Cloth Diaper Trial Wrap up

The week has come to an end and here are my final thoughts on our Cloth Diaper Trial run. 
I liked the cloth diapers enough to a) continue using them for another week, adding in night time and out and about, b)pick up some from a friend that her daughter can no longer use in order to increase my stash, and c)look into buying enough for a 3 day supply.  In short, I think I'm going to switch.  My biggest factor in the decision?  Cost.  With 12 diapers I have all ready, plus the extra diapers my friend will be lending me, I would only need to spend between $100 and $200 to buy enough diapers for a 3 day supply, plus a diaper sprayer.  So, for less than $200 I can diaper Bree for the next 2 years.  That's worth it to me!  Besides...have I mentioned that they're darn stinkin' cute?

Cloth Diaper Update

We're halfway through my week of full cloth diapering.  Here are my thoughts:1)  Pee cloth diapers are JUST AS EASY as disposables.
2) Poopy cloth diapers take more effort and there IS the gross out factor of having to clean them in the toilet.  It takes more time to do so, and for me, rubber gloves are a MUST.  If I decide to switch completely I will invest in a diaper sprayer as well.
3) I go through approximatly 6 cloth diapers a day, and 2 disposables (for bedtime and out of the house).   I am thinking that next week I will use cloth exclusively with the rare exception of a LONG trip out of the house. 
4) Doing the laundry isn't hard at all.  At the end of the day I simply dump all the diapers that need to be washed into the washer when the kids are going to bed.  Then, when I check on the kids before I go to bed I take them out of the washer and hang them over a basket to dry.  Easy peasy.
5) Cloth diapers can be so CUTE!!!!  For me, personally, the drawback of poop is cancelled out by how ADORABLE the cloth can be.  Although I never would have known this if I hadn't tried them out.  If I switch I will be buying some really cute diapers to make me smile.
6) Since today was church, another pro for cloth diapering popped up.  If I used cloth diapers I wouldn't have to open the stinky diaper pail at church to put used diapers in when I change Bree at church!!  That thing REEKS!!! 
7) The big question I have is: If I switch, should I go with more pocket diapers (like the bum genius I already have) or get some covers and inserts/prefolds. 

So, to anyone considering switching I say this: GIVE IT A TRY!!!  It really hasn't been hard and you get a sense of accomplishment when you see your stack of cloth diapers all clean and waithing to be put on your baby.  And come on....what's cuter than THIS:

Cloth Diaper Trial Run

So, here I go, embarking on my Cloth diapering saga.  I highly considered cloth diapering Bree before I had her.  Then, when she ended up in the hospital for 2 weeks and needed open heart surgery I got so used to the disposables that I was hesitant to try out my cloth diapers.  A week ago, a friend of mine who is considering cloth diapers kicked my rear in gear and "made" me put one on my precious little 6 month old.  However, she wanted to try them too and we were going to split the stash of diapers so we could both try them out but we forgot to split the stash and all I ended up with that week was the one that was ON Bree at the time.  So last week I only tried one cloth diaper a day.  I put it on her in the afternoon after her lunch, then changed her before her afternoon nap.  I didn't mind the cloth diapers, especially with just pee.  She did have one NASTY poopy in it though, and I now have decided that if I DO switch either gloves, or a diaper sprayer...maybe both, are essential for me!!!  Now, I have the stash back and a friend that is definitely going to switch to cloth, so I am going to give myself a week of cloth diapering to decide what I want to do.  Some of you are reading this and thinking, "what the heck are you thinking?!?!?!"  while other of my friends are thinking "Go for it!!"  Let me tell you my reasoning:
1) I have nothing to lose trying these diapers for a week.  They were given to me, for free, by a friend, so it's not like I spent money on something I don't know I'll do for sure. 
2) It would save my family a LOT of money.  When I crunched the numbers I figured that JUST using them for BREE for the next 1 1/2 years will save us over a thousand dollars.  That's taking into account the first time cost of the diapers and the laundering costs. 
3) I am not a fortunate person who's children can wear cheap diapers.  My kid's skin is such that the ONLY brand of diaper I can use, without them getting SERIOUS diaper rash, is Huggies.
4) They're darn stinkin' cute!!! 

Thus, I embark on my cloth diaper trial.  I will keep those interested posted on what I think over the week and what I finally decide. 

