Parker's Home Preschool - 8/24

Wednesday:

AM: Water Play - Bubble Snakes http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.c … nakes.html
Number Match 11-20 (Making my own game tonight)

PM: Field Trip - Visiting a friend & evening walk

I followed the link above for instructions about how to make the bottles. I used tape instead of a rubberband for the washcloth and the bottle didn't crumple at all. I also used Gain not Dawn for the bubbles and it worked great!
 

 This was so fun and the coolest thing! Parker was not a fan of blowing after he inhaled himself a mouthful of suds. So I got to do that part. He loved it though!

 He had a blast playing with the bubbles and painting/cleaning the sidewalk and himself.

Overall it was a hit, but probably better suited for older kids who would know how to not inhale the bubbles.

We also did some number recognition and counting fun this morning. I made up these little boards on construction paper. This isn't the finished product since I need some contact paper to keep them from getting all crumpled, but I'm sure we'll use them again. First Parker matched the number card to the boards.

Then I helped him count out beans to put in the box above each number.

He was losing track of his counting, so I drew the number of dots in the empty box to help him remember what he was counting to.

 So far, it's been a great first day!

Preschool at Home

DPS started school this week and something in the air must have inspired me to start our own little "school" at home. Or maybe it's the total lack of structure and routine we've had since oh around July 1st. And school might be too strong a word. It's maybe like a very casual preschool plan...just something to expand what Parker does each day and help us both have a little bit of a routine. Something we both seem to do better with.

So here our plan for the week:

Wednesday:
AM: Water Play (Bubble Snakes - http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.c … nakes.html)
         Number Bean Match
PM: Field Trip - visiting a friend

Thursday:
AM: Field Trip - Park/Sandbox
         Farm Bingo or Painting
PM: Make Play Doh (http://www.rookie-cookie.com/2009/01/je … dough.html)

Friday:
AM: Coloring with markers (http://www.supercoloring.com/pages/tag/ … alphabet/,[ http://www.squidoo.com/eric-carle-color … ramebuster)
          Field Trip - Library Story Time
PM: Finger painting & Outside/water play

I'll be incorporating alot more next week after I get some things set up this weekend! :)

Welcome to the World Avery!

I better get all the craziness of Avery's arrival down somewhere before I completely forget! So here's a little timeline of our sweet girl's arrival.

Friday - July 1, 2011
10:00 AM:
I had a regular OB appointment scheduled. They were going to do an ultrasound to check on baby girl's size and that was about it. Brent was going to be able to come along this time, but almost had to stay home with Parker who was getting over a stomach bug. At the last minute we decided to all go. I'm so glad Brent was there! I asked my dr. to see if I was dilated because I'd just felt like something was going on and had been having contractions earlier in the week. He semi-reluctantly agreed mostly to put my mind at ease. He was pretty surprised to find that I was about 6cm. and told us we were going to need to go to the hospital and have a baby! I tried to argue that we could wait it out and he talked me down from a few weeks to 1 hour to go home and pack. I was pretty overwhelmed and unhappy how things were happening so fast and so early and so not according to how I'd imagined. But Brent was so great and just calm and kept me sane. Our friend DJ came to watch Parker, and Brent and I packed and went up to the hospital. Brent's parents started to head down to Denver as well.

12:00PM:
Settled in at the hospital in L&D, and started my IV's. A while later I got my epidural even though I wasn't feeling anything. I didn't want to risk it haha! They broke my water and a bit after that I was able to start pushing. My epidural was great because the pain was definitely manageable but I could still feel enough to help me push.

4:26PM:
Avery Hannah Byrd was born. Weight 5.4 lbs, Length 17.8 in. She was 5 weeks early and was taken to the NICU after just a few minutes of holding her. That night she "graduated" to the Level II NICU and stayed there for 2 weeks.

So tiny! Look how big that preemie diaper is on her!

July 13, 2011
Avery got to come home! :)

We love her so much. She is a sweet baby and pretty easy I'd say. I can't believe how amazing it is to see her join our family and how she just fits so perfectly. Thank you Lord for my two sweet babies. I'll probably do more details another time of everything that went on during her NICU stay too.