I made books for each boy just from mommy (that helps a lot from mommy)

could you please write her whole/ correct nick. I've tried to find her here and to have a look at her works but there're tons of MOMMY nicks at the site:)

I think she means that she tells her boys that it's "just from mommy" as in she made it especially for them, and that it makes them want to read more knowing she made it just for them.

Quite a few people on here are making their own books, so many I couldn't specify anyone in particular.

Interesting article.

Most health organizations have changed their recommendations to nothing but breastmilk until 6 months, rather than the 4 to 6 month range previously suggested. KellyMom.com has complied a list of research regarding the change in recommendations.

http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/delay-solids.html

    * Delaying solids gives baby greater protection from illness.
    * Delaying solids gives baby's digestive system time to mature.
    * Delaying solids decreases the risk of food allergies.
    * Delaying solids helps to protect baby from iron-deficiency anemia.
    * Delaying solids helps to protect baby from future obesity.
    * Delaying solids helps mom to maintain her milk supply.
    * Delaying solids helps to space babies.
    * Delaying solids makes starting solids easier.

Another website with some good points is http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/early-solid-food-feeding.htm

Interestingly enough it mentions "Baby-led weaning" as well. I can't help but think that's a misnomer because introducing solids does not necessarily correspond with a disinterest in breastmilk. I feel like 'baby-led feeding' is a better choice, leaving 'baby-led weaning' to describe when a child chooses for himself when to stop breastfeeding (which cannot be described any other way). Either way though, I think it (baby-led feeding) is something more people should try.

Unfortunately the oral polio vaccine has been causing issues since the beginning, but it is much more effective than the needle to actually protect someone from contracting the disease, assuming the vaccine itself doesn't give it to them!

I was vaccinated against everything that was offered as a child. I have had the MMR vaccine 3 times (or 4, the 4th time may only have been measles) and when I had my routine pregnancy blood tests, they test for rubella immunity and I don't have any. The doctors want me to rush out and be vaccinated as soon as the baby is born, but because it's a live vaccine I could give my son the disease. I am also not immune to a host of other diseases that I was vaccinated against.

Because of how effective my vaccinations were, I don't think I will be vaccinating my son for anything but the most deadly diseases, and much later than recommended.

Tetanus is one I feel is very important to vaccinate against, particularly considering with the frequency I expose myself to it in klutzy ways. I have in fact stepped on the proverbial rusty nail that everyone worries about when discussing tetanus. My husband is not so coordinated that his genes make up for my clumsy ones. Our son is likely to injure himself repeatedly, and probably severely, in ways that can lead to tetanus infections. But he won't be doing it at least until he can run around outside. So that vaccination can wait until he's at least 2 years old (rather than 2 months).

Also my family does travel to areas in which polio has not been eradicated. My son will need to be vaccinated before travelling there. If we did not ever leave Canada, I wouldn't bother with the polio vaccine. Because I was not protected against polio until I had the oral vaccine (I had the 4 scheduled doses of the needle) we will do a mixed vaccination. 2 or 3 doses of the needle, followed by 1 or 2 of the oral vaccine. Having the needle first minimizes the risk of contracting polio from the oral vaccine. This won't start until we know when we will travel. Likely his first shot will be at around 18 months (rather than the last shot at that age) so all 4 doses are complete so we can travel with him by the time he is 3.

That's all we plan on giving him until puberty. If he has not naturally contracted mumps or chicken pox by that time, we will have him vaccinated against those, as they can cause sterility in boys/men. If there is an outbreak, ie with a real risk of contracting (not like the current H1N1 panic) a disease, we will vaccinate against other diseases as well. There has been a measles, a meningitis, and a third that I cannot remember, outbreak in my lifetime. Many people my age and younger became quite ill and a few died in those outbreaks. In such cases vaccination offers more protection than risk.

While an interesting phenomena, I think someone who reads well could read that passage regardless of how they learned to read. I think the concerning part is that many children (and therefore young adults) do not improve their reading skills beyond the basics. I think a small child who has just learned to read using whole words may have as much difficulty as one who learned to read using phonics. I can't be sure because I do not have access to anyone to test the theory on.

I can say however that none of my cousin's children, aged 10 to 14, have the reading skills to understand a passage like that. They all learned to read via phonics. The oldest could not read the word "there" at 8 years old because he could not sound it out!

My life has been needlessly hectic this last month, so while the track is finished, I still haven't put the instructions together.

