the gospel of Jesus told through A-a-Apple

Apple is by far my favorite lesson in the My Father's World curriculum. I love it because it gave me words and a way to explain some hard subjects to my kids.

This week we learned that if we stay in Jesus (if we walk with Jesus) we will bear much fruit... not the fruit we eat but the fruits of the Spirit - PEACE, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS, SELF-CONTROL, LOVE, JOY, KINDNESS and GOODNESS.  We talked about these fruits non-stop in the context of almost everything we did last week and the best part is those conversations have not stopped!  Sibling and family relationships lend themselves so well to teaching and learning about this!  Here is where I found the free printables and crafts we used for fruits of the spirit.

We read 3 in 1 (A picture of God) by Joanne and Benjamin Marxhausen to learn what an apple has in common with God.  If you haven't read it, please indulge me as I share!  I just love this book so much.  I'm putting a copy in each of my kids special boxes where I keep memories from their childhood (in case it ever goes out of print).  I pray one day I get to read it to my grandchildren. 

I was about to post pictures of every page but found something even better.  Here's a video of the book being read page by page.  Worth your every second!  Watch it and be blessed.

What a great way of sharing the gospel with a child!  It also gives them the simple words to share with others as well.

Another good read was Grasshopper on the Road by Arnold Lobel.  Lucy drew a picture of how she imagined the worm's home to look inside the apple.  I initially thought the top right room was a TV room with the two kids watching but I was told it was bathroom and the square with the circle inside is the bathtub :)

We started preparing for the big apple tasting event the weekend before our lesson by going to the store all together and picking 8 apples, each of a different variety.  We only bought one of each variety so we could have a good record in the receipt of how much each apple weighed and how much they charged us per pound. Here is our receipt.  I was unpleasantly surprised to find out one of our apples (the seasonal Honeycrisp) was $2.98 per pound and since the apple weighed close to a pound we ended up paying $2.35 for it!  Insanity.  What we do for the sake of learning!  We would soon find out if it was worth that much...

Here are our 8 pretty apples on display Sunday night before our big Apple week.  The anticipation was building on! :)

We decided to for-go our regular Math U See lessons for the week in favor of some fun math with apples.  We started out by measuring and weighing the apples using a balance and some math manipulative blocks.

Jenna getting things ready... No, those are not her shoes.

Next we weighed an apple against other common household goods.

We used the "apple math book" printable available here to create a table showing which items were "heavier", "lighter" or "same as" the apple.  Before weighing each item against the apple, I gave them each a chance to predict which one would win the "heavy-weight" contest.  They loved this!

We talked about the importance of measuring and weighing items and how the weight of an apple can be used among other things to:

• price it (we took a look at our receipt again!) 
• and also to help follow a recipe and cook with it 

Again, we decided to ditch our formal handwriting lesson for the week in lieu of practicing our letters by writing the names of each apple on the paper plates that would later be used for our much awaited Family Apple Tasting.

Here is the end result... not bad for not having any lines to write on.

We are big apple eaters in our house and we all have our favorite variety but we went into our tasting with an open mind and willing to give some of the seasonal apples a chance.  The Sweetie and the Honeycrisp had a lot at stake considering they nearly broke the bank! ;)

The girls and I put our scrapbooking skills to work and made some fancy tasting note cards for each person.  Writing on her card may or may have not been the highlight of the whole event for Lucy.  She loves all things paper... apple doesn't fall far from the tree (he, he, couldn't pass that one up!)

I love love love it when hubby can be part of our homeschool projects.  It makes the whole experience so fun and memorable.

She was one serious taster.

At the end of the night, we each drew a heart next to our favorite apple.  AND THE WINNERS WERE:

Lucy's

Mom's

Dad's

As you can see, the Honeycrisp came through, all 2 dollars and 35 cents of it!

For crafts, we made apple stamps...

and a fruits of the spirit tree similar to last year's (picture below).  The picture I took of this year's didn't turn out :(

Here's another idea from last year... The things you can do for fun with an apple are endless.  It's almost a bit overwhelming to look online.  To say I had to reign Lucy in when it came to crafting with apples is an understatement!

The big finale to our week was an apple dinner party with the Bullocks.  The moms conspired to include apples in every course of the  meal.  Our menu was:

Kielbasa Apple Pasta Bake

Apple and Pecan Salad with Apple Cider Vinagrette

THE Apple Bundht cake from last month's Southern Living Magazine Cover

Apple shaped sugar cookies

Apple Juice

The kids enjoyed their meal while watching the Vroooommm! Apple Farming DVD from the library.  Great educational movie!

All in all a great week learning thru apples!  Thank you for sticking through this long post.