Civil War

Our final unit for this school year was the Civil War.  I did book club for this unit and asked the kids to research an ancestor the lived during the Civil War time.  Everyone found a relative from that time!  Our relative, John Hole, fought with the Iowa Volunteers.  His wife gave birth to a baby boy while John was off at war.  That boy, James Hole, grew up to change his last name to Hoyal to impress his soon to be wife who didn't like the name Hole, so thats where our last name comes from! Fun to learn about Family History while studying what was going on in the world at the same time! 

We visited the Lincoln Shrine in Redlands...

Some of Lincolns greatest quotes...

 Original painting by Norman Rockwell called "Lincoln's Shadow".  I like how it incorporated lots of things we have learned about this school year!

We also went to the Civil War Re-enactment at Riley's Farms.  

Debate over whether to join the war or not. Both Hunter and Tanner did a great job arguing their case...

It was so cold and foggy, but made for great pictures!  It also gave a us a real being there experience!

Learning to march and use a musket...

Learning proper manners...

And helping out a wife of a soldier with her household chores...

Battle Time!  Our group was from South Carolina, so we all died.  Except Charity.  She was the only one left standing and decided to walk over to the Northerners side! :)

Riley's Farms does a great job bringing history to life and making it meaningful to our life today!

Felicity was there too:).  She was probably the warmest of us all!

Our Annual kid line up at the end of the year.  So sad that the oldest one won't be here next year!  We've graduated our first senior from our school group!  Audrey will do great things and BYU is lucky to be getting her!!