Faces of History

It's Faces of History time again at CC. 

Essentials students write a Faces of History paper at the end of each year. 

Students pick characters from the history cycle that CC is currently on, and they compose a paper about their character, and give a first-person presentation in costume.  

This year, students are choosing characters from ancient history, so my youngest daughter chose Persephone. 

She's long been enchanted by the Greek myths about Persephone, and we've read and enjoyed these stories for many years already. 

Now, we're working on her essay little by little, rereading our beloved sources, taking notes, fusing details into a thorough and organized retelling of Persephone's story to share with her classmates, the Essentials families, and guests. 

We've ordered my daughter a Persephone costume (that will also happen to double as a beautiful, white Easter dress for this coming Easter.)

Note: We keep every costume and prop we ever purchase in a chest in their room, and reuse them for fun or for Halloween or for dramatic occasions when we may read a play and need a costume. 

And we've also purchased my youngest a crown of flowers with long, satin ribbons to go with her dress on the day of presentation, just the sort of thing a bride's maid would wear, but also perfect for Persephone.  

This project and event brings the magic of story into the real world and always fires my daughters' imaginations.  

It's something they all encourage one another in, since they all do it when they are in Essentials. 

In years past, my middle daughter was Artemis, Lady Guinevere, and Laura Inglas Wilder. 

In years even more past, my oldest daughter was Hera, Joan of Arc, and Sacagawea. 

Almost these characters become a part of our family through the shared Faces of History experience and will often be referred to in conversations even years later. 

Faces of History has become a delightful part of our family culture.

Just like the old costumes, I know I have all the pictures somewhere, but let me see if I can quickly find one or two pictures from previous years to share. 

Here's one of my middle daughter as Laura Inglas. This was only last year, her last year in Essentials. 

Here's one of my oldest as Joan of Arc many, many years ago. We made the costume out of a garment bag and duct tape! She insisted that Joan needed armor, not a dress. I agreed, of course! We still have the banner you see in the picture in the coat closest. She painted it herself.