Gettysburg

One of the best parts of homeschooling is that I get to learn so much, too.  Our studies of American History have been especially enlightening because we get to experience so much of what we're learning (and because so much of it is new to me as a Canadian!).  When we studied the native tribes of this area, we were able to visit a recreated Indian Village and study a variety of archeological finds.  When we studied the European settlers of the 1600s, we were able to visit Jamestown and St. Mary's City.  We went to old tobacco plantations, stood on ancient battlefields, walked through slaves quarters, and saw the birthplace of a U.S. president.

And when we studied the civil war, we were able to spend a day at Gettysburg.  What a powerful experience that was!  I highly recommend a visit there some day.... in the meantime, allow us to take you on a tour.


The Entrance: First We Meet Lincoln

The Visitor Center: Cyclorama

In the 1880s, a French artist named Paul Philippoteaux created a painting of the Battle of Gettysburg.  He researched the battle, talked with veterans, and spent months on the battlefield.  Then, over twelve months, he produced a detailed painting 377 feet long and 42 feet high.  (Did you catch those dimensions?  It's huge!)  The painting is displayed in a circular room at the Gettysburg Visitor Center, with a platform in the middle (where we stood) and the painting surrounding us.  The floor around the painting has been set up with dirt, rocks, grass and props to blend in with the painting.  It is incredible!  I could have stood there for hours!

Here's an example of the ground scenery leading up to the painting.

(the lighting from my flash makes the scenery and painting look less similar than they really were)

 And here's a closeup of one of the scenes in the painting.

I enjoyed learning that the artist painted himself into the painting as his signature, even though he wasn't at the battle himself... in the painting he's away from the action a bit, leaning against a tree (not shown in my photos).

It was intriguing to think that this painting has been on display for over a hundred years.  In October 1883, it was first set up in Chicago.  It toured around to eight different cities and approximately 200,000 people viewed the painting.  It was on display at the World Fair in 1933.   Here is the poster that advertised the painting.... and its ten cent entry fee.

Not only was I deeply moved by the action and stories shown in the painting, I was very aware of the fact that thousands and thousands of people have also been moved by the stories shown in the painting, including many veterans of the Gettysburg battles.  The images were so real that one veteran was quoted as saying, "You see that puff of smoke? Just wait a moment till that clears away, and I'll show you just where I stood."

Here Jon is looking at a smaller image of the cyclorama painting in a museum area that provided explanations of the different scenes.

The Visitor Center: Museum


Oh, what a museum this was!  There were plenty of artifacts from the battlefields, as well as detailed stories of each day of the Gettysburg battle.  So well done.  The museum had an excellent Junior Ranger program that helped the kids seek out really interesting tidbits and get a thorough overall mental picture of what happened here.  We saw some cannonballs that had been fired.  We saw a Bible that was lost on the field and then picked up by another soldier (both men wrote an inscription on the front pages of the Bible, and both men survived the war).  We saw photos of civilians who found themselves living in the middle of a battlefield and whose front lawns became littered with dead horses and people - civilians who transformed their living rooms and dining rooms into infirmaries.

Pictures of the exhibits didn't really work out so well.  Here's one Aidan took - the sword caught his eye.  It was all done so well!

This huge display was quite powerful: a photo collage wall of Confederate soldiers who lost their lives and a wall of Union soldiers who lost their lives.  So many youthful, earnest faces.

The Battlefield 

The battlefield is a large area of rural Pennsylvania.  You can rent a tour guide to take you around, you can purchase a CD of information to listen to as you drive, or you can take along a written guide and read information at various viewpoints.  We did the last option, which worked well for us. 

The area is very beautiful.  We went at the end of November, when nothing looks as good as it does at other times of the year.  And we found it to be peaceful and lovely.

There are hundreds of monuments around the park.  Many of them are small statues or plaques that honour specific people or battalions that fought in Gettysburg.

Some of them are quite elaborate.

Each of the kids studied one of the memorials in detail. 

This memorial showed the holding line of the battle on the last day; the farthest place that the Confederates pushed through.

This next photo is of the field in which that final battle took place.  It was called Pickett's Charge.  If you know that story at all, you know how much blood was shed on this land.  It was day three of the battle, and General Lee (i.e. the South) planned a big attack.  First he launched an artillery bombardment meant to greatly decrease the Union's ammunition.  Then 12,500 Confederate men stormed across these open fields for three quarters of a mile.  Half of them didn't make it.  The Union fired hard on the soldiers running up this field.  It was this charge that ended that battle of Gettysburg, in the Union's favor.





