Thursday, April 5, 2012

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

6 comments:

  1. We did a history study with cemeteries once. We made rubbings of the headstones of my ancestors.

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  2. IS this the one with the "look homeward angel" in it? I remember going by one and looking for that. (Though maybe I'm confused.)

    As always, it looks like y'all are having a great time. I love all of the hands-on learning that you do.

    Here's a funny from one of our trips to a historic cemetery. Having toured many historic sites, one of my boys (only 5 at the time) looked around for a familiar site and then asked "Where is the gift shop?". Not sure what he thought they would sell? LOL

    Blessings
    Leslie

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  3. Dawn that sounds really cool. I had never thought to find history in a cemetery, but what a neat idea. We'll have to go out to the big one where my husband's grandparents are laid as it is only an hour from here. I saw on the news the other day that more people are wanting to buy homes next to cemeteries as it is a lovely green space and so peaceful. Thought that was interesting.

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  4. I've made trips to historic cemeteries before, but haven't done that with my girls yet. It's a good idea...we have many in our area.
    Thanks for linking with Look What We Did.

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  5. Old cemeteries are truly amusing. Looking at the very old tomb stones makes you realize how long they have been there and how fast time flies. Anyway, the kids seem to have a lot of fun visiting the cemetery. Why not? It’s a peaceful and beautiful place, and it clearly shows in the photos. :)

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  6. Cool! We have visited a few cemeteries too.

    American Cemetery in Luxembourg
    http://highhillhomeschool.blogspot.com/2012/05/luxembourg-american-cemetary-and.html

    Jewish Cemetery in Prague, Czech Republic
    http://highhillhomeschool.blogspot.com/2011/10/josefov-jewish-quarter.html

    What happens when the land a cemetery was built on is needed. - Germany
    http://highhillhomeschool.blogspot.com/2011/11/oppenheim.html

    Cemetery in Spain
    http://highhillhomeschool.blogspot.de/2012/03/spanish-cemetary.html

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