N n is for Nothing

This will be a lame post.  We didn't do a lick of school last week.  I really don't know where the week went or what we did do...  A bunch of great visits with friends and family, little bouts of sickness - nothing major, trying to tame the garage...  I don't have any photos or any fun things to post, but it was a good week.  We'll have something to report next Sunday, I'm sure.  Hope you are enjoying this wonderful season of fall wherever you are!

A a Apple

"Still Life with Apples" by Vincent Van Gogh

It was a fantastic week.  We learned about apples and our words to remember were "If I stay in Jesus, I will bear much fruit".

I have to say, I really like our new workbox system.  It has been a great help in keeping us together these last two weeks.

Learning the parts of an apple with this neat little Montessori activity

handwriting...

math...

Reading "10 Apples Up On Top" and counting as we stack along

Roll the die and put that number of playdough seeds on the core

Cutting and pasting apples onto a grid

Claire works on her cutting and pasting skills too

phonics...

crossing out those things that don't start with "a"

picture card activity

I still need to figure out what to do with Lucy during school since she is giving up her morning nap.

 nature...

playing around anchor run farm on a beautiful fall day

 service and handicrafts (cooking)...

We baked "A" shaped apple cookies

We made apple scones to mail to Aunt Alyssa and Uncle Chris.  Nora helped spell out the note with alphabet stamps.

"poet tea"...

We started a new thing which we all love.  After nap we have a tea time and read from our poetry books.  I was doubtful that it would go over well but it was a huge hit!  I think well continue to try to fit it in a couple times a week.  There's just something so wonderful about tea and poetry in the middle of a fall day.

 sensory play...

Mini-Mommy gets Lucy ready to go outside

They made fall sensory jars

Jumping

reading...

• The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
• A Tree is a Plant by Clyde Robert Bulla
• Apples by Ken Robbins
• How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman
• The Season's of Arnold's Apple Tree by Gail Gibbons
• Apples by Gail Gibbons
• Apples, Apples, Apples by Nancy Elixabeth Wallace
• The Life Cycle of an Apple by Ruth Thomson
• Golden Delicious: A Cinderella Apple Story by Anna Egan Smucker
• How Do Apples Grow by Betsy Maestro
• Amelia Bedelia's First Apple Pie by Herman Parish
• Apples A to Z by Margaret McNamara
• Little Apple Goat by Caroline Jayne Church
• Tree (Eyewitmess Books Series)
• Apple Farmer Annie by Monica Wellington
• The Apple Head Doll by Elisa Kleven
• A Picture of God: 3 in 1 by Joanne Marxhausen
• The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall
• Apple Trees by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent
• Ten Apples Up On Top by Theo LeSieg
• Johnny Appleseed by David Harrison
• The Story of Johnny Appleseed by Aliki
• Johnny Appleseed by Reeve Lindbergh
• Poetry for Young People by Robert Frost
• Poetrees by Douglas Florian

 We had a visit from Nanny and Poppop Mikey who brought us a full dinner along with apple donughts and cider from Styers Orchard.  Such a wonderful treat to see them and enjoy a night off of cooking.  We also got to visit with Poppi and Mimi - we are so blessed to have our family near by!

There was so much in this unit that I wanted to get to and just didn't: making an apple head doll, apple sequence color and cut sheet, life cycle of apple cards, apple graph and taste testing, montessori nomenclature cards and a ton of apple ideas from here and here.

Here are some videos we enjoyed to go along with our themes:

• Disney's Johnny Appleseed 
• Mister Rogers - Season 1997, Episode 3 #1713
• Mister Rogers - Season 1984, Episode 6 #1536

And then the weekend....Camping at French Creek State Park with 3 other families...

This is what they did while I was busy packing for our camping trip. Nora is paper clipping my socks together while Claire supervises from the drawer.  They also did other delightful things that day like dump the contents of the trash can into the toilet (thank you, Lucy) and remove the stuffing from the couch, but I didn't capture those moments.  :)

Packing up the car to go

Waking up in the tent

I love this picture

Getting warm around the morning campfire

All the kids from left to right - Pippa, Payton, Romalie, Nico, Elianna, Beatrix, Nora, Janaya, Juniper, Liliana, Lincoln, Simeon, Claire, Coraline, Lucy (and Hunter and Myla are not pictured)

 We had the best time.  I absolutely adore these three families and it was just great to be able to camp with them.  I'm already looking forward to a repeat in the spring!  

"A" is for "ADHD"

This week was supposed to be all about "A a Apple".  Instead I spent the better part of it engaged in a battle with the bad parts of ADD or bipolar or whatever you want to call what I struggle with.  

It's a cycle that progresses the same way every time.  And every time I am surprised when I get to the end of it.  It starts with me being really on top of things and excited about life with a rush of ideas and a ton of energy to accomplish them.  I'm so excited about these ideas, in fact, that after a while I start to neglect the more mundane tasks that keep family life going, because really, what could be more important that spending an entire day cutting out felt leaves?

That's what I did on Monday and everything was downhill from there.  I lost all my drive and energy. For the rest of the week, every room in the house stood in various degrees of hurricane:

From time to time I would manage to work up the gumption to set a timer and focus my efforts on cleaning up for 20 minutes.  It was a small victory.  But then I would again neglect to stay on top of things and by the end of the day we would be back to living in chaos.  I just cannot function in disorder.  I would be totally overwhelmed and unmotivated to clean up, so I would just head to bed and wake up to a compounded mess.

During this point of the cycle, if I can manage not to wallow in despair, I usually become very reflective and experience insights into things that I want to change which eventually ends up exciting me enough to motivate me to rise up and get back on top of things.  The cycle continues somewhat normally for a while and I stick to a schedule.  A very regulated sleep, exercise and eating schedule helps immensely.

Thank goodness I married an "Aspie".  Our personalities and the things with which we struggle are pretty much opposite...  My hero.  I have to say it... He completes me.  Awww.  Well, someone's gotta keep this Shockey show running!

Here are the pictures of the week:

We did some activities with the felt leaves involving  matching, ordering, counting, colors, shapes, etc.  Not quite worth the hours that it took (I made a lot more than what is shown here) but fun nonetheless.

We had dinner with Mika and Granddad.  We took this picture for Ellie Surgener who is our dolly benefactress. Thanks for passing your treasured doll collection down to the Shockey grand kids, Mrs. Surgerner! We love Manny Moe, Jack and Suzy.

We went to visit Katie.  I do love that girl.  I just had to take a picture of some of her Halloween decorations. How can I not want to be all creative when I have friends who set up Gothic still life in the door way?!

We snuggled a lot.  I think the kids really like when I am like this.  It is the only time I sit still!

Hobbit

Visiting Mommom and Poppop - a ride on the "swirly chair"

I finally got up the energy to do something fun and set up an apple pie bake shop.  I got the idea here.

It didn't take her long to start painting herself with apple butter

Playing in the mud pit turned homemade creek