Monthly Archives: July 2010

Now That I Am A Mother, What Happened To My Friends?!

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Many stay-at-home mothers are concerned about feeling socially isolated.  I wrote about this awhile back, including some suggestions for how to handle it:

https://theparentingpassageway.com/2010/02/24/social-isolation-for-stay-at-home-mothers/

Interestingly, I think this issue comes up again and again in parenting.  When we are the first person out of our friends to have a child, our priorities shift and we can’t do the same things we used to do with our childless friends.  When we are the one out of our friends who have three, four or five children and our friends only have one child, they may not understand how truly hard it can be to get five bodies ready to get out of the house and that we really don’t have the same amount of time that we did when we only had one child.  Activities that we may enjoy socially and that typically would renew us, such as going to a place of worship, may become difficult as we tend to the needs of our infants, toddlers and preschoolers. 

I think we have to be patient.  Part of this growth that occurs in parenting really does occur in learning to slow down and being patient with the long developmental arc of childhood.  Part of this growth that occurs for us includes perhaps being able to step out of our pre-conceived box of “who should be our friend” and realize that we may have more in common with different mothers  now than we did before.  We may need to widen our circle of friends a bit in order to garner enough support instead of relying on only one or two women who are now insanely busy with their own families. 

One thing that has been effective for me is to literally sit down and make a list of all the qualities I really wanted in a friend  and  to pray about it.  If you don’t pray, perhaps you can consider this just putting it out to the Universe.  I have a lovely group of friends now, all with different viewpoints and talents and skills.  They really are helpful to me, and I am grateful every day for them and how they listen to my cares and concerns.  In this day and age,when so many of us live far away from our families, the friends we choose often do become like family. 

Every mother also deserves some good friends to really confide in and bounce things off of; every mother deserves some friends who will just listen and not be judgmental even if they don’t parent exactly the same way. Parenting is an area in which mothers can get extremely defensive; as if doing things differently implies that one is doing them incorrectly.  Part of expanding your circle of friends includes expanding your ability to just listen, to be supportive and to not offer advice unless the person clearly asks for it.

Just as we prepare in our marriages for the day twenty years from now when we will be alone again with our husbands, let us also prepare our friendships for that day as well by making them as much of a priority as we can at this moment.  It only takes  a few moments to pick up the phone and say hello, or to email someone and say you are thinking of them. 

I would love to hear your comments as to how you keep your adult friendships going or how they have changed with the advent of parenthood or adding children to  your families.

Many blessings,

Carrie

Even More About Transitioning The Only Child To Older Sibling

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I do like this back post about this topic:  https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/01/11/transitioning-the-only-child-to-older-sibling/  but today I wanted to add a few things to that post.

I still think siblings are the best gift you can give your child (see back post here: https://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/11/01/siblings-are-the-most-precious-gift/) .  However, this is not to say the transition point of this is all roses.  Many mothers at one time or another have felt as if the baby was intruding on their special time with their older child or the older child was intruding on their special  time with the baby.  Some mothers have told me they felt like it took them longer to bond with the second baby simply because they had less time to just sit and hold the baby and they were so concerned about the adjustment of the older child.

I think all of these feeling are normal. 

I think the other thing no one says about transitioning to two children is that you may be going from things being more focused on one child, a rhythm around one child, to having a rhythm now encompassing more of the needs of everyone in the family, and encompassing children who are at different developmental stages. I don’t mean that to sound harder or scary, but just to point out that it is what it is. It is also better to know that some of these transition points don’t come up right away when your baby is still small and mainly in a sling nursing, but come up as the infant grows and matures and becomes more mobile and has more of a personality.

I had one mother tell me she wished people had told her that her relationship with her older child was going to change when she added an infant to the mix.  Your relationship with your older child will change, that is true.  However, I think sometimes when there is a younger sibling/infant in the house we tend to see that as the impetus for change and we forget that that older child is growing and changing and that our relationship with that child would be changing as well, (with our without a younger sibling)  because of growth and maturation and new developmental stages that would happen naturally anyway.  This is not to downplay the transition that does occur with adding a child to the family, but to remind us all that our relationship with our older child would not be frozen in time anyway.

