The Great War

We are currently delving into the period of World War 1 in our history studies. To begin we read an article about Gavrilo Princip, the assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and the cause of the war from Learning Through History Magazine.


Later in the week we read again From Learning Through History about Trench Warfare. It was enlightening to learn about the depth of the trenches, (from about 10 feet deep in a simple british trench, to bunkers some 30 feet underground complete with wallpaper and running water constructed by German troops! ), and saddening to learn about the added insult of unspeakable living conditions the men faced. Coloring some maps has helped keep straight who fought on which side, and exactly where the main front lines were. We also explored at BBC History for Kids and tried planning a couple of missions ourselves in the Trench Warfare "Game". The graphics for this game are a little unnerving. Not gorey or realistic or anything like that, just quietly depressing if that makes sense. We didn't spend a long time there. We were dreadfully unsuccessful. This week we also watched some selections from the DVD series The First World War .

We added Franz Ferdinand to our time line as well as my grandfather Roy who was born in December of 1914.

Grandpa Roy- Summer of 1915 with his grandmother, Flora.
Edmund Ave. in St. Paul, MN.

We'll follow my grandfather's life down to my mother, myself and the boys on our timeline as we continue through our studies of the 20th century.