Projects: A Fruitful Week

One of the HUGE blessings of home educating our children is the ability to train them in life skills as well as teach them the academic stuff. So, last week we set aside the book work (or at least most of it) and worked on various projects. My mother came over from AL to stay with us- what a blessing to have Nanny on hand to teach the children and also help me! :) Here is a review of last week:

On Saturday, October 17th, we traveled way up North to pick apples. Eric's family joined us, as well as my mother. It was COLD! (But not cold enough to justify all of the heavy winter coats I saw people wearing!) Because it was cold (and raining), we decided to pick only a half of a bushel and buy the rest of the apples from the store. We came home with two and half bushels total. Here are a few pictures:









Here is one of all the cousins (Jonathan is there... look hard!):


So, the BIG project last week was making applesauce. (Hence the reason it was a fruitful week. ;) In addition to canning 38 jars, we also did some machine sewing and knitting. (My mother also worked on a quilt.) Patricia helped Nanny cut out a pattern for machine sewing- great learning experience! Patricia finally started using this book to help her learn how to knit. I am amazed at how well she is doing with her first small project, which is a knitted square flag. She has great tension & is careful to check each row before beginning a new one. :)

Here are a few pictures of our week with Nanny:





What a blessing to have Nanny help teach the children:






Look at how BIG Abigail is getting:


I finished making a Christmas gift for Victoria:


With Nanny here, I actually had my picture taken with Abigail:




The week ended with a piano recital last Saturday (I'll post about it soon!). My father was able to come also, as he had to pick up Mom to take her home. They both helped the children make a table decoration out of pumpkins and candles. Look how pretty (my father was cleaning up so he didn't make it into a picture... you know, it was so nice to have an extra set of grown-up hands to help me clean last week!):




- Heather