Chaz Moms and Moms-to-Be Chat (everyone welcome)

Tanya, I know from experience age is a minute factor in sibling relationships, and how parents foster those relationships are so much more important!

Jessie, Nora is a gorgeous name! I liked it for future children but my boring SO said no!

I love cloth diapering, but couldn't really get dad and grandparents on board. I hope you post pictures of the diapers you get!!

I just love this stage of being a mom! On Easter Lillian played with a distant family-by-marriage 90 year old wheelchair bound woman, bringing her toys, climbing in her lap, etc. I was so happy. She just dances and plays and learns all the time. She's turning into a little person with an amazing personality. Everyone with a newborn or expecting should be so excited! They get more fun every day (after they go from the cute innocent newborn stage to the cry-y needy stage).

We're not sure yet if Nora is going to be an only child, or if we're going to have another. It will be easier to travel with just one child (which we plan to continue doing!). I'm going to be a stay at home mom and I'm going to home school as well. Also, we are saving for Nora's college fund as soon as she's born and it will be much easier to save for one child vs. two. I'm so torn.

I grew up as an "only child" for 10 years until my little sister was born. I really love having a sister, and I am SO happy my parents added to our family even though our age difference is quite large. On the other hand, my husband wishes he had been an only child as his sister is a very toxic person. I know that siblings don't always have close relationships and it can be really hit or miss.

I'm sure the decision will be easier once she's here and we've established a routine... even now, this baby stuff is so foreign to me!

Oh yeah... here's my weekly belly shot from today... I'm 29 weeks and 4 days along!

29 weeks! by Chihuahuaesque, on Flickr

Lol! It's really nice to have friends that are also preggers - I really wish I'd had an IRL pregnant friend. It might have lessened my hatred of the whole process.

Which, incidentally, is a big part of the reason we're waiting til Falon is 18 months. I'm hoping by then my memories of how much I detested being prego will have faded. Also daycare. So expensive, much monies, WOW.

LOL is it strange that in my mind I'm like "Hmmmm a family of 4 so we can still stay in a studio room at Disney and on two person rides no one will have to ride alone" LOL

Homeschooling is a fun adventure you obviously have lots of time but when time comes feel free to pick my brain. I've learned a lot since we started.

Love the updated pic, Jessie! So exciting!

Sparks, I think it's awesome you're already thinking ahead to Disney trips - and since it's such a big thing for your family it totally makes sense that you'd take rides into consideration.

MM, you mentioned family not being on board with cloth diapers - have you looked into the G Diapers with the disposable lining but cloth 'shell'? I've heard great things!

Totally stealing marlie/marley if our time ever comes

So cute! Nora is lovely too I really like Matilda too! I hate picking names, can't imagine doing it for a human child :yikes:

awww I was looking through some old photos and found these. I have so many pictures like this. Belle's favorite place to be. her head right next to Hannah's ALL the time lol.







wow has Belle gotten grey over the years.

what an encouragement today has been.

We are looking after a friends almost 2 year old for the day. Hannah is having so much fun with her and is BEYOND helpful with everything from helping clean and put things away for me and helping me with our little guest.

When it was naptime, Hannah brought her a blanket and a stuffed animal to snuggle with and was concerned that the TV show she was watching in the living room might be too loud and wake her up. I think she'll make a great big sister

the dogs are driving me nuts though LOL. They are so excited and curious about our mini human visitor and they are following her EVERYWHERE lol. she's not used to dogs, let alone big ones so she's not as keen on them as they are for her lol. I had to block the hallway or they would insist on sleeping on the bed with her... only probably more smelling than sleeping.

Thanks, girls!

It's funny that you think about traveling too, Sparks. It's such a big consideration for us too, haha. Anything more than 2 kids definitely makes room arrangements harder.

We're planning a big-ish trip once Nora is about 9 months old. Not sure we want to leave the country or if we want to do something like Yellowstone. If we leave the country, we'll probably do something somewhat relaxing in Central America. We're saving bigger longer trips for when she's older. I can't wait to be able to do Peru (since we were going to do it this May before finding out we were pregnant).

Did anyone take a "baby moon" before the arrival of their baby? We're going to Key West for a few nights in 2 weeks. I'll be 32 weeks pregnant and plan on getting some sun and waddling around lol. We're going to go snorkeling, which should be interesting with my belly. Hopefully I'll float

You look great Jessie!

