Cailin has been busy writing again for her writing class at Classical Conversations. Here's one she recently wrote about the first battle of the Revolutionary War. Their prompt was to write about the "Shot heard 'round the world." this is what she came up with.
The
First Battle
Maria Harrison’s life was
a fairly content life. Maria was happy with her family, particularly her
father, for he had just finished writing a book, 237 pages, in which he had
explained all about the life of a farmer in the colonies in the 1700’s. It was
titled, Life of a Farmer. It was great.
“I have so much more to do with it, though!”
Father had quickly explained to Maria, for she had believed that it was
complete. “It has not quite gone under publishing, nor has it had any editing
done to it. But I do hope we grow some prosperity from it.”
Nevertheless, she knew her father was proud
of his work and she was proud of it and him, too. She believed that its success
was inevitable.
Her family mainly consisted of her father
and mother, who were named John and Lucy Harrison, Maria Harrison, and her
younger brothers, Jack, William, and Adam. Adam was the youngest, not quite a
one year old, and barely able to toddle along on his fat little feet even when
someone held his hands.
Maria had a peacefully serene life. In her
family, she knew she was safe. She was a quick learner, so it was no trouble
for her to be able to learn to do everything a perfect housewife, such as her
mother, could do. She was a great reader! Her mother and father were a bit
angry at the king, about the taxes, though, and believed that something ought
to be done about it. Yet they didn’t think that they should go and rebel
against him. They had a happy life. They were a great family. They didn’t
consider the thought of anything out of the ordinary happening. They were that
sort of people, quiet, kind, courteous, and always, no matter what happened,
followed the rules, even when they disagreed with them.
Quickly,
however, something would upset the happy household.
Fights between the colonists and the English
soldiers had happened often. They believed strongly that King George was taking
away their right to govern themselves. Maria and her family disagreed with the
king, but knew the king would never set a law for them if he had no reason to.
But, still, the angry colonists had decided that they would make a stand for
their freedom and had begun to store up ammunition in case the English
soldiers, or the red coats, should attack.
On a cool day in April, Maria and her family
were beginning to cook up dinner. The sun was setting in the west and the sky
was now a pearly gray. The sun was a ball of fire that shot its last helpless
rays of golden sun across the world in a desperate attempt to put out more
light in its short time to give it each day. Maria sliced up an onion, her nose
held high so its stench did not touch her. Her eyes watered.
Beside the door, Father read through the
papers of his book. His spectacles were low on his nose, almost to the point
that they would fall into the floor.
Suddenly, a howl erupted into the cool
blackness of the new night. Twilight air flooded into the house as Father
opened the front door swiftly and gazed into the night.
“The British are coming!” A voice screeched
loudly. There was a flash of brown as something streaked past the house, the
whole way screaming, “The British are coming!”
Scarily, Father quietly shut the door and
faced us. William began to complain that everyone was too loud.
Father, who normally scolded little William
for speaking irritably, did not say a word to him. “Lucy,” Father’s voice was
grave and his face grim. “The English have finally taken a stand against us.”
Maria couldn’t tell what was wrong with the British coming, yet she knew that
it was not a decent matter at all. Something was wrong. Very wrong.
“We need to hide. There
will be disturbing things and sounds outside. However, Lucy, it is imperative
that we stay inside. You never know what will happen. Some of those Minutemen
are too headstrong for their own safety.”
“But they wouldn’t dare provoke the English!”
Mother cried loudly enough for all to hear.
Father’s face instantly became even more
grave and sorrowful than before. But now it had an
edge of…desperation to
it. Yes, something was wrong. But it was far more than just that.
Something dreadful was
about to happen. Maria just wished she knew what it was.
“Children!” Mother cried. “It is time for
bed.”
Jack complained loudly. “But Mama, ‘tis not
even supper!”
“It does not matter.” Mother’s voice was
scared and high. “Get into your beds and do not move from them whatever you
hear. I shall come to check on you later, in the morning. Do not move until then.”
Adam began to cry.
Swiftly, Father picked him up and took
William by the hand and crossed the room to the stairs. “We will be in bed.” He
glanced at Mother, who smiled and nodded.
Maria, who was proficient at luring Jack
into doing what he needed to, decided to help her mother by coaxing her brother
to bed.
“Jack!” She cried. “First one in bed is the
winner!”
Jack jumped to his feet, for he had been
resting on a chair only a bit before. “Oh, yes!” He scurried away.
Mother grinned at Maria, but Maria didn’t
see her. She was running up the stairs to Jack.
