Work Plans for the Week of May 5, 2014: Homeschooling that Isn't

If we're homeschoolers, why are we never at home? We got practically no packing done last week, but we did get to math class and horseback riding, a pizza party at the food pantry where we volunteer, the ballet, our homeschool group's Park Day, and our local hands-on science museum (whose limestone carving hands-on activity has made Will interested in it--must make a note to source scrap limestone and small chisels when we're in the new house). Will went to a Girl Scouts event and chess club. Both kids also had an all-day nature class on Saturday, so Matt and I went to a movie!

Nevertheless, the kids did have acres of time every day to read and listen to audiobooks, often in the company of various cats and/or chickens. There's been a LEGO renaissance around here, so more acres of time have been spent building up elaborate universes, playing in them, and then tearing them down to build another universe. Bug trapping and sidewalk chart drawing  and racetrack building were all major activities, and Will made plans for a lemonade stand, going as far as testing a recipe that, while it did give you tons of energy for about five minutes, had so much sugar in it that it was actually thick. Yum!

The kids also, of course, had math, cursive, and journal assignments every day, and they worked on their International Fair project every day:

I'll tell you later about our DIY chalkboard tri-fold project display. It worked great!

 Will reads the newspaper every day now--

--and not just the comics page, either. She also keeps up steady work on various Girl Scout badges every day, including buying a geocaching travel bug with her own money. She wants it to go to Egypt!

Syd's also been working hard on her Girl Scouts badges. Here's her most recently updated vest, just after I finished muscling a couple more patches onto it (combination of ironing and glue is ALWAYS required, sigh...): 

We haven't made the violet jelly yet, but we've got several batches of violets steeping and ready:

This week, the kids also have math, cursive, and journal every day, along with a daily hands-on project--got to get that violet jelly made, and some work done on our Arkansas unit study, and Syd needs to learn how to shake hands politely and make introductions for her Making Friends Girl Scout badge. Will just finished researching the candidates in our local primary elections and giving me her endorsements, so we're off to walking to our polling place in a minute. Tennis lessons start this week, and now that Syd is eight, she's officially enrolled in aerial silks class! There's a gardening program at the library, and LEGO club, and our homeschool group's Park Day, and math class, and a playdate, and a pottery class on Saturday that, while it won't last long enough for Matt and I to go to a movie this time, WILL last long enough for us to go out to lunch!

I need to make a better effort to integrate packing into our days, but school and play and introspection and reading always seem to take precedence over chores (as they should, right?). I have offered to pay the children $5 for each workbook (math drills, mostly) that they complete so that I don't have to pack and move it, and my other major goal is to organize and pack all of our books all together--Matt says that although, yes, labeling every single non-fiction book with its Dewey Decimal number IS going overboard, he will abide by an organization system based on Dewey's indexing categories.

So both kids will SURELY be able to alphabetize by the end of *that* project, yes?