What a long week it has been......

Yes, I do know it is Sunday. The title of this blog pertains to last week since this week is just beginning. It seems like ever since I became a mother my life has been stuck on fast forward and the button is stuck. Does this sound a bit familar to anyone?? My kids are growing up way too fast and there doesn't seem to be a dull moment around here. I can't imagine what life would be like if we had more than three kids. I have read a few other blogs of families that do and my hat goes off to them. I just don't know how you do it.

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Well this was the week of growing up in our home. My oldest, Chip got his starter set of braces. He is nine years old. Yes, this is a bit young but I guess orthodontic care has advanced since my time. Prior to his installation of braces he has been living with an expander in his mouth since last June. Apparently, his jaw was very small for his age. His teeth were not dropping down. After they put the expander in his teeth started coming in nicely. They took the expander out on Tuesday and began the first phase of braces. Here is a quick before and after photo.


On Friday my youngest, Baba (we will have to come up with another name for him soon) had to get 6 shots. Yes, I did just type six. He was due to have his four year old check about six months ago. The poor thing. I was glad to say that Daddy took him to that doctor appointment. He took him out afterwards for a yummy ICEE.
Needless to say homeschooling ran into a few scheduling problems this week. We did manage to get a few things done. Let me share with you a few highlights of our week with all of you....

On Monday I had the kids begin to make some Civil War lapbooks that I ordered from Knowledge Box Central. I have done a few of these with the kids in the past but this was the first that I ordered from a company. It made our lives a little easier around here. I will post some pix on this soon. We focused our Civil War learning that day on the medical treatment that was available around then and talked about the life of Clara Barton and the dangers that nurses had in the middle of battle. My kids got grossed out at the thought of amputation and were saddened to discover that the majority of the deaths were not due to gun shot wounds but by the spread of disease. Our medical field has come a long way, baby!

On Tuesday I needed to set up a school day a little different. We have been struggling in our homeplate here with attitude and sibling arguments. As a result I had to separate and come down hard on a particular strong willed child to deter them from repeating. This child was removed to another room on Tuesday morning from the schooling of the others. I gave them a list of things that needed to have done for the day. It was called Homeplate Boot Camp and boy I can be one mean Mama when my chicks are having rude attitudes. So instead of having fun with Mommy and the rest of the gang they were separated until further notice. As for the Civil War activities that person had plenty of book reading and paragraph writing to do that day. They did not like this one, one bit.

On Wednesday my strong willed child was still remained in Homeplate Boot Camp. This person is very strong willed did I mention. While the others were pasting stuff inside our Civil War lapbooks and enjoying to listen to Mommy read they were busy working on their long list of to do's and yes that included reading Civil War books and writing paragraphs.

Thursday we had some of a light day around here. My two younger one were fighting a cold. I finshed up a family reading book called Dear America: A Picture of freedom-The Diary of Clotee, a Slave Girl by Patricia Mc Kissack. Then I had the kids come up with a quick book report of either this book or another that they had read recently and I would tape them. My daughter chose this book and my son chose a Trailblazer book on Harriet Tubman. We did some other light school work and called it a day.

Friday was another shortened day because Mommy and Daddy were leaving town for a quick couple retreat with our church. For the Civil War unit this day I had them write about their Great-Great-Great Grandfather who was a light artilary Union soldier. They were amazed to discover that they had a distant relative who survived the Civil War. I ressearched it in advance with the help from my Mom. He was in Battery C, 1st Pennsylvania light artillery. He enlisted at the age of 19 on June 4, 1864. He took part in 13 battles and skirmishes. One of them being the raid through the Shenandoah valley. He was honorably discharged on July 3, 1865. My kids now want to find other family members. I know we may have have had others and even one that has links to the American Revolution. I have my research stacked up for me.

Thank you for letting me share my week for you. Yes, the get away was fantastic and so much needed.

Here is the list of books we read this week:
Excerpts from:
-Fields of Fury: The American Civil War by James McPherson
-The Long Road to Gettysburg by Murphy
-A Soldiers Life in the Civil War by Dale Anderson
-You Wouldn't Want to be a Civil War Soldier by Thomas Ratcliff

-A Picture book of Robert E. Lee by David A. Adler

Kids Read:

-The Story of the Battle of Shiloh by Zachary Kent

- Robert E. Lee Brave Leader by Rae Bains

- From Slave to Soldier by Deborah Hopkinson

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