The Civil War, an Allegory about God’s Plan of Salvation, Constantine and Creation Science

Those are a few of the topics we have been reading about during the last several weeks.

We are planning a trip to Gettysburg since it’s only about a half hour away from here, and we now have a van to get there.

So I got a bunch of books from the library about Gettysburg, Lincoln and the Civil War.

I chose a couple of them to read aloud to the older kids.

I even had the twins (7 years old) listen to a biography of Abraham Lincoln. It was the Childhood of Famous Americans’ biography of Abraham Lincoln.

Then I read a book by Jim Murphy called The Long Road to Gettysburg. It told the story before and after the battle of Gettysburg, using journal entries from a Union soldier and from a Confederate soldier. It was interesting. I enjoy the way he simplifies army movements and puts a personal touch on historical stories.

There are a few more Civil War books I would like to read to the kids before we go.

A wonderful follow-up to that, besides our trip to Gettysburg, will be our trip to South Carolina to see Gary and Patrick. While we are there close to Charleston, we are planning to go see Fort Sumter. So we’re getting to take some neat field trips.

We are still reading The Wormling Series. We’re on the fifth book, the last one of the series, called The Author’s Blood. We are still enthralled with the story. Morgan, especially, can predict what is going to happen next. He is very engaged with this story. We are now at the End Times in the allegory, and many parts of the mystery have now been revealed, such as the mystery in Ephesians 1:10 of “that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth – in Him.” We’ve also gotten a better understanding of the mystery in Colossians 1:27 “which is Christ in you, the hope of glory”.

Speaking of mysteries, I’m reading The Mystery of History, vol. 2 and we are now at the part about Constantine. I’m reading it as a continuous story, not really stopping to go in-depth. I think I will order Diana Waring’s History Revealed for the same time period, Romans, Reformers, Revolutionaries and go back over it in more detail.

I read a book about Eleanor of Aquitaine last week. The kids were not crazy about her personally, but the book gave us a taste of the time of Henry the Second and the relationship between England and France during the 12th century. I thought she would be the perfect person to study to get an overview of this period and these countries since she was queen over France and then queen over England, married to two different kings! Her story is very interesting. The book is a very entertaining book called “A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver” by E. L. Konigsberg. A good follow-up for this is the Disney movie, Robin Hood, since it covers the same time period and mentions King Richard and Prince John, both of whom were Eleanor’s sons.

Another book I’ve been reading aloud to the kids is a book by my friend Felice Gerwitz. I know her through Cindy Rushton. Yes, she is an online friend, but I have listened to her a lot, and I feel like I know her. I was attending a Mommy Jammy night online and won Felice’s mystery series that she wrote with her daughter, Christina. I started reading the first book and enjoyed it so much that I read it all to myself. I couldn’t put it down. Then last week, I read the second book to myself. I finally decided to share these good stories with my kids, so I’ve started reading the first book to them. It is called “The Missing Link: FOUND”. Felice has sprinkled lots of Creation Science facts throughout this exciting mystery. I plan to write a review of this series on my blog, so be watching for it.

So, as you can see, Safe Haven Academy is still going strong. Yes, we continue school through the summer because if we didn’t we wouldn’t be living. Homeschooling is our life and our lifestyle. But school is so interesting and fun that I don’t feel like a slave driver or abuser of my children. Family time is education time. Shouldn’t it be?