I worked on some sewing projects for Hannah's theatre class, put a new patch on Noah's Tae Kwon Do uniform (the Grand Master is in town), brushed the pool, and other various chores. We did some group lessons, and then I made lunch. The fact that a friend's daughter has stayed with us all week while her parents are celebrating their 20th anniversary in Puerto Rico is not even mentionable because she blends in so well I forget she doesn't live here all the time. Except for her laughing at my sarcastic and terribly fake British accent from time to time.
It is somewhat comical how often I have no idea what lunch is going to be until it is upon us. Thursday was no different. But I did want to try a new recipe and I wanted to bake something. I scrolled through my "Recipes: Paleo Inspiration" Pinterest board and stumbled upon a Paleo Lemon Blueberry Scone. I had all the ingredients. I decided that a Paleo Scone and Protein Smoothie sounded like a wonderful lunch. It was. All the kids agreed, evidenced by not a scrap of food or smoothie being left over.
During our afternoon readings about famous men from the 16th and 17th centuries, we came across the name of a disease no one knew about, scurvy. And, since I tell the children continually to look up words they do not understand, we looked up scurvy. On Wikipedia. Of course. We were marveling at the history of the first reports, attempted treatments, modern day occurances, etc. After derailing from our biographical sketch, we returned to find out about what happened after the settlers recovered from their Vitamin C deficiency.
For the last two weeks, we have been studying about Shakespeare during our history readings. Noah loves all things Shakespeare. We were reading about the Globe Theatre on Tuesday when Noah said he wanted to see photos of the New Globe Theatre (yes, so he could rebuild it in Legos). Derailed again, we went a-googling, and Wikipedia saved the day. In our searching, we found out that the plays that the new (1997) Shakespeare Globe Theatre puts on during the summer have been recorded. So we ordered a few on DVD and they arrived on Thursday. So, the plan for school today was to finish up all work for the week and then sit down for a viewing of Much Ado About Nothing performed in the rebuilt Globe Theatre by world-class actors. Oh, the laughing, and shrieks of joy, followed by gasps of shock (this is Shakespeare, and he had to make the groundlings happy). Applause and laughing ended the 3 hour field trip to London in my living room. Seriously, anyone who thinks Shakespeare is boring needs to see it performed.
These are the days that remind me why we are on this crazy homeschooling journey. I don't remember many days of school growing up, but I can already hear my children telling of the day they curled up on the couch and were researching scurvy and being thankful a local grocery store (so as to avoid the same fate as those French colonists), or how they rushed to finish their school assignments so they could indulge in an afternoon with the Bard of Avon guessing which characters were good and which were villains, and beckoning "that was for the groundlings!"
