The lesson of Flanders Fields

Tomorrow is Memorial Day and although it's a holiday traditionally fraught with barbecues and sports events, it's really a holiday to commemorate the soldiers lost in battle.

As year-round homeschoolers, I try to make sure we don't spend such holidays without making an effort to learn something from them or about them.

This year, before we embark on our picnic and play, we're going to learn about the history of Memorial Day and the poem In Flanders Fields written by WWI Canadian soldier John McCrae.

It's one of the few poems I cannot read without crying.

My daughters will have to read it aloud to me, and then they'll get to copy it in their own handwriting.

After that, we're going to talk about the life of the poet himself and the girls will write a short dictation about him.

There's a beautiful poppy picture to color, and a one-folder lapbook to make.

Somewhere in all of this, we've got little American flags to post in our front yard and I'll tell them once again about the brave men in their family who have served or are serving our country in peacetime and in the Iraq War, war in Afghanistan, Korean War, both world wars, the Civil War, the War of 1812, and the American Revolutionary War.

They are:

Dillon Blevins (American Revolutionary War)

Armstead Blevins (War of 1812)
Hugh A. Blevins (War of 1812)


Hugh A. Blevins, Jr. (Civil War -- Confederacy)
William Blevins (Civil War -- Confederacy)
John Blevins (Civil War -- Confederacy)

John Henry Stephens (Civil War -- Confederacy)
Benjamin Franklin Stephens (Civil War -- Confederacy)
William Stephens (Civil War -- Confederacy)

Thomas Hamby (Civil War -- Confederacy)

Elijah T. Wells (Civil War -- Confederacy)

Leonard Hamby (WWI)
Howard I. Evans (for Canada, WWI)

Clifford Evans (WWII)
Lloyd Evans (WWII)
Howard Evans (WWII)
Dallas Evans (Korean War)
Randall C. Evans (Afghanistan)

Chris Hamby (Iraq and Kosovo)
Wells Hamby, Jr. (Navy during peacetime)

A grateful nation may pay its tribute tomorrow and then again on Veterans' Day in October, but a grateful family remembers these men all year long. We are proud of their courage and willingness to act on their highest sense of right, and for those who are still with us we pray they return safely home soon.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow 
Between the crosses, row on row, 
That mark our place; and in the sky 
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
   Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
         In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
   The torch; be yours to hold it high.
   If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
         In Flanders fields.