It wasn't too hard to do and took us between 12 and 20 hours depending on how much non-work is counted. We needed to get materials (4 hours), cut the wood (which took us twice as long as it should have because in November the sun sets before 6pm, so we were working in the dark), debate how and when to cut the foam and fabric (not all that productive, but took hours!) in addition to actually building the thing.

Assuming Naugahyde (or an alternative that you're comfortable with) is readily available, I would rate this project as a two person, single (but full) weekend project, costing between $200 and $225 CDN without paying the labourers.

To make just a straight track, like the Asics, would have cost much less, and the cuts would have been much less complicated, so it would have taken less time as well.

WARNING: I haven't made a set (my little one hasn't arrived yet) and am therefore completely speculating about the functionality of my suggestions.

The 3/4" dowels are to be spaced 6" apart, and the 1" dowels 12" apart. That means when it's time to change the ladder, every second hole will need to be widened by 1/4". Widening a hole isn't hard, widening a hole so the centers stay in the same spot is nearly impossible. The other ones could just be plugged or left empty.  A strange idea that might work is to make the ladder alternating 3/4", 1", 3/4", etc then when it's time to increase the spacing all that needs to be done is remove the 3/4" dowels.

Depending on the length of her arms, she may be able to use the a ladder spaced 12" between rungs. Although the smaller dowels would be a good idea, because big hands can grip little dowels better than little hands can grip big dowels. Which also really means you could teach her to skip rungs once they're too close together to function properly.

So after all that, I guess my conclusion is to make the smaller one (3/4" dowels spaced 6") it's the more functional option.

I may be wrong but I hear that in the West (USA and Europe), children start school much later ...at three or four. Is that right?

In Canada it's dependent on the province. In my province a child must be enrolled in school on their 6th birthday. Obviously the school board prefers if you enrol the child at the beginning of the school year if they turn six during that year, but parents are not obligated to. If, for example, your child was born on June 25th 2004, the school would like him to be enrolled for the year that started this September, but his first day of school could be as late as the 25th of June next year. That means his first year of school would be a single day long!
Attempts to standardize the enrolment dates (so all children have to start at the beginning of the year) have been repeatedly unsuccessful and I think they've just given up on the idea.


How has homeschooling been for you so far?

Wow, I feel kind of bad for you.  I'm sad that you can't see any positives to your life, and can't see the positives for your unborn child.  The best thing I can think to tell you is that you are focusing on the wrong thing, it won't matter a lick what your child does or doesn't do for at least 5 years, that is plenty of time to foster a good relationship with your child before academics enters the picture.  Life is not academics, it is living and loving and enjoying the world, including the excitement of learning and ultimately becoming a productive member of a community.  Please, focus on that, not predicted doom and "dysfunction" as you describe it.  How my child fits in and navigates socially is really not up to me, that is the child's challenge.  All you can do is make your home as open and inviting as possible to your child's friends (something my parents failed to do as I was growing up).

Wow is right. I really hope you didn't mean this to sound as insulting as it does.

I wouldn't bother feeling bad for me. In terms of the big picture, life is pretty good. I did however have a problem, a month ago, that I asked about specifically without giving more information than was required.

Even with the limited amount of information I've given, I have no idea how you came to the conclusion that I can't see any positives (for myself or anyone else). I was actually concerned that maybe I'd given the wrong impression and went back and reread everything I'd posted, including the rebuttal to the study Chris mentioned. Nothing that concerns my family is even negative. I've taken the side that we ought to embrace the genius of our child regardless of the opinions of society and I was looking for support in ways to convince my husband that this is the best idea as well. I even said I'd love my baby regardless of how smart or dumb he ends up.

The concern about my focus I can understand, given that I have not shared the big picture, just the specifics necessary to have my questions addressed. I am not nearly as concerned about the IQ of my baby, and whatever may come with that, as it seems in my posts. It is however one of the many concerns I do have as a new mother. Other concerns include things like am I really ready to be responsible for a tiny human, should I use cloth diapers, how will I keep people from harassing us before I'm ready for visitors, etc.

As for it not mattering "a lick" what's done in the first 5 years, you are very mistaken. You are on a forum devoted to showing how important those first years are. The foundation of everything someone will learn, whether it's a social skill or an academic one, is formed in the first 5 or 6 years.

I'm not worried about academics in the slightest, so I don't know why you felt the need to point out that it's not what life is. Life also isn't the social dynamics of high school. Or the rush hour traffic jam. Or a million other things. But all those little things do add up to "life". What is living otherwise, if not the mundane experiences of life?