End of "First Semester" Evaluations

It's the middle of November, and over here at the Stephen home it means the end of our 2011 school work.  I'm going to give a quick evaluation of each of my kids, mostly for my own benefit.
Audrey (2nd Grade)
Reading:  Audrey has improved a LOT in her reading since we started in August.  She still isn't where I'd like her to be, but we're slowly getting there.  I hope to have her successfully  reading chapter books on her own by the end of the year.
Math:  She ROCKS at math, in my opinion.  She has mastered how to add and subtract large numbers even with borrowing and carrying.  I'm VERY proud of her.  My goal is to keep going forward with her math curriculum and try to help her memorize math facts along the way so she doesn't always have to use her fingers.
Handwriting: Her handwriting deteriorated greatly over the summer so I have been having her do an alphabet book to help remind and reinforce her writing skills.  It has helped a lot.  My goal here is to get her doing copywork starting in January and help her improve on formatting and writing her OWN sentences.
Piano:  Great strides are being made here.  I think I may have underestimated her ability and gotten books that were too easy for her.  She's almost done with her second set of books, so I'll have to look and choose more carefully for her third set of books.  She needs more of a challenge than her current books are giving her.

Marissa (Kindergarten)
Reading:  Marissa is doing EXCELLENT in this department.  She is now on lesson 65 in teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons.  I like this curriculum SO much better than what we used with Audrey.  Marissa is already leaps and bounds ahead of where Audrey was half way through kindergarten.  I wish I had been using this curriculum when Audrey learned to read!
Math:  She LOVES to do math.  She doesn't always GET the math but she loves to do the workbook with me.  We have just finished up a unit on addition and subtraction but it hasn't gellled in her head yet.  I plan to work more on helping her understand addition and subtraction more when we get back to work in January.  She IS doing first grade math as opposed to Kindergarten math though, so I figure I've got plenty of time to slow down and help her master things better.
Handwriting:  Marissa is doing the same book as Audrey, but it takes her longer since she is learning how to form and write the letters.  Audrey is just getting review and reinforcement.  She is about half way through her book and doing well.  I can already tell that she has improved in her pencil control since August. 
Piano:  I DID start Marissa this year, but I don't think she's fully ready for it yet.  I've put it on the backburner for now and only give her a lesson when she asks for one.  I think it will be much easier for her if we wait until next fall to really get going.

Trent (Pre K)
ABC's:  We have been working on one letter a week and he does well during the week.  He is still not retaining the letters much right now, but I don't feel any pressure about that.  He's got plenty of time, and right now I feel like it's more about EXPOSING him to all the letters than about him KNOWING all of them.
Numbers:  Trent can recognize the numbers 1,2,and 3.  We're working on expanding that to 5 right now.  We're also working on counting.  He's improved a LOT since August.  My goal is for him to be able to count to 10 and recognize the numbers 1-10 by the end of the year.
Colors and Shapes:  He's great at colors and can recognize about 10 different colors.  Shapes still need work, but we'll get there.  He knows circle, triangle, and star really well. 
Other Skills:  He's getting really good at doing puzzles by himself.  He is learning how to do prewriting worksheets where he follows the lines.  We need to work on cutting skills as he's still pretty shaky with a pair of scissors.  Overall he's doing great for only being 3!

Bree (Bree School)
Each day for Bree school we pick an activity out of a jar to do with her to help her learn and grow.  The activities range from singing songs, learning sign language, playing games like patty cake, and helping her master motor skills like rolling over and reaching for things.  The kids LOVE this part of the day.  My goal with Bree is to train her to do "blanket time."  Blanket time is a time where she will be given ONE toy and expected to stay on her blanket and play with her toy for a certain amount of time.  This is going to take time and lots of work, but it will pay off so much in the years to come!!

Since some of you are probably wondering why I'm talking like this is the end of 2011, that's because for traditional school in our house it IS.  Next week (Thanksgiving week) is a complete holiday week for my kids with no school at all.  Starting November 28th and going to December 24th we will be having "Christmas School."  Christmas School will consist of singing 8+ carols/day, reading Christmas books, studying the story of Jesus' birth, doing a craft/activity every day, and doing a family activitiy each day.  One of the reasons I am glad I chose to homeschool is because I CAN take all of December and focus on the reason for the season!

Beware: Ranting Ahead.

What happened to the good old days where children were taught RESPECT!? As a child growing up, not SO distantly, in the 80's I was expected to show respect for other people and their property.  It seems these days that less and less children are respectful of ANYTHING.  ALL people should be expected to respect other people and their property.

As a child I was taught to respect my elders.  I called my parents respectful titles of mom, dad, or mommy and daddy.  I called my friend's parents brother or sister so-and-so or mom and dad if they were parents of my best friends.

I was expected to use respectful speech towards everyone.  I was not allowed to swear.  I was not allowed to sass.  In fact the one time I REMEMBER being spanked was because it was my FATHER who spanked me (a very rare occasion) for sassing my MOTHER.  I know I was spanked more than that one time, but that one is ingrained in my memory. 

