Lukas' Taste of History

How do you explain history to an almost-five-year-old? You know there will be misconceptions and confusion. I remember when I was seven and I thought that people in Spain dressed like Christopher Columbus, because that was the most prominent (Italian) person from Spain I knew. Well, you try your best.

On Sunday afternoon I took Lukas to see a group of American Civil War re-enactors perform(?). I explained to him several times during the day what we were going to do, and he was very excited when we arrived at the location. Fear gripped him once he saw the people dressed in period garb sitting in front of the tents. I tried to walk past a group of a dozen rebel soldiers and Lukas cried out and pulled on my hand. He would not walk past them. I told him we came here to visit these people and he finally relented but with eyes closed. Most of his fear melted away when walked past a man playing a harmonica. With his hand firmly gripping mine, and his eyes open, we walked further into the camp. The magic of music led us over to a pair of folk musicians. They played period songs on period instruments. Lukas was enraptured. For the remainder of our visit, whenever we finished looking at something or someone, he would ask if we could revisit the musicians, which we did two more times that afternoon.

Lukas loosened up quite a bit after the musicians, and true to form, enjoyed anything that he could get his hands on. We talked to several people and learned many things. Lukas learned what the tools are called to clean out and load a canon. He watched a woman use a spinning wheel and he saw what Abraham Lincoln might have looked like in the flesh. He learned that women wore hoops under their dresses (he told Cindy they were hoola hoops), and that the cavalry carried carbine rifles, not the long rifles. I think it was a very good history lesson.