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About the author
Vincent Maher is the director of the New Media Lab at the Rhodes University School of Journalism & Media Studies. Feel free to email him if you have suggestions, or visit his blog.

Its hard to get online these days so here is a quikie update.

Our little boy, Baby O, was born 10/7/06 at 7:20 pm (EST).

8 lbs 8 oz. 22 inches long 15 inches head circumference.

We went in on Saturday because I thought my water had broken (had not). They could not get a good heart tracing in the usual spots, only up high on the tummy.

Turns out that our little guy was frank breech. Sitting yoga style, like a little zen master, full lotus.

I knew it was time but the cervix wasnt filling the medical criteria.. they were going to send me home to do a c-section later next week.

As I am a hypnobirthing mom.. I concentrated on the cervix and then before we knew it we fit the criteria (dilation). So I was being prepped for a c-section.. all the lovely needles and scary ideas.

I continued to lay there with more and more labor, doing my hypnobirthing, thinking about how I had seen a video of a mom who turned her breech baby by hypnosis..

Docs came to check and, against all odds, the baby had flipped and we avoided a c-section! The docs were blown away.. I was in labor so I didnt care if they were impressed, I wanted pain relief at this point.

NEVER got it!

I had two epidurals and neither worked at all.. so it was a “natural” birth for me and it was hard-fought I tell you. Delivery was fine for the little one, I was thanking dieties it was over, the doc’s ears were burning from my indelicate language that came out of no where! (I never expected to do that, ever, but I survived!)

All apgars were 9s, he is a professional eater, very calm. All that interuterine zazen helped make him my second meditative hypnobirthed baby. So glad its the last labor!

Its hard to get online these days so here is a quikie update.

Our little boy, Baby O, was born 10/7/06 at 7:20 pm (EST).

8 lbs 8 oz. 22 inches long 15 inches head circumference.

We went in on Saturday because I thought my water had broken (had not). They could not get a good heart tracing in the usual spots, only up high on the tummy.

Turns out that our little guy was frank breech. Sitting yoga style, like a little zen master, full lotus.

I knew it was time but the cervix wasnt filling the medical criteria.. they were going to send me home to do a c-section later next week.

As I am a hypnobirthing mom.. I concentrated on the cervix and then before we knew it we fit the criteria (dilation). So I was being prepped for a c-section.. all the lovely needles and scary ideas.

I continued to lay there with more and more labor, doing my hypnobirthing, thinking about how I had seen a video of a mom who turned her breech baby by hypnosis..

Docs came to check and, against all odds, the baby had flipped and we avoided a c-section! The docs were blown away.. I was in labor so I didnt care if they were impressed, I wanted pain relief at this point.

NEVER got it!

I had two epidurals and neither worked at all.. so it was a “natural” birth for me and it was hard-fought I tell you. Delivery was fine for the little one, I was thanking dieties it was over, the doc’s ears were burning from my indelicate language that came out of no where! (I never expected to do that, ever, but I survived!)

All apgars were 9s, he is a professional eater, very calm. All that interuterine zazen helped make him my second meditative hypnobirthed baby. So glad its the last labor!

That time is almost nigh, the baby is almost done, his appearance is just around the corner. I may not be able to keep up on this blog as much as I have in recent times but its not because I bored with this, its just tiring to just sit at the keyboard! Photo shoots are also a bit more tiring than usual so its harder to get those going as well.

I am hoping to pace myself through the next few weeks to a couple of postings a week on both my blogs.

Dont go away! I know you wont.

Eggs hold great potential and they hide special treasures.

Early gestation is a quiet hopefully calm thing.

Sometimes gestation can make you batty

If you open yourself to it, it can be a transcendant inward spiraling journey

Or it can make you feel like we are in the End Times (sic)

All of a sudden, its all over and then other types of fun start!

Hopefully one ends up with a well cooked outcome

And not scrambled brains!

That time is almost nigh, the baby is almost done, his appearance is just around the corner. I may not be able to keep up on this blog as much as I have in recent times but its not because I bored with this, its just tiring to just sit at the keyboard! Photo shoots are also a bit more tiring than usual so its harder to get those going as well.

I am hoping to pace myself through the next few weeks to a couple of postings a week on both my blogs.

