Food is an interesting topic. A lot of what I try to do here at home with the kids every day is to teach them about nourishment, cleanliness, fulfillment, and rhythm. I want them to have a strong attachment to their own caring, how they care for themselves and how this translates into their responsibility as careful citizens. This can translate, unschooling style, into any single topic a person might consider. History, math, art, literature, psychology, P.E. (without the whistle), science: they all have fingery little roots down into our souls, down into our caring. But what is at the top of the rooted tree? The leaves, our food. I saw a Lebanese quote yesterday, "the eating is proportional to the love."

And I have been thinking about the food we give our pets. I hate dog food. I hate the way it stinks. I hate to pay for it. I hate the industry that provides it. I decided last year that I would never buy it again. And strangely, agony descended upon me. It was strikingly similar to the first feelings I had when I realised I would never willingly send my children to school. It felt scary. And there were naysayers everywhere. "What about vitamins!" "What if her food isn't balanced?" "Oh GOD, what if ....... your dog ........ ahhhhhhh ......!"

What if what? What if my dog eats real food? How can that be a bad thing? I started to ask myself. For a year now my dog, Daisy, has been eating what we eat plus any cat food she can scam. Our default meal for her is two pieces of bread broken up and topped with two raw eggs and a glass of milk. She is luscious now, though I thought she was luscious before. Her fur is softer and furrier. She dropped a couple of pounds and that tangy funk dogs have. That's right, she smells much better.

I noticed something more profound than an improvement in her smell. I noticed that when I stopped feeding my dog as if she were a machine, I began to love her more. Isn't that kind of profound? The way I feed her affects my regard for her. Interesting.

Cats are different. Cat food is trickier. Or is it? This whole dog loving year, my cat has been eating Purina. Everyone knows that cats are CARNIVORES. They are much harder to feed. They must have vitamins! They must have balance! They must ....... ahhhhhh .....!

They must what? They must eat pressed processed pellets of ground chicken feathers and cow toenails or they can't possibly thrive? I can't feed my cat boiled ground fresh meat and rice along with bowls of sweet milk? I think, suddenly, that I can.

Imagine if Purina was actually as concerned for the literal well being of my cat or dog as I am. They want you to believe they are. But, really now, are they? Hum. While you consider that, here is a shocker for you. Milk does not give cats or dogs diarrhea. I have been testing this for a year and the results are in. Our pets like milk. It appears to be good for them too.

Is there an analogy here? There is school food and there is dinner at home around the table. We send the kids to school and they are fed. What crap they are fed and what amount of denial we have. When the kids are back at home we agonise. "Does that juice have any sugar?" "Check for hydrogenated oil!" "Organic, please."

There is a clear metaphor here, in my mind, for our intellectual food. School food. Homeschool food. "Which Latin curriculum do you use?" "Do you prefer Woodcock-Johnson or Iowa State Standard?" "How many years above grade level is she reading?" How we fret. Meanwhile, what a HUGE chasm there is between what the schools have convinced us they are feeding our children intellectually compared with the reality of what children learn in school. And that gulf is redoubled against a comparison to what children get at home.

Last night I was surfing for cat food recipes when this all came home to me. Everyone wants you to believe you can not feed your pets or educate your children with out expert oversight. And at the same time, the "experts" are frequently inadequate, possibly sometimes harmful. Think about this the next time you fear your 8 year old homeschooler isn't well enough educated. What might your child have been fed in school, today or this year? Relax. The eating is proportional to the love.