Little Round Top (the hill in the picture below) was the site of the fighting on Day 2 in Gettysburg.

A lot of fighting happened here.  To make the long story simple, the Confederate soldiers had had a successful Day 1.  Then here, on Day 2, the Union soldiers were mostly up on Little Round Top and the Confederates were (in part) at Devil's Den (which is where I was standing when I took the above photo).  At one point, the Confederate men surged up the hill toward Little Round Top and the Union soldiers surged down.  There was so much death - more than six hundred soldiers.  Over 1,200 were wounded.

Here is Jon standing among the rocks at Devil's Den.  These rocks are the same rocks that in 1863 provided protection for hot, tired, scared, fighting men in the middle of war.

 

And here's a wider view, standing on a rock up on Little Round Top, looking down at Devil's Den.  The area on the left, in the sloping area down from the trees, has been labelled the Valley of Death. 

The National Cemetery 

At first, the local farmers and civilians buried thousands of casualties wherever they could on the battlefields.  A few months later, land was set aside for a national cemetery and the bodies moved.  We went to the cemetery and walked around.  It's a beautiful, meaningful place.

(there are iron plaques throughout the cemetery quoting verses of the
poem "The Bivouac of the Dead" by Theodore O'Hara)

 
The cemetery was officially opened in November of 1863, and at the dedication ceremony Mr. Edward Everett gave a two hour speech and then President Lincoln said a few brief words.  We stood at the spot where Lincoln spoke these words, the Gettysburg Address, and we stood there at the same time of year - bare trees, pale sunshine, leaves of orange and yellow crunching under our feet. 

After all that we've learned about the civil war, I appreciate his speech as a respectful and beautifully crafted tribute: 

 Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, 

conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.  

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation,
or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met
on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion
of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that 

nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. 

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground.  The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here,
have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget 

what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here
to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that
from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause
for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here
highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation,
under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of
the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863

A Christmas Greeting From the Bakkers

It was tough, but somebody had to do it.  Two of my sisters live in Florida, and they requested some Christmas holiday cheer.  We drove straight down I-95 and invaded their homes with our noisy presence.  For two weeks, there was a constant drone of joyful cousin play, a constant hum of sisterly chatter, and a constant need to cook up more food.  Thanks to both families for hosting us so well!  It was totally delightful! 

On Christmas morning, we slipped away for a while so that everyone could enjoy some personal gift-opening time with their own families.  We went to the beach!  Why not celebrate Christmas in the sand and sun!?

We set up a little spot for our own family gift exchange.....

Can you guess what was on Marijka's mind?

It was a fun place to open gifts!  We all had to grab the wrapping paper before it blew away....and sometimes shout at each other to be heard over the wind.  "Thanks, Aidan!  I love it!"  "What???"

The beach was quite empty, except for the birds.  These Royal Terns made us laugh.  They all lined up in the same direction, solemnly facing the wind.  Their feathers blew all around their faces, but they stood steady, undeterred and unmoved.

Well... unless there was a running Bakker who couldn't resist messing up their solemn gathering....

Jon and I had announced that we shouldn't be getting wet on this visit to the beach - our big Christmas Dinner gathering was coming up next.

Here Aidan and I are daring the waves to come splash us.

It may look like we're standing in very little water, but I tell you: those Atlantic waves mean business.  Yep.  As always, most of us got wet.  We arrived at our Christmas Dinner in need of clean clothes and a shower.

Merry Christmas!

Happy New Year!

Thomas Jefferson Told Me To

It turns out that Thomas Jefferson, in 1783, recommended a visit to Harper's Ferry.

We obliged.

Yes, I agree with the President.  This scene is worth a trip across the Atlantic, and it certainly was worth our ninety minute drive northwest.  Here's the view from Jefferson Rock. (We visited in November.  Imagine how brilliant the colours would look earlier in the fall!)

Harper's Ferry is a small town nestled in a valley where two rivers meet.  I'll borrow this summertime panoramic photo from Wikipedia, so you can see the whole thing.  The river on the left is the Shenandoah and the river on the right is the Potomac.  Neat place, eh?  (There's also a steep hillside on the right.)



And when you start learning about the history of this place, you get even more intrigued!!!  Yes, there was a Mr. Harper who established a ferry to help people cross the Potomac - somewhere around 1750.  You already know about Thomas Jefferson's visit.  George Washington stopped by in 1785 to check out a possible plan to establish canals here.  in 1796, Washington suggested Harpers Ferry as a place to build an armory that would produce and store small arms for the U.S Army.  In 1859, abolitionist John Brown attacked the armory, hoping to steal rifles and start a slave uprising.  His late-night plan was discovered, the church bells rang to alert the townspeople, and John Brown ended up hiding out in this engine house until General Lee captured him.  