No more babies here for a while - I don't even want to think about it yet lol

Clarissa is 14 months old and took her first steps last week. She's still just taking 1-4 steps at a time, being very cautious about the whole thing. In a few weeks we will have an official walker, most likely! Let the fun begin.

Totally normal to worry about vacations etc. And kids are not cheap.

Good luck with the homeschooling Jessie. I know I could never do it, I don't have any patience for that stuff.

Ha, I always chuckle when I see something like this. I am so very low on patience...I think that is what drew me to homeschool my children lol. The idea of dealing with being at school on time every day, dealing with worn out kids after, the activites, the homework, the teachers, etc makes me shudder....I dont have the patience for that stuff

We are relaxed homeschoolers though...unschoolers really. That does NOT mean we dont do anything, but we do not sit down at certain times and "do school" so it works for us very well.

(and just to make sure...I am in NO way trying to invalidate people who feel they do not have the patience to homeschool....everyone's going to have to judge that for themselves and there are definitely different things that trigger impatience from each of us. And of course there is NOTHING wrong with just not wanting to homeschool because one just doesnt want to...its definitely not for everybody for a myriad of reasons)

No, seriously. No patience. I can't even sit down with them to do crafts before going nuts. Yes homework sucks but it's already so annoying to get them to sit down one hour a week to do their work (which at this point is basic math and writing letters and words, pretty much), I can't imagine if I had to do it more.

NOT for me

LOL same

There is more wailing and gnashing of teeth (usually by me) on days when I have to work at the preschool and she has to come with me and we HAVE To be ready and out of the house on time than on ANY homeschool lesson lol.

That's what I love about homeschooling. While it's not for everyone, there are SO many options for how to go about it that almost anyone can find something that suits them and would even keep them relatively sane :rofl1:

just two questions out of curiosity:

What do you homeschoolers intend to do as your children get older (and may surpass your personal comfort level with any given subject)? Do you intend to learn it alongside them?

If they wish to go to public school, will that be an option? If they ask, will it depend on when they ask (namely if they asked now would it be an option? How about before middle school? How about during high school?)

Is socialization ever a concern (especially if you intend to integrate your kids into a public school system in the future when students already in the system may already know one another)?

I'm much more open-minded now than I used to be; however, I do know that when I was school-aged (namely high school), I was very skeptical of students my own age who were being home-schooled, especially if their parents didn't have any particular foundation in education or the subjects that they were teaching. I know that some homeschoolers rotate families for different subjects, which could help to alleviate any issues with competency in any given subject, provided that you have parents in the group with strong foundations in all core subjects.

I'm far away from being in the boat of a parent, but I'm more curious now than I used to be. For example, I am minoring in Chemistry in school. I have taken nearly 30 credits in the discipline, yet when I was trying to help my boyfriend's brother out with his high school chemistry homework, I needed to do a bit of refreshing myself, despite having learned that material several times over (and getting good grades while doing so).

Anyhow, please don't take offense to any of these questions - I'm not out for an argument, I just want to get some other points of view.

I plan on homeschooling at least through elementary school. I haven't decided on middle or high school. Most likely we'll enroll Nora in a private school at that point if either one of us wants to end homeschooling.

I'm not worried about educating her myself. I've made it through college- I'm sure I can make it through teaching her an elementary education. I actually received my temporary teaching certificate after college because I wanted to teach history/AP psychology at a high school level. I feel like I'd do a really good job with my own children

We plan on joining a homeschooling group so socialization isn't a worry. I want to take her on lots of field trips for hands on learning, and once she's a toddler we will sign her up for lessons in whatever she's interested in doing. She'll be around kids her age almost every day of the week once she's at an age where she can socialize.

I really love school and learning and actually can't wait to be able to home school my child(ren). There were SO many subjects in school that I wished we had spent more time on... and if there's anything Nora wants to dig deeper into, we'll have the ability to do that. If she loves learning about Ancient Egypt, we can learn and explore deeper than any "normal" classroom would have time for.

