Civil War Day (July 2010)

We had such an awesome time at this event & can't wait to go to another one. Hannah got the email addy of a group near us that goes to these & they said they'd lend her a costume if she wants to go & see if she likes participating. :)

This was making handmade lace-it was absolutely incredible. I never thought about how lace was made before. What an art form it is!! The ladies for this section were wonderful & told us when there's a free demo & lesson near us in the fall.

This was being made by one of the ladies there-those long things are the bobbins.

The guns & the skirmish were Jonah's favorite part, but he enjoyed all of it.

Watching the skirmish was so eerie-I was thinking about all we had learned when we did the Konos Civil War unit. I reminded the kids that many families had relatives on both sides-they couldn't even imagine the reality of that. I can't either, actually.

Listening to the Gettysberg Address was really really cool.

chair seat weaving

spinning wool

There's a lot of things I didn't get pics of that we also enjoyed. Talking to the army doctor was fascinating. We asked him a ton of questions. His answers made the kids squirm. Finally Hannah asked if we could stop asking what the instruments were used for. :)

We listened to a talk on the clothing girls & women wore, too, with people modeling the clothes. I was floored by all the layers & the corsets-especially for little girls!! And they explained what that did to the shape of their body & how it affected internal organs. She said that is why they always carried smelling salts-because the way their organs were shifted made it so they couldn't take a full breath & they'd faint upon exertion. There was more to that, but I can't remember it now. I can't imagine being a mother back then & having to entrap my little girls' bodies in those things. shudder.

Speaking of little girls, here's Susanna participating in a musical plates. The band that played all day was fantastic-I loved their music & all the different instruments-especially the bones & the fiddle.

There was a tent full of toys that were common back then. All the kids there had so much fun playing with them. I tried out the hoops & sticks-that really IS fun! We can't wait to go to another one-we're totally hooked!! :)