Antietam

 Mxyl and Zorg went to the 150th anniversary reenactment of the Battle of Antietam last weekend with their scout troop!

Here they are in front of a replica of an early hot air balloon.

Lots of horses, lots of cannons!

Mxyl: "One of the things they did was shoot mortar cannons!
The weather was quite nice, but also hot--I imagined a sound being rain drops when it was actually electricity crackling in wires overhead (good thing it didn't rain then).  I had problems with my foot that day, so I tried to stay off it.  Unfortunately, that was right before our scoutmaster decided to have our Troop pick up and carry (on our shoulders) several tables filled with bags of candles and sand.  Our Scoutmaster did some of the work too.

"However, each table was meant to resemble a dead soldier.  I felt really great in doing it, since it was a service project I--we--had only one shot at doing; and we did it.  I realized that there won't be another 150th anniversary; and (unless I stay in reaaally good shape) I won't be able to do it again when I'm 65.  Zorg, my Troop & I did our best  for the memory of Antietam and we're proud of it."

INTERMISSION:  The official Battle of Antietam 150th Anniversary website: www.150thantietamreenactment.com.  Yes, there's just something about a website you find and see something you did; somewhere you were...

that doesn't happen to be part of a blog you wrote.

Zorg: "The cannons were loud.  I got Clara Barton's autograph!  Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious; that was fun!

US History: Civil War

We've been moving on through the Civil War....slowly. I've found we can't get as "into" the Civil War as we have with other parts of our mega-unit because it's just too overwhelming. Too much death, too much destruction.

I've been reading to the kids twice a week from Brown Paper School: Civil War. I like the way they present things in the form of stories, plays, and first person narratives. I usually have the kids draw or color pictures as I read.

I was a bit concerned that the kids were still getting it mostly as a run-together list of battles, so I was on the lookout for other resources. I found Big Fish's Civil War game helpful for this. It is a hidden pictures game, but it has several narrative threads from different perspectives which run through the game (as well as a rather silly treasure hunt).

All of the scenes are battle locations (although, of course, you always seem to be looking for some things make no sense in that context!). Best of all, when you "solve" a battlefield, it is marked by a Confederate or Union flag based on which side actually won the battle. This was very helpful, especially at the beginning when the South seems to be winning every battle (which actually had my kids worried!).

If you are a Southerner, I should warn you that the Confederates are presented as the bad guys.

I also found the Comics Illustrated version of Uncle Tom's Cabin, and several other Civil War comics.

I am hoping to finish up by the end of this month...We'll see!