Hi, I've been searching for a place where you discuss your research/opinions on ultrasound. It looks like this QBC interview was the place, but I missed it. Where can I find this information? Thank you!
Hi Stephanie, thanks for reaching out! Yes, I should put together a post or a talk here, too. Thank you for the suggestion! I’ll add it to my calendar. In a nutshell, at the statistical level, early diagnosis of issues using ultrasound hasn’t been shown to give any benefit. Ultrasound may also increase the rates of interventions. But, since ultrasound has been incorporated into practice as normal standard of care, it’s now nearly impossible to do research about pregnancy without it because designing such a study would be “lower” than standard of care which isn’t allowed. There are some factors relating to emfs and how those affect biology that would be interesting and something new I could add to the conversation and I will do that soon, maybe after the new year?
Great talk! Really enjoyed it! What an ideal time for me too as I'm re-visiting all my fav homeschool/unschool books to get in the game for our new learning rhythm to begin and have to stop and breathe every time they talk about unlimited screen time or relaxing around late night gaming. Just soooooo much of the story these parents didn't have, and while I'm not gonna throw the baby out with bath water, it does wear me down to have to constantly have these books and podcasts try to relax parents into more lax screen habits. I do very much agree with the value of letting our children have a strong say in what their learning life looks like. That quick quip about you having no screens Nikko was exactly what I needed to hear! We do not have a set screen time schedule and remain mostly no screens as well, using them only for the every now and then experience. In a house full of boys though and the pressure for more screens once we get into winter I'm feeling that anxious feeling of having to figure it all out once again. I'll definitely be revisiting the book iMinds after I read my homeschool books to help balance the story, but I'd love to know your homeschooling relationship with screen in case I can glean any new strategies or at the very least feel the camaraderie of a similar structure! :)
Aww, glad you enjoyed it! Yes, the screen time issue. We didn’t know better with my oldest and my husband started giving her shows and tablet time around age two (!) when I started working again. It quickly became obvious that it wasn’t working for us, as before that we saw very few tantrums from her. But the screen time quickly became a tantrum thing, especially since it came in as appeasement for mama being gone based on the timing and purpose. I think things might have been a little different, maybe, without that concurrent upheaval. What we ended up doing was that I switched to work from home so I could be more flexible with work and meeting her needs, and as a family we put a hard limit of only one show, and absolutely no touching of devices. Only grown-ups touch devices. At that age, going up to two shows just reinforced “more.” So we found we couldn’t get her to understand the difference between two and three and many, or sometimes touch but, not whenever you want. She could understand “one show” and zero touching. And we started always making a plan with her that she would choose what she was going to do afterwards before the show started, and to have it be something fun. So instead of, show’s ending, boo-hoo, it was, “alright, now it’s time for a snack outside”, or “yay, that was fun! Now it’s time to play kitchen,” or whatever she said before the show that she wanted to do. And that’s basically what we’ve kept up as we’ve been blessed with more children. As far as video games, I haven’t found anything that works (not setting timers, not when you finish a level, not only on fridays, which are the limits I tried). So, maybe someone else has a solution for that. I just always noticed a long mood drag after video game time, so I let them play a little bit with cousins but in that case, we as an extended family have a “family time before video game or tv time” so the kids often end up having so much fun with everything else it will end up like 5-10 minute turns right before it’s time to go. As far as edu, sometimes my husband puts on educational things for them, but I do all verbal, experiential, or paper-based learning. I haven’t gotten to the age yet, but I told my oldest she will have the opportunity for her own device once she passes her driver’s test and she needs it for maps and safety. That’s a clear and practical goal for her. I got that idea from a homeschooling site where the author said his kids had to finish calculus before they got to have a computer. I think I heard somewhere Jobs and Gates also didn’t let their own children use devices until age 16. That might be hearsay, idk. But it makes sense to me knowing what I know about development, hormones, neurotransmitters and light. And just with watching my children and the families around me. I’m grateful to be in a community that shares many of these values, because even if my rules are strict, they see other children with and without these limits and can see for themselves how much easier it is to get along with less tech-obsessed kids than those who are fully immersed in it. Hope that helps! I completely agree about the need for camaraderie amidst this tech-tide 🧡
What a reassuring answer and it is so interesting to me how similar the stories are from moms who are going our same direction! Video games are sooooo tricky! Its the combo of the emf's, bad light, and phycological manipulation that makes it such a battlefield for us moms. But the unschooling/self directed learning world treats them as gifts from the heavens!! Ha! Drives me nuts! The void that the author talks about in "iMinds" is such a real thing and I've noticed too that they have to have something scheduled right after the screen or its an immediate and long lasting downward spiral (even for myself!). My oldest too knows he can expect a phone once he can drive- and I'm just crossing my fingers somebody like Daylight has one available by then! So lovely and encouraging to hear your thoughts on the matter! Thanks so much for sharing! :)
Hi, I've been searching for a place where you discuss your research/opinions on ultrasound. It looks like this QBC interview was the place, but I missed it. Where can I find this information? Thank you!
