Work Plans for the Week of March 30, 2015: SCIENCE!!!!!!!!!!11!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am ready to have a Project Week here, so I can take a break from writing lesson plans and the kids and I can take a break from doing formal lessons, BUT our homeschool group's Science Fair is on Wednesday, so if we've got Science Fair prep to do for three days out of four, then we might as well do our other subjects, and the kids have so many extracurriculars on Thursday that I might as well just add in the extra couple of subjects that complete their schedule and make it a full school day, and then that's a full school week!

But we're definitely having a Project Week next week. We might even have two!

This week, though, is all about the science:

MONDAY: Our day began bright and early with a field trip with our Girl Scout troop to a local co-op grocery store to learn about Fair Trade. We went straight from there to our volunteer gig at a local food pantry, and then FINALLY got home around 2:30 and segued immediately into a late lunch and then outside playtime.

Whenever the kids come in sweaty and tired, that's the time to mellow down with afternoon schoolwork. They both have badges that they want to complete before they Bridge to their next Girl Scout levels, they both have Science Fair work to complete, and Syd has Math Mammoth (temperature measurement, a review, and then division) while Will, whose Math Mammoth was unable to be printed because my printer crapped out and needs a new part, has Kumon fifth-grade word problems this week.

TUESDAY: Hopefully, the kids will completely finish their Science Fair projects today, so that they only have to rehearse on Wednesday.

Hoffman Academy and First Language Lessons lessons are easy to knock out, and then the kids will spend the evening at Science Club and Matt and I will spend it at a Mexican restaurant. Yay!

WEDNESDAY: Will has horseback riding, and the required homework to complete before that class, although, as she was thoroughly informed, she put up enough guff about that homework last week to seriously threaten the possibility of me signing her up for another session after this one. Will she straighten up this week, or am I on the verge of saving a LOT of money this summer? Time will tell...

Syd doesn't currently take horseback riding, so she has an extra school slot to fill on Wednesdays, as Will does on Thursdays since she isn't taking gymnastics with Syd. Syd's been longing for Perler bead My Little Pony figures like we saw at Comic Con a few weeks ago, so I bought the beads, we painstakingly sorted them (WHY do they not come sorted?!? I know good and well that they make them in single colors in the factory! GRRR!!!!!), and on this day she can try her hand at the craft. Just between you and me, I anticipate plenty of tears spilled doing this--Perler beads are fiddly!

This day is already crazy science-heavy, what with the Science Fair and its prep, but the kids LOVE Zoology for Kids, they can do it independently, and it'll be a nice day for the outdoor activity that I've assigned them from the book, so might as well!

THURSDAY: We've got our regular homeschool playgroup at a local park on this day, and Syd has gymnastics, but we're also going to try something new this week. Our local animal shelter has a volunteer program in which children are asked to read out loud to shelter cats. The kids will love this, and they've been dying for more volunteer hours (they're trying to earn the Presidential Volunteer Service Award), and I've been wanting a way to get Syd to read something besides Foxtrot and Calvin and Hobbes comics, so win/win/win!

The kids also love the Magic Tree House Club that they attend through Currclick, but I've never encouraged them to explore the club's web site before, even though there are additional resources and activities linked there. I wanted one more academic experience on this day, but I knew that we'd likely all be tired out after all the work of the Science Fair, so having the kids explore that site seemed to be just the perfect thing. I've also given Will a falconry web site to explore; she's been interested in falconry for a while, so I think she'll be pleased to have a source of new information on the subject.

FRIDAY: Our math class is off for the day, which would normally mean that we'd be heading out of town for some adventure or other, BUT Syd's gymnastics class is having a "mock meet," whatever the hell that is. This is her last week of gymnastics for the session, and she loved it a lot. We'll have to skip the next session, because her two straight weeks of ballet recital rehearsals later this month will overlap it, but fortunately these sessions are short, so if she'd like to, we can pick it back up in May.

SATURDAY/SUNDAY: Ballet class, and then Chinese language class on Saturday, and nothing on Sunday but egg hunts and chocolate!