Sesame Street to Gettysburg

The ability to do something that we adults want to do is still kind of rare, and I'm cherishing the kids' new maturity that's allowing it for us. It's been a LONG time since a kid of mine threw a fit in the modern art museum (although that experience was so traumatic that we have perhaps never been to a modern art museum since). And so, on the last day of our trip, after hotel breakfast and the big kid's chess class (you've got to love online classes for vacationing without learning loss!) we drove to Gettysburg, just because my partner and I really, really wanted to see it:

Gettysburg is actually a great place to visit with kids--it's outdoors, so they can do a lot of running around; you pretty much have to drive to the different sites, so they can get a break with air conditioning and a book fairly often; and the monuments are large-scale and eminently climbable:

I have since learned that you are not supposed to climb on the cannons, but I promise that I did not know that then. I'd never knowingly let my kids break the rules in a national park!

You're not supposed to climb on the monuments, either!

The first thing that we did was run into the Visitor's Center just to buy a self-guided audio car tour and Guide to Gettysburg Battlefield Monuments: Find Every Monument and Tablet in the Park, and then we spent the next few hours following the tour (which was incredible--tons of context, detailed explanation of what you were looking at everywhere you went, thrilling storytelling with sound effects. It completely made our trip):

They climbed on every. Single. Cannon. I am MORTIFIED!

Thanks to Killer Angels, I have a huge soft spot for Buford and Reynolds, and so McPherson Ridge, the first engagement in the battle, was my favorite stop:

I was super sad about Reynolds dying.

Fortunately, the kids love audiobooks, so the audio car tour was the perfect way to see the battlefield: we'd listen to the stories, listen to the orientation at our stop, get out and run around and see stuff, and then climb back into the car to listen to more stories.

The little kid's favorite stop was Oak Ridge; she listened with bated breath to the audio tour's description of brave Sallie, the pet dog of the Pennsylvania Volunteers, and when she learned that there was actually a monument to Sallie on Oak Ridge, I handed her our book of battlefield monuments and told her that we'd stop at it if she could find it, so she did!

The big kid best liked climbing the huge fire tower that allows you to overlook the locations of the second day of fighting. Seriously, there were So. Many. Stairs, but I kept repeating to myself all the way, "This is good, healthy activity!" and the view from the top...

Was excellent:

Even though my home state was on the wrong side of the war, I did manage a shout-out:

Some of my peeps were apparently also paying their respects there:

Again thanks to Killer Angels, Little Round Top is Mr. Craft Knife's favorite spot in the battlefield:

Bayonets fixed, Chamberlain's brave men prepare to charge down the hill! (They're in the wrong spot for Chamberlain, but don't tell them that--they're super into their reenactment!)

He has a special place in his heart for Chamberlain, whose story is pretty epic. Also, he helped hold Little Round Top against all this:

The High Water Mark of the Confederacy is also an amazing spot, and yes, my bloodthirsty little soldiers are attempting to cross the line and shoot you:

You can actually hike the fields that the Confederate soldiers charged across, right from the statue of Lee at the center of the Confederate line to the statue of Meade at the center of the Union line. We saved that for another day, however.

We did not finish memorizing the Gettysburg Address in time to recite it at the spot where Lincoln originally read it, alas, so the big kid read it for us, instead:

We did see the cemetery that he dedicated, at least--

--and the spot where it was read, and the memorial to it--

--so when we finally finish, we'll be able to imagine the appropriate setting for our recitation.

Again, we closed the park down. We had to blow through the museum--

Actual cannonballs fired at Ft. Sumter--very cool context for the kids, since  they've memorized that conflict.

--and zip through the gift shop before they kicked us out at the end of the day.

It had been a long day, through which we had sustained ourselves on peanut butter sandwiches, clementines, granola bars, and tortilla chips, so we celebrated this final stop on our road trip with a late afternoon visit to a restaurant named, of COURSE, General Pickett's Buffet.

It was our last charge, you could say...

The kids and I did a ton of prep work for our trip to Gettysburg. Here are our favorite resources:

• Gettysburg: You are There
• So You Think You Know Gettysburg?
• Gettysburg: The Story of the Battle with Maps
• I Survived the Battle of Gettysburg
• Gettysburg
• Ken Burns: The Civil War
• The Killer Angels
• Gone with the Wind
• Lincoln
• The Cemetery Keepers of Gettysburg
• What Was the Battle of Gettysburg?
• The Battle of Gettysburg: Would You Lead the Fight?
• Lincoln@Gettysburg
• Eyewitness The Civil War

The big kid read most of those independently--she's such an avid reader that it's an easy way to boost her contextual understanding of a topic. We all did the picture books and documentaries together, and I read the children's chapter books out loud so the little kid could enjoy them, too, but I only had them watch (very carefully) selected scenes of the DVDs with me, and I read them just a couple of scenes from each of the adult novels. 

You can also check out my Civil War Pinboard for the educational links, resources, coloring pages, memory work cards, timelines, artifact images, etc. that we used. There are some amazing Civil War playlists on Spotify that the kids LOVED listening to (awkward as it was to have the little kid suddenly bursting out with "Dixie" at random times in public places), as well terrific audio versions of the Gettysburg Address that are helping with our memorization.

Now, onto the next adventure!

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, road trips to weird old cemeteries, looming mid-life crisis, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!