That raid on the armory played a role in the onset of the Civil War, and became quite a famous story, actually.  Union soldiers sang about it - have you heard this song?  (click here to listen)



Harper's Ferry remained in the middle of things, changing hands between the Confederate and Union Officials fifteen times.  We walked to the Union General Headquarters, just up a bit from Jefferson's Rock.  

Soon after the war, this home became a college for freed slaves!  Storer Normal College.  It was also here in 1906, that the Niagara Movement held it's first U.S. meeting as a large civil rights group who worked toward equality for African Americans.  

We just loved wandering around, taking in all the beauty and stories and sunshine!

Some of the stone steps we climbed were set in place before 1865!

With all this rich history everywhere, we grew used to historical plaques on nearly every building and street corner.  We were especially fond of this one:

School At Home - What We Do All Day

We have only a few months of experience, but I'd like to share how homeschooling is working for our family.  I always wondered what it might look like.  We've been asked by some of you to describe our setup.  As I meet more homeschooling families, I sure enjoy hearing how they find their daily rhythms and routines.   

I'll admit that curriculum is one of my favourite things to think about (seriously. a bit of a geek.), so I hand-picked quite a variety of programs to incorporate into our year.  I especially wanted to use curricula that would conquer academic weaknesses and celebrate my children's strengths (i.e. let's find a thorough program to improve spelling (a weakness for all three) and also ways to enjoy lots of art (Linnea), writing (Marijka) and slurping up info through reading (Aidan)!).  I spent time studying the curriculum maps of our Seattle school and made my plans with the transition back to school in mind.  As well, I'll admit, I incorporated plenty of books, activities and programs just because I wanted to!  It's a one-year experiment for me to play with curriculum!

School starts around 8:30.  There's not really a scampering to be ready on time; it's a casual start.  We usually just all find ourselves in the dining room somewhere around 8:30.

We often start with a song or a prayer, and then we look at our morning schedules.  Each child has a list of what activities are scheduled for their morning session.

Our morning schedule briefly lists who does what and in which order.  This way I can balance when each child might need my attention.  It includes spelling (we really like 'All About Spelling'!), math, Bible, typing, journal writing, story writing, piano practice, singing lessons, and Aidan's junior high program (a mostly-independent, research-based history/science curriculum called TRISMS).  Sometimes I throw in some household chores like baking a batch of muffins.  The children might be all over the house (Aidan may be up in his room, reciting the Bible chapter he's memorizing, while Linnea is sitting with me at the kitchen table doing Math and Marijka is in the living room doing a typing program on the computer). 


Our morning session goes from about 8:30-10:30.  When a child is done working through their rotation, they can do spelling games, math games, write a letter, etc. until we're all finished.  (I don't allow reading at this point because it's so easy to get sucked into a story and not feel like coming back to reality.)  Once we're all done, we have a snack and take a break.

We do our one-on-one spelling program in our back room, which is also the laundry room.  :)

I really like how practicing piano can be a part of our school routine,
and not something that needs to fit into our evenings.

Sometimes everyone ends up at the kitchen table at the same time!

About twenty minutes later, we gather together for Geography.  This time we study all together.  We're learning our way around the world, with several weeks on each continent.  I found a variety of excellent resources!  One day we enjoy a read aloud of a great book  from 1929 that tells about the author's explorations around the world.  (It's fun to hear him say, "perhaps one day a man will travel to the moon", or "the population of the world might soon reach two billion!"  It sparks lots of discussion.)  On other days we do some atlas drills and mapping, or we make related foods or read biographies or plan an imaginary vacation.  It's a lot of fun.  

By now it's about 12:30.  We take a full break for lunch.  The kids play, read and check email.  I throw in a load of laundry, start some supper prep and take a quiet time.

It's a good time to practice ninja skills on the playground across the street.

