Tuesday, August 19, 2008

More women having fewer children (if at all)

A new Census Bureau report on fertility shows that 20 percent of women 40 to 44 were childless in 2006, twice as high as the level 30 years earlier. Among other highlights, the report, Fertility of American Women: 2006, found:
  • The majority of women with a recent birth (57 percent) were in the labor force.
  • Of the 4.2 million women who had a birth in the previous 12 months, 36 percent were separated, widowed, divorced or never married at the time of the survey. Of these 1.5 million unmarried mothers, 190,000 were living with an unmarried partner.
  • Second generation Hispanic women tend to have lower fertility rates than either foreign-born Hispanics or those who were third generation (i.e., native and of native parents).
  • The highest levels of current fertility (67 births in the year prior to the survey per 1,000 women) were among those with a graduate or professional degree.

The report is the first from the Census Bureau on this topic to use data from the American Community Survey, resulting in state-by-state comparisons of fertility characteristics. Data from the Current Population Survey are also included in the report, permitting historical comparisons of levels of childlessness and births.

This report shows a great deal of variation among states in the characteristics of mothers who had given birth in the previous year. Such mothers, for instance, in the District of Columbia, Mississippi and North Carolina were the most likely to have never married. In addition, recent mothers in California were the most apt to be foreign-born, while those in Mississippi were the likeliest to be poor.

The report also finds that the national birth rate for women age 15 to 50 receiving public assistance in 2006 was about three times of those not receiving public assistance. A decade after the passage of welfare reform in 1996, data show that women in this age range receiving public assistance had a birth rate of 155 births per 1,000 women, compared with 53 births per 1,000 women not receiving it.

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In my own words: Women who went to college and who are working successful careers are having 0-1.9 babies that are being raised in daycare. Women who are on welfare (after probably dropping out of school and never going to college) are having three times as many babies as anyone else. Women who are unmarried are having babies more than ever before.

Are there any normal families left? Married people where Dad works hard so Mom can stay home and raise whatever amount of children they are blessed with?

No wonder strangers in public ask to take pictures of our family, saying it's so rare to see a normal family any more these days.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Homemade learning games

I love stores that sell teaching supplies. I could spend hours browsing the merchandise on the shelves or leafing through their big, glossy catalogs. Other women go to the mall for fun, I ditch the kids with my husband and go to Lakeshore Learning Store. If someone would give me a $5,000 gift card to their store, I could spend it in one day with no trouble whatsoever. Not that it would ever happen, I am just trying to illustrate how I like all the things they sell there.

To be sure, I know that most of their stuff is completely unnecessary. I think it would not just be possible, but even beneficial to teach children with nothing more than a couple of books, a pad of writing paper, and a pencil. All the supplies, toys, games and gimmicks are fun to have, but certainly not necessary.

Anyway, because I like the toy factor but not the cost of what these stores have to offer, I made a couple of items that I really liked at home this week. It was easy, fun, and very inexpensive.

First I tried to recreate the "Alphabet Sounds Teaching Tubs", which retail for only $129. My kids love any and all miniatures. We already have a few from teaching games that I found at the thrift store or bought on sale, and they are very helpful in teaching kids to learn the letters, find rhyming objects, group items by color, or find things that go together (i.e. vehicles, food, etc.). So quite honestly, if I thought my husband would let me get by with it, I would have bought this set without giving it a second thought, even though I love to save money any other time.

Instead, I remembered that our local health food store carries clear plastic bins just like the ones in the Lakeshore set for customers who purchase fresh salads from the salad bar. The next time I was there, I packed up 26 little tubs and asked the cashier if they would consider selling them to me, but they said I could have as many as I wanted for free. At home, I pulled out letter stickers that I had bought in the scrapbooking section at the dollar tree, and labeled all the tubs. Over the next few days, I collected little toys and things I found laying around the house, and put them in the corresponding bins. I got many ideas for what to look for by looking at the Lakeshore catalog. Some of my tubs are still empty, and some don't have much in them, but I plan on sitting down one night this week and making a bunch of miniatures out of polymer clay (the stuff you bake in the oven). Since I already had all the supplies at home, my total cost for this project was $0.

