Teaching the kids

Teaching the kids Spanish as I am learning has been both harder and easier then I thought it would be.  My son is 4 so he is pretty much set in the way he speaks but is still somewhat open to new words.  I really thought it would be easier with him because he is still so young.  He does pick up the meaning to words pretty quickly.  I only need to translate twice to him but for full sentences, he still needs translation unless I say that particular bunch of words all the time like "wash your hands and face".  I guess I thought he would just "get it".  My daughter is 2 so she is still pointing at things and asking their names.  It is super easy to insert a Spanish word instead of English.  I am not worried about her not getting enough English, she hears it from her daddy and brother all day long.  We decided that only I would speak Spanish to the kids so that they would not get too confused and because my husband does not know Spanish and does not have the time or desire to learn.  I am amazed that my daughter got this so fast.  She never tries to speak Spanish to her daddy, or to other people, only to me. 

I started with just inserting Spanish in to my everyday speech with the kids.  I have read that this is not a good idea but my kids (and my limited vocab) needed to start slowly.  I began to see the words that I would need, to be able to speak to my kids in all Spanish and made flash cards on my phone to help me learn them.  I keep moving along with my Pimsular lessons to help fill in the "in between" words such as: us, them, the, he, she, because, etc and how to conjugate verbs and put together sentences.  I found a great website that had a list of common things you say to children in Spanish:
  http://www.biculturalmom.com/2011/04/13/infant-toddler-spanish-pt-1/#axzz1xWJwM8Ek
I printed it out and carried it around with me. 

Today I decided to just jump in and try to speak all Spanish to the kids, all day.  I am amazed at how well I did.  I have only been studying for almost 2 months and I was able to speak Spanish to the kids 80% of the day.  I did have to stop and consult my list sometimes but not as often as I thought I would.  This also tells you that I do not have "deep" conversations with my children although when my son did want a complex answer I switched back to English.  I am impressed that my kids did so well with it too.  My daughter used some Spanish words that she had not before and my son did not get annoyed with me.  All and all a success!  I think I will keep it up.  My goal is to speak 100% Spanish 100% of the time to my kids.    

Learning Spanish on my own 2

I took Spanish about 5 years ago in college and was very surprised at how little I knew by the end of two courses.  So this time around I am not eager to get back in to a classroom.  I started by going to the library.  I picked up a starter Pimsuler set with 10 lessons on CD and some books meant to help children with their Spanish.  After just 5 of the CDs I felt like I had already re-learned everything I learned in those classes.  I was pretty impressed.  I don't memorize easily so anything that could get me to remember something was worth looking in to.  I found the entire Pimsuler Spanish set lesson 1-90 on Ebay for $100 on a memory book chip.  I jumped and took a chance buying them.  It takes me about 3 days to finish a lesson and I couple that with reading Spanish children's books, listening to music in Spanish and watching tv shows and movies in Spanish.  I also make flash cards of animal, body, food, house, and any other words I might want to say to my kids with the Anki app I have on my phone.  It have been about a month now and I must say I have come a long way.  The Pimsuler is really working well for me.  All of the words I have learned are words I can use when speaking to the kids and words that I here all the time on tv.  I am only on lession 17 and already can keep up with some tv shows.  I don't know everything that is said but I catch enough to understand what is going on.  I feel like the shows are a puzzle that is becoming clearer with each lesson I go through.     

Learning Spanish on my own (and teaching it to the kids)

I have always wanted to learn Spanish and have always been ridiculously jealous of anyone who can speak more then one language.  My grandma spent many years in Spain and my mom was born there.  Both my mom and grandma used to know a lot of Spanish but they never spoke it to me.  I was never able to take Spanish in school due to a scheduling conflict with band.  I did take two classes of Spanish in collage and really learned very little.  I remember watching some movies in Spanish in class and we were all shocked at how little we understood.  After going through 4 hours of class for 3 days a week for two months straight we thought we would understand at least 10% of what was said but it was closer to 1%.  Now I have a little time on my hands an a strong motivation to finally just do it.  I want to teach my kids.  That is the mantra that is going through my head every time I think I am just crazy for even trying to learn Spanish.  No one else can do it, it has to be me.  If I can teach myself how to run a small business office, and make cheese then certainly I can do this.   

No Santa

When I was a kid my family DID Santa. My mom and my Grandparents took great care to keep up the Santa thing for me. The presents were done in special handwriting, with a special gold pen. They never left out receipts, boxes, bags, or anything else for me to find. The media helped as well. I loved the movie The Santa Clause, I took it to be close to the truth. My mom told me that the mall Santa's were just helpers. I had it all figured out and when my friends said there was no Santa, I thought they were crazy. At the age of nine, my step father entered my life and was a bit less careful with his evidence. I saw the candy wrappers for the candy that goes in my stockings, in the trash. So I asked and I was told that yes, Santa was just my mom and grandparents. Boy did I feel stupid. All of my friends were right. It took all the magic out of the holidays for me for many years.