I was expected to ask permission for things.  If I was hungry I was expected to ask for something, not just take it and go to town.  If I wanted to play on the neighbor's basketball court I was expected to knock on the door and ask their permission, and if they weren't home I didn't play.  If I wanted to go to a friend's house I was expected to ask before going.  If I LEFT a friend's house to go to another friend's house I was expected to call and let my parents know.

I was expected to respect property, my own and others'.  I did not go around trashing my home or others' homes.  I was expected to clean up after myself whether at home or at a friend's.  I was expected to play NICELY with other people's things and not to ruin them.

So...why this rant?  I sit here in my home where I am looking out at a backyard that has been trashed by children (my own and neighbors).  There is garbage ALL OVER.  The children have ripped all the foam off the trampoline net bars and tossed it all over the yard.  Some child has ripped a giant hole in the trampoline net.  There are shoes, jackets, and various other items of clothing strewn across the yard.  Now, I know that my own children are as much to blame as anyone.  Whether or not they participated in the trashing is a moot point: they allowed it to happen.  Guess who will be cleaning it all up?  My children and me, because I realize that it is as much my own fault that this has happened.

I TRY very hard to teach my children respect.  I am not perfect at teaching the concept, and I am not perfect at always enforcing the conecpt.  I'm human, so sue me.  However, teaching your children respect and expecting them to follow through is hard enough.  Add to that, being surrounded by other children who have NO concept of respect and it seems that all my hard training and teaching flies out the window in the face of peer pressure. 

At times I want to ban ALL other children from my house unless they have PROVEN themselves to be respectful and responsible.  However, I know that MY house is a GOOD place for these children to be.  Here they will not be exposed to crude language and questionable media.  Here they will be exposed to a family with values, love, and high expectations.  It feels very much like a catch 22:  If I ban the children from my home they lose the good influence my family can be for them but allowing them into my home is sometimes a tough pill to swallow as they have no respect for other people or their property.  What is a girl to do?

Thanks for allowing me to rant.  Now I can get my rear in gear and take care of the backyard.

House Craziness

After having read the Duggar's book "The Duggars: 20 and Counting" I was inspired to try a few things in our home.  Some of my inspirations dealt with homeschool and others dealt with the layout of our home.  This post deals with the changes to our house.  The first change we made in our home was to create a clothes room in the laundry room.  We moved all of the kid's clothes downstairs and they hang in a built in organizer that was already in our laundry room.  Ben and I hope to be able to add our clothes to the mix downstairs when we have the funds to purchase something for the clothes to hang on.  This has helped us out quite a bit.  1) We no longer have the issue that laundry gets DONE but never PUT AWAY.
2) We don't have as much trouble with clean clothes getting left on the floor of the kids's rooms and then rewashed because no one knows if they're clean or dirty.
3) The girls don't change clothes 5 times a day!

The next inspiration I had was that I felt the prompting to move the kids downstairs and create one room for the kids to share and move the family room upstairs to the main level.  Eventually, when we have the money we will actually build walls and have a boys room and a girls room but for now the 3 older kids are all together.  They LOVE being in the basement and I love having the family room upstairs in our main living area.  There are many things I love about my new set up.
1) There is no reason for ANY kids to be downstairs unless they are cleaning or doing laundry.
2) With nothing much more than just beds in the kids's room the room stays very neat and clean
3) They are right by all their clothes in the laundry room so they just wake up, make their beds, and get dressed before coming upstairs.
4) We spend more time together in the family room doing things as a family.
5) With the family room on the main level it is very easy to keep tabs on what the kids are watching and what they are playing.
6) It has made my front room a room that is usually company ready.
7)I'm not so worried about questionable neighborhood kids getting them to do bad things because I'm always in the know about what's going on.
8) All the toys just SEEM to be more accessible upstairs and the kids have played more with their toys than EVER.

All in all I LOVE the new set-up of my house and I am SO glad that we swapped everything.  I am thankful for revelations and inspirations that can come from so many good sources.  

Week off school doesn't mean off work

We have hit our first scheduled week long break of our school year!!!  Yay!!  Around here we don't do 3 day weekends like the public schooled kids.  Why?  Because Ben always has to work them and they're just another day around here.  So I scheduled week long breaks about every 5-6 weeks throughout the school year.  Yesterday started the first break, but is it really a break?  This week off of school is being used for chore training.  I am working on training the kids to do the chores the way I WANT them done.  I made up check lists and everything.  Today's focus?  How to pick up a room.  All of the children participated since all of them have at least ONE room they are in charge of to pick up.  Audrey has the TV side of the family room, Marissa has the front room and toy side of the family room.  Trent has his bedroom.  Other chores on the docket are the toilet, sink, tub, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, clearing and washing the table to name a few. 
I will not excpect the children to execute their chores perfectly without guidance and adult support yet....well Audrey will be expected to, but not the others. 
We'll see how THIS plan goes.....