Blog - Julie Naturally | Teen Health Coach

Apologia Bible Curriculum: How to engage kids so they really learn the Bible!

October 7, 2021 by Julie Brow-Polanco

If you’ve some of my other posts, you probably know that I don’t advocate giving prizes for Bible memory. I had very bad experiences with teaching my kids about God’s Word whenever prizes were involved. What worked the best was talking about my own testimony and how God has worked in my life. The second thing that worked well was helping them understand it better. That way, they not only knew what the Bible said, but they knew how to apply it. This was especially important with my special needs kids who don’t always make connections easily. I didn’t give …

5 Reasons why study botany in high school

August 20, 2021 by Julie Brow-Polanco

As I’m sure you know, most high schoolers take three science courses. These are: Chemistry, Biology, and Physics. Some students may also take a Computer Science course. But, in all of those courses, they rarely get advanced Botany. In fact, most children never study Botany again after third grade and can’t even name ten plants or trees in their neighborhoods. They may not even see that botany is important to their everyday lives. We need to remedy this! Let’s talk about why study botany in high school to combat the growing labor shortage and general ignorance about plants. Why Study …

Presenting a great career prep tool for undecided teens

August 6, 2021 by Julie Brow-Polanco

I can’t believe that my last two kids are both now in high school! It’s bittersweet. I have been talking with my daughter who’s a junior this year about life after high school. Will she choose an alternative to college or will she need some college readiness skills? To help her figure this out, I went hunting for a career prep tool. I was looking for one of those career assessment tests that would give her a list of options that matched her interests and skills. I found a few of those online, but what I ended up using is …

Easy online writing for kids for a happy homeschooling year!

August 2, 2021 by Julie Brow-Polanco

Online writing for kids can be a lifesaver when you homeschool several children. It encourages independent work and allows you to focus on the kids that need one-on-one attention. But, how do you find a program that engages your elementary-aged kids and teaches them, too? After all, teens have access to imaginative learning projects that get them excited to write. Younger kids need something immersive and imaginative, too. Personally, I can’t stand the usual “write about your summer vacation” type of writing assignments many programs offer. Kids need writing projects they will care about. Enter Night Zookeeper. This online writing …

My homeschool supply list for successful unschooling

July 21, 2021 by Julie Brow-Polanco

You might not think that unschoolers consider a homeschool supply list, but you should. There are certain things that just make unschooling easier and more fulfilling. We want to have enriching homes that encourage learning, so we need to stock them with particular supplies that promote curiosity, adventure, and a passion for learning. The things you need in your homeschool supply list will depend greatly on several things. Take into account the ages of your children, how unschoolish you are, and how much online learning your children do. In the early years, I only allowed one hour of entertaining screen …

Awesome Imaginative Learning Projects Your Special Teen Will Love

July 8, 2021 by Julie Brow-Polanco

All four of my children have some sort of learning difference, which means they need imaginative learning projects to succeed. The oldest two struggle with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). Four doctors diagnosed my younger daughter with high functioning Asperger’s at age 6 and my youngest son struggled with regulation issues and Sensory Processing Disorder. (He also displays some Aspie traits, which led me to use subscription boxes to help him overcome.) So, I learned early on that certain types of homeschooling just wouldn’t work for them. After reading several books and being a student of my children, I figured out …

The Best Preschool Program for At-Home Learning: a Sonlight Review

July 1, 2021 by Julie Brow-Polanco

Because my kids are teenagers and young adults, I don’t often write about little kids. After all, most homeschool programs try teaching small children to read, write, and do simple math, and I am very much against that. Read-aloud time and lots of outdoor, hands-on play should form the staple learning diet of young children. But, how do you choose books for read aloud time? What do you do when it rains or you’re tired of playing at the beach or in the woods? Well, a good preschool program uses the best living books, lots of sensory materials, and plenty …

How to improve reading skills with LightSail

June 28, 2021 by Julie Brow-Polanco

My younger son needs a little nudging when it comes to reading books. He is very picky. It is challenging to find books that he not only likes, but that aren’t intimidating. He doesn’t have severe dyslexia like his older brother, but he is a somewhat slow reader. So, sometimes he says, “I hate reading.” That’s what his brother used to say. I need to turn that around. I want to encourage him and help him feel more confident, especially now that he is headed for high school. But, most programs for how to improve reading skills are designed for …

Top 10 STEM Careers in Botany You Must Check Out!

