Bryse really wanted to go to preschool this fall. She asked and begged and so we went looking around at what was available here. I didn't want her somewhere 5 days a week, 2 or 3 would be more than enough and really she just wanted to hang out with other kids, so I didn't feel the need for her to be "taught" a lot. So I looked at Mother's Day out programs for her at churches along with preschool programs. What I found was that if your child is over 3 for Mother's Day out programs, they expect you to leave your child for atleast 4 days a week. I could've dropped Cal off for 2 or 3 days a week because he's only two, but.... he's....only....two. ??? Just, personally, I don't feel the need or want to leave my two year old for a few days a week somewhere when I'm a stay at home mom anyway. And of course that carries over to Bryse's situation too. We don't have the money to pay for her to go somewhere for several days a week, plus I don't have the need. I also checked real preschools. I found one private preschool that had a part time program five days a week from 8-1, but they didn't do lunch there. They had a "snack time" at 11 (our usual lunch time at home) and then I would need to feed her when I picked her up. Which of course, 1pm is naptime for the rest of the kids. So that means that i would be driving 25 minutes to that school to pick her up and feeding her lunch while trying to get Deakin and Cal asleep. Not fun, and again, not necessary. I checked out the Headstart program here because we did that with Darby in Missouri and enjoyed it. They had a part time program that was four days a week 9-1 there which I felt was fine and Darby really loved. They don't have that here. Here it is five days a week 8-3 or nothing. Soooo, we did nothing. And I promised Bryse that I would "homeschool" her. That seemed to make her happy. So then I started trying to figure out an easy way to give Bryse structured learning while nursing a newborn and the other duties that come with my other children. Here's what I came up with.... I bought folders for four days of the week. Labeled them with Monday-Thursday and drew squares on them for star stickers when the day is completed. Then I went through all of my education workbooks and ripped out age appropriate worksheets for her. I ripped out around 40. Then I wrote about 40 journal entry titles. Mainly art journal entries. Once a week she does a "self portrait" and a free journal entry, where she can color whatever she feels like. Another day of the week she has a journal entry that is about feelings. Like, "What do you feel like today" or "Draw a happy face" or "What makes your sad?" And the last day of the week it is more of a direct entry. Like, "Draw some shapes" or "Draw your family" or "Draw your pets", that type of thing. So I put all the worksheets in one of the black folders above and all the pre-made journal entries in the other one. So, once a week, all I have to do is take one sheet from each and put them in each day's folder. On Monday, when she is ready, she goes to her Monday folder, gets out her work and does it. She brings it to me to see when she is done or to get help. When she is all done, she puts her journal entry in a three ring binder and then puts a star sticker in the appropriate box on the folder for finishing! : ) She loves it, and it's super easy for mama! Here is a picture of her finished journal entries notebook:
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Boy is Deakin teaching his mama some lessons! : ) It started when he was about a week old and got a yeast rash. The same thing happened with Cal and I started treating it the same as I did with Cal. Cal's rash stuck around for about 3 weeks. Well, about a week into treating Deakin's I was texting a girlfriend about it and said something along the lines of, "Neither of the girls got this at such a young age, only Cal and Deakin." And reading that text I started wondering if Cal's rash was a symptom of his dairy allergy that I dismissed (as I did his bouts of croup, poor sleeping, and active bowels) For how we discovered Cal's allergy see here: http://coffmanfamily.weebly.com/1/post/2011/06/cals-allergy.html My friend that I texted said the same and I decided to try and limit my dairy to see if it got better. It did! At the time Deakin was about 2 or so weeks old. And I started trying to keep dairy out. The first thing I noticed was that I stopped having to suction his nose. I was having to do so a few times a day for all the mucous he had. When I stopped the dairy, I literally did not have to help him anymore, the mucous was gone. It was hard for the first week or so. I'm not a fan of cow milk at all, but I do so love cheese and butter! But after a week or so I got to where I didn't crave it as much. I wasn't doing as well with hidden dairy. Sometimes I would let it slide for a piece of cake or something fried. Then I noticed that his rash would flare back up and feel convicted and get back to being serious. After a while I noticed that what I had diagnosed as baby acne, was sorta fading and coming back along with my dairy diet. So I got to thinking maybe that was linked too. I read around of other moms that their breastfed babies that were allergic to dairy and they complained of severe baby acne as well. And I mean severe, he got it all over his body! Almost stacked up, on his arms, belly, chest, back, even on his thighs. (another thing that only my boys had) So then I got REALLY serious about completely stopping ALL dairy. This is where it got hard! Soooo hard! Cuz dairy is in a LOT of stuff. I saved www.godairyfree.com on my phone so I could check restaurants while out and ordered their book. I started checking all labels, asking managers at restaurants for their allergen menus. And since I got that serious, I have messed up once. On September 26th I drove thru zaxby's and after reading incorrectly about what had dairy and didn't have dairy, I ate some tenders. UGH! I was really angry with myself because his little rash on his bum was just then gone! It flared up within 24 hours. : P But, the good news is, that since then I haven't messed up once. It's been 11 days and his little bottom is healthy! : ) And I luckily took pictures after my last misstep of his body with the acne type rash. This is about 2 days after I had the little bit of hidden dairy in the zaxby's tender: And this is 10 days of being 100% free of ALL dairy! : Truly though, the pictures don't do it justice! The difference is amazing! I'm hoping that after a month or so of being off dairy that his acid reflux will improve. It can take a long time for the allergen to get out of the body sometimes. So giving up dairy for a week isn't going to show a difference. It took a full ten days for the body and bottom rash to get better this time, while his mucous problem only took a day! So different things.
HERE is the kicker! Since I've been super careful about hidden dairy myself, I figured that i would crack down on Cal (we had assumed that hidden dairy was alright for him, that he wasn't as sensitive as Deakin). So both of the boys have been 100% dairy free for 11 days and guess what!! Cal hasn't wet the bed in 4 nights! He was back and forth and weird. He would got a few days not wetting the bed, and then would for a few nights in a row. I couldn't figure out why. Well, evidently the occasional hidden dairy was effecting his sleep!! I'm amazed and thrilled! And guilty, because I wish I'd known sooner. Blah! But I'm rejoicing in the now!! : ) Personally, I haven't noticed any differences being off dairy, so I don't know if I've got a hidden allergy! ; ) But we will see! |
LindseyI'm the mama and wife. Updating you on our life! Archives
January 2022
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