The first week in April

Okay, so we are officially into the second week as I post this, but we've been so busy! So I'll just summarize some highlights of last week.

Monday of last week was so long ago that I can't really remember what we did all day, since there is nothing on my calendar. The evening says "7:30 Senor Pancho's with L" though. I had a nice time visiting over margaritas with my friend.

Tuesday morning we saw Growing Up A Slave, a live production at the Bushnell Theater in Hartford. From the Bushnell website:

Growing Up A Slave was derived from slave narratives transcribed by the Federal Writers' Project in the 1930s. Three characters share their dramatic accounts of slave life, their food and eating habits, clothing, religious and superstitious beliefs, music, the auction block and the dire consequences faced by runaways. Throughout the accounts, the spiritual resources of these oppressed people pulsate. The human spirit triumphs. Appropriate for grades five and up.

Often theaters will abridge shows for schools to bring kids to see in the daytime. This is exactly what this show was; it was also offered in the evening at a higher price. Typically I would spend the money to see the full program, but this time around I thought that they might water it down a bit. Wrong. They talked about a girl defending herself against a rape. That definitely went over E's head, but I think it's time to start talking about this sort of thing with R (age 11).

Overall the show was quite good. They left time at the end for students to ask questions. I was surprised at how little "grades five and up" actually know about slavery. We have been soaking up knowledge about it since Martin Luther King, Jr. day in 2007. We've been spending extra time on it recently since we plan on stopping at a real Virginia plantation, and The National Civil War Museum, on our drive down to the Great Smoky Mountains for our vacation.

This week we also watched a video from the library about the US civil war. I don't remember exactly what it was called, but it was a perfect 30 minute summary of the basics; exactly what we needed. I also took home several books from the library on the topic, and R chose out this one for us to read together.

That boy really does love ships; I knew he'd choose this book from the library basket. I only wish that during our drive to the Smokies we were passing closer to the Mariner's Museum in Newport News, VA so we could go see pieces of one of these fabulous ships, called the Monitor. Luckily it's only about 40 minutes from Colonial Williamsburg though, so we'll eventually get there.

Wednesday brought playgroup, which was fun as always. We were happy that indoor soccer is over and we had a week off before outdoor starts. That evening B and I (the boys stayed home with Nagy Papa) went to the CT Homeschool Network Take Action Forum to discuss and learn all about SB 162, and what we should be doing about it. I left there feeling a lot better about what I need to do. More on that another day.

Thursday we headed up to White Memorial for our monthly class which has resumed now that spring is here. I have a very good friend who has been very sick and I was thrilled to see her again after four months! We had a great time catching up, and E was just thrilled to see his best friend Q again. The younger kids' class was first and they headed out to the woods with a checklist of things to notice.

After that we went to my friend's restaurant for some pizza and blue soda, and I returned R in time for his class, which he says was the best one yet. They used microscopes and I have been told that we absolutely have to get one ASAP. (OK, I have put that on the list for when we return from vacation.) Here is the drawing of what he saw under the microscope.

Thursday night I had my womyn's circle, which is always rejuvenating.

Friday we had a full day of TV watching. Another fun thing we plan to do on our vacation is stop by the Davy Crockett Tavern and Museum. So we started out with Shelley Duvall's version, which E loved. Then we moved on to Disney's version which both boys got a kick out of. I figured it would be fun to start with the tall tale, since not many people know much else. But we at least waited for B to get home to watch the A&E version, so he'd know the real facts too.

This one E refused to watch. He's only seven, after all. R really enjoyed it though, as well as B and I. It was nice to have all facts filled in. Surprising though, that the Disney version mentioned Crockett's standing up against what would become the travesty of the Trail of Tears, while the A&E version said nothing about it. We'll get the facts at the museum. It was cool to see some of the museum staff speak on the documentary. We are going to see if they still work there when we go.

Over the weekend the boys all had lots of fun while I mostly stayed indoors making all the reservations for our trip, and planning fun things for us to do. E started outdoor soccer. And at one point I looked out the window and saw R doing this, which I later found out was him making a boat (notice the headphones for the audiobook). Eventually they took their boats and rode their bikes to the Farmington Canal Linear Park and floated them down the stream there. Unfortunately though, they did end up getting stuck in some brush in the water, and they had to leave them behind. I was glad that they enjoyed the experience, rather than the boats themselves, because they honestly did not seem too upset over losing them.

They stopped at Brooksvale Park where our friends live (their Dad is the park ranger who did the maple syrup thing back in March) and ran into our friends. They hung out and visited for a while and had a terrific afternoon. Weekend actually. I'm glad B loves spending time with our boys as much as I do.