So Much for Planning...

Last week did not work out as planned. Instead, Tuesday I came home with a sore throat and a wicked headache. The Boy's two friends had missed class on Monday due to much the same complaint, and by Wednesday, The Boy was sick too. I missed work Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday... The Boy missed school Wednesday... The Girl was sick by Thursday. We spent the days sleeping as much as we could, living on soup and hot tea, with frequent doses of elderberry, vitamin C, and echinacea.

The Boy is still not fully recovered today, and so I kept him home again. His plan is to spend the morning working on his current art class project, to get caught up, and maybe even a little ahead. I returned to one job today, but am offering only online support for the other. I tried tutoring yesterday, and ended up with a massive coughing fit partway through. The Girl has a really horrendous sounding cough still. We also missed fencing class, and an in-club tournament, derby practice, and even my class.

UGH.

About the only thing we got done, when feeling better here and there, was a little homeschooling. They both worked on math. The Boy did a lesson from The Lively Art of Writing, and did it quite well. The Girl, after complaining about her reading abilities, read out loud to me from one of her Cinderella books...and she did it beautifully. I hooked her up with some spelling words this week on Spelling City, and will continue to have her practice reading aloud throughout the week.

And we watched the first episode of Human Planet (which is very good!), and read a little from The Magic of Reality. That was it for the week, besides watching Edward Scissorhands. Oh, we also watched a lot of The Worst Cook in America, and The Great Food Truck Race, both on Netflix. I can tell when The Girl has been watching a lot of foodie shows, because then she makes desserts like this one (notice the attention to plating, and the "textural contrast" of the granola)...

Coconut Greek yogurt, with sauteed bananas and a homemade caramel sauce.

Also, during a brief bout of energy, the kids built the bottle rocket from our free Tinker Crate kit...

They launched it a number of times, trying out both the included citric acid + baking soda, as well as vinegar + baking soda. It launched well most of the time, and I think The Boy got footage on his GoPro.

My honest opinion of Tinker Crate? Well, I think they certainly serve a place in the market. If getting around to hands-on activities is hard for your family, then this is a fabulous option, as the kids can really do most, if not all, of it themselves. We've had some good fun with the one we got, but chose not to subscribe, as we aren't sure the cost is equaled in the value of the supplies/projects.

So on the agenda:
Mondays are never "school" days for us, really, as The Boy is usually gone all day, and when he gets home in the early evening, after a full day of classes, I hate to make him do more. Hopefully by tomorrow we will be getting back to normal.

More math -- this is going very well right now. I have The Girl working on various lessons in multiplication, division, and place value, from Math Mammoth. She likes that I am mixing it up a bit, so she's not doing just one thing every day. The Boy hasn't gotten anything below 96% on a lesson yet in Teaching Textbooks.

Language Arts --  The Boy will hopefully finish chapter 1 in The Lively Art of Writing. The Girl will be working on spelling, reading aloud, and maybe some work from her old Writing Skills book.

The Boy is studying for his first midterm, which he is very glad will be an open-note test.

I want to get back to having some sort of physical activity planned for each day, but right now that depends on the coughing fits.

We'll probably watch another episode of Human Planet, read some more from The Magic of Reality, get in another few chapters of The Shakespeare Stealer, and some more Cinderella.

Besides homeschooling, I am taking my dad to the doctor this week for a follow-up. I plan to return to my junior college on-campus office hours Wednesday, and I have somewhere around 60 essays to grade over the next week or so. The Boy hopes to get back to fencing by Friday, and The Girl back to derby by Thursday. We are really hoping to hang out with friends on Friday, as we haven't seen them in two+ weeks, due to one thing or another.

I had a brief burst of usefulness yesterday evening too, and made a giant bowl of pasta salad, and a big pot of butternut squash-orange-ginger soup.

We'll watch Sleepy Hollow, or maybe Beetlejuice, this week for family movie night, and at some point soon, the kids and I will be watching Sweeney Todd (M has no interest in re-watching it).

We also need to catch up on housework...again. I had a burst of energy last week, before getting sick, and cleaned the kitchen and living room, and had the kids clean the family room. Unfortunately, things fell back apart after that, but I think we'll catch up again fairly quickly.

On my way out for the day, here's a picture of our nature observation from a few days ago... spider versus bee, and the spider won:

Anyhow, have a good week!