June 23, 2021 by Julie Brow-Polanco

Does your teen love plants? Is he looking for something a bit off the beaten path to do after high school? Maybe one these careers in botany is a good choice. After all, botany is important, perhaps the most important science of all. Without botany, the world starves. Want to solve world problems? Want to make an impact? These careers give your teen an opportunity to make a difference in a big way. Careers in Botany Conservation Biologist Do you care about the environment and being a good steward of Creation? Then, this might be the career for you! Conservation …

Why a Flexible Online Degree is a Great Option

June 16, 2021 by Julie Brow-Polanco

This year, my younger daughter enters her junior year of high school. You know what that means, it means it’s time to talk about career choices. She has already told me that she thinks she wants to go to college. I told her that she needs to decide on some possible careers first so she can determine whether or not it will truly be necessary. After all, there are many alternatives to college. In the meantime, I’ve been taking a look at flexible online degree options for her. When I learned of Total Testing and their partnership with Daemen College …

Easy to Use Curriculum to Make Teens’ Writing Better

June 10, 2021 by Julie Brow-Polanco

Since I don’t believe in teaching little kids to write, we often do formal writing instruction a bit late. Narration and oral storytelling naturally lead to better compositions when kids are older. But, sometimes middle schoolers and teens need a bit of help with some of those mechanical skills such as tricky spelling and homophones, grammar, and more obscure sentence mechanics. (They usually know what a sentence is, but how about prepositions and clauses?) I like to use a targeted but immersive approach to pick up these skills easily and quickly. So I veer towards an easy to use curriculum …

Five Favorite Essential Oils for Busy Moms You Need Now

April 28, 2021 by Julie Brow-Polanco

What does your family do for Mother’s Day? Do they treat you like a queen, take you out for dinner, and clean the house for you? How about offer you a box of chocolatey goodness with all its chocolate benefits? It’s definitely fun to be pampered for the day when you’re usually the one taking care of everyone else’s needs. But, how can we pamper ourselves and care for our bodies and minds the rest of the year? Essential oils for busy moms can certainly help strengthen immunity, keep us in good spirits, and help us relax in the face …

Why These Homeschool Biology Classes Get Teens Excited

March 23, 2021 by Julie Brow-Polanco

Right now, I have one child in high school and I have graduated two children. My youngest is finishing up middle school. Since I have all this experience, you’d think I’d have all the high school science stuff figured out by now. The truth is that each child did high school a bit differently. And you would expect that since we are more of an unschooling type family. However, my third child has expressed to me that she wants her high school classes to look a lot like her friends’ classes. That means that I have had to look into …

The Ultimate On-Demand American Sign Language Classes That You Must Try

February 17, 2021 by Julie Brow-Polanco

When my children were smaller, we belonged to a different church. In that church, one of the congregants was deaf. So, an interpreter stood at the front of the church each Sunday, signing what the pastor said. It fascinated me to watch her hands move and her face change as she helped the deaf person understand the pastor’s words. We don’t attend that church anymore, but I have encountered groups of people entering restaurants obviously gesturing in sign language. During these casual encounters, their way of communicating continued to interest me. Then, when my dyslexic son had difficulty learning conversational …

Convenient Online Homeschool Science Classes Your Kid Will Love

January 21, 2021 by Julie Brow-Polanco

This school year has been a bit crazy. I usually do a lot of hands-on stuff with my kids, but my remaining two students are teens now. It’s bittersweet. My youngest still builds things, especially mechanical things. But, our homeschool journey has morphed into more independent work. Sometimes, we use science games, but he and his sister mostly work alone. Because I now own a home business, I had to look for online lessons for him. His sister goes to co-op classes for some of her high school and the rest she does online, too. She chose to do that …

5 secrets to how to stay healthy in winter

January 11, 2021 by Julie Brow-Polanco

Do you have your winter herbal medicine chest all stocked? I hope you don’t have to use it. Even though the cold weather seems to bring more illness than at other times of the year, it doesn’t have to be that way. You can learn some preventative measures for how to stay healthy in winter. After all, you don’t want to suffer for weeks on end. You also don’t want spring to come and find you sick in bed. Here are some things to keep in mind through the cold months. 5 Secrets to How to Stay Healthy in Winter …

