Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Finding Our Groove

Today was just a really, really awesome day!  I think we hit our stride, found our groove!  It just flowed so smoothly.

We have been working on adding details to sentences.  Today the assignment was to write a sentence describing each of the following things: A trash bin, a playground, a bicycle and a desk.  P's descriptive sentence about a playground turned into an EXCELLENT paragraph!  Her description rivaled mine!  It was awesome!  Both girls seemed to have a lot of fun adding details to their writing.

After lunch, we continued to learn about the history of our state.  A started a list of the many beautiful places that we found in one of our books and would like to visit.  We got to a part in one of the many books we are using about the Revolutionary War and I asked the girls why there was a Revolutionary War and A launched into a whole explanation about the Boston Tea Party, the loyalists and patriots being mad that they didn't get to vote for Parliament so why should they pay taxes to Parliament, they lived in this country why couldn't there money stay here to develop this nation.  I was really impressed!  She must have been really paying attention this summer during our Unit Studies and trip to Williamsburg!

Both girls (and I) are fascinated with Molly Pitcher.  We are fascinated with the idea of women going to war with their husbands, but not to shoot guns or fire cannons, to tend to their husband's needs.  You never hear how many wives were killed.  The girls are fascinated by this.  Unfortunately all of the biographies on Molly Pitcher at our library were lost :(  So I put some on hold at other libraries and we are waiting impatiently for them to arrive.  I've heard the stories before, learned this history in school, but never really stopped to think about some of the soldier's bringing their wives to war, what that must have been like, what the sleeping arrangements and living arrangements were...

On Friday, weather permitting, we are headed to Jockey Hollow and Washington's Headquarters!  I can't wait to make our lessons come alive again!