It’s apple picking time in Northwest Indiana!! Sister LOVES getting to visit the apple orchard. They have a petting zoo, bee hive, hay mazes, soy bean mazes, corn mazes, pumpkin patch, sunflower field, kiddie tractor ride, trailer ride, fresh donuts and of course apple picking.
The kids went with Nanny and her family. The weather was perfect. They were able to spend a nice long day at the orchard checking everything out.
Even Little Brother was able to pick his first apple and taste make sure they are good.
This was the perfect field trip to explain how we get apples, pumpkins, and sunflower seeds.
Apple week is a great week for the region we live in. There is so much we can do with apples. We visited the apple orchard, went to the apple fest at the Indiana Dunes National Historical Site and you can’t forget to make apple crisp with the apples we picked.
She had so much fun helping make an apple crisp from the apples she picked at the orchard. I showed her how I peeled and cut the apples. She helped measure and stir everything together.
We were able to get a nice collection of books from the library in addition to our Secrets of the Apple Tree book from Usborne Books and More. Secrets of the Apple Tree is one of the Shine-A-Light books. The child uses a flashlight to shine through the page to see the images appear. Sister even read it to her little brother.
She did quite a few crafts this week. She colored her apple badge on her bag, made an apple bracelet, and a Johnny Appleseed magnet.
The day was cloudy with a bit of rain but still ended up being a lot of fun. We learned about about the history of apples in the region and the history of this site.
They showed us ways how they used to make apple cider and apple sauce. We even got to check out the chickens and sing and dance. For children they had all kinds of instruments/noise makers that they could play along with while singing. This was probably Sisters favorite part of the day.
While riding the tractor trailer ride the ranger pointed out some of the native plants like the wild mind and wild onion. You could really smell the mind when the wheels of the trailer went over the top of it.
We did the Creation weeks as weeks three and four instead of one and two as the teacher’s manual suggests. The timing of the Apollo 11 landing anniversary was too perfect to pass up studying the Sun and Moon weeks first.
She had a lot of fun doing her crafts for these weeks! The books we read pertained to what God Created each day. One of the crafts was a felt sticker sign. It had a number that correlated to each day of creation with matching stickers for that day. It was a fun and easy craft that now hangs in her room.
We started with “S” and then “M” and will go back to Creation. I wanted Moon week to fall on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. It worked out perfectly!!! First, the library reading program was space themed this year so it worked out nicely. Second, there was all kinds of moon themed crafts, books and info readily available.
Between our local library and our own library we had a great selection of books to read this week. Her favorite book right now is the Usborne You Choose in Space book. It’s not an educational book like I would prefer but it is a good book about thinking and making choices.
We found a great Moon Phases Flip Book at Teachers Pay Teachers We talked about the different phases and the names while she got to color them in.
Oriental Trading seems to have a great craft for each week. This craft was scraping the moon to make it the correct shape for each phase.
It’s not a school week without the PERFECT snack!!! I love that Oreo came out with the Marshmallow Moon Oreos for the 50th anniversary. I only bought them because of the theme and they ended up being really good!!
We headed down to southern Indiana for a friends wedding. So of course we had to plan a few fun and educational stops along the way. One of the main stops was at the George Rogers Clark National Historical Site in Vincennes, Indiana. ” The George Rogers Clark Memorial is the largest memorial on a battlefield in the United States. The grounds of George Rogers Clark NHP are filled with various statues and monuments that depict different aspects of the story. These stories and people were brought to life by a variety of sculptors. “
Each of the murals inside the monument show the bravery of the men fighting the British forces for our freedom. “The interior of the Clark Memorial features a bronze statue of George Rogers Clark and seven murals that depict the story and its aftermath.”
Plus you can’t have a family adventure without a family selfie!!!
We started My Father’s World God’s Creation A to Z! Okay so we didn’t start in order! According to the curriculum we were supposed to start with two weeks of Creation. We will definitely go back and cover those two weeks. The reason we started with S – Sun and then M – Moon is because of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. I wanted M – Moon to land right around the anniversary of July 21st. Not to mention everything is spaced themed right not because of this. Her schooling to match with all of this is just perfect!
She just loved making this sundial. We put it outside and I set my alarm to go outside every hour so she could get the full affect of how it works.
The Cruisenrods and sheets are a great way to teach math and to follow directions. I separated all the pages in the book and put them in page protectors. We are then able to use dry erase makers to fill in the answers and color the sheets. This way she can repeat the page as many times as she needs.
Here are the books we used for S Sun. The Moonbear’s Shadow came with the Deluxe Curriculum set. A Place for Pluto, My Very First Space Book, Sun, Moon and Stars and Astronomy were apart of our family library and the rest are from our local library! I try to get a good mix of educational and fun books!
We added some fun things like Astronaut ice cream and a Sun, Moon and Star rotation craft.
We are also doing Abeka Math and Phonics. She does really good with worksheets. With Abeka we go over her 100 chart every day, what the weather is like outside, and phonetic sounds.
We had a great family day on the fourth of July! We started the day out with Sister being in her first parade! Her dance studio had a place in the parade and she got to sit in the truck waving at people and throwing candy!
Fourth of July Parade
Since Sister was in the parade, we sat and watched it with both grandmothers, their aunt, two uncles and a cousin. We were really lucky to get a close, shady spot to watch. Brother loved the lights and sirens on the emergency vehicles. He watched everything with such fascination. It was so cute!
After the parade, the kids spend time time in the little pool to cool off. Brother is a fish out of water, but Sister is still not the biggest fan. Mother also found this to be a great time to use the pool to soak her feet!
Water fun
Everyone took a really nice long nap! 🙂 Then off to see fireworks!!! Time to break out the wagon to haul kids, drinks, snacks and blankets! We sat with some friends and had a really great time!
Fireworks
Last but not least, how we also made this a fun learning experience for Sister. I found some worksheets that taught about the flag’s meaning and history, made some fun crafts, sang the Star-Spangled Banner and read books about Independence day!
We finished MFW Voyage of Discovery!!! I’m so glad we picked this curriculum. I feel it was perfect for my daughter, myself and Nanny! Since this was a group effort we needed it to be something Nanny and I can work together on. She did almost all of the daily lessons and picking out books at the library. My part was more the planning, organizing, finding crafts (Nanny picked out a lot too), buying supplies and doing some of her lessons when they didn’t get finished during the week.
I can’t believe how much she has learned this year. She want from messing up her ABC song to knowing all of her letters and their sounds. She now even talks about what letter words start with and is pointing out the letters and their sounds when we are reading books. She is doing a great job of writing her letters and numbers (still needs help tracing them but her writing is looking great for her age). She knows her numbers and is doing very basic addition and subtraction. It was a great review of her colors and shapes (she knew them already).
Doing something fun, but educational at the same time really helps the information to stick. The curriculum is great and complete, unless you have a child like mine. I’m very glad we added the extra’s to the curriculum as she soaked it all up. For math, we added worksheets, wipe-clean math books, telling time and more counting. We got a pile of books from the library each week to collaborate with the letter that week. So those books were on almost any subject like science, geography, fun picture books, colors, shapes and phonics. We also added her Wipe-clean letter book and cards, plus some basic Spanish.
I ordered and we already have, My Father’s World God’s Creation A to Z. Sister wants to start it already!!! I’m loving her enthusiasm for learning. She will have to wait a few weeks to start the new curriculum!
Hoover Academy 