Does this disturb any of you???? In our quest to learn about courage, we took a dive into Switzerland’s quest for independence and the story of William Tell. And yes, the kids became William Tell while taking aim at the baby doll. Thankfully, they agreed to let the doll stand in for Tell’s son instead of a brother as originally desired. Their aim -even at point blank, was pretty lacking. (Isn’t the felt crown-turned belt amusing?)
Good books that delight the imagination are true gems. In this instance, we found a keeper. The Apple and the Arrow captivated my three boys from the get-go. The fact the I looked forward to the next chapter as eagerly as my boys did made them quite happy as we sped our way through this book. I love books that are rich in vocabulary and descriptive. In an age where many newer books have stunted beginners vocabulary, it is a delight to find an older book like this one.
We talked about the feelings evoked from Rossini’s William Tell Overture, looked up pictures of Switzerland and daydreamed about going there someday (well, at least I did anyways).
Afterwards, we went outside and had one boy put an apple on his head, while the rest of us counted out 60 paces to get a feel for how scary it was for William Tell to take the stand against the tyrant leader and risk his son’s life.
It was a beautiful opportunity to discuss our working definition of courage.
We marveled at William Tell’s courage. We marvelled at his son’s courage. And the boys eagerly practiced manifesting such courage for the rest of the day. {Imagine 3 boys carefully taking aim at apples, tied up and being rowed across the lake in the lazy boy and hightailing it high up the stairs, I mean the Alps. Greta is turning out to be quite the napper…}
As a mother of 3 future men, I couldn’t be more thankful for the opportunity to explore this area of character with them over the last month.
And of course, with apples on the mind, we made some yummy apple/granola sandwiches! My boys are obsessed with making lunch ALL-BY-THEMSELVES and this lunch was a huge hit. Aside from me having to core and slice the apples, they were able to assemble their own sandwiches. We ended up preferring our apple sandwiches open-faced.
I love it! Great activities! I read that book with my son when he was in 3rd grade and will be reading it to my daughter next year. We did a lapbook to go along with the story, but next time maybe I’ll try some of your activities as well.