The last of the A's

Apple dumplings and apples stuffed with maple sausage (not shown) with apples bought from the orchard market.

Finger print ant picnic place-mats: Hannah is putting the finishing touches on hers before bed since the paint had dried.

Now I have to put the clear contact paper over it so we can use it as a place-mat.

Field Trip Day: The Orchard

The intent was to pick apples, but unfortunately apple picking starts tomorrow and they wouldn't even let us see the apple fields today. Bummer! I guess that means we definitely have to go back soon to get some apples.

Alternate plan, not so A week inspired, was raspberry picking! So fun! I was able to tie in the lesson from our How do Apples Grow? by Betsy Maestro since the basic parts of the fertilization are the same and the parts of the flower, like the stamen, pistil, etc are all present. We did buy some apples to make apple dumplings this weekend.

Lots of pictures!

Hannah was a great berry picker. She was on a mission and picked more than anybody.

Genna, sfter being instructed not to eat them until after they had been weighed and paid for (and washed,) just kept saying how good they looked and how hard it was for her not to eat them. What a sweetie!

I tried to show the kids a couple of insects I found. When I pointed out (rather excitedly) the bee that was getting nectar from the flower and helping with pollination, Isaac let out a brief girlish scream. He was smashing more berries than he was picking with those giant pudgy fingers of his.

After an hour-ish, they were so done!



We have an ant craft that we did today also, but it needs final touches after the paint dries before I can take pictures and post it. I plan to do an evaluation of our first week tomorrow. So until then...

Feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary

Here are the highlights of our day!

Blue and White Dessert to celebrate Our Lady in her colors...

Blueberry Shortcake

My lovely ladies showing off their craft.


The hat is not the craft. Think jewelry! Hannah is pretending to be Amelia Earhart since we read her biography picture book today. The craft was making these paper clip charm bracelets/necklaces and putting an angel charm on them since (Yep, you guessed it!) A is for angel.

And I can't leave out Charles Lindbergh!

Now add in Mass, math, handwriting, reading, a doctor appointment, plus the regular life stuff, you know...like eating and laundry, and you have one busy day! Whew! I should get paid for this for sure.

First Day Report

Things went as well as could be expected. Praise God! We went to Mass first thing. Everyone was well behaved, roughly anyway. We came home and got right to work. The insulation men came and went without incident. And by 11:30am we had completed all the important work for the day, plus had several story times and mini breaks in between. Score one for Team S!

My studious girls

After nap/rest time, we made giant ants, a fairly easy craft to do. Here are the proud crafters.

Isaac played with his sensory bin and this felt board that I made for him during Math and Handwriting. He showed me how he could march when we were doing the months of the year and got to March. He also told me that "bug" starts with "A," because we were talking about how "ant" starts with "A." Gotta love those literal toddlers.

Hoping for more good days like this one!

Schedule is my middle name.

Didn't you know that by now? I love lists and schedules. I admit it. Motherhood is one place where that has come in handy in a big way. I am flexible, but only because I have no choice. It does bother me when things don't go by the schedule, but not enough to totally freak me out. I made a schedule for our whole day, morning till night. I am sure it will have to be modified after a week or so when I see if it is reasonable and peaceful. Also, I have still not found a homeschooling group as of yet. I have a few possibilities that I am researching this week. But I have no idea when I will need a block of time for them. I am trying out a prayer group today and there is a story time on Wednesdays too. I will have to decide between these two activities and then make schedule adjustments. I am also on the hunt for a dance class for the girls which will have to be fit into the schedule. I am leaving Friday for errands and/or field trips or just to catch up around here.

We will have themed weeks A through M for this semester. I have planned library lists, crafts, field trips, songs, historical topics, and even snacks centered around the letter of the week. Feast Days will trump the letter of the week, but mostly we are sticking to it. As for the details:

For Math, I am using Singapore Math. Hannah will be starting on Earlybird Kindergarten Mathematics Textbook: B, since that is where I think she could comfortably begin and Genna will be starting in the Earlybird Kindergarten Mathematics Textbook: A.

For Handwriting (HW), Hannah will be using Kindergarten Handwriting for Young Catholics and working through strokes and the alphabet. Genna will be doing print outs of tracing, practicing on lined marker boards, etc the letter of the week.

For Reading, Hannah will be picking up where we left off last year in How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, maybe backtracking a bit to lesson #. Genna will be starting the book at lesson #1 and only doing two lessons a week to start off.

For Religion, we will pray for a specific cause, then read a Bible story or about a Saint and read Hannah's Kindergarten Catechism for Young Catholics. Some days there will be a coloring sheet to go along with the theme. The letter A week's lessons include Adam and Eve, Noah's Ark, Abraham, and the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary since that is Wednesday's feast day. We will also be using My ABC Bible Verses: Hiding God's Word in Little Hearts to memorize a verse weekly starting with the appropriate letter. The A week verse is "A soft answer turns away wrath." Proverbs 15:1

For Arts/Crafts, we will be doing letter of the week themed arts and crafts or I will be teaching Genna to tie a bow and lace, and Hannah how to embroider, cross stitch, and use the sewing machine. The letter A week crafts are making ant place mats, giant ants, and an angel bracelet.

For Science, we will mostly be reading kid science books and discussing things as we see them and the kids ask questions. I do have a couple of science books that I will be resourcing. The first week there will be no Science lesson because I have Geography and History taking their place.

For Geography, we have a few USA book and activity books where we can read about states that begin with the letter of the week. We also have USA maps and puzzles that we can resource.

For History, I will be checking out books based on people that start with the letter of the week. The letter A week book is A Picture Book of Amelia Earhart.

For German, we have yet to find a tutor for the girls to continue their German. So for now, we will be having two days a week during their independent quiet times that I will put on various German media (mainly CDs, but some movies.) Hannah will do it two days and Genna will do it the other two days.

Our field trip for week A is to Butler's Orchard to try to pick apples if they are ready. We will also buy apples to make apple dumplings for Friday night' dessert. (We will also be having apple juice and ants on a log during snack times.)

Other Books for A week:

The Little Red Ant and the Great Big Crumb by Shirley Climo-from library

How do Apples Grow? by Betsy Maestro-from library

Apples, Apples, Apples by Nancy Wallace-own it

The Alphabet of Catholic Saints by Brenda and George Nippert-own it

Songs for A week:

Ave Maria

Apples and Bananas

Alice the Camel

Meinen Augen (German song about eyes)

Okay, I have gone on enough! Sorry for the information overload! This is why it took me the whole summer to get ready!