I've Got Bills, I've Gotta Pay

Welcome to Career Week! In all honesty, I wasn't sure how this week would go. I've had it in my head how I wanted to structure it, but yesterday morning, I had NOTHING. I gave the boys their first Snow Day/Teacher Planning Day, which is basically where I tell them just to read for the day, and then do whatever they want, as long as the teacher can plan. 

Asa was in the office, so I didn't have him to distract me, and I just got to it. And my five hours or so I spent yesterday putting it all together was totally worth it in just one day. I love when my theme weeks pan out! Peyton especially had some fun activities today. I tried to pick one kid each day to really work with, and he was up first. 

But I'll get to that, first,  here's how it works. The page you see there outlines it all for them (I love using owl mail, it's so easy!), each day they will get a new job on their Career Assignment Worksheet. It tells them their job, and they have to reasearch it. Hayden's is very early elementary school, while Peyton and Calib's are obviously more advanced. (I love Peyton's response today to where he would go to college for his career "Harvard is a good school, but Stanford is a more realistic option", silly boy. Anyway, after that they get their Career Task Card listing a couple of things they need to do for that career for the day. These items include everything from worksheets to apps to hands on activities to chores around the house. Then it lists their pay. (Each kid has one upper class pay career, two middle-class, and one lower class ) 

At first Peyton wasn't thrilled. He was an Environmental Scientist today, and he wasn't loving filling the worksheet out. But, after that he had an ibome app to work through in which you have to balance ecosystems. I wanted him to just do the wetlands, and when he took it off to his room, I was pretty grumpy. I loathe when I spend hours on something and then the boys complain. 

But, an hour later he was still in there working on it, he loved it so much he played through lunch and finished the whole thing. His attitude was adjusted, and I was thrilled. 

After that, he had the hands on activity for the day, and we worked through some experiments in this clean water kit. 

I picked it up at Christmas time on a Lightning Deal for next to nothing, and I didn't have high hopes for it (Science kits seem to be really hit or miss), but this one was super cool. 

Peyton made his own water filtration system. 

Then he dirtied up some water.

Poured it in.. 

And watched it drip through, cleaning it step by step. The book that comes with it explains the science behind each level and gives some fun facts. 

The cup on the left was our dirty water we poured in, the cup on the right is what came through the filters. 

Asa had planned to do some work in the garden today too, we have some new planting to do, so Peyton helped with that. 

And the cats were happy to watch. 

Calib was a Stockbroker today. He had a Khan Academy Lesson to work through, and an app where he got to play the stock market. Then we played Panic on Wallstreet. He went bankrupt though, so I'm not sure he'd be the best stockbroker in the world. However, I really just picked this for him because I have a lesson I've been dying to do, but it's a 10 week project on the stockmarket for high schoolers. I know he could do it, I just wanted to gauge his interest. He seems in, so I'm excited to get to that in the next few weeks.

Hayden meanwhile was a banker. He had some worksheets about money to complete. He got out his play money to help him with the more advanced problem (one of the worksheets was 5th grade level, so I was impressed). Now you'd think doing some math worksheets would seem boring, and on any other day, he totally drags his feet doing it. But, if you tell him he's in training for cashing paychecks later, he's totally on board. 

At the end of the day, we handed out the paychecks. I think they'll get cash the rest of the week, but since we had a banker, we printed out these paychecks to cash. 

He made sure everyone signed the back of their checks, and marked them as cashed, dishing out everyone's money. 

But, before they can go spend their money, they have to pay their bills. There are things they have to pay, and optional things (like internet and cable/netflix). Hayden was all "WHAT?!? All my money is going to bills!?" They also argued they shouldn't have to pay for netflix AND internet. Asa and I told them we had to pay for both, so they did too. They all opted to be able to use the internet and netflix today, by the way, so they all paid the extra. 

Hayden was none too happy about this. 

So Asa made it better by paying the 'I've Got Bills, I've Gotta Pay" song (I don't know what it's actually called). Anyway, anything extra they have left they can save, or they can spend on various perks. If they have money left over on Friday, we'll let them buy points. 

Besides all that I got our presidents up for April.. 

...We have Thomas Jefferson (whose pets include two bear cubs given to him by Lewis and Clark!)  

..James Buchanan (who isn't all that interesting from what I can tell) 

....ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT! (Who named his horse during the Civil War Jeff Davis!) 

.....And James Monroe (Does anyone else think he and Franklin Pierce look a lot a like?) 

I won't have a board up for them for probably two weeks, can anyone guess what three of them have in common? I'll have to pull a John Tyler and figure something out for James Buchanan who doesn't quite fit in with the theme. 

Next Up: Career Week Day 2! I might not have a ton of pictures for what I've got planned for tomorrow but I am most excited about it!