week #3 report

The Map Man and the boys did better than survive without me last week, they seemed to flourish! Not only did he keep them steady with their normal daily rhythms, but he did a lot of really fun activities with them as well. Unfortunately, he seemed to have forgotten that the camera exists and didn't get any pictures of most of their activities. But I did find a few usable shots on the camera. Like this one of the kids involved in making apple sauce.
They had our usual movement circle each day (with J backing him up as far as the verses went), then The Map Man read the curriculum story I'd chosen (a story about Duchess Autumn and the changes she brings).

They also made apple prints, which were easy enough for me to photograph after the fact. They cut apples in half and then cut the sides off of them to make a stamp of the star inside the apple. Tempera paints were used for the prints. The colorful ones are J's, the one with only black is Zoo Boy's. (I'll bet you could have guessed that, right??) This was Tuesday, and the kids went out to the playground later in the day.

Here's a craft idea that The Map Man came up with on his own. The kids colored white paper with crayons, then they cut the paper up into shapes, then glued them onto another piece of paper however they wanted to, making a mosaic/collage. The kids were really excited to show me these when I got home that night. That day they also went for a nature walk.

Playing with playdoh on one of the days (apparently, given that it was on the camera -- nobody mentioned this to me). For other outings they also went scooter riding and bike riding. And to top-off their week:

They went apple picking. This time it was a more local orchard than the one we went to the previous week, and they got a wagon ride out to the picking (which Zoo Boy was very excited about).

I was lucky enough to be able to get home for Family Story Time each evening, which was nice because we had a great set of books this week. We read Apples and Pumpkins by Anne Rockwell, illustrated by Lizzy Rockwell, which is a very simple story about visiting a farm to pick apples and pumpkins. We also read The Apple Pie Tree, by Zoe Hall, illustrated by Shari Halpern, which is also a simple tale about the seasonal changes in a family's apple tree, and how they work together to make apple pie (recipe included!). And finally, we read the most popular (with both the adults and kids in this family) book we've ever read at Family Story Time: Apples to Oregon, by Deborah Hopkinson and Nancy Carpenter. Oh my gosh, what a great, FUNNY, book. It's a tall tale, (best told in a "wild west" accent, in my opinion!) about how orchard trees were brought across the plains from Iowa to Oregon (which really did happen, in 1847). The tale is told by the farmer's daughter, Delicious (great name, huh?), and there's SO many funny moments, and puns, and play on words, and just general good laughs. One quote, so you can get the flavor of the story: "I reckon that nasty wind blew my left boot clear to the other side of the moon. And if it should happen to drop out of the sky on your head one of these days, I'd sure appreciate your sending it along to me." In J's words: "I just love that girl!"

So it was another great week around here, even without me. (Not sure if I should find that comforting or insulting!)