Jill Winger

This was such a great back to basics book! For anyone wanting to do things a bit more naturally. I love that it's not a one size fits all approach. Jill gives lots of ideas and then says do what you can and what works for you. There's no judgement.
I had so many sticky notes sticking out of the book by the time I was done!
There were some studies I found disturbing but don't doubt that this is true: one survey estimated average daily smartphone use to be 3.6-5.7 hours per day. In another study more than 68 participants said screen time had a negative effect on their mental health. Jill also notes how our attention spans are shrinking.
She talks about parenting: "We all want to give our kids a leg up in the world...we want to smooth the path for our kids, to lessen the sting of failure, to obliterate challenges, to protect them from all danger, to defeat any foes that dare cross their paths, and most of all, to make them as successful as possible. But what if our good intentions are having the opposite effect?" YES! I wanted to yell as I read these works but I was in the lunchroom at work. I loved her back to basics approach to parenting. The value of free play is sooo important and she lays out many reasons for why.
She talks about how when we try to protect our children from all mistakes we can rob them of valuable life lessons. She talks about kids being exposed to risk. I laughed when I read "No, I'm not saying you should allow your kids to play in the middle of an intersection or give your eighteen-month-old a meat cleaver, but kids do need more exposure to healthy risk than they currently have in most of our modern culture." She also talks about how sterile our world is becoming "Studies show there's actually a greater long-term risk from living in a perfectly sterile world. In fact all the unwashed carrots they've eaten may be making them healthier." A study in Austria, Germany and Switzerland showed that early childhood exposure to farms, stables and farm milk protected children against hay fever and asthma. I've even seen this personally with people that I know. It seems like the parents I know that are keeping their kids from everything dirty or unhealthy and constantly using hand sanitizer are the ones that are sick the most often.
In addition to basic philosophies there is so much great practical stuff in this book. Cooking, natural cleaning products, homemade body care, raising chickens, gardening. You can take what you like. I think everyone will find something useful in this book.

I love a quote she uses from Laura Ingalls Wilder near the end of the book. "so many changes have made living and learning easier. But the real things haven't changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures; and have courage when things go wrong."

I would highly recommend this book to everyone and would be very surprised if anyone read it who didn't find one thing to take away from it.… (plus d'informations)