School on the Weekend!

Today we'll probably be too busy packing and getting the house in order to get any "school" done. However, we inadvertantly did school this weekend I think:
Saturday we went to the library and checked out a zillion books. 4 or 5 about Utah and Arizona, and a wide variety of miscellaneous books. I ran into a new homeschooling (hs) friend who asked how I limit or oversee the books the kids check out. Basically, when we're doing a unit study on something, I preorder those online from the library, and then the kids check out whatever they want. I steer them away from dumb paperback series, but experience has taught Elli to look for classics, Caldecott award winners, historical fiction and fantasy. We're still kind of just happy that Grace reads, so, whatever she wants to check out is usually fine. She usually just goes to the O section and grabs as many Magic Treehouse series books she can find. Saturday we found some of the non-fiction research guides that correspond with the series and she is thrilled. Other than that, they have their own totebags and they have to carry their own books. On the trip, they will each have a travel backpack to carry their nature journal/explorer kits, as well as any bears, games, or books they want. That's IT. We're not bringing the whole overflowing "library crate". We must have at least 50 checked out right now.
So besides reading all weekend, we also learned how to can peaches and make 2 kinds of peach pie. (Home Ec and Math.) Elli was in charge of the syrup and doing the math with estimating how much we'd need for 9 qt jars and 8 half-pint jars of fruit. First she doubled the recipe, then she tripled the recipe, then did just a regular batch and that was finally enough syrup. So how many qts of peaches did we can? And how many pints is that? half pints? This time together also gave Elli the opportunity to share her life plan with me. It was fun to spend that time together.
She also worked on her presentation boards for Grace's room redecoration project. We're the designers, and Grace is the client. Elli has two main ideas so she'll present them both and see which direction we should take. (On'tday elltay Racegay: agicmay reehousetay oomray -or- aratekay uppypay oomray....)
Grace didn't do any math or reading this weekend but technically we're not starting school until after Labor Day anyway, so it's all good. She just played and played with Scheich animals, read 2 MTH books and a desert picture book. We finished Charlotte's Web together, watched Babe, and compared the two stories....Today she wants to watch Charlotte's Web so she can compare the book to the movie. Right. She just loves to watch movies.
So does that sound like sound like we homeschooled? We will actually get out textbooks and start math, Latin, and grammar again. Soon. Let's see where we are by the end of September.
Oh- we also discussed the possibility of hosting another exchange student. This one is from Denmark and is an accomplished ballet dancer. Hmm. Could be fun.