We had a week full of history! We started our week focused on the Underground Railroad. I had planned on reading the book, If you Traveled on the Underground Railroad, over the course of several days. The children liked it so much that they asked me to continue and we read it all in one session! That evening we had a good family dinner time discussion about the Underground Railroad as well as some of the people and events surrounding that time.
My daughter has been working diligently on completing her Freedom Seekers badge for American heritage Girls. This badge focuses on the Underground Railroad. She did a hymn study of Amazing Grace and learned about its writer, John Newton, who was a slave trader that later fought against slavery. She also read a biography about Harriet Tubman.
The children also had the opportunity to work with their father and build a nearly life size replica of a cannon that would have been appropriate to the time period. This replica will be used to teach other children about how cannons were used, loaded, and fired. They enjoyed the opportunity to build and are looking forward to using it next weekend to teach other children.
My son spent his project time this week researching Civil War rations from the perspective of both the Southern and Union Armies. He compiled a list of both and created a menu plan for dinner one night using the Southern rations since we live in a Southern state.
We had the opportunity to travel to Fort Macon for a field trip this week as well. Fort Macon has a rich military history involving multiple wars but we focused on its part in the Civil War and the architecture this week. The children were able to tour the fort as well as look at some of the various exhibits. Fort Macon is North Carolina’s first state park and it is very well done. The historic site has a great collection of exhibits and information complementing the original masonry construction. They have displays showing rations, bunks, uniforms, artillery, and other artifacts from its time in use. The fort was actually used from the Civil War through World War II and is now a part of the North Carolina Park Service.
They also feature displays on ecology and conservation in the adjacent visitors center. We did not have time this week to enjoy those displays but they are a wonderful addition to the trip and all included at no cost. It is a comfortable day trip for us and we plan to go back later in the spring as we study other times when the fort was in use.
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