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November 3, 2007
Week 13 - Not Boring
The specifics were in my nifty pdf last week, so I won't rehash them here. We actually did most of what was on the list. We were good up until Wednesday, as you might expect. After that, well. ...
There was one specific and noteworthy change. I've been playing around at Ancestry.com, tracing my family tree. Ancestry.com offers you a nifty little button which, when you click it, gives you a list of your famous ancestors. (It doesn't work for me, however, because they insist on giving me the ancestors of someone who is NOT ME, and I haven't figured out how to fix it!) We discovered that Connor (and all his brothers) is the 8th cousin three times removed of William Avery "Billy" Bishop, Canadian WWI flying ace. (Connor's 10th great-grandmother, through his father's line, Sarah Loomis, was Billy Bishop's 7th great-grandmother.) At any rate, this sparked his imagination, and he requested to be let off of his normal history assignment to research Billy Bishop. Uh ... yes, please do!
Frankly, if you find your study of history lagging, try genealogy. We've found ancestors who lived in England during the time of the Battle of Bosworth Field. (Nicholas Steere, born 1457 in Surrey, England) (If you believe one line, we have ancestors who go back to and include Brian Boru. This is also a good lesson on taking information you cannot verify with a huge grain of salt.) We've definitively found that one of my ancestors built the Merrimac.d One of my (okay, distant) ancestors is the only individual with whom the U.S. government ever made a treaty of peace (I'm kind of proud of that one). One of Jeff's was a drummer boy at Antietam. The kids can trace where and when our various families came to America, and learn about why they might have done so. Tidbits of information like this make history personal, and light a fire under the kids (and Mom) like you would not believe.
(Side note: My Pandora station just played Madonna. I may have to fire Pandora.)
Anyway. I promised you Not Boring, right? Well. This was the week we almost moved to Virginia. We were Virginia bound at the beginning of the week, and it was all off by the end of the week. It was certainly not a boring week for me. The upshot of the upheaval is that we will be moving, but now we don't really know where or when. We bought packing boxes today. I'll start filling them, and we'll see what happens.
I'm still working on next week's school schedule. Next week we have two doctor appointments, three orthodontist appointments, and two dentist appointments, one of which involves sedation (sadly, not for the parents); so I'm not very sanguine about our schoolwork for the week.
Zoe: You sanguine about the kinda reception we're gonna get?
Mal: Absolutely. What's sanguine?
Zoe: Hopeful. Plus, point of interest, it also means bloody.
Mal: Well, that pretty much covers all the options, now don't it?
Posted by lynx at November 3, 2007 8:28 PM
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Comments
I'd never thought about 'sanguine' properly before:-) Love the quote:-) (Ah, Firefly...:-) )
Posted by: Fe at November 4, 2007 1:41 AM
What a neat history topic! My grandfather's family is from England. We have lots of history over there. :o)
Someday I might take a detour with the kids and check into it in greater detail.
~Tina
Posted by: Tina at November 4, 2007 12:39 PM
Oh, I absolutely love genealogy!! And I can't wait until we're in a historical period where I can tie all our ancestors into our history study. That makes history so much more personal.
I'm just pretty sure we do NOT have any in Ancient India for this week.
Posted by: Kristiana at November 4, 2007 7:36 PM
I'm still pissed about Firefly.
I have a very distant relative who's a Baron in Belgium, which always makes me laugh because I'm definitely a peasant. :)
Way cool week. As for moving, might I suggest the Chicago area? :D
Posted by: KathyJo at November 6, 2007 2:28 PM