Blue & Gray School Year Launch

a post by Jenni {aka Mom}

This summer Rooster and Bird had the privilege of attending Civil War Camp at VMI's Virginia Museum of the Civil War in New Market, Virginia. As anyone who knows us could tell you, Rooster has been obsessed with interested in The War Between The States for some years now (remember his Kepi birthday cake?), and was thrilled at the opportunity to attend this day camp. I plan to post sometime in more detail about the camp. It is very well run and we definitely recommend it. (By the way, their Homeschool Day each March is outstanding!)

Well, since this period of American history has been of such strong interest, and since it's the 150th anniversary year, and since R & B had just had such a fun introduction we decided to launch our school year with our 1st ever unit study covering nothing other than -- The Civil War.

In conjunction with the unit study we planned several field trips to reenactments, battlefields, museums, etc...the first of which was a reenactment of the skirmish in Orange, Virginia. This colorfully named little town dubbed the event The Blue & Gray in Orange. 

My father lived in Orange for a portion of his childhood, so it was an extra neat treat to consider his having been there and to drive by the home in which he had lived. 

The timing coincided perfectly with the beginning of our 2012-2013 school year, and this outing became a fun family launch to the year ahead.

Here are some highlights from our visit to The Blue & Gray in Orange:

Bird (in gray) and Rooster (in blue) await the beginning of the festivities

All 3 handsome boys sit for a spell, and patiently pose for another picture

A small band of Union soldiers enter the town square

Pursued by Confederate soldiers, the Union soldiers turn to defend themselves

Rooster was surprised by the first shots fired :)

The Confederate cavalry rides in on the attack

Union soldiers try to hold their ground (that's Bo on the right, enjoying the show)

LOVE this reenactor with the cigar and the pistol! He was SO into the story.

The Confederate cavalry runs the small Union force down the street, where the Union finally surrenders.

My 3 boys enjoying themselves :)

The Confederate infantry celebrate their victory

Watching the parade...R's a bit bummed at this point after it sank in that this reenactment depicted a Union loss.

Bird excitedly has his photo taken with "General Lee"

We hope everyone's school year is getting off to a great start! We're having a fantastic week so far. Lord willing, I'll expound on it in Friday's Weekly Wrap-Up. :)