Thanksgiving...Algebra??

We had the blessing of being able to drive just a few short hours over to my folks house for Thanksgiving. Given that we homeschool and that my husband's a pilot, we don't always hold the most typical schedule - especially on holidays.  This Thanksgiving Dennis was on call so we really weren't sure how the holiday would play out.  We hedged our bets and arrived a few days early just in case we'd have to have the big meal on a Wednesday.  All this shuffling of the schedule naturally affected our homeschooling days as well.  I suppose we could have taken the whole week off, but to those of you teaching math to non-math gifted kids, you know how easy it is to lose momentum once the train is rolling.  With this in mind, here's how the week went.

Tuesday was a travel day and upon arrival, a fishing day too.

Hoping to catch "The Big One".

  On Wednesday we found out Dennis would most likely not be working so we pushed the big meal to Thursday. Wednesday was a day for indoor surfing. 

Kat tries out boogie boarding on indoor wave.

Thursday morning was a great time to head out to the St. Pete Times Turkey Trot.  The kids ran (and we walked) the 1 mile Gobbler. 

When we got home my mom put the turkey in the oven.  Dinner was scheduled for 4pm and it was now about 11am.  What to do for 5 hours?  Let's see... how about... algebra!  "What?" exclaimed Emily and James in disgust and protest.  "You want us to do school on Thanksgiving?" I know it may seem harsh to some people, but the truth is, we homeschool so we can teach and learn when it is convenient for us.  We take days off when others have to go to school. Why should we not do school on days when others have off?  This did not go over well with the kids, but once we got the math problems on the table and started working, they resigned themselves to this form of torture.  Actually, all we wanted to do was a little review so they wouldn't be so lost when we got back into the swing of things.  It was meant to be helpful, not punishment.  Emily and Kat got their work done fairly quickly, but this time it was James who need a little extra review.  Although it took longer than expect (and there may have been a few tears)  truth is it was time well spent.  Persevering through things we don't want to do - like math - when we don't really want to do them - is one of life's great lessons. 

If we want to our kids to think and act 'outside of the box', then we really have to take them 'outside of the box'.  This time it meant algebra on Thanksgiving. Next time it will be something different. Who knows, maybe I'll have them write their blog on Christmas Day.  Humm.. now that's an idea!