Apples and Education How to Combine the Two

Since it is apple picking season, many homeschoolers are trying to come up with ways to help their children learn about apples. If you have been home schooling for years, it may be difficult to come up with new ideas each year. So as a home schooling parent I like to make a list of at least five projects that we can do. The best part about these projects is that you can use fresh apples. Even if you are not homeschooling your children you may be able to do these projects on the weekend with your children.

Apple addition and subtraction

If your child is learning about addition and subtraction, apples are a great way to practice their skills. Of course to get started you will need at least one bag of apples. Next you can slice up the apples evenly. You will also need a few white paper cups, and a pencil. Start by having your child write the addition fact on the cup. On one of the cups you can put the equal sign, another cup you can put the addition sign and your last cup you can put the subtraction sign. Line up the cups to form a number sentence. You can then place the apple slices into the individual cups. Have your child count out the apple slices and place the in the cups to match the numbers. This is an activity that you can do with your child for several minutes prior to snack time.

All about the sauce

Why not combine two lessons into one. For example for older kids you can add both math and writing into making an applesauce. There are plenty of recipes online that you can help you to make an amazing sauce, or you can have your child make up their own. This is a great project for older children. You can have them write out their recipe, and then help them make it.

Apple Art

Turning your apples into art is a lot of fun for young kids. Especially young kids who may not like eating apples. For example you can start by having them put faces on their apples. Some parents like to have their children use food to put faces on their apples, and then take a picture. For example you can use spaghetti for the mouth, and chocolate chips for the eyes. You can also use macaroni needles for the face on the able. This helps to bring out your child's creative side. To secure the items to the apple, you can carve out the areas of the face first, sort of like an outline. Then you can have your child stuff the chocolate chips into the eyes space, and the spaghetti into the mouth cut out area. This way after you have taken a picture of their apple art, it can still be sliced up and eaten.

Ants and apples

If your kids are fascinated with bugs this may be a fun project for you to do with them. For this project, you will need a cardboard box, which you can set out in the yard. Place the apple inside of the box, and start an ant hunt. You can usually find plenty of ants in your yard after digging a hole. A small hole that can be filled back in will work fine. Place a handful of ants in the box with the ants. Then watch how they react to the apple. You can have your kids write down their observations on how the ants react to the apple. Some parents even go as far as having their kids write a report about how the ants react.