These are the areas I have heard from mothers that they found hardest to deal with when nurturing two children:

  • Dealing with guilt!  Mothers have told me how hard it is to stop feeling guilty because they cannot give 150 percent to each child individually.  It is okay that your neighbor takes your four-year-old to the pool.  It is okay that you can’t run next to your child on their bike with training wheels because you are nine months pregnant.  It is okay for that older child to not be center of the universe, and in fact, I would argue it is better for them to not be under a microscope all the time.  🙂
  • The other area of guilt is in dealing with feelings of perhaps not liking the older child’s behavior.  This is normal.  Toddlers, preschoolers, go through different behaviors as they adjust to the family rhythm changing.  You can still love your child, and show them as much warmth as possible and as much attention to their needs  because they still need Mommy too. You don’t have to love every challenging behavior :), but you still need to be their loving parent. 
  • Co-sleeping.  Mothers have had to work to come up with what works best in their family, whether that is moving another mattress into their room, co-sleeping with the infant only and having Dad sleep with the older child somewhere else, or whatever worked out best for the needs of the whole family.
  • Tandem nursing.  For many mothers this works well, most mothers seem to feel happy they could do this for their older child and felt it did ease some of the transition, but I have also heard mothers who did wean their children over the age of four after a bit of time into tandem nursing.  Again, you will have to sort out what works for your family. 
  • What to do with the older child during the infant’s naptime is another area that comes up as a challenge.  If your child is young and still taking naps, you can encourage your child to sleep when you and your infant sleep.  Some mothers have talked about the older child being wakened by the infant and also the infant being wakened by the older child.    If your child no longer naps, baby wearing can be a real lifesaver.  Some mothers will set up a play scenario in the napping room or a snack in the napping room.  Some mothers will read to the older child and nurse the baby and when the baby falls asleep, mother and older child will slip out.  Some mothers use white noise to help hide the noise of a toddler or younger preschooler during the nap.  Some have babies who can sleep through it.  These things are all individual and take time to sort out.
  • When both children are crying at once.  The best thing with two children is you still have room in your arms and your lap for both children.
  • When the baby needs you during the older one’s bedtime routine and is crying throughout bedtime story time.  Having extra help around bedtime is helpful, as is planning calm afternoons with early dinners and early bedtimes.
  • The transition the fathers go through at this point because their  calm presence and their help is needed more than ever.  They may have to step in and guide the older child’s behavior, deal with being the “less wanted” parent because the older child wanted Mommy to do it, or the baby really wants to be held by Mommy.  It can be a hard role, and especially challenging if Dad has not really stepped up to the plate with nurturing the first child or taking a very active role with the first child.
  • Mothers remark that the lack of time for themselves is difficult; that with the first child they thought they were so busy but with the second child they realize now that any of the little pockets of time they had carved out with the first child is now being filled.

Goodness, I look at this list and I hope it doesn’t sound too negative!  But I think as mothers we need to talk about the reality of things more and support one another.

Thanks for reading and I welcome your comments.  What was hard for you as you transitioned from having one child to two children and what worked best for your family?

Many blessings,

Carrie

A Brief Note About Waldorf Third Grade

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This evening, I was thinking and meditating and contemplating what blocks I am going to choose and/or design  to finish our Third Grade year (I am now up to mid-March in planning).  And this came to me:

The Third Grade year really is about how we, as an individual, find a home here on Earth from the spiritual realm.  We can show this through the study of one group of people, the Ancient Hebrew people, in their stories as recorded in the Old Testament.  The other possibilities are showing how the Native American people how they made their homes here as influenced by the land they lived on (and remember, I have said I am still not sure how I feel about Native Americans within the Third Grade curriculum).  The third possibility for Americans to consider is  the pioneer and how the pioneers made this individualized journey searching for a promised land  as well,  and how the pioneers also worked with the land and the weather to move from being a pioneer to being a settler.  This is something a nine-year-old is  facing as they become more of  an individual and more separate but still part of a family, and part of a larger  community as they grow and mature.

I think the Third Grade year is also about what we need  in order to live.  First of all, one could consider  a relationship with God and to  authority in order to live in community and as a spiritual being.  This is shown in the Old Testament blocks.  Marsha Johnson also has a free Third Grade block over in her files regarding Community.  The next thing we need outside of a relationship with our Creator and a community is the basics of survival :  a physical house (shown in the building block, but could also be highlighted in a Native American block in how the weather and climate and land shaped the housing styles); clothes to protect us from the elements (textile block); and food (farming block).

