Lending a Helping Hand

This morning, while changing the crib sheet in our bedroom, I discovered one of First Son's missing socks behind the crib, between the back wall and a storage bin.** Normally, I would have leaned way over and picked it up myself, but with a six-month belly I wasn't sure that was the best idea. I was contemplating my options when I heard First Daughter chattering beside me as she attempted to put the new crib sheet on.

I asked her if she thought she could reach it, then lifted her upside down and leaned over just a tiny bit. Success! As good as a grabber and a lot cuter!

** For those of you curious how First Son's sock ended up behind Second Daughter's crib...I'll confess. I fold the laundry on the master bed. This works best for us because it keeps the little ones that want to jump and disturb piles of clean clothes at bay. When all the clothes are folded, I call in the troops and they put them away. (Even Second Daughter can put her clothes in a bottom drawer.) On the "rare" occasions when the clean clothes have been dumped on the bed but not actually folded, Kansas Dad and I have a habit of tossing them into the crib before we go to bed. (Second Daughter sleeps in a crib in the kids' room at night; she just naps in our room. Fourth Baby will eventually take over the extra crib entirely.) It's really a bit surprising that only one sock has ever been lost in the chasm. So far.

I Love CathSwap, Kansas Dad Fears CathSwap

I have been thinking and dreaming homeschool plans for a few weeks now. First grade feels like a much more serious proposition than kindergarten, partly because kindergarten is not compulsory here in Kansas. In my quest for a few materials, I joined CathSwap. I can very happily report that I've saved at least $25 buying some used products I knew we would use next year (like This Country of Ours and the teacher's edition for Saxon Math 1).

I also "saved" about $15 buying some products I was pretty sure we'd use next year (like The Harp and Laurel Wreath: Poetry and Dictation for the Classical Curriculum and The Catholic Faith Comes to the Americas).

And then....I spent about $40 buying books at fabulous prices that I've been wanting and for which I have previously been waiting patiently (The Three R's, The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home (Third Editition), the much-desired Handbook of Nature Study, A Mother's Rule of Life: How to Bring Order to Your Home and Peace to Your Soul and a few others as well).

So...it's not clear to me CathSwap has been a financial success for our homeschool. It has, however, made me very happy recently! Kansas Dad is wondering when I'll take it off my Quick Links.

(Kansas Dad has been very understanding. I promise, I'm almost done...)

Book Review: The Empty Cradle

The Empty Cradle: How Falling Birthrates Threaten World Prosperity And What To Do About It by Phillip Longman

This book was not quite what I expected as it focused entirely on economics. He first spends a few chapters presenting evidence that the fertility rates really are declining, not just in Europe and America, but around the world. (This book is a few years old; I think the fears of "overpopulation" are fading, though I know there are some who still believe them.) Then he launches into chapters of statistics showing how decreasing population is a bad thing for any country's economy and why nothing except an increase in fertility can really solve the problem. (Other options, for example, would be working to an older age, increases in productivity, innovations, etc.) There were lots of interesting statistics, many of which supported other things Kansas Dad and I have read about the medical system, for example. (See this review.)

According to Mr. Longman, the main reason people are not having more children is economic - they don't feel like they can afford to give children everything they are supposed to have, including a college education. (They also wait longer, building up their financial status, and then encounter fertility problems, a corollary of the main reason.) So in the final few chapters, he presents some ideas for encouraging an increase in the numbers of children parents have, all economic.

I don't necessarily disagree with all of his ideas for promoting families and family life, but I think taking a purely economic view is wrong. Some people have fewer children than they desire because they are worried about being able to feed them or house them. Many more people are having fewer children because they are worried about being able to pay for their college education or give them cars when they turn 16 or pay for childcare and private preschools. Giving more money to the family will not address those fears.

Instead, our culture needs to change our view of what's necessary for a happy, healthy childhood and start in life. Of course, a change in culture is exactly what Mr. Longman wants to avoid. Though he doesn't address any chapters to the dangers of those who are having more children, he mentions a few times the "fundamentalists" (which he defines in the Preface as "all who rely on literal belief in ancient myth and legend, whether religious or not, to oppose modern libreral and commercial values") who continue to have more children than everyone else. (I therefore began the book a little trepidatious of what I would encounter, as I am most certainly one of the "Catholic fundamentalists" he mentions.)

If no alternative solution can be found, our future will belong to those who reject markets, reject learning, reject modernity, and reject freedom. This will be the fundamentalist moment.

So his whole goal is to provide financial incentives to people who would otherwise not have children so our culture does not eventually grow and change as a greater percentage of the population comes from large families, those that may (just for example) view the arrival of a new child as a blessing from God to be cherished and loved, even if we cannot afford his or her college education.

In the end, I'm not sure financial incentives would work at a national level. I have reservations about incentives in general and financial ones in particular. I guess I'm hoping for a cultural change.

Child at Heart

I have a confession...I love cinnamon toast. Mmmm. It reminds me of my childhood when my brother and I would eat breakfast at school. I shudder to think of the "healthy food" they fed us, but the cinnamon toast was memorable. I'm munching some now. Really, how can you go wrong with homemade bread (at least it's wheat), real butter, a touch of cinnamon, and a lot of sugar?

I really do have some posts to share. I've been working in the evenings a bit, which is the bulk of my computer time. I also (brace yourself here) finally started Second Daughter's baby book. She's only 18 months old so I'm still ok. It's not until you start counting in years, rather than months, that it gets really embarrassing. Right?

Home-Made Mosaics

We had a plethora of structured activities on Friday (um, two). I posted about our coin sorting below. This one was inspired by these which I noticed in a catalog and immediately wanted. Being the frugal Mama I am, I devised an alternate plan. First Son was thrilled to help me with the project. I cut some cardstock into strips and he spent at least an hour slowly cutting all of the strips into squares and rectangles.


We saved them in baggies and pulled them out on Friday afternoon for some fun with glue sticks. Neither of the kids made what you could call a picture, but they had fun. First Daughter, in fact, didn't even really glue her squares down. She placed them on the paper and smeared the glue on top and all around them. You might be surprised to learn it's an adequate way to glue cardstock to paper.


At one point, First Son yelled, "I have a great idea!" He cut out a "7" from some other paper and carefully positioned red squares inside (no, not seven of them).



Definitely an activity we'll do again. It's not nearly as messy as painting but entertained the kids nearly as much. (I have a confession; I hate letting the kids paint. It takes me fifteen or twenty minutes to get everything out, they paint for five and leave the rest of the paint to dry, wasted, in the egg carton. And then I have to clean up. But we do paint, because I know it's good for them. Such sacrifices we mamas must make.)

Confession Time

I baked a lot today: banana nut muffins, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bread and some wheat bran bread. I love baking, of course, especially muffins. The kids only like muffins sometimes. (They're both on "watch" and only get half a muffin at first, to see if they're really in the mood.)

That's not the confession, though. Are you ready? I don't go digging for stray eggshells. That's right. If there are tiny bits, they stay in.

No one has ever complained.

But now you are forewarned if you eat baked goods here at the Range.

That's my random post for the night, because you hadn't heard from me in a while. Back to laundry and photos...