BJU Press Blog

cooking

5 Apple Projects to Do After Your Orchard Visit

by

apple projects for after the orchard!
There’s nothing like the crisp, sweet taste of a fresh apple—except maybe the warm, sugary flavor of an apple cider doughnut melting on your tongue. For many families, visiting an apple orchard becomes a prized yearly tradition. But after all the apple-picking fun and the enjoyable orchard activities, you might be left with bushels of apples—more than your family can eat. Check out these five types of apple projects to do after your orchard visit.

• Edible Apple Projects

Apple pie is an obvious way to use up some of those apples, but don’t forget about apple cobbler, apple turnovers, apple pancakes, apple breads, and apple muffins. If you’d like to save some of these goodies for later, research freezer-friendly recipes.

Feeling ambitious? Try making your own apple butter, apple sauce, or apple chips. You can even use these apple activities as teaching opportunities! Talk to your kids about the chemical processes involved in changing the fruit from one form to another.

• Raw Apples in Everything

Try raw sliced apples in all kind of dishes! Make finding new ways to include apples in favorite meals a game with your kids. Thinly-sliced raw apples add a bit of extra crunch to sandwiches. They lend sweetness to salads and coleslaw. Dice the apples and sprinkle them over carrot soup, pumpkin soup, oatmeal, or cereal. You can even find recipes for spicy apple salsa!

• Apple Drinks

The cider you purchase at the orchard always seems to vanish too quickly. Why not make your own slow-cooker apple cider? You can also squeeze the apples and create homemade apple juice. If you’ve got a blender, add apples to smoothies for breakfast or snacks.

• Apple Candle Holders

If you’ve got some apples that are bruised or otherwise inedible, hollow them out and insert tea-lights. You’ll have an instant set of fall-themed, sweet-smelling candle holders that will beautify your kitchen island or your table for at least a week or so.

• Apple Potpourri

Follow this recipe to create delightful simmering potpourri that will make your home amazingly fragrant for the fall holidays. You can also create a dried version that looks and smells appealing. Consider putting extra batches in bags or jars as holiday gifts.

With some time, creativity, and the right recipes, you can take full advantage of the bounty you bring home from the orchard this year! Experiment with these apple projects, and let us know if you discover some favorite apple activities we haven’t included here. Happy apple-picking!

• • • • •

Rebecca is a work-at-home freelance writer, novelist, wife, and the mom of two bright-eyed little ones. She credits her success in writing and her love of books to her own mom, who homeschooled three kids from pre-K through high school.

What Is Age-Appropriate Learning?

by

green bean casseroleMy go-to fall/winter side dish is green bean casserole. It’s impossible to mess up the recipe because there’s no such thing as too many fried onions or too much cream of mushroom soup. I always make green bean casserole for Thanksgiving. It’s gotten to the point that my aunt doesn’t even ask me what I’m bringing to her house for the family meal.

Should our roles ever reverse and the whole family came over to my place for the Thanksgiving feast, I think I might be in trouble. Despite the hours I spend in the kitchen happily cooking and baking, I’ve never had to roast a turkey. There’s not even a roasting pan in my kitchen.

The pleasure I find in preparing food can quickly turn into frustration or anxiety when I’m asked to prepare a dish that goes beyond my skill level. It’s the same way with your child’s academic learning. You want to challenge her potential but not frustrate or overwhelm it. What she learns should be age appropriate.

Is your child’s education the right kind of learning for her age? Your child’s learning should be guided by what is right for her age based on her cognitive, emotional, social, language, and motor skill development. There are three elements that contribute to age-appropriate learning—teaching style, book layout, and student assessment.

        1. Teaching Style—How a topic or subject is approached can make a difference in your child’s learning. A science lecture on frogs’ muscular system is not appropriate for a seven-year-old any more than playing leap frog would be for a teenager (although you might be debated with on that point!). Activities, discussions, lectures, guided questions, and manipulatives all have their place. How you teach should also be influenced by your child’s learning style.
        2. Book Layout—Illustrations are the more obvious contribution to age appropriate learning with their numbers, sizes, and styles (painting versus photograph, imaginative versus realistic, simple versus detailed) varying by grade. But the text in a book also plays an important role. Font size, color, and placement all assist in captivating your child’s attention and inviting her to learn. Compare these pages from BJU Press Reading 2 (page 45 on left) and Explorations in Literature (page 89 on right).BJU Press Reading 2 page 45 and BJU PRess Explorations in Literature page 89
        3. Student Assessment—This element may sound scary, but it’s simply an evaluation of your child’s understanding. Having your five-year-old find the triangle would be an appropriate assessment and so would asking your twelve-year-old to label triangles as acute or obtuse. Assessments can be questions, writings, or presentations. They can also be formal (like tests) or informal (like discussions). The purpose of an assessment is to find out if your child understands what you’re teaching.

How age appropriate is your child’s learning? It’s important to know whether she is overwhelmed or not challenged enough. Your child probably has strengths and weaknesses in different areas than other students her age. Here’s my challenge to you: Find good materials that increase your child’s learning appropriately. As you teach at home, customize her education by slowing down or speeding up.

You’ll be glad you did, and she probably will be too.