Q is for Quilt

Well, letter Q was hard, but we managed to stretch it out in to three days.

Day 1

First, we sang "Five Little Ducks," (because they say "quack, quack, quack ;)  We counted to 40, reviewed letters and verses, and then learned letter Q and its verse

"Quench not the spirit" - 1 Thessalonians 5:19

Then we learned about different kinds of quarters, starting with Playful Patterns.  We talked about how four small squares (quarters) made one big square.  

 We did the same thing with triangles.

Then, he covered the Qq's with quarters,

and traced his name with a Q-tips

He really liked painting with the Q-tips and he wanted to write his name by himself.

We have some work to do, but it's a start ;)

He also liked the quarters a lot, so he wanted to count them.  Later he put them all in his pocket!

We finished by reading

Day 2

After reviewing the letter and verse, we did a little alphabet activity.  I put the letters A-Q up on the board and left a few out.  Parker went through the alphabet and filled the blanks with the correct letter.  

He's noticed that I take pictures of everything, so now he wants to be in all of them. haha

We read about Queen Esther in the Rhyme Bible, and talked about how she questioned why God put her there.  

Then Parker and I played the "Blast Off with Rhymes" board game. 

Day 3

Today, we started by reading 

Since quilting is kind of a hard skill to teach a 3 year old, I decided we would do paper quilting =)  

I made some paper quilt squares.

And I cut out all the pieces for him to be able to make them, too.  He placed the pieces over my pieces.  We talked about the different shapes and sizes that made up the big square.

I also had two smaller ones that were made up of nine squares.  He had to re-create the pattern on a blank sheet and glue them down.

 He finished by covering two more squares with whatever squares he wanted.  

He really had a fun time with the quilting activities.  It was fun watching him.  

Finally, we read

I love stories about quilts that were passed down throughout generations.  Maybe I should learn to quilt!  Patricia Polacco is an amazing author.

P is for Piano

Finding ideas for Letter P was easy as PIE!  Seriously, there are so many great things that start with P, and it has been Parker's favorite letter since he learned that his name started with it.  We got a jumpstart on the week by having porridge and pancakes for breakfast.  Then Papa and Grandma drove their pick-up truck in to see us.  They brought silly putty, snap peas, and wonderful pistachios.

We all went to the library in the pick-up.

Day 1

We started off Day 1 by singing "5 Little Penguins."  We did the usual counting, letter and verse review and then learned letter P and its verse,

"Pray continually" - 1 Thessalonians 5:17

Then we did a purple letter P puzzle.

And played with playdoh.

We finished up by reading

and made paleo pizza for supper that night.

Day 2

Hooray for popcorn day!  Parker totally loves popcorn so today was pretty fun.  We started by dumping some popcorn seeds in some paint

And then spooning them into a box with paper on the bottom.

Time to "pop" it!  (Shake it up and down).

Ta da!

We read

Then we popped some popcorn,

and learned about capacity.  First, he ordered the containers from smallest to biggest.  Then, he counted how many handfuls of popcorn fit in each one, because lets face it, no one ever grabs popcorn one at a time ;)

We dumped that popcorn into the sensory bin and popped some more for a popcorn picnic!

We read

 Before bed, we read about the Prophet, Isaiah.

Day 3

I cut a square piece out of a plastic bag and had Parker color it.  That was going to be our parachute.

While I was preparing the parachute, Parker made a pick-up truck pattern blocks.

After the lego guy was attached to the parachute, Parker carried him up the stairs and prepared him for the jump.  We counted down and let him go!  

We read

and Parker watched a Penguin documentary we got from the library.

 A few days later, we got to go visit our friend, Paul, a piano professor at Wheaton College.  Paul has a doctorate in piano performance, so lets just say we got to hear some pretty amazing music.  

Parker was a little shy at first.

Paul taught him how the piano works and showed him the inside.  Parker really liked watching the hammers while Paul was playing.  Especially when the music was fast.

Parker and Adley played a few duets.

Parker played a little on his own.

And then we got to listen to Paul play some more.  What a treat!  Thank you so much, Paul!  

Parker thinks you're pretty special.

If only P could've lent Q some fun words ;)