Homeschool Mother's Journal: In Which We Consider History

In our homeschool... even though our school days were short, it felt like we packed a lot into them!  Our history lessons covered the Pilgrims and Puritans settling in New England; and the colonies in New Hampshire, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island and the Carolinas.  Whew!  That's a lot to cover in just a few days!  The Maryland colony lesson was particularly interesting to us because we've visited Historic St Mary's City a few times so we had a little bit of personal connection with that information.  (I posted a History Lesson on St Augustine and plan on putting one together with pictures from our St Mary's trips soon.)  We also got started on a couple of books we're reading to go along with the history study, and Kennady is very excited to be working on a Pilgrim costume she can wear.  (Around the end of the month, I will be sharing my review of the resource we're using to make the costumes - Costumes with Character from Golden Prairie Press.)

We got a little bit of a start on classical astronomy with the book Signs and Seasons.  The boys are starting to figure out how to lay out their backyard compass and we're hoping to have it working by the end of next week.

Everyone had some schoolwork to do on their own as well - Language Arts, Math, Auto Upkeep, or Art.  Or some combination.  Not everything was completed that was supposed to be, but I guess we're still finding our rhythm.  We have one more week to do that before it's interrupted by vacation, and then we'll probably have to start all over with Homeschool Boot Camp.  And nobody wants that!

In other news.... again this week we spent a fair amount of time watching the Olympics, but it trailed off towards the end of the week.  Just found it harder to get into the Athletics for the most part.

Last weekend we worked around the house during the day on Saturday, then went out for dinner in the evening.  Somehow we lucked out and hit town on some special "Dog Days of Summer" promotion thing downtown and everybody and their dog was out.  Literally.  I like dogs, but find it a little odd when people dress their dogs in costumes or take them out in strollers.  And it was crowded.  Thankfully, dogs are still not allowed in restaurants, so our meal was not interrupted.  Or not interrupted by dogs anyway.  We did have a visit from Natty Bo in the Irish-American pub restaurant we chose!

At long last, I was able to be at Civil Air Patrol when Landon was being promoted.  Naturally, my camera was not on its best behavior, but at least I got a couple of pictures.  He's Airman First Class now.

Questions/thoughts I have... why do my kids have so much trouble responding to their alarm clocks?

One of my favorite things this week... watching more Olympics with the kids, sewing with Kennady.

A photo/video/quote or link to share...  found this website - Printable Paper - that has free paper templates of all kinds to download and print.

On the bookshelf...

• The Forever Queen by Helen Hollick
• Demolishing Supposed Bible Contradictions - Ken Ham, Editor
• Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
• These Violent Delights by Sharon Linnea
• The Perfect Bride for Mr Darcy by Mary Lydon Simonsen

A parting shot...  we walked by this church when we went out for dinner last week.  Besides being a beautiful building, this memorial tablet got my attention.  The church had been there - at that location - for well over 200 years.  The tablet was placed in 1938 at the bicentennial of the church.  The congregation started in 1738 in a log building near the Monocacy River.  They had begun construction on the current site in 1752 but progress was delayed by about 10 years because of the French and Indian War.  The church building as it is now was completed in the late 1800s.  So if my math is correct... the current building has been in use for 158 years, there has been a church standing on this property for 260 years, and the congregation has been organized for about 274 years.  That's incredible.  Faithful people serving a faithful God.  I hope the pastor and people that meet there now continue to hold firm to the Truth and pass that legacy on to even more generations.  Amazing to think that Christians have been worshiping here since before the United States became a nation.

This post is linked to iHomeschool Network -see what other homeschoolers have been considering this week!