“A” Is for Apple

Last week, Leah and David started preschool! It‘s actually just a small group: three Latter-day Saint moms in our neighborhood—hopefully, soon to be four—have decided to hold class each Wednesday morning. They take turns hosting, with the host mommy teaching. Mommy Drake went first, setting the theme with a lesson entitled “ ‘A’ Is for Apple.” They talked about the letter A, but also discussed apples in great detail: where they come from, what colors they are, etc.. They also played “Pin the Apple on the Tree” and dipped real apples in finger paint, to make cool apple-inspired designs. (They did not, however, discuss Mommy and Daddy’s computers.) ;-)

Since the Drakelings are visiting Grandma and Pop, this week, they obviously weren’t able to attend this week’s class, but we did decide to build upon last week’s lesson: we all headed up to Warwick, New York, and got to pick some real apples! We got McIntosh, Gravenstein, and Gala—ironically skipping the Cortlands, which Pop for some reason didn’t want to bother with. The coolest part, though, is that the particular orchard was very young, so the kids were actually able to pick some low-hanging apples, all by themselves—no adult assistance required! (We did pick them up for some of the higher apples—not to mention a few pears, in the adjoining orchard—but even that is pretty impressive, compared to the apple-picker rentals required, at most orchards.)


Finally, an interesting aside: last night, while Mommy and Daddy were relaxing in the bungalow, the kids started playing school. Leah was “Miss Drake” and David was her student, “Cortland.” They closed themselves in the back bedroom for class, and when class was over, the door opened as Leah called out, “Goodbye, class!” David emerged, and Leah called after him, “You can leave your jacket here!” and slammed the door behind him. :-)