The original concern is that my husband thinks (or maybe thought, I am slowly winning him over) that learning is not something to be excited about, but something to be avoided unless necessary. I don't particularly get excited about learning either, although I consider it to be a fascinating pastime. I want my baby to at least look at learning as favourably as I do. It would be best if he loved it, but if he just thinks it's a good way to waste time, that's good enough.

I didn't predict doom, and I only used the word dysfunctional once and in describing the social interactions in the gifted program in my city. I even explained why that program has serious issues. What I did predict for my child is that if he is different, it will take work to fit in. A perfectly logical and normal thing to say, almost to the point that it's clichéd.

Children primarily learn social skills from their parents, so in effect it is the parent's failing when the child has limited social skills (assuming no medical reason such as autism spectrum disorders, brain damage, etc.) I don't want to fail my child.

I hope this clears up any confusion. And I'm sorry to hear that your parents weren't open to your friends.

I'm from just outside Calgary.

Kindersley to Calgary is quite a long drive to do frequently.

I probably won't be interested in an in-person Mom's Group until the new year at the earliest. I want to be able to get used to my little one before I commit myself to having to leave the house

Well we've discovered the Naugahyde problem. It turns out "my" naugahyde did come in on time, they just didn't realize it was mine because it wasn't white, it's gold! The salesperson wrote the wrong code down. Unfortunately there isn't time to get in the right colour before the baby is born, so we kept the gold (for a sizable discount of course).

My baby is so spoiled he's going to sleep on a gold crawling track!

Boiling the fabric did all sorts of things to it, none of it helpful. So we unrolled it and let it air out for 36 hours. After about 24, the cat decided it was her new favourite place to sleep. Cats have a much better sense of smell than we do, so it must be okay if she likes it

The track will be finished over the weekend and I'll have the instructions typed out shortly afterwards.


Khatty,
I'm from just outside Calgary.

I have How Smart is Your Baby and the monkey bars are in there too. How soon are you expecting your book? I could send you scans of the diagrams in mine if you'd like.

I was told quite emphatically that if I want any help, I am not to start any more projects until the spring, so mine will have to wait.

I attached a picture of my 3/4 completed track. The fantastic gold fabric needs to be stapled under, the bumpers I made for the ends need to be installed, and the distance markers need to be attached.

Will she be with 3 year olds next year if she doesn't go this year?
Will you be able to teach her as much as the preschool would (assuming they teach anything at all)?
Will she be able to interact with other children (regardless of ages) over the next year?

If you can say yes to all three than no harm will be done by keeping her home. And if you can't, you need to weigh the risk of sending her to school (suicide bombings?!) with the risk of keeping her home (the possibility of a slight decrease in socialization skills compared to her peers).

Personally I think the socialization aspect of school is overrated, so if I had any fears about safety I would keep my child home.

"Carl Weter's Education Law" may be the English translation of the title of Chinese or Japanese version of the German (technically Prussian) book "Karl Witte: Oder Erziehungs- und Bildungsgeschichte Desselben. Ein Buch fur Eltern und Erziehende"

There is an (edited/abridged) english translation called "The education of Karl Witte; or, The training of the child." The full text is available online on the Internet Archive.

According to the editor's note at the beginning:

There are two reasons for Witte's book having thus fallen into temporary oblivion. In its original form it is a book which, to employ the quaint but extremely expressive German phrase, "does not allow itself to be read." Not only is it excessively long, running to more than a thousand pages of print, but it is burdened with a mass of disquisitional passages which too often are of little importance, and which, in addition to exhausting the reader's patience, have the effect of diminishing his appreciation of the value of the educational method which Witte laboriously and disconnectedly details. Consequently it has been a necessary task, in connection with the present translation, to eliminate as far as possible the superfluous and beclouding material, while at the same time endeavoring to omit nothing really essential to an understanding of the principles guiding Witte in the education of his son. But even had it not been weighted down by a heavy handicap of form and style, his book was foredoomed to be left for many years unread and unheeded because of the impossibility of reconciling its teachings with the "established" educational doctrines of the age.

I've only read the first 60 pages or so at this point so I can not give much review. However, given that the orginal book is now 200 years old (Karl Witte the younger was born in 1800) and the translation is nearing 100 years old itself, the text is a bit hard to digest at times.

My sister actually just got her PhD in Immunology (I'm very proud of her) and if she can't convince me that the vaccine is a good idea, no one could. I've never had any flu, and am, other than being pregnant, very low risk. Most of my family has chosen not to get the vaccine. My sister had no choice because she works in a hospital. She doesn't seem very confident in its efficacy, but has no concerns about the safety. According to her it's made the same way as the seasonal flu vaccine, just with the H1N1 virus, the risk of serious side effects from the seasonal flu vaccine is about 1 in 1,000,000 and the H1N1 should be about the same.