After all the boys were fast asleep in bed,
Maria found herself staring up at the ceiling in her own bedroom. She tossed
and turned, wondering just what would happen. She promised herself she wouldn’t
fall asleep…wouldn’t fall…asleep…fall…asleep…
“YOU WOULD NEVER!” screamed a voice. “IN THE
NAME OF ALL TRUE ENGLISHMEN, LOWER YOUR GUNS!”
Maria woke with a start. Predawn light
drifted through her curtains and into the room. Shouts echoed around the area.
Maria tugged her blankets and sheets off her and struggled to her feet. Her
eyes drooped. She wanted ever so much to just sleep again, but she knew that
she could never sleep again if she did not know what was happening.
Quickly, she rushed to her window. A huge
mass of people, separated by a bare space of earth, cluttered the field beneath
her window.
“King George would never approve of this!”
The red coated men, obviously English soldiers,
kept mumbling, but one
uttered the words loudly enough for Maria to hear. She pulled her
window open.
“Ye rebels!” yelled a new voice. “If ye do
not back down, you shall be made to!”
“NEVER!” screamed all the brave Patriots, or
the minutemen.
BANG! There was a loud shot of a gun and
then every man began to clobber each other. Guns fired. Shots echoed. People
fought.
After a few minutes of fighting, the fighting
subsided and the crowd stepped back. Eight minutemen lay on the ground, dead. Around
the men, who had been killed, the grass was stained blood red. A few men on the
other side limped and leaned on another soldier.
“Do ye give?” The hostile British officer
yelled.
“NEVER!” The minutemen screamed again. The
fighting continued. They fought like a pack of wolves against a pack of
wolves—except these wolves had gained guns and the knowledge of how to use
them.
Quickly, the fighting moved away from Maria’s
window. She was right. Something dreadful had happened.
Yet she knew that this would not be the end
of it. This was the first battle in a series of many.
It's here....the Christmas season is upon us! We can now offically listen to Christmas music--it's not allowed before Thanksgiving--and we look forward to our many Christmas traditions.
Brian, Risa and the boys, and Elizabeth, along with Risa's sister Jean, joined us for the holiday weekend for Thanksgiving. We had the traditional fun of feasting....
Thanksgiving day was beautiful so we took off for a walk along the New River Trail.
She finally did it.... She's been crawling well now for quite a while, but she just wasn't taking the next step--literally getting up on her feet on her own and cruising around the furniture. Yet, just the other day she got up to the sofa all by herself...and then climbed onto the sofa and then up to the back of the sofa so she could look outside and watch her siblings play outside! Whew, what an accomplishment.
Brianne has never been much of a fan of Pete's. He is a large dog that is prone to be loud and clumsy. When you are three feet tall, and mostly crawling around, you can see how Pete's size and manners would be intimidating. As Pete and Bailey ran past Brianne, she launched into a fiery fit of yelling and shouting. You could see the anger on her face as she threw her hands up and down, pointing at the dogs. Her diatribe lasted for about a minute until she had exhausted her rage. She ended her speech that dramatically slapping her thigh with her hand, which is the ASL sign for dog. The dogs of course were none the wiser. I am thinking that it is better that I did not understand her speech, I think that it would of made a sailor blush. 
For science this month, we've been learning about insects--especially ants. Liam and Delaney presented what they learned for the presentation group.
To be an insect you must have three body parts--head, thorax, and abdomen. You must also have six legs and have an exoskeleton or hard shell instead of bones to keep you together. Some insects also have antenna and/or wings.
The kids then wrote letters that will be sent to soldiers currently serving in Iraq to share their thanks and gratitude for their service to our beloved country.
And most of all, we are grateful to our favorite veterans--Daddy, Grandpa Stumm and Papa Hale!! (and our other family ancestors that have served our country.)
While scouring the shelves of the library for some books to read, I found a book entitled "How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin?" by Margaret McNamara. I picked it up and added it to my growing pile of books. We read it and thus began a fun filled week with pumpkins.
We, too, made guesses as to how many our homegrown pumpkins held....and then plunged in to find out who's estimation was the closest.
And the winner is.....Mom!! ( I didn't make a first guess until after the pumpkins had been cut into, so mine doesn't really count, So Connor, you're the winner!!
We parlayed this fun activity with our history. We've been reading about the Pilgrims and their voyage upon the Mayflower to the Americas. We read about how the Indians helped them by teaching them how to plant food--about the 'three sisters'--corn, beans and squash. We read other books about the foods that various tribes throughout the north american contenient. Most of them relied upon corn, beans and squash. So, we decided to have an impromptu Indian dinner of pueblo pumpkin (fresh pumpkin cubes and cooked with onions, corn, ham, ginger, salt and pepper) along with Indian fry bread. Liam couldn't resist and wanted to help pat out the bread dough.