Hi Stephanie, thanks for reaching out! Yes, I should put together a post or a talk here, too. Thank you for the suggestion! I’ll add it to my calendar. In a nutshell, at the statistical level, early diagnosis of issues using ultrasound hasn’t been shown to give any benefit. Ultrasound may also increase the rates of interventions. But, since ultrasound has been incorporated into practice as normal standard of care, it’s now nearly impossible to do research about pregnancy without it because designing such a study would be “lower” than standard of care which isn’t allowed. There are some factors relating to emfs and how those affect biology that would be interesting and something new I could add to the conversation and I will do that soon, maybe after the new year?
Thanks so much for the insight, it’s been a tough one to research. I’d always love to hear more from you on any topic, so that sounds great!
This was a great interview, Nikko!!!!
Thank you, and I’m looking forward to listening in to yours as well. One of my closest friends works in ECE and has worked with families going through primitive reflex stuff, so I’m excited to share. For anyone spooking the comments, here’s Amanda’s interview: https://open.substack.com/pub/amandaconta/p/the-quantum-effects-of-gentle-movements?r=bz03m&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Great talk! Really enjoyed it! What an ideal time for me too as I'm re-visiting all my fav homeschool/unschool books to get in the game for our new learning rhythm to begin and have to stop and breathe every time they talk about unlimited screen time or relaxing around late night gaming. Just soooooo much of the story these parents didn't have, and while I'm not gonna throw the baby out with bath water, it does wear me down to have to constantly have these books and podcasts try to relax parents into more lax screen habits. I do very much agree with the value of letting our children have a strong say in what their learning life looks like. That quick quip about you having no screens Nikko was exactly what I needed to hear! We do not have a set screen time schedule and remain mostly no screens as well, using them only for the every now and then experience. In a house full of boys though and the pressure for more screens once we get into winter I'm feeling that anxious feeling of having to figure it all out once again. I'll definitely be revisiting the book iMinds after I read my homeschool books to help balance the story, but I'd love to know your homeschooling relationship with screen in case I can glean any new strategies or at the very least feel the camaraderie of a similar structure! :)
Aww, glad you enjoyed it! Yes, the screen time issue. We didn’t know better with my oldest and my husband started giving her shows and tablet time around age two (!) when I started working again. It quickly became obvious that it wasn’t working for us, as before that we saw very few tantrums from her. But the screen time quickly became a tantrum thing, especially since it came in as appeasement for mama being gone based on the timing and purpose. I think things might have been a little different, maybe, without that concurrent upheaval. What we ended up doing was that I switched to work from home so I could be more flexible with work and meeting her needs, and as a family we put a hard limit of only one show, and absolutely no touching of devices. Only grown-ups touch devices. At that age, going up to two shows just reinforced “more.” So we found we couldn’t get her to understand the difference between two and three and many, or sometimes touch but, not whenever you want. She could understand “one show” and zero touching. And we started always making a plan with her that she would choose what she was going to do afterwards before the show started, and to have it be something fun. So instead of, show’s ending, boo-hoo, it was, “alright, now it’s time for a snack outside”, or “yay, that was fun! Now it’s time to play kitchen,” or whatever she said before the show that she wanted to do. And that’s basically what we’ve kept up as we’ve been blessed with more children. As far as video games, I haven’t found anything that works (not setting timers, not when you finish a level, not only on fridays, which are the limits I tried). So, maybe someone else has a solution for that. I just always noticed a long mood drag after video game time, so I let them play a little bit with cousins but in that case, we as an extended family have a “family time before video game or tv time” so the kids often end up having so much fun with everything else it will end up like 5-10 minute turns right before it’s time to go. As far as edu, sometimes my husband puts on educational things for them, but I do all verbal, experiential, or paper-based learning. I haven’t gotten to the age yet, but I told my oldest she will have the opportunity for her own device once she passes her driver’s test and she needs it for maps and safety. That’s a clear and practical goal for her. I got that idea from a homeschooling site where the author said his kids had to finish calculus before they got to have a computer. I think I heard somewhere Jobs and Gates also didn’t let their own children use devices until age 16. That might be hearsay, idk. But it makes sense to me knowing what I know about development, hormones, neurotransmitters and light. And just with watching my children and the families around me. I’m grateful to be in a community that shares many of these values, because even if my rules are strict, they see other children with and without these limits and can see for themselves how much easier it is to get along with less tech-obsessed kids than those who are fully immersed in it. Hope that helps! I completely agree about the need for camaraderie amidst this tech-tide 🧡
What a reassuring answer and it is so interesting to me how similar the stories are from moms who are going our same direction! Video games are sooooo tricky! Its the combo of the emf's, bad light, and phycological manipulation that makes it such a battlefield for us moms. But the unschooling/self directed learning world treats them as gifts from the heavens!! Ha! Drives me nuts! The void that the author talks about in "iMinds" is such a real thing and I've noticed too that they have to have something scheduled right after the screen or its an immediate and long lasting downward spiral (even for myself!). My oldest too knows he can expect a phone once he can drive- and I'm just crossing my fingers somebody like Daylight has one available by then! So lovely and encouraging to hear your thoughts on the matter! Thanks so much for sharing! :)