Change of plans - already!

Well, all of my great plans are now seriously rearranged. I forgot that Grandma is taking the kids to Door County for several days between Ga'hoole Girl's piano camp and the Fair - they're going to tour lighthouses and make a DVD about them (sounds suspiciously educational). Sooooo, I am not starting our "real" school year until after the Fair. I am still doing the Electricity TOPS with Wild Man while Ga'Hoole Girl is at piano camp. But, everything else gets pushed back. (The good news is that I'm using the Lesson Plan function of Homeschool Tracker Plus, so the assignments will be deleted from the calendar, but they're still in the lesson plans for me to use in a few weeks.)

I am going to make a list of things that the kids can do if they ever feel tempted to tell me they are bored or "need something to do" (Wild Man says that so that he doesn't use the actual word "bored"). Otherwise, we'll do some reading and Ga'Hoole Girl will be working on her Fair projects.

The good news is that I'm reading The Underground History of American Education by John Gatto and am being reminded about the importance of letting kids learn by exploring and being self-directed. It is amazing what they do when they are "bored". There were several days in the weeks before Family Camp in which the kids didn't think to ask for media until late in the evening. They spent the days drawing, reading, and playing. Then, of course, there were the days in which they acted like they would die of boredom without media. I'll try to remember the former days and forget the latter!

I finished reading several books at Family Camp. I'll write more about them later. Suffice it to say that I have been very impacted by Desiring God by John Piper. I am also working on Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World by Joanna Weaver and just finished The Language of God by Francis Collins. More on all that later. Of course, right now we're reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.