Civil War Study

This week, we really began our study of the American Civil War. I say we really began, because I have been trying to teach this for the past 3 weeks and with little success.
Our curriculum had everything I could possibly need, but it was lacking in some of the important areas and over emphisied others- by that I mean, it was suggested to read the children's version of Uncle Tom's Cabin. I read the first few paragraphs or the parts I could understand enough to read and got really angry at how the slaves were treated. It was too much for me and way too much for my children. From one perspective, it would not bother many families, but when you are a "brown" family, the book is seen from an entirely different point of view. Oh, I said brown because my six year old is really into his colors. He refuses to refer to people as black and white, because they are not. He chooses to say black people are really brown and white people are really apricot- or at least those are the colors he uses when he has to color people. LOL Out of the mouths of babes...
So, anyway, my next issue to tackle was to teach the Civil War not only from an apricot perspective, but also brown. So, it's equivalent to teaching two history lessons at once. This was twice the work and well worth it. But then I was faced with a more difficult task-how to teach the Civil War and some of its causes without breeding hate and to teach forgiveness. Easier said than done. Of course when dealing with the Civil War, slavery is synonymous with it. Ugh! I tried to be as gentle as possible with it and my children appeared to do okay, until one night my six year old came to me and told me he was scared of being sold by slave traders. THAT DID IT! I had to find some other way to teach this and make it fun and not scary.
I remember I was sitting at my desk and I put my head down to rest. I was so frustrated because this was a lesson I had really been looking forward to teaching because it's my favorite time period. While my head was down, I prayed. When I picked my head back up, there was an email that had come it about a day before and my eyes went directly to it. I jumped because it scared me so bad! It was from Home School in the Woods and their new Civil War Unit Study! God is so good! I love it when he does things like that-it's my confirmation to keep right on homeschooling!
Any way, I went to the link and bought it. I am so pleased! It was money well spent! We have only done one week of it and I still have things leftover to do this week. We are having so much fun! My children hurry to get through the rest of their school work, so we can get started with our study. Wow!  That alone was worth the money lol I was so pleased with the gentle approach to slavery and the different things that lead up to the Civil War.-it has been an answered prayer and I am sooooooooooo grateful for this curriculum! We combine it with reading, "A History of US" by Joy Hakim and "Sea to Shining Sea" Children's Version.
While looking online for a few coloring pages for my younger two, I found this great website and printed off their African American coloring pages. It was helpful and whatever we talked about for that day with the older ones, is what the younger ones colored that day:
http://blackhistoryeverymonth.blogspot.com/search/label/coloring%20pages
I am going to try and post weekly because there is so much info to try to cover at the end of the study. Besides, I need to keep this info for when the younger two have to cover this topic again when they are older.
Okay, here's something we did yesterday. My local State Museum had a Civil War Reenactment! We have a great State Museum and they are so homeschool friendly. Truly a blessing to me. In February, I was bummed because they had a Underground Railroad class just for homeschoolers and I missed it by one day! Ugh! I wanted to cry-actually, I think I did shed a tear or two. Anyway, I recieved an email about the Civil War Reenactment. I was so happy! I planned for three weeks to be there and then saw on the news that we were to have showers and thunderstorms the whole day starting at noon. NOOOOOOOOOOO! So, I did what only I could do- I prayed and asked the Lord to hold back the rain long enough for us to see a little of it. It was to be from Noon to 3PM.
Well, guess what...God held back the rain and not only were my children able to see it, they were also able to be IN it!!! Yea! As we were leaving and walking back to our van, we were under a shelter and I looked out, and the rain began! What a mighty God we serve!
Of course I have pictures to share.

Here's a pic of my children working on their newspaper, "The Camp Kettle"

Working on coloring pages about runaway slaves during Colonial times:


Alright, these next two pictures are pretty special to me. My two younger ones finish their work before the two older ones, so to help fill in the time, my son reads outloud to his youngest brother. Here they are reading, "The Patchwork Quilt". The quilt they have over them is a family quilt like the one in the story. You can see the whole story here: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/barrynmissy1972/341637/


The Civil War Re-enactment