Cloth Diaperer Comes Clean

My best kept secret (Okay, one of them) is that I use cloth diapers. They just aren't that popular here and will still get you not sideways looks--but blatant stares and questions on your sanity, and I already get that for homeschooling.
 People who use them do it because they are money saving (they save me maybe $400 a year now), or environmentally friendly. I like both reasons, but they're also prettier, and I'm a tad nostalgic.

I'd always wanted to use cloth, but the timing wasn't right. Then when my most recent baby was a few months old a great friend traded me all her diapers and covers for a painting, appropriately, I felt, of two Hebrew midwives I had done in acrylic. It was a mutually blissful and beneficial exchange.

But I had one other challenge--Mr. Owl who, contrary to all other owls, has an excellent sense of smell. As it turned out, by the time I resurfaced the idea I was able to tell him Canary had  in them for a month now--with no noticeable smell. There you have it folks--even I can do it.

Here is what I do:

• I use them Monday-Friday and disposables at night and on weekends.

 

• I wash them Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

 

• I have Motherease brand for covers and diapers and love them.

 

• I use fuller cut pants for cloth diapers and  trendy slim ones for disponsible.

 

So this is the first time I have an almost 2y/o and I'm not chomping at the bit to shrink my carbon footprint by potty training. It's worked pretty well for me.

 Except that one time.
When my mom and sister came to visit.
I braced myself for their nagging about me not recycling--because it always comes. My mother, whose carbon footprint competes respectfully with someones from the 15th century. My sister who is an Environmental Studies major in the Pacific Northwest. So when they gave me the look I would throw my hands up and say "Hey-I use cloth diapers--don't give me that!" And that was keeping me afloat until I stumbled and it came out "Hey-I wear cloth diapers!--don't..." Then any credit I'd built for my good name was lost in a pile of snorts and guffaws. That's at me, not with me--we're talking family here.

Book finds

Selecting a Reader by Ted Kooser

... she will thumb

over my poems, then put the book back

up on its shelf. She will say to herself,

"For that kind of money, I can get

my raincoat cleaned." And she will.

I remember this poem from college. It sits in my mind as perfectly as a bookspine on its shelf...

 I went to the Salt Lake City Book Sale, and event on par with Record Day for my husband, and Christmas for my kids. This bi-annual event was even better this time thanks to the labeled shelves and smaller crowds--thank you Friends of SLCL and....rain? I find it totally worth the $12 membership that gets you in the first day for a couple of reasons; it's less crowded (narrow aisles + people + boxes and bags full + shopping carts! are you kidding! who let those in!?), you get first pick before ALL the teachers get there on a mission to beef up their classroom libraries, and I find I am more selective when hardbacks are $2 as opposed to $1--steep prices, I know, but I only have so many shelves and this aids discretion I would otherwise toss out the window.

 I won't bore you with the details of my printed pulp prizes, but I did score a tabbed collegiate dictionary. Apparently, none of the words my children want to write with anymore are to be found in the 3 Children's Dictionaries  we have and the desire to spell a word correctly can't be sustained long enough to search my non-tabbed editon. I aslo found Bullfinch's Mythology (all 3!), and another Complete Works of Shakespeare--arranged chronologically. Oh yes. Good for next year when we are no longer reading Lamb's children's version, but Shakespeare's actual language. I was pleased to mark off several  Ambleside freereads and even a biography of Sir Isaac Newton. Good times, oh yes, good times.

Things I love about Nature Study

• Learning about the seasons of life

Two winters ago, when walking by the pond a mother with us pointed out to her boys "see the little tadpoles in the water!" to which then 7 y/o Abigail matter-of-factly corrected "those are minnows, there are no tadpoles till spring".  (Isn't that the sole purpose of blogs, to establish an unparalleled platform for parental bragging? no?)

• Learning proper names of things

When Bowery Bird was 2 and at church, a friend related how the teacher showed a picture of a bird and was talking about how "We are thankful for birds". Little Bowery Bird said "That's not a bird, that's a Robin".

• Getting to know of the world around us

Sitting with my 3 children among the trees and watching 2 robins harass a squirrel near their nest for 20 min or more--poor squirrel not knowing which way to go!

• Discovering the awe of things on their own

Observing Kingfisher and Mockingbird reverently sneak up on a White-faced Ibis (that was actually brown), and begging me to come see.

• Getting our vegetables in

(I can tell you it doesn't happen at dinner...).Seeing Bowery Bird forage for food and enjoy the wild whatever-she-is-eating (she usually knows-I don't).

