Apple Pie and school?

I thought I would take an opportunity to share with you a bit more about how we do school.

We are currently using as our base curriculum a program called Five In A Row.  The concept of the program being you take one really good children's book and read it - you guessed it - five days in a row!

Each day you choose a topic to discuss or a project to do together.  Subjects fall into categories such as Geography, Language, Math, Art and Science.

Last week's book was "How to Make an  Apple Pie and see the world" by Marjorie Priceman.

  

Our week looked a bit like this
Monday - we read the book and mapped out all of the places she went to get the ingredients to make an apple pie.
Tuesday - we read the book and used flags from each country to play a memory a game - in which order did she visit each country? and what product did she need from each?   We also talked about flags.
Wednesday- we read the book and discussed new vocabulary words and their meanings and different techniques the author used to tell the story.
Thursday -we read the book and colored apples while talking about the different varieties of apples and also how the artwork in the book helps tell the story.
Friday- we read the book and then used real world math by baking an apple pie.
Saturday - this should have been our science experiment day but we were so tired and had a birthday party so we'll tie it in with next week's book.

As we go through the week we place our projects in a folder so we can look back on all we've learned.  I use Homeschool Share for our go-along activities and also for other subject ideas.

This folder isn't complete yet, but you get the idea.

In addition to this, both boys are working through a phonics program called Explode The Code at their respective levels.

Lewis is close to finishing his Horizons K program and will start Math U See  soon.  I didn't really care for Horizons math, though it is a solid program it's also a bit dry and too workbook focused for our tastes.

William is slowly working through a Kindergarten level math workbook from Spectrum.  I originally bought this book to compare to Lewis'  Horizons K math which is, in my opinion, at 1st grade level.  It's a nice easy introduction to Math and William enjoys having his own special workbook. He's doing surprisingly well for a 4 yr. old.  After our move we'll start him in the entry level Math U See.

William is also enjoying his Letter of the Week curriculum  I got at Confessions of a Homeschooler.  The games are fun and entertaining and help keep him busy while I teach Lewis.

For Lewis' handwriting practice I've adapted our own plan by combining ideas from different programs.  The first idea came from A Reason for Handwriting which has the child practice writing Scripture.  Then, I use the verses from Letter of the Week so both boys are learning the same verse each week.

After our move to Bahrain we'll be adding History using The Mystery of History volume I and possibly adding a language.  I'm trying to keep it fairly simple in the early years, not adding too much seat work or busy work.  

All in all it's going well and I think the boys are learning a lot and enjoying school.

Here are some more photos of our pie making day-

The bakers

 Learning math through cooking

Our ingredients- do not make fun of the pre-packaged pie crust - I don't get along well with flour.

Paul came home just in time to help grate the cinammon.  Notice the look of pure joy on his face??

And in the oven it goes.

I hope you have enjoyed this brief look into our little homeschool.  You can click on the highlighted curriculum names to learn more about our choices if  you wish.

Now I'm off to read, I'm one day behind in my B90 challenge and I'm determined to catch up today and stay on schedule.