Work Plans for the Week of March 31, 2014: Out!

Last week was knocked a little off-kilter when Syd came down with a fever on Tuesday. Fortunately, she was feeling all better the next day, but by the end of the week, *I* had a cold, and, of course, I still have it. But nevertheless, there was a lot of building and playing and cooking and balloon animal making and hiking and reading and a respectable amount of schoolwork done for the week, so whatever we didn't get done, I kept on the schedule for this week!

MONDAY: I don't know what's not appealing about building the skip counting board--I have all the materials temptingly out and ready, AND both kids spent most of Thursday morning with the woodworking tools, building swords out of PVC pipes for themselves and a friend's birthday, so clearly the concept is a winner, but it still hasn't happened. To be fair, Syd's Math Mammoth units last week were all hands-on measurement tasks (which threw me for a loop, since I don't usually scan them ahead of time, AND I often bring them with us to do when we're out and about--not too helpful to pull it out midway through a hike, only to discover that Syd actually needs a quart jar, pint jar, and measuring cup to do her math that day, sigh...), so she was pretty full up on hands-on math enrichment and practical construction without it.

Frankly, we didn't get much done last Monday--I may have to rethink this day's schedule. We've got that two-hour volunteer gig, then when we get home we're wiped out for at least an hour, and today we're actually at the public library right now, where the kids just collected another stack of children's books for their Early Literacy Center from the library bookstore's free day, but they're reading Snoopy comics instead of doing any schoolwork because I didn't think ahead and plan anything portable-to-the-library for this day. If we don't have a productive afternoon after our volunteer gig later today, I'll have to think about what I can shift to make Mondays work better for us.

TUESDAY: I DID plan portable schoolwork for this day, because the goal is to spend what's supposed to be a gorgeous day completely out and about. Will is hoping to plan a multi-cach geocaching adventure along a popular cross-town biking and walking trail (the geocaching expert we met a few weeks ago assured us that there are many geocaches to be found there), and then we'll likely spend the rest of the day at the local hands-on science museum. Fortunately, First Language Lessons is extremely portable; I had the foresight to check Syd's Math Mammoth ahead of time and switch a couple of lessons so that her math on this day is portable; and you can memorize a Latin translation of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" anywhere.

Will is still on Kumon multiplication drills, although her memorization is coming along really quickly now that she's realized that I won't let her calculate her way out of it any longer. She's a big project planner, too, although not always a great project completer, so I've asked her to write her own lists of projects that she'd like to complete this week, as well as note any of the schoolwork that Syd and I are doing that she'd like to participate in. I'm hoping, this way, to get a little-more follow-through, and push past her "Oh, I know I said I wanted to do such-and-such, but I actually can't bear to put down my book for long enough to do it for real, and if you make me then I'll pitch a giant fit" inclinations.

WEDNESDAY: Horseback riding lessons, Magic Tree House Club, LEGO Club, and hopefully lots of time leftover for catapult building and toy dinosaur taming and tire swinging (and playroom cleaning?).

THURSDAY: Syd's almost finished earning her Potter badge! This day's task is to make some art pieces; I think that we're going to try forming beads around paper clips. Last Thursday, the whole day was spent making swords, playing at our homeschool group's playgroup, and then dropping Will off at the library for several hours, so the rest of Thursday's activities are leftovers from last week. There are supposed to be thunderstorms THIS Thursday, though, so we'll either be super productive because of the rainy day, or spend the day in the basement watching movies to distract the kids from tornado sirens. Coin flip!

Hopefully, the storms won't spoil the kids' first 4H meeting on this night. I have a feeling that Will might really like to be on the Hippology Bowl team. ( I know, right? Hippology Bowl!)

FRIDAY: Math class is always a big hit (On the way home from last week's class, Will said, dismissively, "I understand negative numbers quite well"), and last week it turned out that A History of US was a big hit, too! I'm really liking it, as well, and I think it's going to be very useful for our Indiana study and the studies of the states that we'll be visiting on our big road trip this summer.

Syd's been planning to bake the cats a treat from a cat food cookbook that we own, but hasn't gotten around to it, so I put it on this day's work plan as a pleasant surprise. I'm also planning on having her start some more regular creative writing, and I'm hoping to tempt Will to join us. Incidentally, I'm researching non-writing methods of storytelling--videotape? Tape recorder? Stop-action film?

I really like the clip art in the Eyewitness books--they're great for timeline images!--so as Hammurabi's last hurrah, I think that Syd will really like choosing images from Eyewitness Mesopotamia to put on our big timeline.

SATURDAY/SUNDAY: A Girl Scout program, perhaps a roller derby game, and Syd's first Trashion/Refashion Show rehearsal are all on the schedule, but this last weekend was so hectic (Birthday party! Nature class! Earth Hour! World Cultures Festival! My terrible, horrible, no good, very bad COLD!!!) that I may insist that when we're not with the Girl Scouts, or at the roller derby, or on the runway, we all just sit quietly on our butts on the couch.

And I better NOT be still sick!