History Lessons in a Cemetery

We spent a lovely afternoon in one of the largest cemeteries in our area this past week.  I know what you are thinking ~ a lovely afternoon in a cemetery??  Yes! I love to visit cemeteries, the older and more historic the better.  So, I planned a field trip with our homeschool friends and we picked up the who's who booklet from the cemetery office.  We found Zebulon Vance (governor in North Carolina during Civil War) right away.  The kids went on a field trip to his home earlier this year, so they were excited to find his final resting place.

We also found many of the graves of the five victims who were killed in the only mass murder our town has ever know.  It took place in 1906.  We also found Thomas Wolfe's grave and the Colburn family plot (which donated our science museum).  We would like to go back and find victims of the 1918 flu epidemic when we study that next year.  Once we started looking around, we were amazed to find so many famous people.  However, the kids were most affected by the many graves of babies and young children.  It really brings home how fortunate we are to live in current times.

The kids quickly started picking wild flowers and tending the graves.  Little Red Riding Hood loves to put flowers on graves. 

There were many lovely and unusual headstones.  It is amazing how talented the stone cutters are who made the headstones.  The kids also enjoyed doing a few grave rubbings.  We used oil pastels to make the rubbings.

Blessings, Dawn