The Third Grade year is also about doing, doing, doing – how can one take these blocks and make them full of movement, full of the wonder of doing, and how can one tie this into a unified year.  That is the challenge.

Just musing out loud. 

Many blessings,

Carrie

Celebrating Children Who Say “No!”

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Sometimes we can smile with a small toddler as they reach for something in an obvious gesture of embrace but are still saying “no”. However, in general, many parents frequently feel frustrated when small children start using the word “no” (and yes, I do know this is because your precious one has said “no” literally 800 times today!).  It also seems as a society we rarely celebrate our older preschoolers or older children being able to say “no” to us .

No really can be a cause for celebration if you look at it in the right way.  Why do I say this?  The word “no” is a true expression of My Own Will.  Without the ability to say no, there are no boundaries between Me and Other.  And boundaries are something that can really serve your children well when they are adults!

I am reading this interesting book called “Boundaries” by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend.  This book was published in 1992, so perhaps some of you have already read this.  One of the points in this book is that the word “no” is a basic word we use to set boundaries in our lives, and boundaries can help us as adults answer such questions as how can I set limits and still be a loving person, how do I answer people who would like my time/money/love/energy, how do we set boundaries without feeling guilty.  Anyway, I don’t agree with everything in this book, but it is worth a look if this is an area that is challenging for you!

I also like what Dr. William Sears and Martha Sears say in their book, “The Discipline Book:  How to Have A Better-Behaved Child From Birth to Age Ten”:  “Saying no is important for a child’s development, for establishing his identity as an individual.  This is not defiance or a rejection of your authority.  Some parents feel they cannot tolerate any nos at all from their children, thinking that to permit this would undermine their authority.  They wind up curtailing an important process of self-emergence:  Children have to experiment with  where their mother leaves off and where they begin.  Parents can learn to respect individual wishes and still stay in charge and maintain limits.  The boundaries of selfhood will be weak if the self gets no exercise.  As your child gets older, the ability to get along with peers in certain situations (stealing, cheating, drugs, and so on) will depend on her ability to say no.” (page 67)

I have also seen the opposite:  mothers who rarely say no to anything.  Saying no is not negative; I have written about “The Power of A Well-Placed No” here for your reading pleasure:  https://theparentingpassageway.com/2010/07/06/the-power-of-a-well-placed-no/

So how can we as parents better embrace and respond to when our children say “no”? 

1. For small children, do look at what is behind the “no” a child is saying.  Maybe the no is really I don’t want to go to bed (but I really am tired).  Maybe the no is I don’t want to stop playing to go to the bathroom.  Maybe the no is something else.  So being able to look behind the no to see what is the true need or want is important, and will help everyone get their needs met.

2.  Give small children your time to help transition, and have a rhythm to things.  If small children are engaged in something, give them time to switch gears with your help.  Songs and verses for these  transition points are helpful here.  A rhythm is also helpful because then a child knows what comes after what every day. 

3.  If there is a natural consequence for a child not doing something, then  you must follow through.  I know everyone is going to write and ask for examples of this, but really this is variable family to family and also depends upon the age of the child.   Perhaps an example would be with a child who won’t wear a coat to go outside on a freezing cold day.  No coat, no outside.  When the coat goes on, the child can go outside. 

4.  Please don’t let your child’s resistance to something make you doubt yourself.  Your child is not choosing to get cavities just because they don’t want to brush their teeth.  I don’t mean this to give an excuse for some really authoritarian parenting, but I do want you to feel empowered that you do know something about what your child needs!

5.  Recognize that older children say “no” in different ways, such as the famous “You’re mean!” “You’re not the boss of me!” or things to sidetrack the whole original issue. Less words and a calm tone can be helpful here.  Don’t get sidetracked and feel as if you have to verbally respond to everything your child is saying.   Love your child, be warm, but stay the course.

Many blessings,

Carrie

Waldorf Homeschooling With a Kindergartner, Third Grader and A Baby

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Yes, this is where I am these days.  Planning away, dreaming and thinking.  And de-cluttering my house.

I saw a post recently on Marsha Johnson’s list regarding doing Waldorf homeschooling with a First and Third Grader;I think one of  the responses was something along the lines of try doing the Main Lesson for the First Grader first thing and make the traditional Middle Lesson for the Third Grader.  I thought that was interesting.

