June: Cheese Month

I've had some time to myself lately. 
Okay... maybe 20 minutes, outside of time that I use for showering.
But I've made good use of it.

Michael mentioned in the grocery store the other day that it would be fun at some point to try some of the fancier cheeses in the grocery store that we don't purchase as a rule.

The wheels in my head got turning.  I had been planning on doing either this cheese kit or this mini cheese kit (probably the mini one---we're on a budget) as an educational experience for the fam during our wait.


So I've decided that June will be our obsessive cheese month.

"Un repas sans fromage est une belle à qui il manque un œil."
("A meal without cheese is a beautiful woman with an eye missing.")
~Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826)

Why June?

Ahem...it's after a race that three of the four of us are running (for which I need to start training.)
It's also after my sister's wedding...and there are no craft fairs slated for that month.

But perhaps biggest of all, our little town has a cheese festival every year in June.
Not that it really focuses on cheese any more than any other fried food, but it will be a little activity we could incorporate.

We're trying to stick with educational experiences more than pure fun.
So, here's what I've got bubbling in my head:

• I'm looking for children's books about cheese. (Recommendations accepted!)
• We rarely watch movies as a family, but we may let Million watch Ratatouille one time during that month. (Particularly the scene where the main rat is trying to explain to his brother about flavor combinations...)
• Some activities with string cheese with basic lessons about fractions ("this is a part of the whole; this is a bigger part of the whole" etc.)
• We'll visit a cheese factory.
• Trying our hand at cheesemaking.
• Million can help us make a grilled cheese sandwich and then narrate instructions to teach someone else.
• Watching the milking of a cow
• Something with how the moon is said to look like cheese
• Basic addition and subtraction with "The Farmer in The Dell" (the cheese stands alone)
• May try basic poem-writing/rhyming skills.  A lot rhymes with cheese.  
• I can't think of the name of it right now, but there's that fairy tale about the guy that impressed the ogre by his trickery (squeezing a piece of cheese to make water come out of it, and if I remember right, the ogre thought it was a rock).  We could act out that story. 

 I'm sure I'll think of a few more.