Sunday, August 22, 2010

"A"

Our homeschooling adventure has begun! We'll be following the Alphabet Path this year.

Day 1: Apples for breakfast (though this is an everyday occurrence, happily coinciding with A-week!)
Started the school day with the Angelus explaining that this prayer told the story of when the Angel Gabriel met our Blessed Mother and gave her a special mission from God. Then we met the highly anticipated Mrs Applebee. Maybe I shouldn't have puffed up the importance of her arrival so much, Henry was quite upset that she didn't arrive in a car, or that she was only represented in 2-D. (Perhaps a "real" meeting can be arranged before we reach the end of the Alphabet Path! Henry recovered quickly when we learned that Mrs A came from a magical forest--all's well! During Mrs Applebee's introduction, we met her eldest child the Apple Blossom Fairy and her heavenly friend St Ann. We listened to the Apple Blossom Fairy's greeting song on CD. Then we took a break for snack--Almond nut clusters. And Henry took a tour of the Flower Fairies' website.

While H&C played a fairy dressup game there, I set up a Musical "A" game: think musical chairs. I fashioned a capital "A" on the floor with electrical tape, and asked the children to dance around while we listened to the Apple Blossom song. Whenever the music stopped, the first child to "cross their feet, twirl around, and sit down" (in fairy fashion) won the privilege of controlling the CD player for that round. They listened to the song for over 30 minutes--some game play, some dancing. So much fun!

We closed the school day with lunch (nothing creative there, but yummy nonetheless!) and the Angelus at noon.

Dinner will showcase the Avocado with fajitas, ending with the Angelus at 6pm.




St Ann, Angels

Foods
Asparagus
Apples
Apple Pie
Alfredo Sauce
Avocado

Animals
Anteater
Antelope
Aardvark

Plants/Flowers
Amaryllis
Acorn
Apple tree

Physical Activities
arm wrestling
air hockey

Art Projects/Studies
Apple still art
Apple Blossoms from Popcorn, Coffee filters for bouquet

Music
Ave Maria-a capella

Prayer
Angelus