Thursday, September 27, 2012

Ancient History

I am so excited to be back in Ancient History this year - this has to be my favorite time period to teach as a homeschooler.  There is so much wonderful stuff to read, learn, do!  Today we were in ancient Sumer.  We were talking about cuneiform so we decided to get out the sculpy and make our own cuneiform tablets.  Then they decided they need more sculpy projects so they made woven reed baskets...with lids...and then added charmed snakes.  I think somewhere along the way we wandered out of Sumer....  As long as they were doing a hands on project, I decide to give their ears a work out and pulled out a translation of Gilgamesh.  It struck me that here I am reading Gilgamesh to my 3rd, 4th and 6th graders (and they are *enjoying* it!) and my son's public high school teachers seem to think he's not capable of much more than R.L Stine horror twaddle oh but I digress...  I have been absolutely dying to use my friend Barbara's (an Orthodox curriculum writer!) History Portfolios.  These portfolios are simply beautiful and will leave my kids with a wonderful keepsake for years to come.   I have Nate, David and John using the Jr. Portfolios and Betsy with the regular level.  I don't have photos of the kids' work in them but I will post some at some point.  I think we're hitting our homeschooling groove again!  As much as I love my special kiddos, I have to say it is really nice to have them in school while I work with the ones a bit more capable of learning the academic stuff.  We can really fly now!






Sunday, September 23, 2012

Chronology

I've had this on my mind to do this for about a week now.  If it's entirely uninteresting to you, I apologize.  It's a chronology of building our family so it skips a lot of stuff in the first few years - in fact, it skips a few years in the first few years... My mind is such a muddle these days I wanted to put some order to my life so here goes:

August 1988 - I begin at Bucknell as a transfer student (miss my sister's wedding which was the first week of classes for me : (

August 1988 - Get my first glimpse of Tad as he is taping balloons to my RA's dorm room door as a practical joke, encounter him a second time while I am holed up at David's house studying German (which I later dropped), eating ham my Aunt Nancy sent home with me, and watching Mary Poppins.  He was looking for his laundry detergent.  I knew that day I would marry him.

September 1988 - Attend the Tree and Rock Sock Hop with the awesomest band Being Don and Nothingness.  Dance my heini off with Tad.  (if anyone still has their cassette tape I would give you anything you want for it!!!)

November 1988 - work tech crew for Never In My Lifetime, sprain my ankle, have my first real date with Tad when I am not able to walk to the cast party, and spend the evening with him instead.

April 1991 - we adopt our first furry child, Alex the black lab, then spend the next month trying to keep a growing puppy from being detected in the Gateways and under the desks at classes and in the light booth

May 1991 - We both graduate from Bucknell

August 1991 - I head to Brown for graduate school, Tad moves back in with his parents to hunt for a job (bad job market, bad memory)  I take Alex with me which doesn't last long and he ends up with Tad

?  1991/92- Tad gets a job with EAI, he and Alex move to the bachelor pad in Whiteford

December 1992 - I graduate from Brown with an MA in Theater History and Theory

January 1993 - Tad and I are married, I move into the bachelor pad and try my best to turn it into a family dwelling

? 1993- Tad, Alex and I move to White Hall on a dairy farm where I learn how to milk cows and get a job as a Youth Minister at St. Clare RC parish

1994/5? - Tad, Alex and I move to Eldersburg, MD to follow Tad's second job with what was then Automated Weather Source, Sometime that year we adopt Pooka, a golden retriever and now have two large dogs in a 4 room house.  Somewhere in here we are declared infertile by a fertility specialist, I quit my job as a youth  minister and Tad and I develop a two person performance which we begin to perform locally

March 1997 - We adopt JT, he is 2months old

April 1997 - we find out I'm pregnant

November 1997 - Ben is born, he is a newborn.  We now have two babies and two large dogs in a 4 room house

Spring 1998 Tad loses his third job with a small contracting firm, we pack up JT and Ben, leave the dogs with Tad's parents and travel out to Chicago and back for 6 weeks performing our Life of Christ show

Spring 1998 - We move into Tad's childhood home in Bel Air - his parents move out and leave his sister with us, Tad begins work for UPS

September 1998 - we bring Jacob home, he is 3 months old

December 1998 - Jake's birthfather bails himself out of jail and decides to be a dad, he is back in jail within a couple of months where he will remain until Jake turns 16, Jake lives with his grandmother

November 1999 - We adopt Philip from Korea, he is 2 years 4 months old

July 2001 - We adopt Miriam from Hong Kong, she is 4 years 9 months old

September 2001 - Betsy is born, she is a newborn

July 2002 - We adopt Ruth, she is 18 months old

August 2003 - John Michael is born, he is a newborn

August 2004 - David is born, he is a newborn

June 2005 - Lightning strikes our house and causes a fire, we move to Riverside

Memorial Day 2006  - the house is complete, we move back to Bel Air

July 2006 - Nate is born, he is a newborn

September 2006 - Nehemiah is born, he and Adora move in with us

May 2007 - We bring Noah into our home as a private foster-to-adopt

June 2008 - Tali is born, she is a newborn

November 2008 - Noah's birthgrandmother takes him for a weekend visit, we never see either of them again

July 2009 - We adopt Andrea, she is 12 years old

August 2009 - Faith is born, she is a newborn

2010 - Tad leaves UPS, goes to work for AWS again which becomes Earthnetworks

January 2011 - Adora and Nehemiah move to their own apartment

2011 - Tad is laid off from Earthnetworks and begins work with Hire Wave as an Engineering Contractor

March 2011 - Zak is born, he is a newborn

September 2012 - Adora and Nehemiah move back briefly then move on to their second apartment