Balance . . .

Last week seemed to be , well, busy. We don't normally have weeks that I would describe that way, but last week surely was. We did an amazing job with our learning and other responsibilities, while weaving in a birthday, city council meeting, church meetings, a Choir performance, date night, like I said busy.

I felt like we did a great job with our learning and that it was not affected by our other activities. One fear that I always have is that we would fill our lives with so much to do that it would affect the important parts of life; learning, growing, family time, gospel time. Everything seemed to flow smoothly and with the thoughts of not overdoing things always at the forefront of our minds, we were able to keep a nice balance.

We finished our book, Johnny Tremain, and loved every bit of it. The author does an amazing job of weaving the fictional story of Johnny in with the historical story of the Revolutionary War. The characters were colorful and lifelike, the story was entertaining as well as educational. Here's what the older kids think:

Bugaloo:

" My least favorite part of the book was when Dove
used the cracked crucible and this caused Johnny
to be injured. I liked that Johnny was strong to go
find his own work, even though people did not
like his injury and thought he couldn't do work.
He finally found a friend, Rab, and a job
delivering newspaper.

I liked the book alot. It made history sound
a lot more fun and interesting. I learned
that even if you are different from
everyone, you can still make
a difference."

Ky:

" I loved this book. It is about a boy, named
Johnny Tremain, and he gets caught up in the
Revolutionary times in Boston. My least favorite
part was when Johnny had his hand injured.
My favorite part was when Johnny rode
his horse, Goblin, and the hard work
he put into that. I learned that you should
stay true to what you think is right."

At the end of the week, we took time to update our History timeline binder. Since this is a new undertaking, we filled in the information for much of the history we have learned in the last year and a half. It was amazing to hear the girls tell about the important people and events that we learned about with great clarity.