I will be able to use many of the same miniatures in other games, such as the "Vowel Teaching Tubs", the "Blends and Digraphs Teaching Tubs", or the "Rhyming Sounds Teaching Tubs".

Here is a picture of the partially finished project:


The second item I really liked was the "What Rhymes? Game", which costs $39.95. Finding rhyming words is great for teaching kids about language and sounds, but the price is really not justifiable for me.

So I spent a couple of hours on the computer and designed my own game board by finding the right clipart in Microsoft Word. Then I printed everything, glued it onto cardboard, laminated it with clear contact paper, cut everything out, and finally glued the yellow ovals onto my gameboard (which is really two cardboard desk dividers taped together in the back and reinforced with some very heavy cardboard). A couple of ladies from church were at my house yesterday afternoon, and they actually did all the cutting for me - what a help! While my game pieces are made of paper rather than using cute miniatures, I am very happy with how they turned out. If I wanted to, I could replace these pieces with miniatures over time as I find/make them, but I don't think I'll bother. Here are two pictures of my version. The first one shows the game before sorting the rhyming objects, the second after they have been sorted. The real thing looks much better than you can see from the picture.



Again, I had all the supplies for this in the house, so my cost was $0 and I had a fun afternoon with friends from church. Just don't ask me how they enjoyed being volunteered for all the cutting... :)

By the way, Lakeshore's website includes the product guides with each of these item. This is the leaflet that usually comes in the package and gives teaching tips and ideas for games, as well as a complete list of contents.

There are still a few other games I would like to make my own versions of in the coming weeks. I have all the materials at home, so finding the time to make them is really my only problem.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Ordering diapers online

Tonight, I tried ordering diapers online for the first time. I used www.diapers.com because I had a coupon code for $10 off an order of $49 or more. All orders over $49 also ship for free (UPS 2 day ground), orders for less than that ship for $4.99 which is really cheap for shipping. My package is supposed to ship tomorrow, and arrive on Tuesday.

While I plan on going back to cloth diapers with the newborn, I have had Miriam in disposables since she started solids and switched to "toddler poop". Sorry to be graphic, but there is a huge difference between what a breastfed baby puts out vs. a hungry toddler who eats everything in sight. It's a mess that I just don't want to deal with at all. Plus, we live in a very hot climate and soaking stinky diapers in my laundry room all day would be torture.

With the three boys, I used Pampers exclusively (Swaddlers when they were little, Cruisers when they got bigger). I think these are the best diapers on the market, but unfortunately also the most expensive. A few times I tried other brands that were cheaper, but never liked them because they usually did not fit well and the filling turned into rock-solid clumps when it got wet at all. After reading a post on Raani's blog, I recently decided to try Luvs, and have to say I am very pleased with those. In fact, there is no difference at all to the Pampers Cruisers I was using before, except in price. I actually think they must both be made by the same company, Procter & Gamble, because after having changed several thousand Pampers diapers I can tell that they look, feel, fit, and smell exactly the same, something I have never noticed with any other brand.

So tonight I ordered a huge box of Luvs, some Lansinoh lanolin (for when I have the baby), and a big bottle of California Baby shampoo and body wash (this is a great, all-natural brand). My total came to $62, which was $52 after my coupon. It's less than what I would have paid at the store, and I get it delivered to the house which saves me a trip to Wal-Mart and the health food store. The website also offers larger packages than the store does, which makes the products cheaper overall.

There are many more products you can buy from this company, such as cloth diapers, wipes, baby food, cleaning supplies, products for Mom, toys, etc. My two cents on baby wipes: the generic Sam's Club brand are the best wipes anywhere. They are thick and feel like cotton, and are unscented. The generic ones at Costco are the worst because they feel like using a wet dryer sheet to wipe baby. Pampers and Huggies wipes are okay, but don't feel nearly as nice as the Sam's Club ones, and are also a lot more irritating to baby's skin. I recently tried the "Seventh Generation" wipes and really liked them, too, but they are very expensive. Just my opinion.

If you would like to try this service, type ZSUZSANNA into the referral box on the order page, and you will get $10 off your order of $49 or more. I will get $1 off my next order, which would be nice but not really a big difference.

I'll let you know next week if my package arrived on time and how I liked the shipping service.