Around 2 pm, we gather again for what we call Afternoon Studies.  These studies are thematic, student led (for the most part) and often involve projects and field trips.  For example, the children wanted to learn more about boats.  We see a large variety of boats every day, and we were naturally becoming quite curious about the different types, purposes, costs, etc.  The kids helped plan what they wanted to learn and how we would spend a week of Afternoon Studies learning it.  We went to the nearby marina, did some sketching, and spent one afternoon in a large boat shop, talking with a very kind and knowledgeable shop owner.  We have an ongoing list of topics we'd like to study in our Afternoon Studies, some coming from our school curriculum back home, some triggered by recent questions, some just for fun.  We're willing to take on guest speakers!  Want to join us?  :)

We have a few outside activities as well.  Aidan takes fencing classes; Linnea is on a basketball team.  Every other week we get together with another homeschooling family.  My friend has a brain for math, and she provides Aidan with a chance to talk the talk and grapple with challenging math ideas.  Kathy also sets out a fun math project for me to do with the other kids.  After math, I lead a writer's workshop for the group.  It's great to spark each other's imaginations and share our stories with an audience.

So that's what homeschooling looks like in this home.  Can you picture it?  It's not a Big Event, it's just normal daily life for us.  I've been in the homes of other homeschooling families now, and I know that each family's answer to this question will be very different.  That's the joy of it all!

cottage hospitality

There are many lovely things for you to enjoy when visiting our cottage.


1.  There's a good chance at least one appliance will be out of order when you're here.

Mom and Jon chatting over kitchen duty.... broken dishwasher!

2.  We provide a grand piano.  Plus an attentive audience.

Dad played a little sonata while waiting for us to all be ready to go somewhere...

One evening, we all stood around the piano, Mom, Dad, Jon, myself and our kids
and belted out the gorgeous hymn, "Oh, The Sweet, Sweet, Love of Jesus". 
It was one of my favourite moments ever. 

3.  You get to bring a lot of your own things!  The cottage coffee machine makes only three cups at a time.  If you think you'll want a refill, BYO coffee maker.  BYO slippers: the floors are hard and cold.  Coming with a baby?  You get to bring your playpen, high chair, plastic dishes and baby monitor!  Oh, and we don't have extra pillows.


 4.  This cottage promotes sleepovers!  No need to have a room to yourself - we'll provide you with constant company!  When Kim and Gord came for a visit, the lucky couple got to have a sleepover with two of their children!  Plus, couples receive a chance to really snuggle: a double bed!  (If you're over six feet tall, you also get the privilege of having your feet stick off the end of the bed!)

Marijka and Linnea enjoyed this sleepover when Opa and Oma were visiting.
Beth and Ali got to share this room when they were here.

Kids even get to share their bathtime!  Plus, as you can see, Amlelie was lucky enough
to sleep in the bath-bathroom.

5.   The cottage is just the right size for being able to hear everything that is said.  Never miss out on the great conversations!  The walls are thin.  There are vents connecting each downstairs room with an upstairs room, so you can always hear each other.  Beth, Ali and I were doing dishes together one night (see #1 - the dishwasher is still broken) and Beth needed to run upstairs for something.  Down the hallway, up the stairs, in a bedroom.... she was able to hear our conversation all the while.


6.  There aren't very many places to sit in the cottage.  So you get to share the couch.

(When we decided to watch a show with Beth and Ali, seven of us piled onto the couch, 'squishing our bum cheeks' as Marijka put it, piling people on.  The show was playing on our laptop (our only tv), and the sound was fairly faint, so we didn't dare make any sound!  All seven of us, packed like sardines and super attentive so we could hear the show.  Quite a picture, I'm sure.  But from my spot on the couch, there was no way I could move to reach the camera.)

7. Since this cottage is also our schoolroom, you'll probably get to trip over our school work!  Mom and Dad were given a lengthy and enthusiastic demonstration at Grandparents' Day.

Marijka recited a good many things she learned about elephants....

...and received her applause with a humble bow

Linnea showed Opa and Oma the Bible study she's been working on. 

(I don't have a good photo of Aidan, but he also shared...  Mom and Dad
certainly have a solid grasp now on what we've been studying these last few months.)

8. There are people in this house who bake recipes with wonderful instructions like, "Whip cream.  Spread attractively over pie."  Yum.  (Since there are no round baking dishes in the cottage, everything you eat will be in rectangles.) 

9.  We have a playground in our front yard.

 10.  We'll probably take you on a hike.

(We took Mom and Dad here, too, but once again enjoyed the
experience without a camera in hand.  Dad has some photos, though! 
If you email me a few, Dad, I can add them in!  You got some nice shots, I think!)

Perhaps we'll even go drop by the homes of a few of my friends....! 
(Three Knight Girls wandering the streets of DC?  Are you surprised
that we were stopped by the Secret Service?  Me either.)

11.  We will hug you tightly when you arrive! 

...and hug you tight when you leave.   Thank you so much for coming, all you lovely guests!!!!!