Honoring and Remembering...

I try to make sure my boys understand all of the holidays and special occasions we acknowledge and celebrate, especially those regarding our armed forces. How they originated, why we still commemorate or celebrate and why it's important to know the history of these holidays. This past week, we spent a lot of time working Memorial Day into our school day. It's important to thank our service men and women, and I think personally you should thank them when you see them...you don't have to wait for a special occasion. But this holiday is about more than saying thanks. It's about recognizing that regardless of what you think of how this country is running right now, we wouldn't have so many of the rights and freedoms we have without our military.  It's about honoring and remembering those that made the ultimate sacrifice and it's about paying respects to those that passed and those that were left behind to grieve those losses. 

Anyway...back to our week...I found a Memorial Day list we used for spelling and vocabulary words. They Googled the holiday and found out that it used to be called Decoration Day, and they spent a good amount of time reading about all of the special activities and remembrances that go on around the country; specifically in Washington D.C.

Tracy, her boys and her parents are fortunate enough to be spending this weekend in our Nation's capital and I can only imagine how moving and emotional and simply awe inspiring it is to be there for everything. Today they got to see Rolling Thunder as it came through, and Tracy told me she was moved to tears when she saw the moving memorial. 

I hope that making a trip to D.C. is in our future!

Outside of the Memorial Day stuff we worked on, the boys did their usual spelling and handwriting. They both spent some time reading. And they both worked on conquering the math anxiety that plagues them. Games are always a fun and easy way to reinforce concepts. :)

Friday, Bailey and I had a great day in Atlanta at the State Bar of GA. We went on this field trip with some other families from Master's Academy. The kids got to have a law lesson (this trip, their lesson was "Freedom of Speech.") and afterwards, they all got to participate in a mock trial. Even though Bailey doesn't have any aspirations in the law field (at least not yet), we had a fantastic time! The trial was "The State vs. Hansel and Gretel." Yep...those poor kids were being charged with criminal trespassing, theft by taking and aggravated assault! Bailey's role in the trial was Rumpelstiltskin, and he was a witness for the prosecution. I was a juror. Again, I can't say enough how much we enjoyed ourselves that day. And we had to get up at 545am to get to Atlanta on time!! Crazy early, lol!

We also spent the weekend visiting family. It was nice to see everyone, even if only briefly. We got to celebrate the 2nd birthday of my niece, Brooklyn and the 12th birthday of my nephew, Michael while we were there too...that was great!

It was a busy week, and an even busier weekend. To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure what the upcoming week holds for us, but I have no problems figuring that out tomorrow. That's what Mondays are for, right? ;)

I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend and has a great week!