Lego airport

Before leaving for vacation I always try to get all the chores done, the house, clean, the important jobs taken care of. It's supposed to make the return to the norm easier on the other side. Why is it, then, that coming home from vacation is always such a mess? I'm sure that landing after midnight had a little to do with it this time, but by and large, it takes me at least a few days, if not a whole week, to recover from a week away. Only some of it is the laundry (how do we amass twice as much laundry per amount of time when we're away from home?), there's also the unpacking, and the vacuuming (because I do understand how the dog's shed twice as much hair per time when we're away), and just the reacclimating, I guess. And this time there was also wedding picture editing to get done, and a book sale to prepare for.

All this to say that, in spite of my careful planning to return to our regularly scheduled weekly activities by Wednesday, we didn't actually get to them until Saturday, and that's never regularly scheduled anyway. Calvin did practice the piano and complete the previous week's math, and we did get our chores done, but other than that you could call this our first try with unschooling. Wednesay and Thursday Calvin was pretty much on his own, and in that time he designed and built an airplane out of Legos. Then he added an airport. And to top it al off, he wrote of instructions for the project on his computer. All self driven. It was a fun experiment of sorts, but at the end of the two days we were both ready to return to our regularly scheduled program.

A designer at work...

A brand new passenger jet

(perhaps a flight I'd rather not be on)

I'll bet those passengers are thankful to be pulling up at the gate...

As the passengers disembark, let's get a good look at the pay phone in the airport. That's right, a pay phone.

After that flight, the first passengers into the gate stopped off at the pub to check out the rotating taps

A quick turnaround—the representative at the gate is already announcing boarding for the next flight

There they go, boarding via the jetway

Tinkering with robotics

I love when inspiration hits (think: "You got chocolate in my peanut butter!" "You got peanut butter in my chocolate!")

This weekend: Lego Mindstorms meets Tinker Crate.

It started with a zoetrope assembly, then the question "Do you think we can rig Tracker to run it?", followed by a lot of planning, a fair amount of trial and error, a smidgeon of frustration, and much rejoicing at success.

The Mayas

Yesterday was our montly book sale. Calvin and Jon came to help first thing in the morning, but with Calvin finding a new book to take home every ten minutes, I'm not sure how much help that really was. Between finding books, though, he had a long conversation with the board president about penguins, the difference between the northern and southern hemispheres, the human migration to the Americas, and finally the Mayas. When I got home from the sale (after Jon and Calvin came back to help close the sale and clean up) Calvin and Jon had been, in addition to straightening and shopping, building a Mayan city. They finished it today. A temple, a ball court, farm lands, and even sacrificial altars, the city is now complete. Calvin alternates beween playing "classical era," when the city is inhabited and lively,  and "modern era," when the city is being excavated. It's pretty awesome.

Sunday

Yesterday was our library book sale day. It was the first sale for which I was sole coordinator, not that I didn't have gobs of help. Calvin was bent on helping me, so we left home at 8:30 in the morning and he worked with me until noon, offering bags to shoppers and helping direct those who were lost. In between he would sit and read. His dad picked him up at noon, then they came back at three and helped clean up. We a handful of new books, of which Robin Hood, The Frenzied Prince, Household Stories, and The Nightingale (beautifully illustrated by Eva Le Gallienne), are likely to be our favorites.

But that was yesterday. Today was Legos.

That's quite a collection of people at the train station.

They might be headed to the Natural History Museum.

Or to the game.

Wizards vs. Musketeers?

And cinnamon rolls.

And naps, then Snap Circuits.

Getting back on the horse

Swimming yesterday, a little laundry, some exercising, and lots and lots of work at the library. We have a sale coming up this weekend.

Two journal entries, and handful of math worksheets, lots of Lego play, and lots and lots of reading. We both got some great books for Christmas, after all.

There are still piles of laundry, and we have yet to return to the history train, but between a smattering of unexpected doctor visits and all the prep work for the book sale on Saturday, we're still trying to get back on the normal horse.