When asked what I do and my course of study...

... I thought about it. I could so easily say... I'm a wife, housewife, mother, homeschooler, herbalist and EFT Practitioner... but does that really give my chosen vocation the dignity it deserves? I think not. I started with a blip posted years ago by another mom fed up with being seen as "just a housewife/mother" and expanded on her thoughts a bit.

I am a Research Associate in the field of Child Psychology and Human Development. This particular discipline in my instance also includes a co-major in herbal and nutritional therapy concurrent with acupressure therapy for emotional and physical pain management and resolution. I have a partner Associate who has been involved in the same program since my 201 classes. *see below for details*

My education started with 3 consecutive internships through a volunteer program at the YMCA in San Diego. After 3 years I took a long sabbatical that featured only a few day-intensives.

After high school I entered into a 9 month intensive residential program in pre-natal development 101, ( titled Aaryanna). 6 months of which included group work study in the subjects of adoption, law and grief counseling. After the 9 months I took a one day study on parental rights revocation law.

3 months after the completion of my 101 course I entered into a permanent partnership (titled marriage of Lawrence and Tiffany) and we agreed to be mutually involved in all course work in our chosen field. My Research partner can describe his particular views on the study as I am sure he will bring unique and intriguing insights.

About 5 months later we entered a 201 (titled Garion) course in a residential program in pre-natal development for 9 months. At the end of this course I went on to study neo-natal development and lactation. I stayed with this course of study and observed and engaged in the development of our project subject. My concurrent work in herbal and nutritional therapy went quickly from theory mode to practicum. Practical credits were earned rapidly. Trial and error method was more useful then thesis development at that time.

Approximately 18 months after I finished the 201 course in a residential program in pre-natal development I entered into a 301 (titled Aria) level course. After the resolution of that particular course of study I went in for a refresher course of neo-natal development and lactation. I found the experience much less fraught with trial and error. My learning curve had expanded exponentially.

During the development of our project subjects we were also involved in a continuous course of product quality assurance. A good portion of the QA we were involved in included apparel. There were a great many debates, some quite lively, regarding quality, quantity, durability, style, color and label offers in the apparel section of our study. We were also exposed to a long study of entertainment instruments. This also included quality, quantity, durability, style, color and label offers. In addition there was an added emphasis on decibel safety standards, light emission pollution, environmental hazards and OSHA standards for safe working conditions. Certain entertainment instruments were expelled from the program due to breaches of safety in decibels, light emissions and OSHA/environmental hazards.

One aside to our entertainment instrument study included individual containment and packing units. These containment and packing units were uniquely fascinating to our subjects. Often times to the consternation, amusement or frustration of various project donors.

Shortly after completing my 301 course I took a few units in early American history, the development of American government and US Constitutional law. Fascinating study that I continue to enjoy.

Our project subjects continued in normal development and afforded us the opportunity to move from early infancy into early childhood development. We were afforded the opportunity to explore many units of study during this time. Including art in multiple mediums. A great favorite was manual pigment application on canvas, sheetrock and wall structures. Introduction to basic sculpting and pottery. Basic drafting, sketching and animation were explored using various manual mediums. An ongoing exploration of performance art including a fascinating unit in "life as art" with various animate and inanimate flora and fauna. Basic geology was heavily studied with a curious phenomena of the male subjects having a magnetic attraction to it. These subjects happily left behind many specimens for further examination. The female subjects dabbled deeply in a unit called "cultural costuming". Many examples still exist.

As the four year mark of the completion of my 201 course approached, my Research Associate and I decided to embark in a new focus study of early formal educational systems. This study included local public, private and parochial institutions. At the end of one year of study we discovered that the prospects were not on par with expectations. We changed our focus to individual educational instruction in a domestic setting. This study was much more promising and included a unit in appropriate state and local laws, a variety of curricula and methodology.

As the 6th year of the completion of the 201 course arrived we embarked on a course of early childhood formal education. This period was greatly interesting and we entered into a regular group discussion with similarly engaged Research Associates. We decided to restart the course for the 5th anniversary of the completion of the 301 course. We discovered that the earlier introduction proved to be quite beneficial for the project subjects. During that year I also entered into a 401 (Ebba) level residential program in pre-natal development course as well as a subsequent refresher course of neo-natal development and lactation.

After the completion of the 401 level course we continued with the individual educational instruction in a domestic setting and I added a 501 (Elias), 601 (Germaine) and finally a 701 (Iain) level residential program in pre-natal development, neo-natal development and lactation courses. QA for apparel and entertainment instruments continued to be offered and evaluations given at regular intervals.

The year 2004 I was introduced to the acupressure therapy for emotional and physical pain management and resolution. Research, development and application into this course of study continues to the present.

I now have 19 full years of experience as a Research Associate in the field of Child Psychology and Human Development. My first subject was admitted to a different program than the partnership I am currently involved in, but has graduated from that program quite well.

The 201 level course has become less of a thesis and more of a magnum opus. Encouraged to independent study, career development, nutritional education and critical thinking skills, this subject is ready to begin an independent research course. We intend to stay in close contact to observe how our course of study evolves. In 14 years we will have a total of 6 magnum opera. We expect we will be ancillary consultants to our current project subjects by that point.

And that is how you transform housewife, mother, homeschooler, herbalist and EFT practitioner to a level it really deserves to be equated to.