Preschool at Home: Apples

It's fall--my absolute favorite time of the year!  Today, I am excited to link up with Tot School Gathering Place to share some of our fall activities from the past two weeks.

My little ones made hand and fingerprint apple trees (idea from Learn~Play~Imagine).  I have been trying to involve Emma in more of our "school time"--I think you can tell by her smile that she likes it!  She glued, painted, and tasted paint. :)

Isaac loves doing projects, especially anything involving paint!  It has been neat to see his ability to concentrate grow as he gets older.  I love how focused he is in the above pictures.

Little Emma has quite the red lips in this picture!  :)  

The finished trees are darling!  If you read our blog long enough, you'll find that I love any craft or project involving hands/handprints! 

With Isaac, I've been focusing on number recognition and pre-math activities.  Isaac and his sweet   friend, Landrie, cut their own tree trunks out of brown paper.  Then, they glued the green leaves to the branches and added "apples" (red poms) to each tree.  We counted (and counted and counted) the apples on each tree. 

Throughout this week, I've practiced beginning addition & subtraction with Isaac.  I'll give Isaac two apples while holding two apples and ask, "If you have two apples and I have two apples, how many do we have all together?"  Being able to touch and see the apples helps him a lot.  He likes the subtraction questions better (probably because they involve a storm!).  For example, "If you have four apples on your tree and a giant gust of wind blows two off of the tree, how many apples are left on the tree?" 

 I got this idea for a foam apple tree in the bath from the fall number bath on Momma's Fun World.

I sang the following lyrics to the tune of "Are You Sleeping?"

Picking apples, picking apples

off the tree, off the tree

Pick the number ___, pick the number ___ 

and give it to me, give it to me.

Isaac thought this was so much fun!  He sang right along with me, too.

Of course, Emma was right beside her big brother the entire time.  She picked the apples off as quickly as she could!

I think we've reserved every fall/apple book in the entire Fort Worth library system.  

Here are our favorite apple books:

The Apple Pie Tree

I think this book is excellent.  It starts in the winter when the tree's branches are bare and then shows what the apple tree looks like in each season.  

I Know It's Autumn  

Ten Red Apples

 Emma loves lifting the flaps on this fall board book.

Baby Loves Fall

Happy Fall, Everyone!

Our Halloween~2012

October 31st is a very, very special day in our family--3 years ago on Halloween, Isaac joined our family forever!  Recently, we have talked a lot with Isaac about his adoption.  Yesterday morning, I snuck into his room as he was waking up and said, "Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Isaac"--and, before I could continue the story, Isaac said, "I know, Mommy--you were so sad that you didn't have a baby that you cried and cried and then GOD GAVE YOU BABY ISAAC!"  (Of course, Isaac was yelling that last part.) :) 

Yes, he knows the story of why Halloween is so special in our family!

Last Saturday night, we had a fall family night and carved our pumpkin.  I also made my favorite pumpkin chocolate chip cookies for us to eat.  :)

Isaac has a smile on his face, but he really didn't like putting his hand in the pumpkin too much.  He wanted his "sticky and slimy" hand washed off right away.  (Yes, he's his dad's child who does not like messes or stickiness!)

Our pumpkin! 
Isaac and Dave carved it into a "Baby Emma" pumpkin with 2 little bottom teeth and a bow on the stem.  :)

Have I mentioned how much I love these three?

We also read this book, which we recently bought for Isaac and Emma.  It's definitely at the top of my list for favorite fall books.   (I think both Isaac and I have every letter memorized.)  :)

On Sunday evening, we put Isaac & Emma in their costumes and went to visit my grandma at Watermere.

 We were the only people in the dining room, so we set up 3 chairs as "barrels" so that Isaac could show Granna how he and Bilbo, his stick pony, barrel race. 

I'm sure I'm biased, but I think this vest and chaps are just the cutest on Isaac!  He took being a cowboy very seriously--even to the point of asking where his spurs were!

Papa & Nana sent Emma this darling zebra costume from Colorado.  The night before Halloween, I found a Taylor University cheerleader costume that my mom had bought at Taylor four years ago!  (She also bought this adorable Taylor letter jacket that Isaac's worn.)  I had completely forgotten about this cheerleader costume, so I'm glad I found it while Emma could still wear it.  I'm pretty sure it would've been too small for Emma next Halloween.  :)

 Emma's first Halloween!

Isn't her little ponytail the cutest? 

Ready for trick or treating! 

We were out trick or treating with some of Isaac and Emma's little friends for nearly an hour, and Isaac "rode" his stick horse the entire time.  He wouldn't let us carry it or set it in the stroller--this cowboy's a trooper!  Isaac stayed pretty close to us the whole time we were out.  He kept talking about how dark it was, and he also asked, "Isn't it night-night time?"  :)  Isaac definitely had a blast, though.  Isaac usually said "thank you" at each door before he remembered to say "trick or treat." :)  

 

It was really warm yesterday--Isaac was so hot and sweaty from his sheepskin chaps and vest.  We finally got him to take them off so that he could cool down when we got home.  You can't see the candle shining through our carved pumpkin in this picture, but it was really pretty on our front step. 

What a fun night! 

Happy Halloween!  We hope you had a fun time, too!

Tot School: Sequencing Apples and Counting Apple Seeds

Today I'm linking up with I Can Teach My Child to share an apple activity Isaac and I did this week.

I used this printable and then added dots and numbers to represent the seeds for each apple.

We practiced sequencing the apples from smallest to largest.

We used black beans as our apple seeds. 

First, we counted the dots on each apple and then added the seeds.

Then, we glued them on.  (I love how hard Isaac is concentrating in this picture.)

All finished! 

I hung this on our fridge while Isaac was taking a nap.  After naptime, Isaac was eating his snack at the kitchen table when he noticed this project hanging and said, "My apples look so nice, Mommy!" :)

A printer, scissors, crayons, glue, and black beans...these are all things you probably have in your home for this project.  Other types of beans, Fruit Loops, or Cheerios would work in place of the black beans.  Or you could eat a bushel of apples until you'd saved enough apple seeds.  ;)

Pumpkin Patch~2012

One of my favorite traditions of the whole year is going to the pumpkin patch! 

This morning, we visited one of the pumpkin patches in Flower Mound.

my favorite pumpkins of all
(Can you tell that Isaac was very anxious for picture-taking to be over so he could start jumping in the bounce houses?)

Going on a hayride--I love the (rare) moments when Isaac snuggles right next to me!

Emma's first visit to the pumpkin patch~I think it's a tradition to take a picture of your baby in this pumpkin! 

Here's Isaac in the same pumpkin in October of 2010. 
Of course, he was trying to get out of the pumpkin and keep moving!

Isaac had a blast in the hay maze.  There were a few times when I couldn't see the top of his head that made me a little nervous, but each time he found his way out quickly.  The exit to the hay maze was a slide--as he was sliding down, he'd say, "I want to do it again!"  It's very fun, but also bittersweet, to see how independent he's becoming.

I love seeing pictures of favorite traditions over the years...

2010

2011

2012

Hope you are enjoying some fall fun, too!

Visit to the Pumpkin Patch

Here are just a few of my favorite pictures from our visit to the pumpkin patch last Friday! 

Taking my baby to the pumpkin patch was one of those memory-making events that I've looked forward to doing for many years while waiting for a baby.

And, going to the pumpkin patch with Isaac was just as fun as I'd always hoped it'd be! 





Grandma Missy came too!

My favorite little pumpkin of all!