sometimes I think that I shouldn’s spend so many for materials and educational toys…
someone has the same impression?
ed
Yep. Guilty. So many kids starving in the world, and I spend ridiculous amounts on my kids. And it’s not always appreciated. I hope it pays off with the younger homeschooled ones… buying additional textbooks etc for the ones at school is disappointing… they dont use them. Being at school seems to produce a lazier attitude to learning, and more of an interest in friendships, the opposite sex, and clothes. I have world vision videos but they refuse to watch them. I l;ook forward to homeschooling and teaching about third world countries…there’s a curriculum idea. So they have a social conscience. Mind you, one daughter wants to do the 40-hour-famine this year.
Even i feel very guilty abt it.We spend so much on our son’s edu but yes we are getting results from our son that’s true.But on other hand i feel really bad for my husband who is working hard for our son.But than i feel yes we are lucky.And on other i think we just spent in a second and dnt think abt anything else coz it’s best for our son’s edu but what abt those parents who reaaly cannot efford and those kid who dnt have parents to buy all this things for them…
Being honest…mmm 
I think twice before buying something for anyone(husband, daughter,myself…etc), when I want to buy educational stuff like books,puzzles,dvd’s or any other educational toy…I don’t hesitate, I think is nice to be able to educate our children with the best, I can hesitate buying clothes,shoes, or things that my daughter will wear once, I really don’t buy too much stuff like that. I think is waste of money. but I don’t mind buying her nice stuff that she can learn from.
I used to spend a lot when Gabriel’s dad lived here. Now, money is too tight to splurge. I see many things that I would like to buy, but there are more important things to spend money on. He has tons of toys, but he has outgrown most of them. I can’t say that he “needs” new toys, but he would sure enjoy them. The good thing about all the educational materials is that he still uses most of them.
I actually have a wish list on Amazon that I have sent to some relatives. Hopefully, they will buy some of those things for Gabriel’s birthday and Christmas.
well…
many times I have to convince my husband to buy some educational materials for our son…it’s important to see well the cost of some product (I’ve found some on line (italian) shop with puzzles, geometric shapes, math-tools with low prices (from 3 euro), I’d like to buy Montessori products but they costs so much so I’ll try to do them at home or buy some similar and that’s ok
but the problem is with toys from Thomas or Bob the Builder collection…etc. my son likes trains cars and espescially theese…very expensive
sometimes I’d like to buy more of this products, but with which sense? with drawing trains, homemade-toys he is playing too and meybe much better…
We usually don’t buy new toys. I like to recycle old toys and spruce them up a little. Most of the toys that we buy are from our local Goodwills and flea markets or yard sales. Of course I sanitize the toys well before giving them to my little ones.
I have made a few toys myself.
we too are on the same boat as mother of faith. I like to buy used toys and kids books from craigslist, and/or garage sales. i feel any toy is interesting for a child for few days ;). As for educational material… i try to be creative and make myself. i hate how people try to make money out of educational things. like YBCR costs 200 bucks… :mad: So what types of educational stuff people buy anyway?? I wonder if there is a list here somewhere for this.
But i am guilty about buying clothes. i buy new baby clothes because i can never wear someone elses clothes except clothes from relatives so i expect the same from my baby. unfortunately, she is the first baby girl in the family. i try to buy only a few outfits that are on clearance but still they do add up…as you need some for the cold days, some for warm days, some for hot days… 
maybe, they will come in handy for the next babies.
I spent a lot of money last year on toys and educational toys, then this year we decided to really cut back in spending. Luckily I had already bought YBCR and other things I wanted, but I really had to save my “spending money” this year in order to buy Little Pim, of course I want to be able to buy other things like, Little Reader, but just don’t have the money allocated to do it. I will get there eventually. I have been teaching my child any way I can without spending the money. The library has been a fantastic resource for us.
Also, I don’t feel guilty for buying any of the materials that I have purchased, to me they are the most valuable toys we have.
OMG this topic is so for me. I buy a few good winter clothes (snowsuit) from LLBean new, but almost everything else (clothes, furniture etc) 2nd hand, garage sales etc… except for educational stuff, especially Chinese.
Every time I look at the shelf of Dora in Chinese, Pororo, Bao Bei the Panda, Baby Learns Chinese, Little Pim, Dance and Learn Chinese with Mei Mei, Walter and Ping Ping, omg I could go on!!.. I think about my credit debt and how I culd have got the plumbing fixed istead.
And then there are all the chinese and bilingual picturebooks, the chinese textbooks, grammar books, dictionaries, yearly premium subscription to Chinesepod, all for myself to help him learn chinese. And the Chinese for kids magnetic words, flashcards, talking vocab cards. It is crazy!
I used to spend a lot on Doug and Melissa puzzles, infantino etc, but have cut down as my budget has shrunk this year, but still have bought too many ABC and reading related materials: fridge letters, little electronic games in French for letter sounds and names, magnetic play box for spelling… To think as a child I managed with colored crayons and recycled paper and singing the ABC song to learn to spell and read! It can be done for about $3 I think! Not hundreds!
And yes, then last week I turned down two charities asking for money as I had gone so much into my credit… and found myself bookmarking yet another “great deal! 60% off!” chinese picturebook page online.
This feels like an AA meeting! EMA! Educational Materials Anonymous!
Really… one textbook, and making flashcards myself would have done it… though I am really seeing results in my son’s Chinese from the dvds. Ironically, he won’t let me read the picturebooks to him in Chinese… just says “English Mommy! No Chinese!” and won’t sit still to listen. But they do help me learn to speak with him.
Thats crazy! I bought all the videos individually for $15 a pop a few years ago.
this is really the only thing i spend money on i buy all our clothes at thrift stores and craigslist is all our toys i even buy most of my food on clearance… but when it comes to the kids education i will pay full price. it is just frustrating how long it takes me to be able to buy something for them. i am homeschooling them (4 under 4) and i have a lot of aspirations for teaching them and buy a lot of french things most other things we make at home but the french i am at a loss for because i am trying to learn it too and teach them,they learn so much faster then me it is amazing. i only have 20 a month to spend on education so if i want a 100 program that takes me 6 months to acquire. by then sometimes they dont need it anymore. anyway enough ranting from me.