Work Plans for the Week of April 21, 2014: Actively without a Plan

It's Trashion/Refashion Show week! Syd will be walking the runway wearing her original design, Upside-Down Orange, at 7:00 pm on Sunday; they also make all the designers walk at the end of the show, so I need to buy some jeans that fit before then. And figure out the kid's hairstyle. And her make-up. And her shoes. And practice, practice, practice!

We've got a busy week even without fashion show business. We're heading up to Indy tomorrow, where the public tour department of the Indiana Statehouse has invited us to jump into a schoolchildren's field trip tour of the building, and then I'm hoping to head from there over to the Eiteljorg to enhance the Native American portion of our Indiana history unit.

On Thursday, Will's been asked to participate in the filming of some promotional/marketing material for the IU Art Museum, so Syd and I will work puzzles at the Lily Library, tour the Jordan Hall Greenhouse, and perhaps bowl in the IMU bowling alley while Will is learning more about art, advertising, and the film industry.

Over the weekend, both kids have 4-H workshops on geology and recycling, and then Will has an additional workshop on bottle rockets (must remember to arm her with a plastic 2-liter soda bottle from somewhere) while Syd and I are at Trashion/Refashion Show dress rehearsal.

And that's not to mention, of course, a full week's worth of volunteering, extracurriculars, play dates, Park Day, and chess club.

So the academic plan for the week is to bow to these activities, really immersing ourselves in them and allowing ourselves to focus on them. When we're home, the children should be steadily working on their International Fair project (I need to make an assignment sheet for this today, with a list of the required components), and Will has some work to do today concerning state government, so that she really understands the information in our tour tomorrow. I've also got three written assignments that they'll need to complete each day:

1. Two units each in a Kumon math drill book--word problems for Will and geometry (which also covers measurement and time telling, oddly) for Syd. The subjects are pretty much review, because the kids will need to be able to complete these assignments independently on a couple of days, but they'll reinforce concepts and keep them thinking mathematically.
2. One page each in A-Z Mystery flags--Syd happily does cursive copywork, but Will can't be forced into it, so I bought this book, with her pre-approval, as an attempt at mediation. I'm going to start one kid in the book back-to-front, so they can't tip each other off about the answer to each day's mystery flag. 
3. One page in their journals--The kids each have this journal, and for now I just ask them to write *something*. Syd does like to draw a picture and write about something that she's done that day, but Will mostly does lists--books she's read that day (a shocking number, every time), items received in a package from a pen pal, gifts in her Easter basket, etc.

With a few hands-on projects strewn in, plenty of outdoor play, and always more gardening to do, that will be our week!