As she gets older... I plan to continue homeschooling her. You have no IDEA the amount of resources available for homeschoolers from K-12. It's rather astounding. Especially here in Lancaster where the homeschooling community is HUGE. The options are endless. Thousands of people here have homeschooled their kids through to graduation very successfully with no "special" qualifications.

In highschool if she asked to go to public school, we would consider it. Not in our current school district though. The school district we are in is HORRIBLE... When we moved there it was in a great district but they rezoned some stuff and now our house misses that district by two blocks! So it would likely be private school instead. A friend of mine from our homeschool co op had her daughter request to go to public highschool this year and she sent her and she "integrated" just fine if she asked now at 6 years old to go to the city school? NO lol. Absolutely not... But I also know that right now she has NO desire to ho off to school for 7 hours a day.

Socialization? That is such a non issue for us right now. Hannah is the most social child with people of all ages from baby to the elderly. She has no issue talking to adults or other children. She is in gymnastics where she has become close friends with many of the kids and ends up having "playdates" with them outside of gymnastics. She goes to Awana every wednesday night where she has lots of friends, we have co op once a week for 20 weeks of the year and in between times there are field trips, park days, etc. Then of course we go over to friends houses to play and vice versa, plus my moms group, plus church. Socialization is a non issue. She makes friends just the same as anyone in public school only it's more social and not forced association, so to speak. I think it says more that a publicly schooled child would think of a homeschooled child as weird right off the bat and that would put them off becoming friends. I haven't met a homeschooler yet who is like "yesterday, i saw a public schooled kid and was like uhhh WEIRDO" lol

There are dozens of homeschool co ops here that offer "upper level" classes. Our co op did a really awesome biology class this year for upper level and they dissected a cows heart, a fish, clams, frogs, and a few other things and it was really cool. Highschool aged kids can also take classes at the local college. Just a few examples but there are countless avenues available to homeshoolers

Many homeschoolers I know here are totAlly normal kids that are ahead of their age determined grade, speak another language and play an instrument or two (or more lol) as well as sports (now this is more regimented homeschoolers). But without all the distractions, fluff and other time wasters that often come with large classes, kids can really get into and focus on each subject and really get into it without the time constraints and they can learn the way that works best for them so they can really excel or take extra time on something they may be struggling with and focus on what is causing them to struggle and figure out a way to help them learn in a better way for each individual.

Well sparks pretty well covered it all. The resources for learning are pretty limitless. Besides the Internet which pretty much covers it all there are also tutors, field trips, and once they hit 16 community college.

You will usually get a chuckle when you ask a homeschooler about socialization. For most that is the easiest part. Most homeschoolers are very used to being a part of society in all its forms since that is part of their "school" days as well. I live that my children's days are spent with all ages. It was my biggest concern before I started to talk to people about it. There is a very small group that homeschoolers TO sequester their children from the world and I think they become the stereotype as yes, their children are fairly noticeable in social situations.

I'm not a mom and definitely not going to be one for a LONG while. But I do have info on homeschooling I can supply

I was home schooled from 1st grade on and graduated in 2010. I did a variety of different curriculum. Abeka, Florida Virtual School, PACES, etc. I also took a few classes at the high school (Spanish 1 & 2, typing) and college. My senior year I only had college classes actually, lol.

And I will tell you this: 99% of the students in public school would look at my other work and were in disbelief at how hard it was and how much I had to do compared to them. It's HARD.

For instance, for geometry I had PACES. With those you are your teacher. You read it and you comprehend it as you do it.

With other curriculums like Apologia (and Abeka DVDs), there are teachers as lectures and all that good stuff. Believe me, it isn't a breeze.

As far as socialization. My dad was a public school teacher (& coach) if that tells you anything. He knew what went on in the school system and definitely didn't want his kids exposed to all that. But anyways, I got plenty of socialization growing up with even being home schooled.

That being said I don't know if I will be homeschooling any future kids. But I loved it.

I would type more but I'm on my iphone and it's annoying lol

Not arguing in the least, as I feel the education of one's children should be up to the parents and there is no one right way for every child/family, but I do feel it's important to note that one can also supplement the education of their public/private schooled children. There's no such thing as too much learning

We aren't homeschooling, but we'll certainly be making sure he learns in depth about anything he is interested in. And we'll definitely be taking "field trips". He's got two parents who love museums and the like as well as having a history teacher dad.