This beautiful handmade period Civil War dress was designed to be a replica of what nurses, specifically Clara Barton, wore back in the late 1800's. Our very talented neighbor from Spring Glen made this costume a few years ago for his daughter and we asked to borrow it since Caroline recently finished reading Clara Barton's biography.
Caroline breezed her way through the book (said by one who reads at a snail's pace) and she identified greatly with Clara because of a shared love for animals and a desire to help others.
Caroline's greatest gift, however, is her gigantic imagination! When she reads, the stories really come to life for her. She becomes the characters she reads about for a time (sometimes a loooong time). Laura Ingalls, Jo March (Louisa May Alcott), Clara Barton, Belle, Cinderella....you name it and she can become it. She uses every nick-nack and prop she can get her hands on, and some she shouldn't get her hands on, to create her own little pretend world of play and she can run wild "in character" for hours on end.
With this, Caroline completed her first "official" book report and did a super job retelling the highlights of Clara Barton's long and accomplished life. We all learned a bit more about this great American woman and were inspired by all that she pioneered during her lifetime. Caroline even learned that her own great-grandmother, Hazel, worked for years as a secretary at the American Red Cross in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
So, Paul Revere is the next biography in the works. Not quite sure what we'll do for that one! No boys hanging around here to model costumes and mount pretend horses so we may have to enlist dad for help!