Bravo! Brava! Opera

We were reading Carmen when my 6y/o turns to me and says "Wait a minute. Wait a minute!--The girl didn't like the boy?"
"...No. She didn't like him anymore. She's one of those girls that is just never happy with something or someone for long"
"Why..?" and I could actually see the whole Disney Princess-story-arch-as template-for-real -life being brought into serious question right before my eyes. It looked almost painful. But as we listened to the lyrics, and talked about Carmen's character and when Don Jose made his first mistake--I realized that this was pretty heavy relationship stuff for a 6 and 9 year old, but a whole lot closer to reality than the bedazzled princesses that often end up being a girl's first introduction to "true love".
Ambleside Online has a rotation for studying classical music. We are doing opera this term. All I have done is read aloud parts of these books:

Random House Book of Opera Stories
Bravo!Brava! A Night at the Opera by Anne Siberell

                            


 then listened to the corresponding music from these cds;
The World's Very Best Opera for Kids
My Favorite Opera for Children

It has allowed us to understand cultural references which before just went over our heads and has been a lot of fun. I hear " we haven't learned about opera in awhile..." , many costume designs have spontaneously appeared, and even our 4y/o is humming bits as he plays.

Snow Treasure

Snow Treasure is indeed "A Story of courage and adventure!" But it's also just a story. In fact, a story-- based on some one else's story--based on the fact that $9 million in gold bars came to port in the US from Norway during WWII.

As has occurred in the past, we could have discussed it as a true story of WWII, Norway, courage, and honor--and we did a little, as pertains to SETTING.
But it's still a story based on a story, based on fact. So we checked the facts;

• There was a WWII, there is a Norway, the city was made up.
• The author is American, and got her story from a newspaper article,
• $9 million in gold bars did come to US from Norway.
• Checking with a Norwegian friend, he'd never heard of the story.
• It was published before the war was over.
• No child has ever come forward to say they participated.
• Another book, Pimpernel Gold, tells a true story of how men evacuated the king, government leaders, and national gold just before Nazi occupation.

We talked about emotional manipulation and the difference between fiction and nonfiction (noting the "FIC" sticker on the side of our copy). Then I asked  "Have you ever been in situation where something is presented to you then you find out the truth is not what you were originally led to believe?"
"This book..." was a quick response from a disillusioned 11 y/o.

Mothers shared: "sometimes I watch a movie and find myself rooting for the bad guy just because I've gotten to know him better--"
"--or because a character is not as bad as another--but they are still doing bad things."
"I saw someone begging for money, who then got into a really nice truck."
"We heard a story on NPR about a charity, and researching later found out it was a way for the individuals to get money for themselves!"
"My Paul Newman Cesar salad dressing had 'Olive Oil' on the front in big letters, but on the back it had 'olive oil' as the next to last ingredient."

An 8y/o offered: "This makes you think...really hard" (squinting).
We talked about how buying dressing without olive oil is OK, and giving money to people is OK, but we all make better decisions when we have correct information.

Then a parent pointed out that the parents in the book didn't want their children to say anything to the Germans. This allowed them to not say something wrong, but also saved them from having to tell a lie.
"Is there a time where saying nothing is better than lying?"
The gem of the day from a 10 y/o:" ...my dad says...if  a cop pulls you over, you answer a question with a question."
And we had an immediate role-play from two 9 y/o,
 "Like, what are you doing?" offered the first.
  "Well, what are you doing?" retorted the next.

I'll tell you what we were doing; discussing things on the level with our 8-11y/o daughters that will help them learn to think for themselves, or at the very least--know what to do when a cop pulls them over.

Update: 2 months later

We had an experience where a neighbor girl claimed to have been attacked nearby. I doubted the truth, but I didn't know what to say. My girls could talk of nothing else, and I noticed they were even helping this girl fill in the gory details she'd forget as she retold her story to everyone who would listen...so I waited.

A week later the time was right. At dinner, my children were talking about how people were responding to it all.
"So, some kids say they don't believe her story, huh?" I restated. "Well, remember Snow Treasure? When we listed what we knew for a fact and then what was questionable? Let's do that."
We did. It was pretty effective, but I refused to tell them my thoughts--only saying, "I'd like to believe her..."--to their immense frustration.
"And if detectives have only some one's story they go by, they check if that source is reliable. Has this girl ever told a lie before?" From another recent experience the answer was a resounding "Yes." from everyone. We talked about people affected by this.Then about the Boy Who Cried Wolf. We talked about how people would feel about any other stories this girl will tell in the future.

It was very effective, again without me having to give my opinion at all. Just recap the book group of earlier. I'm not always such a clever mom, but for the record: "It can happen."