Achieve more with high school dual enrollment at Thiel College

January 5, 2021 by Julie Brow-Polanco

As I’ve talked about before, I don’t think that college is for everyone. But, if your teen wishes to pursue a career that requires college, I definitely recommend high school dual enrollment. It is one of the excellent college options to reduce cost and get a head start. In fact, my oldest two (who have already graduated) took a few courses at the local junior college while they were still in high school. This helped them get a head start on general college requirements. It also helped them gain skills and determine their paths while they were still at home. …

Adventure Academy Review: 10 Ways for Using in Your Homeschool

January 2, 2021 by Julie Brow-Polanco

When my oldest children were younger (they are adults now), I incorporated many different educational experiences into their homeschool. These sometimes included computer games. At that time, it was things like Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, Reader Rabbit, Clue Finders, and Zoombinis. Nowadays, those games are not readily available and everything is online, not on CD-Rom. I have to say, I was very sad about this. But, new and more sophisticated educational games replaced them. One of them is from Age of Learning, Adventure Academy. Adventure Academy is a role player game from the makers of ABC Mouse, …

Why goals are important to your mental health

December 30, 2020 by Julie Brow-Polanco

Many people feel a bit lost without a planner or schedule to help them track appointments. Using these tools is a form of goal-setting. But, we often fail to see why goals are important in other areas. We make vague goals that are really only dreams. Or, another popular idea these days is making a bucket list of things we want to do before God calls us home. Again, this is little more than a list of dreams that will never become reality if we don’t learn how to set goals. While it’s certainly fun to imagine ourselves doing wonderful …

How to Set Goals that Smash Through Ceilings

December 29, 2020 by Julie Brow-Polanco

Well, it’s that time of year again. It’s time to ponder what went well over the past year and what didn’t. After the flurry of activity, I like to spend New Year’s thinking about what I’d like to accomplish in the next year. But, how to set goals that will rock the new year? I try to avoid the usual list-making and vague goals since I end up falling short when I do those things. Instead, I choose one or two goals and then create a concrete plan. After all, setting goals can improve mental health and I’m all about …

How to stop emotional eating in 5 simple steps

December 16, 2020 by Julie Brow-Polanco

When you’ve been in the habit of stuffing your emotions with food, it can be hard to reverse that trend. But, the toll it’s having on your emotional, physical, and mental health probably frightens you. Then, feeling bad, you eat more to try to feel better. It’s a vicious cycle that cannot be broken with food. The effects of emotional eating can only be reversed with a purposeful plan that starts with these five steps. I will warn you, though, that these steps might be simple, but they’re not easy. However, the rewards far outweigh the challenges. Finally, you will …

Warning! Stress eating can kill you sooner!

December 15, 2020 by Julie Brow-Polanco

During the holidays and winter months, we can experience higher levels of stress. This time of year often stirs up painful memories and family tensions, deepens financial troubles, and finds us gaining unwanted pounds. We also tend to get sick more often. So, what do we do? We engage in stress eating. The roots of emotional eating teach us to eat when we feel bad. So we learn to associate food with relieving our sadness, disappointment, and other negative feelings. But, stress eating can shorten your life span. That’s right! By repressing your feelings and adding extra pounds, you may …

Emotional eating: the Dark Truth About Your Intense Cravings

December 14, 2020 by Julie Brow-Polanco

During the holidays and other stressful times of the year, we often eat too much. And then, we make New Year’s resolutions to lose weight. The average person gains about ten extra pounds during the fall months. But, how many times have you made that resolution? How many diets have you tried? For many women who want to lose weight, the ongoing quest to find the perfect diet is pointless. The reality is, no matter which foods are available, the burden of emotional eating will sabotage their efforts. What is emotional eating? Triggered by negative events First, the basic idea …

How to Lift Mood Now! Feel Better Fast!

December 11, 2020 by Julie Brow-Polanco

Do you have a bad mood? Considering today’s environment of uncertainty and chaos, it’s pretty common. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports an increase in depression and anxiety in 2020 over 2019. Their study showed that 40% of adults currently struggle with mental health or substance abuse. But, we cannot stay depressed, anxious, or suicidal. We need ways to lift mood that are easy and help immediately. We also need strategies to keep our spirits up so we don’t fall back into a bad mood. First, let’s talk about why moods are important. Then, we can better …