I am trying this rhythm ( below)  this year for my Third Grader and Kindergartner.  Essentially I used my Word program to make a table with two columns with the older children’s names in it because even if one child is working with me on something there has to be something going on for the other child.  Does that make sense?  I cannot leave my Kindergartner to wander about and have nothing planned whilst I am working with my older child, and vice versa.  Or if they are playing or doing something on their own, when that runs out and they need something to do, I have to have something ready to go!

So, the general flow of the day and my chart looks a bit like this:

  Third Grader Kindergartner
Main Lesson

(one to one and a half hours)

 Days One through Four here

Movement last 10 minutes or so

 Activities to do during Main Lesson, Days One through Four

Movement with Third Grader last ten minutes or so
Kindergarten Story

(15 minutes or so)

 What will Third Grader be doing during this time? Listening to the Kindergartner story or working independently? Days 1-3, story, puppet shows Day 3 of last week of story

Day 4  Wet on Wet painting and Bible story
Lesson A (half hour) 10 minutes Movement

plus whatever I put here – math or grammar practice, form drawing, music etc.

 10 Minutes Movement with Third Grader

Ideas for Creative Play here
Practical Work (half hour) We can do this together, but I am also thinking:  What can my child do around the house to help today that would be specific to a nine-year-old? DAY ONE-Craft DAY TWO Gardening; DAY THREE Housecleaning; Day four baking
Lesson B

(half hour or so)

 Days 1-2

Day four out of house

 Days 1-2 Art

Day three Music

Day four out of house
Lesson C (this would be after lunch)

(forty five minutes)

 Hands – cooking, painting, modeling, handwork, etc.

Some of this will be done together; Crafts and festival preparation we will do together

 Six Year Old Projects
Directed Movement

anywhere from 15 minutes to an afternoon adventure)

    

 

The length of time is approximate, there will be rest breaks and snacks and lunch and quiet time in there….I am not saying this is how YOU should do things, this is just what I am experimenting with.  LOL.  If you are wondering where the whole lessons A, B, C, originated from,   I actually liked the lessons A,B,C that Christopherus Third Grade  had, and I only have two children to work  with, so I thought I would give it a go.  As usual, I am taking some things from some pre-created curriculum and creating some blocks myself and melding it all as I see fit.

This is the big idea though:  the more children you have, the more you will have to integrate lessons and not have things be so separate. There are some of you who read this blog who have five or more children,and I am sure you can attest to this! Your Waldorf homeschool will not look like a Waldorf School with everyone having a separate Main Lesson, and that is okay!  Home has so many advantages, and family is first and foremost. 

I am also making lots of plans revolving around the liturgical year; these traditions are precious and dear and another excellent reason we homeschool, so sometimes things will be pared down to a Main Lesson and maybe one other thing involving crafts or  cooking or putting on a play for that particular festival. 

I hope this stimulates some ideas for you all, I hope some of you will share on your own blogs what your planning looks like to help other mothers.  We are all here to help each other and learn.

Many blessings,

Carrie

Homeschooling Planning – Mid-Summer Mark

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Here in the Deep South, many homeschooling families are starting around the end of August. If you think about it, that doesn’t leave too many weeks left s left to plan and do things.  In my personal planning for homeschooling a third grader and a kindergartner, I am up to the middle of February.  We typically end the first week in June, so as you can see I have much more to do.

How are you coming with your planning?  I would love to hear from you and know what is challenging you, what is wonderful, what you have left to do.

How is your house coming?  Your school room space? I have a few areas of my house left to go through and de-clutter.  I am also ordering blackboards and a new home school cabinet that I hope will work better for our needs. 

I would love to hear from you, and where you are!

Many blessings,

Carrie

Summertime Bickering

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Does it seem to anyone else that the amount of sibling bickering goes up in the Summer?

I think this increase could  be due to a combination of a changing/different rhythm to the day, (possibly one where  less structure is present than during the school year) and the  weather where the children are outside and in an expansive gesture most of the day (and therefore needing help to come back to an inward gesture).

Continue reading →

The Beginning Is Now

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The phone has been ringing off the hook this week for my volunteer work as a breastfeeding support counselor.  I have been one busy person fielding calls!

