Yes, we started school August 1st. Since it was a Friday I decided to start our year off with a field trip! I also decided that since Sarah is studying PA History this year our field trip was going to be to Pennsbury Manor, the home of William Penn. It was such a great day! I enjoyed it so much! As a bonus for the month of August Pennsylvania is promoting PA landmarks as vacation spots. As part of this promotion kids get in for free!!!! We also have AAA (thanks Mom and Dad!) so Andy and I were also able to get in for a discount! So our entire trip cost us $9! Compared to $16. The cost included a tour of the different buildings including the house! What a house! It is such a shame that he only lived in it for 2 years, and even then during the spring, summer, and fall as it was too difficult to travel by river during the winter. The grounds are beautiful and we had fun looking around and seeing the Delaware River where Penn would travel the 26 miles to Philadelphia by boat. 
View from the house - gorgeous! I would so love to sit in a chair and read here all day!
The Delaware River looking towards Philadelphia
A replica of the boat Penn would use to travel to Philadelphia - kinda tiny!
The above picture is of the barn. We were allowed to roam around after the tour and go into building that were open. We walked into the barn and were greeted by a honking goose! It was quite irritated that we were entering into its domain! There were also peacocks (considered a living lawn ornament back in Penn's days!) with their little peacocks and a HUGE turkey! It was the turkey that caused us concern. He jumped down from the wall and circled around us rather closely. Sarah had escaped back into the barn - terrified it would attack! Daniel, however, had picked up a stick and was unfazed by the turkey every bit as big as he! We walked out of the barn and the turkey followed us! It kept circling us and was getting a little too close for comfort when Daniel, with his stick, decided to chase it back to the barn for us! Our little turkey wrangler saved us and received the undying love of his sister who was crying at the thought of this turkey attacking! Andy and I were laughing so hard! Daniel was a riot! He is such a fearless boy!
We ate a packed lunch at the picnic tables provided. It was such a great way to start our school year! We really just had a fun day together.
Our first day in the schoolroom was Monday, August 4th. We are only doing our morning schedule this week as Andy has a group in from Clover Hill Baptist Church in Richmond, VA doing a VBS from 1:30-4:00 pm. The actual classwork hasn't gone as well as the field trip, but we are learning to deal with the drama that comes each day. Andy and are being firm and requiring the kids to adhere to the schedule and do their work properly, not something they are enjoying, but will get used to. Andy and I were listening to Kevin Leman on Focus on the Family the other morning and he made us realize that we have been too lenient with the scheduling of our kids and allowing them to pick and choose different things - such as what subjects to do when they feel like it, etc. We also realized we were not making them follow through with proper behavior, how they speak to us and each other, keeping rooms picked up, etc. So we put our heads together and have initiated Kid Clean-up! Along with that goes Parent Clean-Up - keeping in check how we respond to them on different behaviors and keeping up with them, not slacking when we need to be parenting - even when we are tired (which is often!). Please pray with us that we would be what we need to be when we need to be it!
No comments:
Post a Comment