How to Make an Apple Pie and see the World

Sunday

We had a lovely time on Sunday. Friends came over to chat and play and I think a good time was had by adults and children alike. The children all got along well together and also got quite wet - some sort of 'porridge shenanigans' in the garden involving lots of soil, sand and a hosepipe.

I can't honestly remember what we did on the afternoon but on the evening I managed to slope off once again for a curry with an adult to an adult environment.

Monday

This was our first day using Horizon Maths. It went down very well. It is really easy at the beginning. Ideally we should perhaps have started this at the start of the year - but we didn't have it then. I think the fact that they are getting off to a flying start will boost their confidence though so it's not a bad thing. We are one book short for Lily. It's the second workbook in the series so we aren't desperate for it right now but it would be nice to try to find a UK supplier (easier said than done) and order it sooner rather than later

We made a start on How to Make an Apple Pie and see the World by Marjorie Priceman.

I was in two minds about it because it was a Bank Holiday but concluded it didn't really matter whether it is a Bank Holiday or not. Craig was hoping to work up in his office most of the day and we won't get much done in the way of 'lessons' later in the week as we have a workshop and theatre trip planned.

We looked at some vocab from the book - locate, coax, evaporate, elegant...and so the list continues. We then had a little quiz using some apple flashcards I had made to fit in with an apple subtraction scenario in the story. They went down well. I was pleased to see how methodical Hermione was in the way she approached each subtraction.

On the evening I read Hermione her bed time story. Surprisingly she had requested The Three Billy Goats Gruff. After I had read it she announced that she would like to read it - and did - almost word for word. She was really pleased and proud of herself. We were both really delighted. This is just the second time she has expressed an interest in reading an actual book. She always shys away from reading books herself - although she is happy to read from flashcards and things. I think it's a sure sign her confidence is growing and I'm delighted. Just have to make sure I don't appear too enthusiastic about her reading books as opposed to her usual comfortable bits and pieces or she may take a step backwards. A big proud home edding mummy moment for sure!

Tuesday

Lots of 'normals' and Horizon today followed by How to Make an Apple Pie and see the World.

As we read the book we spotted the Eiffel Tower in the background of one of the illustrations. It was just part of the Eiffel Tower but still reasonably distinct. I asked the girls if they could see anything familiar on the picture. Hermione said almost immediately that she could see the Eiffel Tower - hurray all this education malarkey isn't in vain, she must have remembered it from when we studied Madeline.

We chatted about how apples come in many different shapes, sizes, colours and flavours. I explained that these are called different 'varieties'. I got out four different varieties which I had picked up at the market. We examined each one and tasted it. Hermione decided that Golden Delicious is her favourite variety of apple. I managed to rustle up a few sad onions out of the salad draw in an attempt to illustrate that many things come in lots of varieties - a squishy brown onion, a squishy red onion and a squishy spring onion in our case.

On the afternoon Hermione and Nana headed off to the local library to change their books. Hermione specifically asked that they look for the Beatrix Potter book from the Real People Real Lives series as she would like to read that one again. It was available and they brought it home. When she last read it I couldn't find her actual Beatrix Potter books for her to look at the illustrations which are discussed in the Real Lives book. I now think I've seen them in the attic somewhere so I must go and track them down. They are coming to the end of Tales of Olga de Polga by Michael Bond as bedtime reading. I think they are going to have another Famous Five next.

Wednesday

After reading the Apple Pie today we chatted about cinnamon. The story tells us that it comes from the bark of the karundu tree native to Sri Lanka. We looked at some ground cinnamon and some cinnamon sticks. Hermione munched her way through a fair chunk of a stick before announcing it was disgusting!

We stuck our story disk on Sri Lanks. This book mentions many countries but I opted to put it on Sri Lanka for no other reason that the map is least crowded there.

We then wrote stories about a trip around the world. Hermione wrote about a trip to Italy to find the finest orange material there ever was!

We looked at the map at the front of the book and traced the route of the ingredient trail.