These calls are all related to breastfeeding, but many times the crux of the matter I find  is more related to parenting than breastfeeding. 

  • How do we let our expectations go and respond to our babies and children from our hearts?
  • How do we learn to trust our own intuition in parenting over what “the books” say or what we “think” our version of society is saying?
  • How do we learn that  we can listen to different viewpoints and that it is okay if we do not take those viewpoints into our family life?
  • How do we set boundaries with the people we love?
  • How do we slow down to the pace of a small infant?  This seems to be a genuine problem.  We are often working full-time during pregnancy, possibly even working up to or on our due date, when we are suddenly plunged into a world of slower time  after an infant is born.  This takes true adjustment.
  • How do we develop a parenting pathway that is right for us?
  • How do we handle having a positive attitude in parenting?
  • How do we learn to ask for help when we need it?
  • How do we learn how to support others in a respectful way?

Parenting starts here, with the infant, learning to trust, learning to love, learning to know what is right for our own families and our own children.  No one can forge the parenting path for your  family except for you.  It takes time, but you will find what works best for you and your family.  You will be able to take what resonates with you and leave the rest behind.  You are the expert on your own family.  You can gather wonderful suggestions and support from other people – I do all the time!-  but ultimately the work of parenting is a path that each one of us must develop for ourselves.  This is a mindful journey that you can start today; the beginning is now!

Many blessings today!

Carrie

The Christopherus Waldorf Curriculum Overview for Homeschoolers: A Review

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“The Christopherus Waldorf Curriculum Overview For Homeschoolers” by Donna Simmons is an engaging resource that will take you grade by grade, topic by topic, through what is typically done in a Waldorf School, and most importantly, how to work with this in the home environment and how to use your home as the advantage that it is within your Waldorf homeschooling experience.

Homeschooling with Waldorf is not about re-creating a Waldorf School within your home; being home as advantages in its own right.  Donna Simmons writes in the preface of this work that she wrote this book “…because there seemed to be a distinct lack of material available to homeschoolers presenting Waldorf education in a meaningful, yet doable way.  I wanted to help parents catch a glimpse of the depth of knowledge that informs Waldorf education and to also enable them to find their own way of working with it, preventing burnout and feeling of overwhelm.”   She also notes on page 4 that “Waldorf-inspired homeschoolers, in my opinion, should not seek to copy what happens in Waldorf schools, but rather to understand how and especially why certain topics, subjects, methods and practice occur in Waldorf schools, and then find material that fits the bill.”  I think those statements resonate with so many Waldorf homeschooling mothers!  I like that the mission of Christopherus Homeschool Resources, and indeed this resource, is to help parents learn about Waldorf education and bring it into their homeschool experience, no matter what method they would label their homeschooling. 

Part One includes chapters on Waldorf Education and Homeschooling, A Visit to a Waldorf School, The Waldorf Home, Homeschooling with Waldorf.  Part Two includes a look at grade by grade and topic by topic (which includes tracing language arts, handwork/crafts/gardening, foreign language, math, music, history (including fairy tales, legends and myths), art (drawing, painting, modeling), geography, form drawing, science, and movement/games/sports through the curriculum.  Part Three includes the chapters Home is not School, Nuts and Bolts, Questions and Answers and A Peek at the Future:  High School.

Donna Simmons writes about the first three seven-year cycles of ages 0-7, 7-14 and 14-21 and provides insights into these phases that will shape your children for the rest of their adult lives.  She provides a look into a Waldorf school grade by grade (grades 1-8) and then looks at “The Waldorf Home” in Chapter Three.  This chapter has such important information regarding how to be a homemaker.  This is one of my favorite quotes from page 42:  “Play clips and pink cloths aside, it seems to me that there is a fundamental principle or understanding which surely must live in a home which strives to be “Waldorf”….Taking in, living with, thoughts around what is best for a child as she grows, what helps her develop and flourish, needs to be the basis of our family and home life as much as it needs to be the basis of our homeschooling.”    She talks about developing a rhythm in the home, about discipline and how discipline looks different depending upon which seven-year cycle the child is in,  views on media and how this changes as the child grows…really profound things for ALL parents to think about, not just Waldorf homeschooling parents.

