About

Barefoot kids are symbolic to me. The stripping off of shoes is representative of stripping off external control…making independent choices, living in the moment. Children naturally like to run in fields, dance in puddles, in the sand, digging their toes in, feeling the earth beneath their feet. They explore and learn not only with their eyes and ears, but their entire bodies. Shoes represent the rules and expectations that can unwittingly weigh them down at such an early age.  Let ‘em go barefoot is a blog about kids, about living with kids, about parenting and the relationships we create with our children as parents.  The shared thoughts and personal experiences are meant to encourage adults to create peaceful, loving relationships with their children by thinking about the decisions they make surrounding the kids in their lives, to delve deeper into their reasons for doing, to admit when a change is necessary in their own lives and to implement a change.

As far as parenting is concerned, I didn’t become interested in how to be a parent after those two pink lines showed up. I have been thinking and observing how adults and kids interact for a long, long time. I am intrigued by what I see and pushed to think harder about the relationship I am creating with my own children.  I envision a world where children are appreciated and celebrated, parents are supported and encouraged, and the stories of abuse, neglect, and psychological trauma are things of the past.

Below is a little about moi:

I am a homeschooling mommy to one super fly, tech savvy, 9 1/2 year old nature boy who has a knack for drawing, keeps our refrigerator emptied, and gets flustered when our cat brings home “treats”.   My 5 year old rugby player-in-training girl likes to run around barefoot (hmmm), do flips on the trampoline, and bake with me. We hail from a big southern city on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  I am married to my best friend who also has the tightest calves around. He’s witty and handy and knows something about everything, no lie.  He’s just a smarty pants show off.

I have a Masters in Education and worked on research projects during and after college with children diagnosed as ADHD and Learning Disabled.  I have grown to believe that many of the ailments afflicting our young population are adult driven— meaning forced learning, rigid expectations, limited amount of free play and unstructured activities, and our sick enviornment are perpetuating these diagnoses. I took to reading early and never stopped. I will read stuff until my eyeballs ache and sadly my laptop is beginning to fuse to my lap.  I love to learn, think about what I’ve learned and share. I like our environment a whole lot too and if we were in a room and someone asked for all environmentalist types to identify themselves, I’d stand up.  I even started my own organic tee shirt company www.terratees.com to clothe  kids with eco-friendly tees that promote our environment.  I think lavendar, gardenias and the tree that gives us cocoa are nature’s ultimate way of showing love.  I get emotional when I think of how quickly my kids are growing up and I adore this quote by John Whitehead, a guy I knew nothing about until I did a search one day on quotes about living with children.

“Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.”

True. Profound. Motivating.