Apple Guys

For those of you who did not attend our parent chat last week (or read the transcript), we were discussing fall activity ideas. People had lots of great ideas, and I was inspired to try a few new things with my own children during this season. I mentioned the idea of making "apple guys", and no one knew what I was talking about. I would hate for any of you to miss out on the experience of creating "apple guys" with your kids, so I'm going to enlighten you all with an explanation and picture this week.

"Apple Guys", as they are affectionately referred to at my house, are little creatures carved out of fresh apples - and then left to sit for days, months, or years. You first need to peel the apple, and then use a small knife to carve out a little face of some sort (kind of like a pumpkin except you carve the face into the apple instead of cutting out pieces). If you'd like, you can stick little peppercorns or cloves into the eyes. Then you simply let the little guys sit around on your counter. After a couple of days they being to shrivel up, and as the days go by they get more and more shriveled and wrinkly until they turn into these almost petrified little creatures that are completely hard. I'm not sure if I'm proud or embarrassed to admit this, but we have an apple guy from 3 years ago still sitting in it's place of honor in our kitchen. It has been the subject of many a conversation over the past 3 years! The picture you see here is of the apple guys my kids made with my husband 5 days ago. You can see that the shriveling has commenced, but they will get even more so with time and the "aging process". Now, in case any of you are wondering, they do not get rotten or smell. I don't know why - I can't explain it. It is the magic of the apple guy!

You may be asking yourself why any of this matters. Well, there are so many ways you can use this with your kids! First of all, it's a funny thing to do together - picking out the apple, figuring out what kind of face to make, working together to carve it, admiring your creation, etc. Then there is the wonderful component of checking it together daily to see how it has changed. What a great on-going episodic memory review opportunity. Imagine the remediation possibilities with the apple guys! If you make them at home, and I hope you will, post a comment to let us know how yours turned out. Maybe you and your kids can think of a more creative name, but at our house they will always be the "apple guys"!

Until next week,
Nicole