Fast forward to now, I have a family of my own. My son is getting to the age (3) where Santa becomes important to children. So it falls on me and my husband to figure out what is going to be our family traditions. I would like to do it differently. Since we celebrate Yule, we will be focusing on that. I am not going to ban Santa but we will not have pictures done with him, read stories about him, or make any kind of big deal about him. I will tell him that I fill his stockings, and our family buys him presents. If he asks about Santa, I will answer his question and nothing more.

I did eventually figure out that there is a lot of magic in this world even without Santa. As for those that say I am somehow "robbing my children of the magic of childhood" I would say that we live in an amazing world with it's own beauty and magic. I don't need to make it up with a fat man and presents, it is already there. All I need to do is show it to them.

Homemade Laundry and Dishwasher Detergent

I have found yet another way to save money in my house. I now make all of our own laundry and dishwasher detergent. We go though so much of this stuff. I have to run the dishwasher and the wash at least once a day. We also have allergies to many of the scents and dyes they put in to laundry soap so I can't just go out and buy the cheapest brand available. So I found these recipes and tried them out and they have been working great. Not only that but they only cost about 2 cents a load for laundry and 4 cents a load for the dishwasher detergent. I got the recipes off of

tipnut.com/10-homemade-laundry-soap-detergent-recipes/ AND
frugallygreen.blogspot.com/2008/06/how-to-make-your-own-dishwasher.html

Laundry Soap
2 cups Ivory soap grated fine
1 cup washing soda
1 cup borax
Use 2 tablespoons per large load (use one tablespoon per load for diapers)

Dishwashing Detergent
2 cups Borax
2 cups Baking Soda
4 packs lemon Kool-Aid (no sugar)
Use 1 tablespoon in each cup

What I have learned that is helpful is
1. Don't use more then the amount stated. It is not helpful and will leave streaks on your dishes or make your diapers wick.
2. Use vinger as a rinse aid
3. Washing soda is in the laundry aisle at the store. Call around if you don't know if your local store has it.

I have read some comments on the safety of using Borax in the dishwasher. All I can say is that you can not eat store bought dishwasher detergent either so I don't see much of a difference. I don't even have any idea what is in that stuff.

Cramps

A while ago I posted about how much I love my Diva Cup. Well, I have something else to add. I don't get cramps anymore. That's right, none. This has nothing to do with using the Diva Cup and everything to do with NOT using normal store bought pads and tampons. I don't even know when my period is coming. I used to get really bad cramps for the first two days of my cycle. I would always know when I was going to get it. Now I don't and I have some personal, very non-scientific evidence as to why that is.

I started getting my period at the age of 10. The first time I got it, I had no cramping and after that I always had pretty bad cramping for the first two days. I had to take Advil every 6 hours for two days. Fast forward to my first child. I discovered the Diva Cup when he was a few months old and it took a while to get the hang of it so I always used a pad with it until the last two months or so. I only used it alone for a couple of months, then I got pregnant with my daughter and did not have to worry about periods for a while. After I had her, I used pads for a few months until I decided to go back to the Diva Cup. While using pads I had my normal cramping. After three months of using ONLY the Diva Cup, I stopped getting cramps.

At first I thought this was a fluke. Just a one month thing, then it happened again and again and I remembered that many of the women that reviewed it on Amazon, said that they had no or less cramping then before. That was not proof enough for me though. I started taking an exercising class that required me to where a pad for um "leaks" (women who have had children know what I mean). I used normal brand name pads. That month I got cramps. Really bad ones. I went out and bought the natural organic pads and threw away the others. This month, no cramps, not one. To be honest, this pisses me off. So for years I had really painful bad cramps and they were caused by my PADS??? As I said before, this is in no way scientific, just my own experience. And I grantee there will never be any research put toward this idea. Who would pay for it? But I will say that my daughter will never use "normal" pads or tampons. I will pay the extra money for the natural ones for her.

Summer Love

I love summer. There are so many things I can do now that I can't the rest of the year. Most of these things happen to save me money. I love going to BBQs where I only have to bring one dish and can eat a whole dinner. I love putting my clothing out on the line. It is very relaxing to me. I love that I don't have to touch the heat and it never gets hot enough to wish I had AC for more then one day. I love to pack up the kids and head to the beach which thanks to our wonderful Pacific North West is only a 15 minute drive.

I love going to farmers markets even if I never buy anything because I never carry cash and everything cost so much. I love all the verity of Washington grown veggies in my CSA box I get delivered to my door once a week. I love picking veggies out of my own small garden. This is the time of year my family goes camping and Aaron and I get to go somewhere for a whole weekend by ourselves for our anniversary. This year Aaron and I tried river rafting. It was wonderful and surprisingly cheap. $65 per person bought us lunch, all our gear and 2.5 hours on the river. Summer is short around here but it is very sweet.