THE
CIVIL WAR
T H E
W A R A C R O S S F I V E A P R I L
S
Studying
the Civil War has been one of the highlights of our Homeschool adventures!
We've immersed ourselves in so much fantastic reading that it's been tough
to pull this unit to a close. I knew that this particular unit had to be
the next one up on the web; I'm very anxious to share it with you all.
To
understand the Civil War is to realize that there are very complex issues
involved--not just secession and slavery, but the economic
and political interests that stirred both fires. I was amazed to find that
key events I remembered as a child were not necessarily the most important
incidents. As the puzzle started to come together, we all began to see
that it wasn't just the 'evil South' fighting the 'upright North' (keep
in mind I grew up in New York schools when learning about the war). There
was much to be gained and lost from both sides. I'm sure reams have been
written with opinions to 'who was right' and 'who was wrong' on issues,
(I know there are websites galore!), but what I will be attempting to put
together is a general view of both sides, offered by the particular reading
and viewing materials we had available to us.
I will
not be offering this unit broken down into lesson plans as I have the others,
only because it would be impossible to judge each family's reading habits
(numbers of children and various ages), and this unit is primarily reading
with some key projects involved. I will mention at this point that my children
I am teaching right now are in 3rd and 5th grade. It is also heavy on history,
but very light on most other subjects (there was so much to absorb, we
didn't want to get off-topic). It doesn't mean it couldn't be done -- (e.g.:
When learning about 'the drinking gourd' {the Big Dipper}, you could study
astronomy for science). Health is emphasized due to the fact that deaths
were generally in the category of infections, diseases, starvation and
exposure. Much of the country's money was spent on prosthetic limbs. Strategy
and logic, however, were heavily emphasized.
We
also spent approximately 10 weeks on the Civil War and you may wish to
spend more or less. What I will do is offer you our list of resources and
our project ideas (complete with pictures!) and instructions. I'll also
note at what point we introduced certain projects into our study as well
as field trips or any additional information. We basically began at the
beginning and worked our way through, using a timeline as a guide for what
came next! It worked wonderfully and we were able to see the way
the events unfolded before
our eyes!
BOOKS:
**Although we read 95% of the
books I'm presenting, please consider this an idea of what to possibly
look for, although not exhaustive by far! Depending on the length of time
you spend studying this topic will allow only so much reading. Also, some
of this was family read aloud and others were assigned to proper levels.
Some of even the simpler books were read aloud to all, simply because the
content was concise and relevant. In other words, it did the job and we
didn't need to wade through a 250 page chapter book! Don't be afraid to
substitute; there are MANY good books to choose from out there.
• The Story
of the Underground Railroad (Cornerstones of Freedom)
• ...If You Traveled
on the Underground Railroad
• The Drinking Gourd
(An
I Can Read Book)
• I Thought My Soul
Would Rise and Fly: The Diary of Patsy, A Freed Girl
(Dear America
Series)
• The Addy Series (American
Girl - 6 books)
• Uncle Tom's Cabin
(Obviously, discretion is advised. We used this as
read
aloud and stopped frequently to explain and answer questions)
• The Story of John
Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry
(Cornerstones
of Freedom)
• Fort Sumter (Cornerstones
of Freedom)
• The Day Fort Sumter
was Fired On (Scholastic)
• A Nation Torn: The
Story of How the Civil War Began (Scholastic)
• ...If You Lived at
the Time of the Civil War
• Jefferson Davis (Cornerstones
of Freedom)
• ...If You Grew Up
with Abraham Lincoln
• Meet Abraham Lincoln
(A
Step Up book)
• The Boys' War: Confederate
and Union Soldiers Talk About
the
Civil War (Scholastic)
• The Battle of Antietam
(Cornerstones
of Freedom)
• For Home and Country:
A Civil War Scrapbook (Scholastic)
• A House Divided: The
Lives of Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee
(Scholastic)
• Robert E. Lee: The
Christian (Christian Liberty Press)
• The Life of General
Stonewall Jackson (Christian Liberty Press)
• The Life of J. E.
B. Stuart (Christian Liberty Press)
• With Lee in Virginia
(G. A. Henty - Family read aloud)
• War, Terrible War
(Book
6 of 'A History of US' - Joy Hakim)
• The Journal of James
Edmond Pease: A Civil War Union Soldier
(My
Name is America Series)
• The Story of the Gettysburg
Address (Cornerstones of Freedom)
• The Story of the Surrender
at Appomattox Courthouse
(Cornerstones
of Freedom)
• Frederick Douglass
(A
See and Read Beginning to Read Biography)
• Narrative of the Life
of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave
(autobiography)
• Gentle Annie: The
True Story of a Civil War Nurse (Apple)
• The Story of Clara
Barton of the Red Cross
• Civil War Poetry and
Prose (Walt Whitman)
• The Bonnets &
Bugles Series (10 Books)
VIDEOS:
• A Woman Called
Moses (starring Cicely Tyson - story of Harriet Tubman)
• Follow the Drinking
Gourd (wonderful narration by Morgan Freeman)
• Pink and Say (highly
recommend - Say Curtis describes his meeting
with Pinkus
Aylee, a black soldier, during the Civil War, and their
capture by
Southern troops. Based on a true story about the author's
great-great-grandfather.
• The Civil War (By
Ken Burns - 9 videos, highly recommend!!)
• Tour of Civil War
Battlefields
• The Red Badge of Courage
• Gettysburg (once
again, discretion is advised due to violence and language)
• Lincoln at Gettysburg
OTHER RESOURCES:
• Historical
Devotional A.D 1861-1865 (Mantle Ministries - Highly
Recommend!!
Little Bear Wheeler narrates a 4-cassette devotional
weaving scripture
lessons with the events leading up to the war
through the
surrender. )
These can
be found at: http://www.mantlemin.com/
• The Civil War: It's
Music and It's Sounds (2
CDs of Band Music, Field
Music, The
Sounds of Conflict, Firearms, Bugle Signals, Fife and Drum
Calls, Narration
and more)
• American Songs of
Revolutionary Times and the Civil War Era
• Wee Sing America
• Abraham Lincoln and
His Family: Paper Dolls in Full Color (Dover)
• Civil War Uniforms
Coloring Book (Dover )
• Uniforms of the Civil
War ...in Color
• Civil War Game (Learningames
- EMA)
PROJECTS:
•
Timeline: This
is crucial for understanding all of the events and the
order that
they came in. It was also a great practice in penmanship and
helped reiterate
each event in a nutshell.
•
Civil War Journal:
A continuation of penmanship with much creative
writing.
•
Confederate & Union Costumes (on a Shoestring Budget):
We pulled
together two great outfits with little money spent and little
sewing involved
(my kind of project!).
•
Civil War Gazette: A
fantastic project for creative writing and
photography
practice (take advantage of those outfits you created!).
Much research
leads to 'mini-reports' through the eyes of a reporter!
•
Filmstrip Report: Who
said a report had to be boring and dull? My
children have
enjoyed this project so much, it's been hard to get them to
stop writing!
(What a problem!) By the time the report was finished,
they would
have had many, many pages of detailed information, but
because of
its bite-size presentation, they can thoroughly research the
topic and
enjoy preparing it. This heavily utilizes illustrations as well.
•
Civil War Chess Set:
We happened to be taking a chess class at the
time and had
no chess set available, thus came the idea to create our
own!
This is an optional project. I wanted to include this in case you
would
like to have the directions for it. It certainly promotes strategy
and logic!