Dont go away! I know you wont.

Eggs hold great potential and they hide special treasures.

Early gestation is a quiet hopefully calm thing.

Sometimes gestation can make you batty

If you open yourself to it, it can be a transcendant inward spiraling journey

Or it can make you feel like we are in the End Times (sic)

All of a sudden, its all over and then other types of fun start!

Hopefully one ends up with a well cooked outcome

And not scrambled brains!

Ages ago we planted some thumbelina carrots (Daucus carota sativus) and a variety of eggplants in small containers on the deck. I thought this would be lots of fun for my oldest, Q, to grow, pick, and eat.

At one point we had these wild mushrooms growing around the carrots

Yesterday Q decided it was time to harvest the little guys and has been enjoying their sweet flavor and cute look.

Ages ago we planted some thumbelina carrots (Daucus carota sativus) and a variety of eggplants in small containers on the deck. I thought this would be lots of fun for my oldest, Q, to grow, pick, and eat.

At one point we had these wild mushrooms growing around the carrots

Yesterday Q decided it was time to harvest the little guys and has been enjoying their sweet flavor and cute look.

We didnt start homeschooling Q until 4th grade and we had been through a painful process that turned out to be pretty unproductive in the local schools. In the end even the teachers, counselors, and administrators agreed that homeschooling was the best fit solution.

As a result, Q has quite a lot of difficult deschooling to do. Heck, we all do.

KD, at 3 years, is fresh and unspoiled by the “system” and is also, obviously, a completely different child! It is so much fun to get her into more structured learning experiences because she reacts to it without any negative bias. Unbelievably refreshing. This is common to all little ones at this age, homeschooled or not. Its what allows them to learn so well. I wish I had given that gift to Q but hindsight is mostly 20/20 and we have learned a few things through Q’s experiences that help with KD.

We didnt start homeschooling Q until 4th grade and we had been through a painful process that turned out to be pretty unproductive in the local schools. In the end even the teachers, counselors, and administrators agreed that homeschooling was the best fit solution.

As a result, Q has quite a lot of difficult deschooling to do. Heck, we all do.

KD, at 3 years, is fresh and unspoiled by the “system” and is also, obviously, a completely different child! It is so much fun to get her into more structured learning experiences because she reacts to it without any negative bias. Unbelievably refreshing. This is common to all little ones at this age, homeschooled or not. Its what allows them to learn so well. I wish I had given that gift to Q but hindsight is mostly 20/20 and we have learned a few things through Q’s experiences that help with KD.

I was invited to participate in this week’s Carnival of Homeschooling, very exciting! I have run community events on my other blog, Nika’s Culinaria, but have been really low key with this blog.

Welcome to all you new visitors from the CoH!

The featured post for my part of CoH is a post I did on Phylogeny and Evolutionary Biology.

I hold a PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology and was trained with mechanism and biological networks as a very prime concept. There is no holistic understanding of Biology and many sciences without an understanding of the evolutionary relationships between chemical species, molecular species, organism species, ecosystems, and other meta-level systems. Its a very complex and beautiful thing.

I hope that more homeschooling families embrace science more fully if for no other reason than to immerse themselves in what can be an infinitely interesting universe.

After all, it IS our universe, might as well revel in it’s beauty!

I created this blog out of a need and desire to meet like-minded progressive homeschooling families out there. I have “met” many and each has been a dear wonderful person and family. My only regret is that we are all so darn busy that I dont have a stronger relationship with my fellow progressive homschoolers. I continue to blog in the hopes that it WILL happen, eventually .

This blog is a documentary at times of what my older daughter Q is doing, what her little sister KD is doing, what I am doing, sometimes its off topic political comments, sometimes its science and math and geography.

I dont know if readers are put off or appreciate the uneven texture of the blog but thats just the way my mind and our lives work!

I am due to have the third and last addition to our family in the middle of October (hope we make it to full term) and then I am hoping to get to a few meta-homeschool projects.

Without a hard commitment but rather a statement of intent, I am hoping to:

- get our homeschool electronics concept more launched
- I am also working on an online classroom (based on Moodle) that will, with the help of everyone who is interested, provide an online co-op experience driven by parents and children
- continue with our podcasts

I appreciate you visit, drop a comment, inroduce yourself!