I may have mentioned earlier that E11 was invited to a Civil War Ball. The daughters of the chapter leaders of our LEAH group (LEAH- Loving Education at Home- the NY State homeschoolers association) insisted on throwing the ball and they worked hard to learn dances. The invitation was sent right at the end of our unit on the Underground Railroad and Civil War and as the time grew closer the anticipation grew as well. In the end, more girls agreed to attend than boys so fathers were also invited. Dan and E11 went to the Ball on March 27th and had a grand time.The girls were all dressed in hoop skirts and other mid-19th century finery and the men and boys were dressed very nicely as well. Some of them arrived in uniform and others in dress attire. We did our best. Would you believe Dan doesn't have a long sleeve white dress shirt?? What? But we forgot he has a great vest he could have worn...next time.
This fine young gentleman came as a Union Soldier.
His brother arrived dressed as a Confederate Soldier. Turns out that these boys' sister made the costumes for a talk she did on the Civil War in their homeschool. Her dress was very authentic as well. It was just really cool to see everyone put so much effort into this fun event.
They did a lot of square type dancing like the Virginia Reel and others all to authentic music. Everyone was a good sport and reportedly E11 was a perfect gentleman the entire evening. Dan says he was all about the dancing. If you know E11, then you know he likes to get things right and he was a little frustrated with girls doing the lead part of the dance when it was supposed to be him, but he was gracious.
E11 and Dan are in the middle.
The girls worked very hard on their dresses. This is a lovely gown below was made by one of our babysitters. L is talented seamstress and does work at the same shop that R9 takes classes from. L made this colonial gown and she wears it well. All the dresses were fun to see. Moms were surprised at how long it takes one to get ready for a ball.
Good news! The event was so well received that they will have another one at Christmas time. R9 was so disappointed she couldn't go, but I told her if they aren't hosting anymore we'll put one on ourselves. R9 loves to design clothing and make it so it'll be fun to see what she comes up with for the ball when it's her turn.I think the best part of all is coming together as homeschoolers to have a nice time. We feel very fortunate to have such a creative bunch of families around us to enjoy the journey with.
What sorts of fun things are homeschoolers doing together where you are?
3 comments:
That is so cool!! I am going to suggest this idea to our group! My 14 yo takes a class on the civil war and this would be the perfect ending. If they finish all of the assignments they get a sword which is pretty cool. Right now the only thing any of my kids are working on with our group is the 14yo. Her Shakespeare class is doing As You Like It and rehearsals start this week. They are doing it with an island theme so should be interesting!
It sounds like it was really nice. I love the outfits! That last dress was really pretty! Sorry that R could not go.
That Civil War Ball looked like a lot of fun!! My homeschool group is more of a Park Day kind of group and not a co-op sort of group, so I have to nothing to report. Maybe one day.
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