Flats and Hand Washing Challenge: Confession

We are joining The 3rd Annual Flats and Hand Washing Challenge at Dirty Diaper Laundry this week.

 

Today we where asked our thoughts on hand washing.  I am here to confess a secret flats are new to me, hand washing is not.  We arrived here in Florida last October and discovered tourist towns charge slot for laundry usage.  One load of wash and dry is almost as much as  a pack of disposable diapers.  That adds up fast when you only have a theme day supply of diapers.  We only had two days worth when we got here.  So I hand washed our stay dry incerts and covers.  Sometimes I would fall behind having left poo ones to soak for days and had been forced to toss them.  Stay dry inserts do not hand wash well.  I had a few prefolds I had used as burp cloths/ per during change catchers.  They became my favorite diapers as poo comes out so much easier.

As our supply of diapers dropped I ordered a set of 12 more prefolds.  Oh how much easier it got.  When placing them inform of the heater dried them well it still limited me as without the heater a prefold takes two days to dry indoors. This was so hard to keep up with while working, homeschooling, cooking 90% of our food from scratch, and still doing all of the housework.  When I fell behind I would collect all of the white laundry that was in the hamper and grab sheets off the bed even if they where clean so I would have a full load of whites to wash with the diapers.

This week I have not even used all of our 12 flats and have not fallen behind.  It is so much easier to wring out a flat they dry faster, and poo washes out with almost no work compared to the other two types of diapers we have.   My son loves flour sack towels. You would think they where the softest most comfy diaper ever the way he acts.

Over all this challenge has been a success for our family. And just in time with baby #3 on the way.

Book: Growing Up Weird: Questions About Home Education

I was provided a copy of this e-book but not required to write a review. The opinions in this post are my honest views about this book.

Growing Up Weird: Questions About Home Education

This short but sweat book is a must for homeschool mother’s to read. This book will lift you up when you are feeling unsure about your choice to homeschool your child.

The author Olivia Cunningham, was homeschooled from pre-k through high school. She is now a thriving college student with a love of learning every new things. In this book Olivia answers all of the basic questions homeschool families are asked from making friends to collage admissions. The questions in this book are ones you and your child will face every single day from well meaning friends, family, and even strangers.

The author talks about her journey as a homeschool student from her teacher in PJs to the lack of snow days. Yes apparently her mother and I agree random days off are much better spent on amazingly wonderful weather days. Included is a nice list of famous homeschool students and Olivia speaks candidly about how if she could go back she would have spent more time with taking more advanced math classes. Yes that a good enough reason to have your child read this book in the teen years.

You can fallow Olivia Cunningham`s post home school journey on her blog Liv Love Laugh where she shares her life journey post homeschool.

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Flats and Hand Washing Challenge: Washing and Drying by Hand

We are joining The 3rd Annual Flats and Hand Washing Challenge at Dirty Diaper Laundry this week.

So by day three I have this down to a science of what works well for us.

I planned on sunning our other diapers this week but we are sadly without sun like many of the families doing the challenge.

This is my wash station. I never let it get more then two changes. The whole family is using Dawn original dish detergent as hand soap this week washing hands right over the diapers. Each bathroom trip I take I wash or do a reinse of the diapers in the sink. Being pregnant this works really well. Poo diapers soak in a pail after a swish in the toilet, they are soaked with dollar store oxiclean and a bit of dawn. A quick swish and swipe that would make the Fly Lady proud keeps the bathroom really clean right now.

First step to drying is to snap them really hard. This sends any water that was not rung out flying helping dry faster and softer. Then I hang over the shower rod and a rope I have strung up.

I hang one at a time up in front of the AC unit with safety pins. Each time one is dry I switch it for another. This drys them fast fast and soft.

I have a stack of hangers I can use to place more on the shower rod if I fall behind but I am hoping I do not because I know they will dry faster not folded in half on a hanger making it 4 layers to dry at once.

Are you doing the challenge? What is your wash routine?

Flats and Hand Washing Challenge: What We Are Using

We are joining The 3rd Annual Flats and Hand Washing Challenge at Dirty Diaper Laundry this week.   Before this I never owned a flat. I did not want to spend money on this so I mostly made due with things around the house to get ready.

I have plenty of flip and econobum covers but I am making due without any pins or snapis.

I took three of my husband’s old t-shirts and cut them into diapers you can read more about that here.

I dug two old receiving blankets I had came by while looking through storage.

And finally I broke down and got a 5 pack of Wal-Mart flour sack towels for $5 when we whent to get some meds for my worsening respiratory infection. I originally planned on using my normal diapers for bed time but, yesterday whent so well I jumped in and used flats. Hoping I do not regret having two flats wet at the start of the day.

Flat Diaper Folds: Pad Fold Modified for a Boy

So far the pad fold is the closest to what we used before the challenge and the simplest for daddy as they are done and ready for him to pop into a cover. The issue is with a boy we need more in the front. this will not protect the cover from a poo but it sure holds my two and a half year old sons pee. I’m not sure if this has a name if so please tell me this was a mess around until I found something I liked thing.

This was done with a flour sack towel.

Fold both sides into the center then fold right along the center giving the full diaper 4 layers.

Fold one end down enough to cover that critical area on your child then repeat until it is the size that fits your cover. I get two folds to fit the large rise of a flip cover. This is so trim compared to my prefolds but puts 12 layers right at the pee zone. I fold this I half and store for hubby to make a change he said it is just as easy as the prefolds that I fold ahead. He has only done one change but rarely does them so I’m thinking this is a winner.

