Archive for the ‘History’ Category

Victorian Campbell House (Early 1900’s)

Monday, August 10th, 2015

campbell-house-spokaneThis post contains affiliate links. I was compensated for my work in writing this post.

If you’ve never been to Campbell House in Spokane, Washington, today you will get a tour of this beautiful historic house. It was built in the early 1900’s, and it reminds me of many of the homes I saw when I lived in England. The outside is half-timbered and brick. The inside is gorgeous and ornately decorated.

campbell-house-spokane-2

Look at this tea room! Doesn’t it make you want to sit down and have a nice cup of tea with scones and jam?

campbell-house-3

The dining room was decorated with garlands. We went on a day that was called “Campbell House Victorian Christmas.” This was a special day because there were actors in period costume, walking around the house and giving demonstrations. The cook, for example, showed my kids how to roll cookie dough. You will see this in the short video tour at the bottom of this post.

victorian-campbell-house

Every detail of Campbell House is beautiful. Just look at the hat box, gloves, and books.

campbell-house-5

Each of the rooms had wall paper on the walls, and they all had a fireplace as well.

campbell-house-6

One of the beds had a canopy. A white wash basin sat on a dresser, so that people could wash up.

dumbwaiter

A dumbwaiter is a small elevator on pulleys inside the wall. You could send clean linens up and down the stairs, for example, without having to go up and down the stairs.

victorian-couple

Period costumes were available to see how we would look at the turn of the century. I like the top hat on my son, and my daughter is enjoying her gorgeous hat.

1900s-carA carriage house was adjacent to Campbell House, where there were two antique cars from the early 1900’s. My dad loves old cars, so he would have loved to see these. What a great adventure in modern history!

Come take a 5-minute tour of Campbell House with us:

Trench Warfare Creative Writing

Friday, August 7th, 2015

trench-warfare-creative-writing

One of the creative writing assignments I gave my kids was to write something about World War I. One of my kids wanted to write a letter describing trench warfare on the Western Front during World War I.

Trench Warfare Creative Writing

To my wife at home, whom I may never see again,

The sun rose into the sky. All was quiet. The sun revealed that the earth was full of cuts and gashes. They were trenches. I was in one of them. Looking around me, I could see bullets everywhere. The earth wasn’t the only thing full of cuts and gashes. There was… I won’t say. I looked out over no man’s land.

All over the ground I saw the dead. Anything out there was smashed and broken. There was a barbed wire we had set up during the night to keep the enemies from charging into our trench. This was now a big tangled heap. From where I was, I could see the enemy trenches. I wondered if they had set up a big tangled heap of their own.

Suddenly a shot was fired, directly at my face. For half an hour, I watched the bullet get bigger, and bigger, and bigger. Like a cow staring at an oncoming train, I just watched it. By the time it was so close I could see that it had a smiley face printed on it. My brain screamed, “Melvin! You idiot! What are you doing?!?”

I brought my head down into the trench, but not before the bullet cut a swath through my hair, right next to the other swath in my hair from the same thing that happened yesterday. Everyone in my trench was jealous of my awesome haircut. Frankly, I don’t know what they’re so jealous of. One of these days it will be my face. I dread the smiley face bullet.

I don’t know why I signed up for this war. I don’t know why we’re having this war in the first place. When I enlisted, I didn’t know what war was like. I didn’t even know they made smiley face bullets. Oh well, another day, another haze of shells. Tomorrow will be my next eyeball fight with my arch-nemesis.

Love,
Melvin

Civil War Unit Study

Monday, August 3rd, 2015

civil-war-unit-study-hands-on

Here are fun some Civil War hands-on activities that you can do with your kids while doing a Civil War unit study:

These hands-on Civil War activities will help your students to bring this time period to life! Experiencing the Civil War first hand by tasting the food, hearing the music, and watching the re-enacted battles will be like traveling through time. Your students will have no problem remembering what you are teaching them when they are able to live and breathe the Civil War, hanging all the other information you teach into their experiential knowledge. We really enjoyed our Civil War unit study!

Civil War Letter

Wednesday, July 29th, 2015

civil-war-letter

My 11-year-old son wrote a Civil War letter as a writing assignment for his Civil War Binder. I read many Civil War letters to my kids to get a flavor for what would be going through the mind of a Civil War soldier. While studying Civil War letters, I came across a poignant letter. (You can read it here.)

My son chose a specific battle so that he would be able to make reference to finding Lee’s secret orders:

September 18, 1862

From J. Mitchell

To my loving wife,

I am writing this in a hospital tent, for I was shot in my right arm. So I will be writing this with my weak hand. We are at a river called Antietam Creek, and it was the bloodiest battle I have ever seen. I reported that twenty-five thousand at least died here, including my friend of whom we are all acquainted. It was gruesome watching him fall from that tree. He was a sniper, and he had shot at least a dozen enemy soldiers in the front lines. I also reported that you could walk across the battlefield on the bodies of the dead without touching the ground.

My night watch wasn’t good either. If anyone came by, I would say, “Stop,” three times. If he didn’t stop, I would shoot because it meant that he might be an enemy scout or spy. I couldn’t see very well, but if the soldiers were friendly, they would stop.

One time I was nearly hit when a cannonball whistled past my head and made a tree fall on a few of the soldiers in our ranks. It came as a complete surprise. One of those cannonballs could go right though you, killing you and the person behind you.

Guess what I found five days ago? Three cigars wrapped in paper. My friend and I delightedly picked them up and sat down under a tree, for my feet were hurting. Suddenly I found a message on the paper I was about to throw away. It was Lee’s orders for his next attack! I can’t tell you how exited I was when I showed it to General McClellan. Before, we didn’t know where Lee was; now, we knew exactly what his battle strategy was!

What a battle it was! I had to hide behind the bodies of the dead to survive, making barricades out of them! After the battle I saw a dead soldier hanging on a fence with fifty-seven bullets in his body. Some soldiers must have tried to hide behind him to survive but failed, for I found dead bodies behind him, too. It was a gruesome sight.

Hope you’re doing better back home. Best wishes to the kids,

J. Mitchell