As waterdreamer mentioned, this vaccine is being made from the spring version, and the virus has likely mutated. Being vaccinated will offer protection to people with very strong immune systems regardless of the mutation, but may not offer much protection to those with weaker immune systems. Creating "killer cells" to recognize one thing and being exposed to another may not help much unless the immune system is strong enough to throw all resources at the invading virus. The cells created by the vaccine will kill the virus if it recognizes it, or attacks it anyway.

The real risk of H1N1 is developing pneumonia. In 1918 that's what killed most people who got the disease. Thankfully we have all sorts of medicines available to treat pneumonia, and even if we have an outbreak of that scale again, there will be significantly fewer deaths.

Plarka - I think all waterproofed fabric is at least semi-toxic, because it has been coated in plastic of some sort. Naugahyde brand fake leather claims not to use VOC or ODC in the manufacturing of their product, which would reduce the amount of chemicals it emits. Honestly, it doesn't even smell like PVC normally does and some types could be mistaken for leather if the underside wasn't visible.

We had to special order Naugahyde because the upholstery fabric stores here do not stock it. We looked at all the other waterproofed fabrics ranging from Scotchgaurded fabric to 5mm thick vinyl, and everything else felt and smelled bad. We contemplated shellacking our own fabric because I know shellac is non-toxic once it dries (toxic while applying however and we didn't want that in the house). Ultimately we decided just to order the Naugahyde. When it arrives (should have been friday  > ) we're going to test a small piece to see if it can be boiled it to reduce the chemicals it emits further. If it won't melt at that temperature, that is enough to make me confident it's not going to harm the baby. If it does melt though, I'm not sure what the plan will be. Maybe we'll air it out for a while? We have still weeks before the baby is due to arrive.


As for the progress on the track itself, we've decided on an L shape. Which it turns out, due to faulty math, actually can't be cut from a single sheet of plywood. Of course we only bought one sheet before we figured that out, but thankfully we hadn't cut it yet. We decided we're going to make the sides out of 2x6s rather than buying another sheet of plywood for 12". For the foam we opted for an environmentally friendly carpet underlay. It's made from recycled foams held together by low VOC glue. It passed the sniff test too. It doesn't smell chemical like the upholstery foam we looked at, and has more flex than yoga mats or sleeping mats at the same thickness. The only problem is that it's only 8mm thick. We decided on a double layer, although in retrospect I'm not sure why, it's a good texture at one layer thick. To assemble it together we bought low VOC glue, some staples and upholstery tacks (to mark distances along the side). As soon as the fake leather gets here, we'll start construction on it.

The cost was $28 for the plywood, $11 for the 2x6s, $13 for the glue, $60 for the underlay, $3 for staples and tacks, and $105 for the fabric. For a total of $220. It's taken us probably 4 hours to source the materials.

We've cut the plywood to width (but not length yet) which took less than 15 minutes.

I've finally convinced my husband that, at the very least, a physical program is a good idea. (Tell a Canadian father that something might make his child a better hockey player and he jumps at the idea!  )

He's now very excited to build an infant crawling track, but has questions I can't answer (and couldn't find in How Smart is Your Baby? or How to Teach Your Baby to be Physically Superb).

If a child is sleeping in the track, when will they outgrow it? Outgrow in either the sense that they physically won't fit, or in the sense that they won't stay in it to sleep anymore.

I believe the track becomes pointless during the day once a child begins creeping. And it is mentioned in H.T.T.Y.B. To Be Physically Superb that Douglas Doman removed the crawling track from his son's room before he 3 months because "He had graduated from it." I assume because he had began creeping. Can anyone else confirm this idea?

Do babies stop crawling in their sleep once they begin creeping while awake? Or will we need to make arrangements to make sure he doesn't fall out of bed or run into things when he should be safely asleep?

What is the next step for sleeping location? A crib? A mattress on the floor? A toddler bed? A cage suspended from the ceiling? Just kidding about that last one, although my mother-in-law tells me that would have been the only thing that could have stopped my husband from climbing out of bed once he figured out how.

Anyone have any experience with this?

As an aside, if people are interested I'll take photos of the building process and write out detailed directions, materials, and cost (in money and time). I think it would be useful information for people that are unsure if they'd rather build or buy.