Work Plans for the Week of November 11, 2013: Project Week!

Identical work plans for both kids:
And the list of projects!

We have reached a critical build-up of checked out library materials, disastrously close to a cross-country trip to California that we're planning later this month. Combine that with a bunch of projects that the girls kept coming up with last week ("Momma, can I learn to sew sometime soon?" "Momma, I wish that I knew how to solder."), and we've got a project week this week!

In perfect sneaky Montessori-style, there are kid picks and Momma picks for each day--the kid picks are how I'm apparently going to teach Will to solder this week (Wish me luck!) and trace out a simple fleece pants pattern to walk Syd through (No hemming!) and supervise the making of chocolate mousse meringue pie (Yum!!!), and the Momma picks are how we're finally going to get those animal biology portfolios bound, and that record album clock numbered, and those get-well-soon cards written before Mr. Dale does, in fact, get well.

Another project I'll be interested in seeing if they choose is this bird bath business. We have a gorgeous blue sink in the garage, one that I bullied Matt into picking up off of the side of the road YEARS ago so that "we can make a bird bath with it!" Every now and then one of the kids will bring up that stinkin' sink and gripe that we haven't made our bird bath yet, so when Will brought it up yet again at our family meeting on Sunday, I put the dang thing on the project list. Just between you and me, I am completely over any plans that I once had to build an upcycled sink bird bath, but if a kid picks it off the list, then a bird bath we will build!

We'll be keeping up our same memory work this week, and I'm sneaking in a bunch of extra Math Mammoth as a break from all the hands-on projects. I'm also going to be processing the couple of bushels of apples in our kitchen, and hopefully getting some Crafting a Green World posts scheduled before our trip.

And by this time next week, we'll be back on schedule with our last full week of school before Thanksgiving vacation, happy with a pared-down to-do list and a reasonably populated library shelf.