As a final "hurrah" to our home school year we hosted another history reenactment day. A few years ago these events started as a fun idea for my children as well as my sisters kiddos to get them excited about history. They have since morphed into including our home school group plus their friends which made this year the biggest yet with a total of seventy-one participants.
We've gone through the Revolutionary War, the Oregon Trail, a farm day and this past week we traveled the Underground Railroad. The purpose of the day was to introduce our children to living history, with the intent being that there is so much more than names, dates and places to memorize but realizing that these were real people living real adventures.
The day started off with an auction, then the slaves had to go to work. Soon, their conductors rescued them and they started their trek to Canada. Alexis prepared historical parts for our story tellers where each group visited and met characters along the way. They were introduced to a Quaker, an Abolitionist (who fed them lunch) and a common farmer who knew what it was to be saved by God's grace so therefor represented the many unnamed people of this era who opened up their homes and risked their lives so that slaves could gain their freedom.
Along the way they were being hunted down by guards and learning history in a fun way. After each of the stops they made a final run to the Hudson River (the pond) and Canada (the island) where freedom and freezies awaited them. Once the actual event was over one of the best parts of the day began: fellowship. Everybody went home renewed, refreshed and excited about learning again.
Today I am working on putting together a scrapbook of pictures for the families who attended. If anybody is interested in hosting an Underground Railroad History Reenactment for your group and would like to use our schedule just leave me a comment with your email address and I'll send it over. Now they're all wondering what we're going to do next year!
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7 comments:
That is awesome. My daughter and daughter in law both homeschool. Tomorrow my son and dil are hosting a reenaction of the Oklahoma Landrun for the homeschool group they are part of. They are caretakers of the Jr campground and have a huge place for it. It should be a lot of fun. The kids will have their "wagons" and run to stake our their piece for land. I will have to share this idea with them.
Oh my how fun!!! If there wasn't a lake separating us we would have been there;) Neat idea. You should put those ideas into a book and sell it as homeschool curriculum...The pictures are beautiful. Glad to see you guys able to do this again!
That looks like an awesome day! The pictures are great too!
I wanna come to the next one it looks like such fun! What a great way to learn : )
I totally want to come to your school! I've always enjoyed reading about your history reenactments!
WOW!! Beautiful pictures - looks like a great experience.
This is so amazing. What a life lesson - for everyone!
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