A - A- APPLE!

Our homeschool lesson for today was all about APPLES.

We are on our third week (already?!), and we have been using mainly the Abeka curriculum. For additional activities, I just search the net. There are so many freebies available online, so all I basically do is download and print off whatever I need.

Anyway, we talked about apples. We learned a new action poem. We learned that some apples are red, some are green, and some are yellow. We learned about the different parts of an apple - peel, flesh, core and seeds (shaped like a star). We learned that apples grow from apple trees, that blossoms appear in spring, and fruits are ready for picking in the fall. We also talked about different methods of apple picking/harvesting. We learned that you can make a lot of yummies from apples including apple pie, apple jelly, apple cake, apple butter, applesauce, apple cider, and of course, apple juice! :)

Now, for a little game, we played Apple Treasure Hunt.Using my Scan 'N Cut, I (with help from my student/son) made apple cutouts way ahead of time:

I hid a few apples all around the house. I then printed riddles/clues as to where to find them. Some of the riddles I made myself up, and some I copied from the Internet:

And the hunt began! The little boy found apples on his bed's head board, under the dinner table, on his toothbrush holder/cup, in the laundry room/on the washer, and in the fireplace. Because this was his first time to play a treasure hunt game, I had to help him a little by giving out few details to some of the riddles/clues, but he pretty much figured them out on his own.

When he had found all the apples, we did a little project:

I cut out white construction paper to stick on the apples to show the "flesh" part. My son then stuck the cutouts together using glue, and then using a brown marker, he traced and colored the seed "star formation" in the core. I did the one on top as an example for him to copy. He did a very good job and I'm so proud of my boy!

When we have finished our project, we moved on to counting and coloring apples using his Numbers and Skills with Button Bear workbook:

As you can see, he can write his name very well now. With understandably short attention span for anyone his age (3), he gets distracted easily, so I have to redirect him several times for him to focus and concentrate on the task at hand.

I also love the fact that my 3-year-old is a very good reader. I can just write on the board, say, a new poem we're learning, and he will read it in a breeze. I can now very well utilize our tiny white board as I discuss whatever topic we're studying about.

It was a fun day of learning for both of us. I'm very proud of my boy because like any other preschooler, he encounters daily challenges, and at times, he feels lazy and bored with school work but with the right amount of nudge and push, he keeps on and does his best to complete a task.