Aa is for Apple

I am pretty behind on my blogging and keep being tempted to quit, but i really want to blog each unit for my own sake to keep record of what we did. So... here it goes :o)

Our apple unit was delicious! I really wanted to go apple picking, but because of a freeze in April there were no local apples. Sad stuff! We still did a lot of fun activities outside of our regular school stuffs.

We went to the grocery store and lij helped me pick out a few different kinds of apples. We used these to make apple graphs,  

discussed and organized by largest/smallest, first/last,

read books about apples and practiced apple stacking, 

Explored the 5 senses with apples,

we had a taste test to compare and contrast the textures and flavors,

and made fun apple snacks including apple crisp (not pictured), apple sandwiches, apple muffins, apple sauce, and apple sugar cookies.

I filled a bag with different fruits and had lij feel around without looking to guess what he felt and to compare/contrast the items without looking.

 

We also made apples to hang on our tree and he made an apple tree by tracing his hand.

We also learned about Johnny Appleseed, the Fruits of the Spirit, and all about tally marks for counting.

In the middle of the unit, we got to have our awesome nephew come stay with us for a few days. I decided to pause the apple unit and do a few random things instead. We learned about Daniel and the Lion's Den and all about lions and we also learned all about fire (and a little bit of gun) safety and worked on patterns.

 

I LOVE all the Clifford and Let's Find Out papers I have from my mom. I finally got them organized and as soon as I decide on a subject I want to teach about, i pull out a few of these and I have a lesson ready. I highly recommend looking into getting them if you are homeschooling and can do it.

The boys and I went on a walk and I found this leaf that looked like fire.

The boys spent a lot of time playing in the yard and eating outside. I LOVE seeing my kids enjoying nature. So wonderful. I also love when they make silly faces...

I was super proud of my son for saving up his money to buy Legos, his current obsession! He was so proud of himself, which made me even more proud. :o)

Hansi was proud, too.

All 5 kids together in Nashville :o)

My sister and I threw a personal shower for a friend and it was BEAUTIFUL. We did it outside on her deck in the evening and it was too dark to get good pictures, but this gives an idea of how lovely it was. 

We had wine, warm cider, chocolates, cheeses,  and other lovely foods.

                                      
                                      
                                                             Mmmmmmmm, cheese!
                                      

Ll is for Leaf

L is for leaf! I was sad to leave the space unit, but was happy that the next one was all about nature. We learned about the different parts of plants, different uses for plants (food, clothes, shelter), and about different kinds of plants. Our sight words for the week were Plant, Leaf, and Tree.

I told lij to draw a tree with the trunk, branches, leaves, and roots. I was quite impressed when I saw that not only did he add sunlight, "because they need it to grow", but that he also had the ground water in the picture for the roots. His hydrogeologist father was proud, too :o)

We took a number of walks, even in the rain, and took notice of the plants around us. We also collected leaves and did things like contests to see which ones fall faster and comparing and contrasting how they fell. It was interesting to see which ones twirled, fell flat, or whooshed away. 

We researched to find out what kinds of leaves are in our yard, and then pressed the leaves. We painted their outlines and we painted on the leaves themselves.

We also learned about magnetic forces during this unit, which was quite fun. One of the things we did was to make a list of things we (he) thought might be magnetic. Then he went around and marked what he learned. I love this magnet set he got from a friend for his birthday. So fun!

We also made a new tree for our hallway and put up all of our thankfulness leaves from last year. We will be adding more from this year soon enough.

We also had a Leaf Day at my dear friend Allison's house. She planned fun activities and while a storm ruined our plan to go on a leaf walk, the kids had a blast and learned lots! My favorites were the little leaf men the kids designed and the leaf salt dough ornaments. SO cute.

Hansi is in love with their dog, Lucy.

 

We also had a leaf cookie decorating day. I'm a big fan of cookie days!

Meanwhile, we let the little boys "play"... which is actually them staring at each other and Hansi stealing all the toys. But not for long! :o)

During this unit we also did science class at the zoo, which is an AWESOME program for home schoolers and I am so thankful to have it as an affordable supplement. Each class has a subject ranging from physics and forces to geology. The kids learn about it and have hands on experiements and activities. They also get to meet a couple of different zoo animals each week and the teacher also has a way of tying in the subject to something about the animal. This week they got to meet an owl and learn how drag helps her fly. Each student got to make parachutes and predict which ones would get the best drag.

Hansi also turned 7 months around this time. He is my happy boy who loves to chew on everything and army crawls like crazy.

And he likes to help with the laundry :o)