Every Monday, I answer a few of the questions that my readers send me. If you have a question you’d like me to answer in a future Q&A post, just leave me a comment here or email me (thefrugalgirl [at] gmail [dot] com) and put Q&A in the subject line. I look forward to hearing from you!
How do you store all the flash cards for Saxon math?? I’m trying to figure out a system where it’s easy for my son to find the set he needs to work on, without taking up too much space on a shelf (we do have very limited space where we live).
Also, what kind of art curriculum/program do you do with your kids? Right now I’ve got my son in art classes with a fantastic lady who teaches out of her home, but I’m curious if there might be something (simple-ish) I can do at home with him and my four year old as well.
-Ashley
I don’t do anything fancy with my flash cards at all! I have them divided into manageable portions bound with rubber bands for daily review, and each day, we pick a different grouping to review so that we’re always rotating through them all.
As far as art goes, check out I Can Teach My Child for lots of great craft and art ideas for the younger crowd.
Also, Drawing with Children is a super popular drawing curriculum that many homeschoolers use. I bought it this year, but haven’t managed to find time during our homeschool week to get very far with it, so I plan to go through it this summer with Sonia and Zoe.
I am expecting my first child at the beginning of August, and can’t believe the lists of baby “essentials” I found. Could you think of maybe three things you couldn’t have done without when the kids were born, and three “fails”, ie. things you were told you needed, but in the end didn’t use that much? To me, the issue is not money as much as overbuying.
-Genevieve
That’s so great you’re approaching this mindfully. There’s such a glut of baby stuff on the market, and you really can do without a lot of it. I’ll share my top three wins and fails, but do keep in mind that every parent is different and some people’s wins are other people’s fails and vice versa.
For this list, I’m operating under the assumption that you’re already going to have necessary stuff like a car seat and clothes. 😉
Wins
Bouncy Seat
Caveat-we had a super simple vintage bouncy seat with no vibrations or batteries. The newer ones don’t seem to be nearly as good. We used ours ALL the time, though.
If I couldn’t find a simple bouncer, I’d at least get a Bumbo. You can’t use them when the baby is very small, but they’re GREAT once their muscles have developed a bit.
Port-a-crib
We used ours as a crib in Joshua’s early days, and regularly used it when we were at other people’s houses during naptime. We just had a simple Graco pack and play and it held up great.
Baby Bathtub
I know you can get by without one, but goodness, it is SO much easier to bathe a small slippery baby if you have a little tub. Mine was second hand and basic, but it got the job done for four kids!
Fails
Baby Monitor
Perhaps this is because we’ve never lived in a huge home, but I just never found this to be very useful. We had a basic hand-me-down monitor, but I almost never used it. I could always hear my babies crying at night or when they woke up from naps because you can only get so far away in a smallish house!
Nursing Bras
Perhaps they’ve improved over the years, but when I had my babies, the options were pretty much all lumpy, ugly, expensive, and not that much easier to use than a regular bra. I gave them up after my first baby and never looked back.
Walker
This was fairly useless to use because we didn’t have a big house for our kids to maneuver around in and because we had too much carpet! If you have a spacious home with hardwoods, you might feel different, but for us, the walker was a waste of space.
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Readers, I’m sure Genevieve would love to have your input as well! What are your top baby gear wins and fails?
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P.S. Third Day Naturals is having a Mother’s Day sale, so hop on over to buy something for your mama (or yourself!)
Josie
Thursday 8th of May 2014
I actually disagree with a few of these!
I loved my nursing bras. I have large breasts so have to wear underwire bras normally, which are VERY bad for nursing mothers. I lived in my nursing bras, even at night, for ages. It was a happy day when I could start wearing normal bras though!
We also used baby moniters for years. My husband is a heavy sleeper and I sleep very lightly, so he would not wake up and i would wake up with every little noise. We also sleep with our doors shut, so hearing the kids could be a problem.
We only used our portacot on a handful of occasions - if we were out and the baby needed a sleep, they would sleep in the pram or on someone's bed.
To my list of essentials I would add a change table, or at least a change mat on a surface at waist height. Your back will thank you.
Good luck with parenthood!
Felicity
Wednesday 7th of May 2014
As others have said about baby gear, it's amazing to see how some people's baby gear regrets are other people's must-haves. Because it all depends so much from one person/baby to the next, I'd recommend getting as much stuff secondhand as possible. Buying secondhand, going to baby gear swaps, getting hand-me-downs, and borrowing from friends saves money and lets you try out gear without the waste (packaging, shipping from China, etc.) that comes from buying new. When I was pregnant with my first, I created a website where parents can incorporate secondhand and new gear into their gift registries (http://www.encorebabyregistry.com/). If you ask to borrow some things, it also keeps track of who gave what and if they want it back or not.
I've tried on numerous occasions to write a post on the site to help people decide what baby gear to ask for, but I've never been able to finish the post (although it's had several re-writes), because so much really "just depends" on the family and each individual baby.
Genevieve
Wednesday 7th of May 2014
Thank you so much for addressing my question, Kristen! I really appreciate it. I also went and read your 2009 post. Helpful indeed!
Thanks also to all of your readers who took the time to answer – most of them in great detail. I know all mamas (and babies!) are different, but it’s interesting to read other (more experienced) ladies’ opinions. Some of them got me thinking and helped me get a better idea of where I stand.
Keep up the good work… have a nice day… :)
Laura
Tuesday 6th of May 2014
A word on walkers- the American academy of pediatrics recommend you don't use them. They can delay when a child learns to walk and there are some safety concerns
http://www.healthychildren.org/English/safety-prevention/at-home/Pages/Baby-Walkers-A-Dangerous-Choice.aspx
We had a vibrating chair that our baby loved, that thing could sooth him like nothing else. We got a fisher price infant to toddler rocker so he was also able to us it longer then a regular bouncer
Amy
Tuesday 6th of May 2014
My 3 items would be 1. Carrier or sling (I'd go for an ergo or similar so you can use it past the baby age, great for outings). Both my children were fussy and needed to be upright to sleep a lot of the time and this allowed me to prepare dinner or get out of the house. 2. Cloth nappies. The newer kinds are easy to use and wash and we saved thousands. 3. A swing or bouncer. Somewhere you can put baby down safely for a minute. My children used to sit in it while I had a quick shower. We had one with a toy bar and it was fairly cheap and used everyday. Things I didn't spend much on were a cot / change table etc. We were given a cot and just bought a new mattress but we hardly used it because we co-slept early on and both my two were in beds early as they were climbers. For a change table I just used a regular chest of drawers with a mat on top. I mainly changed them on a bed anyway and they kept using the drawers past baby age.