Vintage Remedies for Guys

Vintage Remedies for Guys
Jessie Hawkins
$45
for guys 7-13

From the Vintage Remedies Website:

Vintage Remedies for Guys teaches healthy and natural living to boys ages 7-13. Our new workbook is packed with over 200 pages covering every aspect of natural living including wellness, nutrition, herbal medicine, immunity, natural living and hygiene, and the conservative use of valuable natural resources. Young guys will learn how to identify unhealthy foods, how to create a healthy real foods get together (and practice with some friends), how to select and even make natural skin care, how to make cheese, how to grow culinary and medicinal herbs, how to create basic herbal preparations, and much, much more!

The most wonderful time of year is also the most BUSY time of year...we were given Vintage Remedies for Guys to review, but I must say right up front, the busyness of the season and the special ingredients needed to complete the projects in this book have meant that we have not been able to do many of the projects in the book yet...but let me tell you...I LOVE this book!

From the Vintage Remedies website:
Our wellness philosophy is that the body was designed to benefit from fresh, real, whole foods and when provided with clean air, pure water and nutrient dense foods, the body is capable of achieving wellness. We believe that valuable resources were placed here for our physical benefit and are always excited at the discoveries and the complexity of natural plant matter. By understanding these principles, these resources can be used wisely to encourage the body to attain and maintain health. We don’t approach health with a disease + treatment model, rather the whole mind, body and spirit integrative approach of whole health or holistic health. It is a system focused on wellness, not medicine. Our materials reflect this philosophy and teach health from that viewpoint.

Vintage Remedies talks about trying to conserve and recycle, etc, but I appreciate that the focus is more on healthier living rather than on "being Green" because everyone else is. We have always believed that you should use as few chemicals as possible, be careful with the use of medicines and try to eat foods that are nutrient dense and we have had varying degrees of success in this as life goes on, but our focus is because it is better for the health of our bodies, not because it is "cool" right now to do so.

So, about the Vintage Remedies for Guys Workbook...broken down into three sections (Food, Nutrition and Culinary Skills, Health and Body, and Natural Living), we focused on sections two and three.
In section two, the topics are Healthy Living Through Hygiene, Immunity and Prevention, Coughs and Colds, Summertime Fun, and Backyard Medicine. We skipped the last two sections and really focused on Hygiene and Coughs and Colds. Each chapter will talk about the subject, hygiene for instance focused on taking care of your face, the smelly parts of the body and then the rest of your body. Jessie talked about products that are popular for guys this age (without naming other brands) and shared some of the dangers of using those products. Having a guy at the upper range of the age range, I kept wishing there were more details, but had to keep reminding myself that 7 year olds were using this curriculum as well. Each chapter ends with a Parent/Leader Guide which includes a supply list of items needed to complete the project. I love having a brief synopsis of the chapter with the list, but I wish it was in the beginning of the chapter or even in the beginning of the book. One project we will be trying soon are the Herbal Candies from the Cough and Cold chapter. These feature Slippery Elm Bark and are supposed to be good for sore throats, which is very needed this time of year. I have not had the chance to locate Slippery Elm Bark powder yet, so that is a project to come back to.

The Section on Natural Living has some great tips as well that many people are already doing...use cloth napkins and dishrags, use glass dishes instead of paper, serve juice in a glass instead of juice boxes at a party, plan meals to discourage from quick runs to fast food, natural cleaning supplies, etc. Many of these ideas were not "new" to our family, but having my son read them from someone other than MOM helps to give support to those things we already do...I'm not sure why, but it seems that we often receive some information best from those we are not related to...

In January when we are back up and running full steam again, we will come back to this and complete more projects...I am sure the food related ones will be a HIT with my guy...he is wonderful in the kitchen! I think, for our family, I will look into some of the other courses offered by Vintage Remedies...I can't decide between the Natural Wellness and Family Herbalist courses...but I think we are ready to dig a little deeper and my oldest...techy guy is doing some of his own digging to find some information on helping his arthritis through nutrition. I will also be looking more thoroughly through The Kitchen Herbal which was sent to me as a gift for reviewing Vintage Remedies for Guys. There is also Vintage Remedies for Kids, Vintage Remedies for Girls, Vintage Remedies for Tweens and Vintage Remedies Guide to Bread (this is on my wish list too!). I think you are really going to enjoy these books!

See what my fellow Crew Mates had to say about Vintage Remedies here

Disclaimer: I received this item for the purpose of writing a fair and honest review. I received no other compensation. All the opinions expressed are my own.