school time

parker is officially starting "school" this fall.  as much as i'm a big believer in kids being kids and playing all day long, i also think a lil' structure is healthy, so september 9th parker begins his school days journey at pinnacle hills' "kids day out." (thanks for being pc, monster church, since james is the one getting the 'day out').  my next door neighbor (who taught kindergarten for 10 years) is going to be one of the teachers and offered to take parker every monday and thursday from 9am-1pm.  she is so excited about the classrooms, curriculum, activities, etc. and easily convinced me to enroll parks.  every day the kids will enjoy a full schedule of:

*music class
*finger play (play dough, finger paints, etc.)
*Bible story
*secular story
*playground time
and lots of free play!

teachers send home a list of milestones to work on each month, which the kids are evaluated on during play to see how they are progressing.  as much as it sounds scary to measure children at 1 year old, the overachiever in me really loves this and appreciates the partnership in my child's growth and success.  when the children get older activities are geared toward getting them ready for kindergarten like writing and scissor skills.

they also have all kinds of fun parties like pumpkin picking and i'm sure parker is going to love the social interaction (he really thrives on being around other kids).  anyway, the first month goals are:
1. walking on his own (check)
2. pushing, pulling and dumping things (check)
3. turning pages of a book (semi check)
4. saying "more" in sign language.  what?  i haven't taught p any sign language, so for the last 3 days james and i have worked vigorously on getting parks to sign more and he is already a pro!  i was super surprised how fast he picked it up.  our next word is "milk," which he needs to learn by november, so we have plenty of time!

here is a lil' video of james practicing with p:


love yall!!