Flats and Hand Washing Challenge: Why am I Doing This?

We are joining The 3rd Annual Flats and Hand Washing Challenge at Dirty Diaper Laundry this week.

Why am I doing the flats and hand washing challenge? Sadly I am sure I will be asking myself this many times this week. For more then a week now I have been very sick. Every waking moment has been miserable doing the bare minimum for survival of our family. Our last day we accomplished any school was last Monday when we did some ocean themed stuff. To not ruin the fun I went along for our trip to the beach even though I was sick on Saturday. Sunday morning I was twice as bad. I’m better then yesterday but I’m sure adding the extra washing as we only have a dozen flats for this will be a test of will.

I signed up for this as an incentive to give flats a try as I am sure they are a trimmer fit for the baby we have on the way then the prefolds we use now. It will be nice to try something new. I just wish I had not been cursed with a cold that turned into a respiratory infection in time for this. Oh the luck I have.

I hope by following me during the challenge you will see that cloth diapering can work for almost everyone. Yes this will not be easy on me but I have to say that by finishing this sick and pregnant I will sure be proving the point dirty diaper laundry had created this for in the first place.

7 days, 5 flour sack towels, 5 flats from t shirts, two old receiving blankets, my stash of flip and econobum covers, a sink, and a bottle of dawn dish detergent. Grand total for our week of diapers $5. Now a new to cloth diaper family would not have a stash of PUL covers on hand but could get rubber pants or diaper covers cheap with a little searching. Reminds me of when I started out cloth diapering two weeks after my son was born. While I could use the washer and dryer I had to twice a day!!! Yup I started with two PUL flip covers I washed by hand and six inserts. Oh as soon as we knew cloth was for us I grabbed another Flip day pack and our stash grew slowly with 2nds sales.

Do you cloth diaper? What is your favorite diaper?

Importance of Making Choices on Character With Charlotte Mason

Charlotte Mason addresses the importance of the will in the formation of character.

What is the will? The Will is the human ability to make choices for ones self. By allowing the child to make choices you are enabling them to become the person they are ment to become.

The Will and modern life. When someone is never given a chance to exercise their own will they never develop the character and learn to make good choices. This leads to one of the major issues of our modern society. So many people of our time do not understand the ratifications of choices they make leaving them unable to make wise choices on their own.

By giving our children choices to make daily and allowing natural consequences to take effect we allow for our children to discover who they are, build their own personal character and to learn how to make wise choices. All of which is of high importance in the education and development of a child as a whole person that is one day to be an adult that must make choices for himself.

Sometimes giving your child choices is not easy in todays world. We can not give a child the freedom we once had growing up thanks to the lack of safety in our modern world. We can still give our children choices to make. From choosing their own clothes to deciding between the plat ground and the pool. Let your child choose the next book for reading. While these choices are small they are still choices. When your child chooses to waist time in lessons and are left with less time to play they are learning the consequences of choices they make and developing character by learning from said consequences.

Giving the child free will and allowing them to become their own person should be part of your child’s education.

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If You Give A Mouse A Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie is a clasic children’s book we all grew up with. This delightful story teaches cause and effect with a rather cute mouse. From cookie to cookie this mouse is a real handful.

Talk about it:

1. What does this mouse do when the boy gives him a cookie?
2. Would you give a mouse a cookie? Why?
3. Why do you think the author used a mouse for this story?

Take it further:

Stop by book adventure and join our Summer Reading Contest for a chance at a $25 Amazon gift card. This book is worth 100 points.

Bake a batch of cookies. This teaches home ec and math in one.

Make these cute fraction cookies for. For an activity that counts as art and math conection. Older kids would enjoy making these from felt and glue the chocolate chips on rather them coloring.

Have your child draw a family picture for your fridge.

Summer Reading Contest: Reward $25 Amazon Gift Card

We are hosting a summer reading contest. Challenge your child to read using Book Adventure

Earn rewards provided by the site as well as working your way to the top for this blog sponsored contest. The top reader will get a $25 Amazon gift card to choose your own reward. Just sign up on bookadventure.com and click join a contest. Enter contest name: Freedom Academy Summer Reading 2013. Use pin F3388.

How Book Adventure works.
Parent signs up and creates an account for the child with the same email. This alows you to approve rewards your child chooses. Your child reads a book then takes a quiz on the book to earn points. Points earned can be used for prizes.

About our contest.
The child with the most points earned by August 15th will be anounced on the blog so the parent of the child can claim the $25 Amazon Gift Card Prize. You will have until the end of August to claim the prize or the card will be donated to our local library.

Why we are doing this.
Our family holds a strong veiw on the importance of reading and would like to encourage other children to read. Doing this also allows us to give other homeschool families as well as public school children the advantage the important skill of reading while giving alittle extra incentive.

Want more summer reading rewards? Check out our Summer Reading Program list

Are you joining us? Comment below.

Charlotte Mason and Discipline

One of Charlotte masons three prongs to education is discipline. Discipline alows for less stress making life go smoothly. When a child is trained to fallow directions the first time their is no need to raise your voice to get things done. When a child is disciplined enough to give full attention to a lesson you do not need to repeat the lesson.

While we must train our children to do things out of habit the end goal is self discipline. Charlotte Mason pushes the importance of training a child up with good habits.

Start with one small habit and continue to add new ones every few weeks focussing on the current habit while watching that the old habits do not slip. Replace bad habits with good ones.

Alow for natural consequences. If your child likes to mess around rather then do school work the school work will cut into free time. If your child finnished the work early they are given the freedom of alittle extra time to do something they enjoy.