Xapa to the World

Tag: England

  • FIAR Vol. 1 – How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World

    This book is all sorts of silly. We decided to do this one a little out of order from the curriculum so that it would time nicely with local apple harvest. We have a local orchard that, while we can’t pick them from the trees, we can peruse several varieties and pick up honey and other yummy treats. They make a mean cider too! I am excited to try making an apple pie with the kiddos – we will be having a family reunion this weekend and it will be fun to make something to share with everyone. I also took the many travels of the girl as an opportunity to learn the names of the continents.

    Social Studies

    These books provide just enough information to be interesting for my 5 yr old without overwhelming him. We also enjoyed making the flags for Italy and France and marveled at how similar they were to each other! The library didn’t have the book on Sri Lanka in, so I found this book about cinnamon.

    I think the kids were “geography”d out, so I stretched out this part over the whole week. We picked a new destination book for each day and that was still a little too much for the kids, but they are pretty little. I’m just real glad that I got the names of the continents in their vocabulary and hope to cement those in their minds.

    Math

    These books actually tied in real well with math this week. Who Knew? introduced sequencing as each wild animal group learns that Fall has come now. Bob and Pup-Pup are a good tie-in for baking practices and learning about measurements – however, there are no measurements mentioned in the book. We also found a video on YouTube of a guy showing how to bake an apple pie. My 5 year old has recently discovered baking videos, including the mini-chef videos, and was captivated.

    Science

    We were all set to make some apple pies today as our science lesson, but I have a sinus infection and just was not up for it. But we reviewed what foods are fruits and what are vegetables and where do they grow (under the ground, above the ground, on trees or bushes, etc). There was a fun experiment in the STEM book about growing broccoli flowers, so I think we’ll try that next week. The Fresh Produce Guide book was a gift from my mom from a nearby intl market called Jungle Jims. It’s quite the store and I highly recommend the Fairfield one if you’re ever in the Cincinnati area. This guide lists which produce is grown/available in which seasons, how to store it, prepare it, what it pairs well with, what spices to use with it, and the general nutrition facts. I use this book more than I ever thought I would.

    Additional Books

    These books were very helpful in establishing map intelligence and the life cycle of an apple. We did an apple study last year through Treehouse Schoolhouse but it’s always helpful to repeat lessons, especially with my little little ones. Me on the Map was fun and helped us imagine ourselves on the map. When I was in 7th grade, I told my social studies teacher that I wanted to be a cartographer when I grew up. She disdainfully told me that everything had been discovered and we wouldn’t need mapmakers anymore. I believed her. But now, I know that map skills are still immensely valuable. It means a lot to me to be able to hear the name of a place and be able to find it on a map because I have cultivated that skill. I hope my kiddos have the same knowledge as they get older.

    Here is a fun poem I found for memory work this week, “If I Were an Apple”:

    If I were an apple
    And grew upon a tree,
    I think I’d fall down
    On a good boy like me.
    I wouldn’t stay there
    Giving nobody joy;
    I’d fall down at once
    And say, “Eat me, my boy.”

    Anonymous

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    Complete Book List:

  • Short Story – Gladys Aylward

    I found this in the book I’m reading, Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood compiled and largely written by John Piper and Wayne Grudem.  As you can expect with those two authors, I’m still wading my way through the Foreward…and what a trove of treasure in those few pages. 

    I have, for a long time, enjoyed reading about some of my favorite women of the faith, especially missionary women, and especially those who have worked in the field while single.  These are primarily Amy Carmichael (India), Lottie Moon (China), Elisabeth Elliot (single for a time after her husband Jim died and missionary in Ecuador, to the people who murdered him), but I keep forgetting about Gladys Aylward, missionary to China.  I haven’t read too much of/by her, but this little story makes me want to raid my personal library for her bio that I know is in there somewhere.  The story is related by Elisabeth Elliot in the Elisabeth Elliot Newsletter:

    She had been a missionary in China for six or seven years before she ever thought of wanting a husband.  When a British couple came to work near her, she began to watch the wonderful thing they had in marriage, and to desire it for herself.  Being a woman of prayer she prayed – a straightforward request that God would call a man from England, send him straight out to China, and have him propose.  She leaned toward me on the sofa on which we were sitting, her black eyes snapping, her bony little forefinger jabbing at my face.  “Elisabeth,” she said, “I believe God answers prayer!  He called him.”  Then, in a whisper of keen intensity, “but he never came.”

    I will not close a door that God may be keeping open, but I am no longer trying to force it to remain open.  It can do as it wishes and I will be content to stay on this side of the wall until God gives me a reason to go through it.  And the peace of that is amazing.