Month: October 2017

The stars aligned and neither of the boys had a hockey game on Saturday so we slept late and then headed north to New Hampshire. Destination? Our favorite farm….Applecrest.

CHECK OUT APPLECREST HERE

We fed the goats….for like ever….because I really can’t get enough.  We took a ride past the corn fields to the apple orchards….even though we didn’t actually pick apples.  The boys strolled through the pumpkins to find the ones. We listened to the Monadnock Bluegrass Band play some pretty sweet music. We drank some cider and smoothies.  We shopped a lot in their gorgeous new barn shop….and ate some pumpkin whoopie pies in the sun before heading home.  The ride up there, if you take the back roads, is super pretty and only adds to the awesomeness of the day.

If you’re looking for a new farm to visit this should be it!  We’ve been bringing the boys since they were tiny.  The Storybook Hayride, put on by the theater department of a local high school, was one of Thatcher and Finn’s favorite fall traditions for several years in a row.  While the boys also love some of the farms closer to us with the potato launchers, paint ball, bouncy jump pillows, and go karts…. even they can agree that there is something undeniably special about simply being together at Applecrest.  The fall foliage, live music, delicious smells, baked goods, orchards, hay rides, and farm animals were exactly what we needed as we took a break from our over-scheduled and rushed weekends.  The fact that the farm is also incredibly dog friendly is a huge plus in my boys’ books.  They must have met 20 dogs along the way the other day.  Applecrest is the kind of place that strangers end up chatting, folks seem to be taking their time, and a perfect fall day unfolds around you while you can simply sit and take it all in.

Did I mention that they have a new outdoor bistro that serves wine and beer as well?  Shot, score.

Come join us for this FREE Curriculum Spotlight focusing on how young children best learn a second language

Thursday, October 26th, 8:45 a.m. – 9:45 a.m 

Harborlight Montessori, 243 Essex Street Beverly, MA   978-922-1008

www.engageyourworld.org

As the only school on the North Shore currently offering language immersion in our preschool and kindergarten classrooms as well as weekly lessons in Spanish and Chinese to children from PK – Grade 8, Harborlight Montessori has created a language experience that allows our students to learn systematically and organically.  Our World Language faculty members are all native speakers, which helps to create a genuine, meaningful, and effective curriculum.

Please join us as Harborlight’s Director of World Language, Sandra Lee, shares her vast knowledge and expertise concerning the most effective way to help young children learn a foreign language.  She will share why exposure to a second language should begin at an early age, how second language acquisition is approached at Harborlight, useful online tools to promote further language acquisition at home, and discuss some common misconceptions about second language learning.

Sandra Lee is the Director of World Languages at Harborlight Montessori in Beverly, as well as a Teacher in the Children’s House Program. She has authored both articles and books on the subject of second language learning in young children.

Watch these two short videos of our young students using both Chinese and Spanish as a part of their language immersion and/or language lessons.

Finn and I had to pull over in North Andover the other day to take these photos of the fall reflections on Stevens Pond.