It’s been apples, apples everywhere around here.

To correlate with our field trip to Way Fruit Farm – complete with a tour of the apple orchards and cider-making process, we’ve been reading How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World. Of course, our Five in a Row curriculum provided lots of great ideas to get us started. Outside of the lesson plans, we enjoyed “brushing up on our Italian (accent)” with Amy Walker, watching a Little Pim French video (look for these at your local library), looking at photos that my sister Erin had taken during her missionary work in Jamaica, and doing all things… apple!

Go around humming Songs for Sapling’s “Keep Me As the Apple of Your Eye” based on Psalm 17:8.

Make those tiny play-dough apples I wrote about the other day:

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Lia’s favorite part.

(Note to self: beware of, “Mommy, please can I try just a little smidge?? It doesn’t stop there.)

Choose a couple of “apple crafts”. (Just google “apple crafts”. There are millions of fantastic ideas out there. You’ll find a bushel full at Crafty Crow. But, breathe. Give yourself a time-limit. If you’re not careful, hours could go by, just day-dreaming about apple crafts. Not that I know.)

Here’s Lia’s construction-paper apple:

“Four Seasons of an Apple Tree”

A bowl of tiny plastic apples that we used for counting, patterns, and fine motor skills (hanging those thin golden threads on hooks is hard work, ya know!)

And, of course, a homemade apple pie! (If you’re still looking for the perfect recipe, don’t despair. I’ve only begun making pies this summer, but I’ve had great success with the standard recipe from the Red-Checkered Cookbook. I follow every step to a “T” and we’ve been savoring some mighty-fine pies.)

Sonlight Read-aloud: Dr. Dolittle by Hugh Lofting. (Nope, it’s not about apples. But it is about traveling the world! So, there’s some correlation.)

Picture books: Apples to Oregon (oh, you know I love, love, love this book!), Johnny Appleseed, Apples (what would we do without Gail Gibbons), All Things Bright and Beautiful, The Year at Maple Hill Farm