Apple Fritters and Beethovan

Fall has arrived!!! And with the fall comes apples. Big, yummy, juicy apples. Our favorites this year are Jona Gold. They are a great eating apple and baking apple. For snacks they slice up nice and you can put p-nut butter on them too!

Today we decided to use some of our fall harvest to make Apple fritters. What a great way to savor the flavors and smells of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, apples and eat a yummy harvest treat.
Today's cooking was part of Ben's 3rd grade cooking main lessons. He reads the recipe and makes it with my supervision, then draws a picture of what was cooked, copies the recipe and then adds it to his own cookbook. By the end of this year he will have his own illustrated cookbook of recipe's and foods he has created. I am lucky! My boys love to cook. They are learning to chop, stir, measure, add fractions, and clean-up as they go and take care of their space after too. Practical skills!

As we made apple fritters, I turned on Beethoven so we can continue our composer study. we listened to the 6Th symphony as we stirred, chopped, peeled and cooked, and then enjoyed eating our yummy treat. Learning happens when an emotional connection is made. I know the connection was made for me today. The smells of fall, the beauty of the earth's bounty, the music in the background. This is what memories are made of, and today was a great memory maker for me. I hope the boys enjoyed it as much as I did!

Water color Paintings

I love the Freedom in our Homeschool Journey that our boys can paint. Water color seems to be the medium that eli loves the best and Flowers from around our farm is the subject he chooses. It is so wonderful to hear him exclaim when he sees a beautiful flower " Mom, I HAVE to paint that!" Many mornings before breakfast he is sketching or painting. When he wants to take a break from studies, he chooses to paint, draw or read. The path of homeschooling has given him the time to follow this passion of his, and it is a wonderful joy to watch his talents and enthusiasm unfold. This year he entered one of his paintings into the Rowan county fair, and took second place.

My Benjamin loves flowers too! But he likes to arrange them. He chose to enter 2 flower arrangements in the fair. His mixed flower arrangement came in 1st and his rose arrangement took 2nd. How cool is it that Boys can be supported in there passion of appreciating flowers!!! I am so glad it has remained intact and can be expressed in their beautiful spirits!