Homeschooling Summary for Last Week: The End of Summer Vacation

The plan is to start school this week. We are doing a mini co-op with some joy school friends. She will teach science on Tuesdays and I will teach History/Geography on Thursdays.  Regular days will be phonics and math focused. All three of my kiddos are signed up for 10 lessons of the "Music Together" curriculum. Plus big sister A has gymnastics and an art class. Whew! We are going to be busy.

Last week we went to our local orchard and purchased 4 boxes of "seconds" - 2 bushels of apples, 1 of peaches, and one of orange peppers. The peaches were delicious and perfectly ripe. I set aside about a dozen of the most firm and the rest went into bellies, one peach pie, and 4 quart size freezer bags. The kiddos loved peeling the blanched skins off the peaches.
We made one bushel of apples into sauce. The cousins all took turns turning the apple peeler.

Peeling apples

Our local outdoor pool closed a week earlier than we had anticipated and so we had some very disappointed kiddos. Luckily, the neighbors had given us a wading pool that their grandkids outgrew.

Coloring and reading with the cousins is always fun too. This week they received a special package of coloring supplies from their great grandma Goomie.  Some of the kiddos found making magic wands and towers out of the markers to be more fun than coloring with them.