible floor layout. How I wish we had it now. Who cares about the floor plan, when the kids get to spend time outside building sofas out of tree stumps and twigs; what they would call a “wald sofa.” How much happier we’d be. Ahhh, but yes, the kids wouldn’t be able to walk to school from there, like they do here. And, sure, our houses may be piled on top of each other over here; but we have those chicks.

Seriously, about this homework problem. Here’s a story about starting a revolution. There’s a book, The Case Against Homework: How Homework Is Hurting Children and What Parents Can Do About It, that lays everything out.

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This best shot is a Sun King Mirror, which we made during our visit to the art museum to see Great Expectations - Aristocratic Children in European Portraiture. To a real mom, the portraits of Louis XIII of France, Louis XIV of France, Charles I of England, and Charles II of Spain display a baffling era when children played a heavy role in the country’s kingdom, diplomacy and bloodline preservation. Girls were forced to marry and bear children at early ages to forge a protective bond between kingdoms. These children wore heavy robes, jewels, feathered gold-rimmed crowns and amulets, to protect them from harm. I’m sure these heavy garments made it tough for the miniature royalty to run around, climb cabinets for the good stuff, and catch toads.

As I struggled to keep my older boys engaged in this most “boring” of endeavors, looking at art, while preventing my four-year-old from depositing the oil from his fingers on the priceless artwork, I read about the five-year old who became King.

Horror instantly filled my mind. What kinds of tragedies would befall a nation if one of my children, at the age of five, were forced to be King? My kids, and as it turns out, Louis the XIV (1638-1715), did run France into the ground. The real tragedy, I later discover, concerns the control-issues this kid-king had over the the royal bathtub.

Born September 5, 1638, King Louis XIV, also known as King Louie, was the official King on May 14, 1643, a few months before his fifth birthday. Of course, he did not have total control until he was 23, with the death of his First Minister, the Italian Jules Cardinal Mazarin, in 1661. Still, don’t you think this tiny kid-king wielded consider power over what came out of the royal kitchen?

King Louis was also known as the “Sun King” (Le Roi Soleil). Like all narcissistic children, King Louie believed the universe revolved around him. So, he believed that just as the planets revolve around the Sun, so too should the people of France and the Court revolve around him. The Sun King’s mirror is a symbol of King Louie’s Hall of Mirrors that he had built in the Palace of Versailles, which the King transformed from what was once an old hunting lodge.

The hall of mirrors features seventeen mirror-clad arches that reflect the seventeen arcaded windows that overlook the gardens. Each arch contains twenty-one mirrors with a total complement of 357.

So, what became of the country, ruled by the child King, who had immense wealth at his disposal and commanded the mightiest army in Europe?

• King Louis took three baths during his entire 77 years of life. Once when he was baptized. His second bath happened when his mistress requested that he take one. (Can’t even begin to think about that one.) Third, when a doctor lanced a boil on his bottom and he was ordered to soak in the tub.
• At the end of his reign, he had successfully exhausted the country to the verge of bankruptcy, resulting from his wars and his own personal extravagance. And Toys R Us wasn’t even invented yet.
• It has been said about him, that “there was nothing he liked so much as flattery, or, to put it more plainly, adulation; the coarser and clumsier it was, the more he relished it. “His vanity, which was perpetually nourished, for even preachers used to praise him to his face from the pulpit, was the cause of the aggrandizement of his Ministers.” Just a tad bet narcissistic… as any child usually is.
• Yet, there were some bright sides to King Louie’s reign: He did strengthen the country, and placed France in a preeminent position in Europe.
• Still, even Napoleon said, described Louis XIV as “the only king of France worthy of the name” and “a great king.”

Does anyone find it a bit ironic that after living a good, long life of 77 years, King Louis, the child King, died of smallpox?

King Louis XIV, with his brother.

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Airborne, that little yellow box that promises to keep you from getting the flu or cold, doesn’t. ABC news investigated Airborne and found that GNG Pharmaceutical Services Inc “that said it tested 120 people and 47% showed little or no cold flu symptoms, versus 23% of a placebo” was simply a two-man operation started up just to make the Airborne study, and had no clinic, scientists or doctors.

Have you noticed that March seems to be the “month of the flu?” One day the weather is warm, the next day freezing, the wind blows everywhere, and it seems we’re always wet… bone-chilling wet. While some say that the flu is nature’s way of getting rid of toxins that have accrued in the body, the flu leaves you miserable.

Besides the usual remedies, Oscillococcinum, and Dolivaxil, which always work, I’ve found an even cheaper way to fight the flu and ease an achy tummy.

Peppermint 100% Pure Essential calms an upset stomach. You can drink the tea if you have some… or you can use the oil. Mix one or two drops of peppermint oil with 1/4 cup of olive oil. (The oils are too strong to make touch your skin directly, and not for drinking!) Rub this on your belly, and you will soon notice an instant feeling of release in your belly. This is GREAT for kids; they want to be touched and cuddled anyway when they’re sick, so they love having you rub their belly with the great smell of peppermint. Peppermint is so soothing, that even the smell alone will calm an upset stomach.

Oregano Oil is a known anti-viral, anti fungicide and anti-bacterial agent. Oregano oil has a bitter, medicinal smell, too harsh for direct contact with the skin, and you only need a tiny bit of this powerful oil. I mix one drop of oregano oil with the olive oil (just add it to your mixture above) and the oil will soak into your belly and kill the bugs that are swarming around your belly. I’ve even used oregano oil to get rid of the effects of a “bad meal,” that left me sick.

