Angelina's Garden

It’s Open House!  But, probably not the kind of open house you are thinking!

Its intimate and only about 8 people attend.

Sometimes we serve lemonade and cookies, sometimes we don’t.

It takes about two hours to set up and just 15 minutes to see.

It’s  that time in the summer when we pull out all the workbooks, notebooks, projects and art from the just finished school year and display it for Dad and anyone else who wants to view what’s been happening in our home school.

We call this Open House.  And, we have actually, in the past, made invitations and invited neighbors over to have refreshments and browse our school work.  Elderly neighbors and relatives have come bearing cards and congratulations on a school year successfully completed.  A couple of times, we’ve had curious neighbors come by to see what this homeschooling thing is all about.  But, these days, we just pull it all out and show the family or whoever happens to be at the house.

Here’s what comes out:  All the books that have been read, all the projects that have been finished, all the papers that have been written… and all the notebooks, math workbooks and the art and the maps, everything comes out for display.

Then, it has to get displayed on the dining room table.

“I make a display of all the books I’ve read and the things I’ve done. I like making it look good by stacking the books in certain ways,” says my rising 6th grader.  And, of course, it has to be  neat and colorful and stacked and vast.

My 21 year old daughter, a former student of this household loves to come to the open house table and peruse the books.  “I loved that book! she said this year about By the Great Horn Spoon. “I remember the weird characters in there.”

Other family members stop by the table, and occasionally a friend or neighbor.

Then, Dad comes to the table!  When he comes, he brings questions and comments.  Here are a few of our favorites:

What was your favorite book you read this year?

What assignment here are you most proud of completing this year?

Read me a little bit of your best story.

Why did you make a 52 on that test?

Who was your favorite teacher?

Who’s the most popular kid in your school?

After Dad has seen all the hard work, we pack it up into a box and label the year.  In this case, its 2017 – 2018.  I keep these boxes back at least five years in case anybody comes asking what we’re doing around here every day.

Now, we are ready for the new school year.