Civil War...still?

Well the vote has been taken and after reviewing the alternatives and what's left to study, the kids have decided to finish well the unit on the Civil War which we have been immersed in for months. We will be hearing about various battles and leaders of the war and then will finish up with Gettysburg (the turning point), Abraham Lincoln, and lastly reconstruction after the war.

We have a lot of fun left ahead of us and when I shared it with the kids, they insisted we carry on. Lots of illness for all of us, holidays, and various interruptions like buying new vans have led us off the straight and narrow path to the finish of our unit study. So, we are making careful plans to finish well our study of the Civil War.

While checking out some resources for making some confederate and union soldier uniforms and scoring some Yankee and Rebel hats for the cause, I have found some other fun things along the way.

I found lots of good fun at the National Park at Gettysburg site. They have quite a lot going on that I'm going to try and take advantage of and when we visit Maryland and our family in warmer weather this spring, we'll make a trip to Gettysburg to see it all first hand.

Gettysburg Lesson

The link above accompanies the show at the Gettsyburg Park.

Civil War Music J4 really enjoyed hearing the tunes from the Civil War. Some have words and some don't. Others provide the sheet music and the music is played for you.

Lapbook on the War between the States- fellow blogger and FIAR friend Kendra shared with me her Lewis and Clark lapbook links and when I visited I simply had to poke around within the pages that were devoted to the Civil War.

There's some great information and lapbooking elements on the cotton gin and the cotton plant as well as battles of the war and important people of the war and everything in between. This one is definitely worth checking out.

Don't forget that we are using the Homeschool in the Woods Time Travelers History Study Series on the Civil War as a guide to our monster rabbit trail. I talk a lot about these so if you'd like to see a sample lesson click here. This is the same sample available on the website.

We spent gobs of time studying the plight of American slavery and the Underground Railroad plus the causes or what led to the Civil War in the United States. So, we are finally studying the various battles of the war.

I hope to make some replica soldier uniforms. If we can't manage it for the kids, then maybe just puppet costumes.

You know, when you don't have clear goals or an end point in mind and in addition to what's out of your control (like illness) you let other things distract your good intentions...units can last forever! That's definitely the case with this one, but the kids are learning a whole lot about that time in history and it's provided us with all sorts of lessons.