She talks about love being the bedrock for the Waldorf-inspired homeschool, and the importance of self-development along with knowledge of child development.  In the grade by grade section, each grade is discussed with a possible schedule for the year laid out.  There are lists for resources of each topic/subject and suggestions as to how to bring these things at home.  I like the chapter entitled “Home is not School” where the differences between home and school are thoroughly discussed.    Donna Simmons writes on page 198, “To my mind, family is the number one reason to homeschool.  I feel that for many people homeschooling is the way for them to build truly healthy families which nurture healthy individuals.  Within such a setting wonderful educational opportunities can arise and by working with Waldorf, which is concerned with each individual’s health, we can watch our children and families flourish.’    Yes!

There are suggestions for child-led versus curriculum, working with multi-age children, designing a schedule.  The Question and Answers section alone probably has many of things Waldorf-inspired homeschooling parents wonder about.

This is a resource that will help you through many years, and I think one you will turn back to over and over.  It offers pearls of wisdom for beginner and veteran Waldorf-inspired homeschoolers alike.  Here is a link so you may look at it for yourself:  http://www.christopherushomeschool.org/bookstore-for-waldorf-homeschooling/essential-christopherus-publications/waldorf-overview-for-homeschoolers.html

Many blessings,

Carrie

“Discipline Without Distress” – The Last Chapter!

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Well, we did it – we are now on the last chapter of “Discipline Without Distress” by Judy Arnall and ready to move on to our new book, “Hold On To Your Kids:  Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers” by Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Mate.  You can order it through Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Hold-Your-Kids-Parents-Matter/dp/0375760288/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279245565&sr=8-1

Let’s finish this book up!  This last chapter is entitled, “Technology Without Distress: Educate, Not Ban.”   Despite the title of this chapter, the author makes a great case for the fact that babies, toddlers, and school-aged children do best with hands-on learning and have no need for technology in the Early Years and Early Grades (see for yourself on  pages 368-371).

Judy Arnall writes in the beginning of the chapter about how we are currently in a generation gap due to technology.  She equates things such as instant messaging to book discussions thirty years ago, the internet to encyclopedias, books, microfiche thirty years ago.  She notes that “of all the electronic devices designed to make adult and children’s lives easier, computer and video games, as well as instant messaging and the internet, are the major concerns of disciplining and parenting.”

Her first topic to tackle is one of safety on the Internet and how to discuss this with children, how to talk about the fact that what one says in email and on the Internet is permanent (including photographs and video).  I think one could also add that the computer should be in a public place of the house, and that there should be ways to block certain content of the Internet.

In her section regarding “Games, Games, Games….What’s the Difference?” the author equates an adult getting a scrapbook kit or golf clubs and being told you can only scrapbook or  play for one hour on Saturdays.  She writes, “You are probably feeling disappointed, angry, and frustrated at the limitation, especially in spite of this whole new world opened to you.  This is probably how a child feels for the first time she experiences a computer or video game.”

I personally think this makes a great case for introducing technology later rather  than sooner.   I think that small children especially can have a rather “more”-ness about them with rather poor self-control as this is part and parcel of being a child.  Adults can be like this as well, but hopefully an adult can temper the “more” they want and look to themselves for happiness, for creativity.  I am not certain video games provide a helpful teaching tool for that, especially after all my research on boys and how boys can become easily “visually addicted”.  I will refer you to Don and Jeanne Elium’s “Raising A Son” for more regarding this. 

Judy Arnall cites the good things about gaming, including academic benefits, life skill benefits, and socialization benefits.  She talks about the need for moderation and considers if her teenagers are involved in other activities that it is all working out okay, and she advocates for a balanced life.

I personally feel most of the suggestions in this chapter, especially the section on gaming, was aimed more at teenagers (except for the pages 368-371 listed above) than smaller children.  However, one certainly is seeing a big push for computers and games for small children in pre-school and kindergarten and certainly in the elementary school years, at least here in the United States.

Judy Arnall admits she has a “pro-gaming” stance.  For the other side of this argument, I will direct you all to this post from the Alliance For Childhood:  http://www.christopherushomeschool.org/learning-more/articles-on-aspects-of-waldorf-education/fools-gold-a-look-at-children-and-computers.html

Please share with other mothers how you handle media (TV, computers and gaming) in your homes along with the ages of your children.  Help other mothers make informed decisions for their families.

And please do look for the first post in our next book study!

Many blessings,

Carrie