I had an opportunity arise that I was so excited about. Christopher has been really excited in learning about apples because they are RED, well some of them at least. One of my friends asked me if I would want to go pick some apples at a friend's home. I thought that this would be such a great experience for Christopher and Andrew. When we arrived, Christopher was asleep and was too tired to wake up. However, Andrew loved the experience and I was really excited to be able to take the apples home and show the boys how to make applesauce.
As I thought about how to incorporate some math into this process, I thought about fractions. This would be on Andrew's level and Christopher could learn what fractions are. We took five apples and cut to the best of our ability them into equal pieces representing 1, 1/2, 1/4, and 1/8. I then asked Andrew to figure out how many of 1/8 's would equal 1/2 and so forth. I asked him several questions and we made a game out of it. It was exciting to be teaching him math. I think Christopher just learned what fractions looked like and how to pronounce them.
We played this until I could tell that they were done. The next day, we started the process of making applesauce. Both boys were quite excited to help and took turns mashing the hot, cooked apples.
When it came time to pour the applesauce into the jars, I thought of teaching Andrew about gallons, quarts, and pints and cups. Both boys joined in and I was so excited that I got to sneak in another math lesson. hehe
Andrew estimated and then found out through experimenting how many quarts fit into a gallon and how many pints equal a gallon. He was able to figure some of it on his own just by doing the math. We then filled up the quart jars and pressure cooked the applesauce. With the remaining sauce, the boys ate it up quickly. Yummy!
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