Cinnamon oil is a natural anti-viral oil that you can add. The anti-flu formula pre-mixed with cinnamon, nutmeg and thyme is known as the Oil of Thieves. The reference to thieves is not because the oil “steals your sickness,” rather this is related to the legend of the band of thieves who raided houses during the Black Plague during the 17th century. The thieves were stealing from the sick, surrounded by the plague, yet never became sick themselves. The thieves were caught, and appeared before the judge. “How have you escaped the great plague?” he wanted to know. The thieves were actually from a long family of perfumers who knew the power of oils, and covered themselves with the “Oil of Thieves” to protect themselves.

Just a note on essential oils. The bottles are small, and inexpensive. You only use a drop at a time, and they last for years. They are a great investment, and they work so hard.

You can file a claim against Airborne online or by mail here.

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Have you heard those stories about organ donors? A recipient suddenly falls in love with classical music, and later learns the owner of the heart was a classical musician; a fast-food junkie receives a heart from a vegetarian and suddenly meat makes her sick; or more dramatically, the story of a 10-year old who received the heart of a murdered 8-year-old. The murder was unsolved. Yet, the 10-year old began to have nightmares, and the details in her dreams convicted the killer with the time, weapon, place, and clothes he wore.

The stories are documented in Paul Pearsall’s, MD, book, The Heart’s Code, after he interviewed 150 organ transplant recipients and found that the cells of living tissues do remember. (February, the month of valentines, is American Heart Month, by the way.) Does the recipient know he’s getting far more than just a heart? That he will now have access to the pathways that make up another soul?

Memories are stored in our cells, not just our minds.

When a baby is created, the first sign of life is the beating heart. The heart comes first… not the brain.

Knowing this information makes me uneasy about checking that box on the driver’s license application for organ donation. I know this is the greatest gift I can give… but knowing that the organ comes with its own “private” personal history changes everything. It’s nut just a pump; it’s a heart full of memories, pains, joys… that will live on despite my physical presence here or not. I haven’t been able to wrap my mind around the whole concept just yet…

This month, I’m starting a radically new yoga routine — Kundalini Yoga. On a physical level, I’ve never worked harder, sweating and panting through the end. On a heart level, I notice that it is pulling deeply embedded memories out of hibernation. Stories flash before me like a mini-movie-dream.

Between each yoga, (asana), pose, you are invited to rest. At first, I was irritated, as my goal for doing this DVD was to keep my heart rate elevated throughout the entire routine. I have since learned that the rests do not de-escalate my heart rate that much, really. The rest is necessary — without these little pauses the memories the poses invoke would pile up and crash at the end of the hour. The rest is not for my heart rate… it’s for my heart.

Have you noticed how dramatically different the mind and heart approach a problem? Just when you think you have it all figured out logically, you somehow feel uneasy. Slowly, and I am learning that it’s always, the logic of the heart begins to make itself known. The logic is suddenly so clear you cannot make another choice — and that knot in your gut seems to vanish. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “To believe your own thoughts, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men–that is genius.”

Those little pauses are so important. Although the mind speaks loud and clear, the heart never shouts. It always whispers. Without the pauses, we can’t hear what the heart is saying.

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I avoid this topic like the plague. Kids need to play, explore, and build their imaginations, and preschools that put an emphasis on reading, math and handwriting steal those opportunities from kids. My statement usually incites anger and probably fear, in parents who’ve already justified the decision that their child needs to build elementary skills while in preschool, and have already spent a few happy months in a preschool that is doing just that. Plus, they are already financially and emotionally invested in the school and its teachers, and even though the child is only three, the family thinks its too late to turn back now. And besides, they believe, I am wrong.

I’m choosing to speak up now because The Wall Street Journal (What’s Gotten Into Kids These Days? January 17, 2008; Page D1, By Sue Shellenbarger) has now reported some research data that backs my belief.

Behavior problems among preschoolers are emerging as a national issue. In several studies released in the past month, researchers at Yale, Rutgers and Cornell universities, among others, are treating preschoolers’ conduct as a challenge that calls for changes in school programs and classroom management. The problem has reached the point where researchers are recommending preschool teachers have access to mental-health consultants, like the psychologists who help out in higher grade.

This is kind of chilling. Why are behavior problems emerging as a national issue?

The causes aren’t clear. Some experts blame a government drive for accountability in schools that is intensifying emphasis on early skill-building in reading and math, frustrating kids who aren’t ready. Others cite a variety of other factors, including parents’ early use of child-care centers, family instability, poor prenatal care or an increased incidence of such learning difficulties as attention-deficit disorder.

This is creating a need for children to have extra training on more social and emotional skills so they can deal with other kids. “Indeed, the academic achievement that parents covet, and that schools are so avidly seeking, can’t be attained without good social and emotional skills as a foundation,” adds the WSJ. If you can’t fathom what a preschool is that does focus on play, imagination, and the ability to build emotional confidence, check here.

There’s no reason to teach a child to hold a pencil before he’s ready, just because someday he’ll need to know how to hold a pencil. If you have trouble grasping that concept, think of it like this: what if we took the same attitude with sexual skills? The child just isn’t ready. At preschool, I hope there are teachers willing to help my child button his costume, teach him how to say, “I don’t like that, but I do like this,” and show him how to pound play dough.

Some preschools have initiated testing, to aleve parental anxiety and to ensure that their child will be able to compete in elementary school testing. However, a bulletin in Mothering Magazine (145, Nov-Dec 2007: p35) cites an annual Gallup/PDK poll of people who claim to know at least a fair amount about the Bush administration’s No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act:

The vast majority (82 percent) said they would “prefer that schools be judged by growth in students’ achievement rather than by the simple percent[age] of students who score at or above proficiency on their state assessment.” Indeed, a growing percentage of parents of public school children–from 32 percent in 2002 to 52 percent in 2007–feel there is too much emphasis on testing.

I’ve seen the stress the NCLB leaves on Middle-School kids, and now it seems the NCLB act has hit the preschool room too. Hopefully, th