Welcome to the Civil War Morning Time Session!
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Schedule
Recommended Books
Prayer & Scripture Memorization
For Bible reading, we will make suggestions for your morning time reading. However, if you’d prefer a more in depth schedule, we recommend checking out various plans that will help you read the Bible through.
For a one-year plan, we recommend YouVersion’s One Year Bible: https://www.bible.com/readingplans/60. You can also listen to it being read aloud on the app.
Download a two-year reading plan from the Gospel Coalition here:
https://media.thegospelcoalition.org/static-blogs/tgc/files/2010/12/TGC-Two-Year-Bible-ReadingPlan1.pdf
If you prefer to go even slower, Ambleside Online offers three, four, and five-year Bible reading
plans: https://www.amblesideonline.org/L/Lbiblesch.html
This session, we will learn the Prayer for Peace and focus on writing and memorizing both Matthew 12:25 and Psalm 133:1.
Artist Study
This session’s featured artist is Winslow Homer. We’ve included six art selections for your kids and teens to use for picture study. They are:
- Home, Sweet Home
- Shark Fishing
- The Country School
- A Calvary Charge
- The Adirondack Guide
- The Gulf Stream
Composer Study
Our featured composer is Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore. We’ve included four of his pieces (with links) to listen to. They are:
- Famous 22nd Regiment March
- When Johnny Comes Marching Home
- Norwich Cadets
- Voice of a Departed Soul
Listen to the pieces below:
Famous 22nd Regiment March performed by the United States Marine Band
When Johnny Comes Marching Home performed by Mitch Miller
When Johnny Comes Marching Home (Instrumental)
Norwich Cadets performed by the Goldman Band
Voice of a Departed Soul
Hymn/Folk Song
Hymn
The hymn for this session is “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” It was originally written in 1861 by abolitionist Julia Ward Howe, but it was published a year later by The Atlantic Monthly in February 1862. It was beloved by Union soldiers, quickly becoming cemented as an anthem of the cause, and is still considered an American classic to this day.
Listen to the music and sing along with it below:
Battle Hymn of the Republic performed by the United States Army Field Band
Folk Song
Our folk song for this session is “Aura Lee.“
“Aura Lee,” written by George R. Poulton and W.W. Fosdick, was a sentimental ballad telling the story of a young man who was in love with a beautiful, golden-haired maiden named Aura Lee. It was published in 1861, shortly before the Civil War broke out, and became popular among troops on both sides of the war. In modern times, it was re-popularized by Elvis Presley’s “Love Me Tender,” which was set to the tune of “Aura Lee”, and it remains a much-loved piece of America’s history.
Listen and sing along with it below:
Aura Lee performed by the 97th Regiment String Band
Poetry
This session’s featured poets are Walt Whitman and Henry Timrod. We’ve included six poetry selections for your kids and teens to read, listen to, memorize, and recite. They are:
- I Hear America Singing
- When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d
- O Captain! My Captain!
- Charleston
- Ode
- Sonnet: I Scarcely Grieve
For copywork, we have included Zaner-Bloser style handwriting sheets for primary, elementary, and cursive, as well as college-ruled for older students. The poems we have chosen are:
- I Hear America Singing
- Charleston
Copywork
Tea Times
In this session, we are giving you six recipes with our hospitality tea: Mary Todd Lincoln’s White Cake, Hardtack, Buttermilk Cornbread, Blancmange, Jo March’s Gingerbread Nuts, and Pickled Limes.
We will also have one Storytime tea, a Liber-Tea, a Poetry teatime, a Fable teatime, a Fairy tale teatime, and a Mythology teatime:
Storytime Tea: Little Women, Chapter Five: “Being Neighborly,” by Louisa May Alcott
Liber-Tea: “The Emancipation Proclamation,” by Abraham Lincoln
Poetry Teatime: A Nameless Grave, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Fable Teatime: “The Four Oxen and the Lion,” by Aesop
Fairy tale Teatime: The Blue Fairy Book, “Rumplestiltzkin,” by Andrew Lang
Shakespeare
For our Shakespeare selection, we have chosen “Pericles“.
Read it from Edith Nesbit’s “Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare” in the following pages. We also recommend reading the actual play together as a family if you can.
Your older kids and teens may enjoy watching a movie adaptation (please pre-screen these first). And if you can take in a live performance, your family will never forget it!
Content considerations: The full version of Pericles has many adult themes including a relationship between his first love and her father. This is an excellent discussion point with your high schoolers to discuss the story of Lot and his daughters in Genesis 19 and the issues that come from such sinful relationships.
We have chosen not to link to a live performance for this play because we would rather you prescreen this for your family.
Nature Study
Each Friday morning, you will go through two of our nature cards. They are labeled in the upper right corner with the corresponding week. These are short, factual cards with images to help your child become familiar with objects in the natural world.
As you progress through our sessions, you may find it handy to keep your past nature cards in a binder for easy reference when your children come across a familiar object. These seeds you are planting will grow into a wonderful garden of knowledge for your children in years to come.
As you explore nature outside your home, watch and listen for newly discovered delights.
Handicraft
For our handicraft lesson, we will be creating a penny rug coaster! This craft has a long history- penny rugs were often made in the Civil War era using materials people had on hand, such as pennies and scraps from old clothes. Women would use pennies as templates to cut different-sized circles from the cloth, which would then be stacked together from largest to smallest to create a rug!
These coasters were designed and created by Jane Currie-Wile of All About Ewe Wool Shop. We have been graciously allowed to use her pattern in this curriculum volume. I highly recommend their shop to purchase supplies, kits, and patterns. You will love her designs!
Art Lesson
In this lesson, we are going to recreate “Our Banner in the Sky,” by Civil War artist, Frederic Edwin Church.
Supplies needed:
- Watercolor paper (or canvas)
- Acrylic paints (blue, red, yellow, and white)
- Paint brushes: Sponge brush or 1-inch flat, 1/2 inch flat, thin round
- White chalk or pencil
- Paper plate, paper towel, jar of water
History & Geography
Solfa
Charlotte Mason incorporated solfa lessons twice a week for about 10 minutes each. These lessons are intended to be repeated and you can stay on any lesson for as long as you like. Here is the YouTube channel Lara and her boys enjoy and recommend for practicing solfa, Children of the Open Air:
Brush Drawing
Brush drawing builds motor and observation skills. We have included a link to videos by Bestowing the Brush below, which are great for all ages to learn together:
