Our Newest Addition and History Updates

If you follow Dawn Peluso, Schoolin’ Swag on Facebook then you know we have had a busy few weeks in our home. We welcomed our fourth child on February 21st. We have been blessed with a fairly smooth delivery and recovery. I’ve been spending most of my days taking care of him and finding our families new ‘normal’. Over the next few weeks, I plan to get back into the swing of things and post more resources on Facebook. I also hope to get back into our regular blog posts for history and book reviews.

Joseph3

After he was born we took the rest of the week off of school to settle in and rest. However, we have done a modified school schedule since then. Prior to him being born I had modified the children’s regular weekly contract (I thought I was finished….) to give them a contract that could be done without a lot of assistance on my part during these first few weeks. This has been a real blessing in keeping them on a loose schedule and moving forward while still allowing me to focus on the needs of the baby.

My husband took over most of the history lessons for the last couple of weeks. We were working on the Industrial Revolution and the Wright Brothers. We kept things fairly simple by using dinner time conversations and several documentaries to finish up that section of history. For the Wright Brothers we used a video on demand from the NC History Museum. We used some of the episodes of the Men Who Built America to cover the Industrial Revolution. These series has excellent information but some of the episodes do show some violence or have language that you may find inappropriate for your children, so please screen them before sharing with your children to make sure they are appropriate for your family. We personally skip a couple of the episodes but find the others to be a great resource. We also had a chance to play a game from Homeschool in the Woods that covers the Industrial Revolution and World War I. I’ll be sharing a full review of that game and another fun product in an upcoming post.

I have posted several reviews over the last couple of weeks and have a giveaway going on for a free set of Pencil Grip Magic Stix Markers.

When you sign up for our free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

Resource Library

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies:

Free St. Patrick’ s Day Unit Study

Free Art Lesson for the Green Ember: I’m so excited for this free art lesson from one of my favorite art programs that goes along with one of our favorite book series! https://www.facebook.com/events/212167569367588/ Anyone else love the Green Ember Series? (http://amzn.to/2FZELJe aff)

Check out some other posts over at this week’s Homeschool Highlights!

Easter Resources and Ideas

Easter is one of the more important holidays in our house. We primarily focus on the religious aspects of Easter and celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus but we also enjoy some of the other fun aspects of the holiday.

This year we will be using our Resurrection Eggs each night for the twelve days before Easter to go through together as a family devotional along with the book Benjamin’s Box.

Art and Music for Easter

My daughter has already colored some pictures to decorate for Easter using our Magic Stix Washable Markers. We are looking forward to chalk pastel Easter art. If you have not had the opportunity to try these great lessons before, check out the free palm branch lesson that is part of the Easter Art class. All you need to get started is some plain paper and an inexpensive set of chalk pastels.

We are also going to spend time doing a hymn study together during our morning time the week prior to Easter. There are several hymn study resources below. Some are very simple and available as free downloads. Not Consumed also had a great set of more detailed hymn studies for Easter. These are great if you want an open and go study.

Dying Easter Eggs

If time allows, we will make some natural dyes and dye some Easter eggs. We have chickens and so our eggs are naturally darker than store bought. Dying them with natural dyes can be a bit tricky but it is a fun process for the children. Another fun and easy way to decorate eggs without the artificial dyes is to use small stickers. This is a mess free way to get beautiful eggs without the dyes.

Cooking Activities for Easter

Finally, we will make the Easter story cookies, which is a new recipe for us, and the Resurrection Rolls. I will note that I found out the hard way that it is very important to use very fresh marshmallows for those, or they do not turn out correctly and you lose the visual effect.

We also have several family events to attend and my daughter will probably make a pineapple bunny like the one in this video (and the one shown in the picture below). It is a healthy and cute snack that we can take to events that is also fairly easy to make.

I have included a variety of resources below to incorporate Easter into your school day or family celebrations for students of all ages. I hope that you find them helpful and that you have a Blessed Easter. Please share in the comments your favorite Easter tradition or resource.

Homeschool Easter Resources:

Easter Chalk Pastel Art Course

Videos, Music, Art, and Literature Lessons (Schoolhouse Teachers)

Easter Unit Studies (some religious some nonreligious)

Easter Story Cookies

Resurrection Rolls

Easter Science Experiments

Easter Resurrection Pack

Resurrection Day Preschool Pack

Easter Family Devotional

Resurrection Lapbook

Mini-Resurrection Garden

Just Color Easter

Magic Watercolor Art

‘Stained Glass’ Cross

Easter Bible Lapbook

Christ Arose Hymn Study Copywork

Easter Notebooking Page

Easter Books and Movies:

Resurrection Eggs

Benjamin’s Box or on Kindle for only $1.99

Tale of Three Trees

Check out these great Hymn Studies by Not Consumed.

Resource Library

Deals and Freebies

Schoolhouse Teachers is also offering a great sale! If you want to give it a try, your first month is only $1 or you can get an entire year for $111. My daughter is getting ready to use a photography class from our subscription to help her learn more about her new (to her) camera.

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

CursiveLogic Review

My daughter has been interested in learning to write cursive for several years. She has worked a bit on her own in several cursive programs but nothing really stuck and it was not something that made it onto the list of things that we require and work together on during our school time. But that is a discussion for another time! I recently had the opportunity to review the CursiveLogic program. She was very excited to try out the new program. We received the CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack as well as the Art of Cursive coloring book.

Part of the CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack is their instructional webinar. You can purchase the book without the webinar, but I highly recommend the webinar. It really walks you through their program and how it works making it so much easier to understand and explain. I went through the instructional webinar on my own at first to get a better understanding of the program before I introduced it to my daughter. The webinar is designed to ‘train the trainer’ and teach you as the parent or teacher how to teach cursive using their program. However, I felt that my daughter was mature enough to sit with me and watch the instructional webinar and then with some guidance from me begin working on the program. This worked very well for our family as it freed up some of my time to work on other things but still gave her the support she needed to be successful.

We watched the first section of the webinar together, I talked through it with her and then she was able to complete the first week’s assignments. I also noticed her practicing those first letters in her free time during the week. She even took the photograph below to show her dad how much she had learned after the first day or two. The program uses an innovative approach of teaching letters in a chain from the very beginning instead of stand alone letters. They also use some catchy phrases to help remember the letter formation and by the end of the first week they are writing real words. They learn a new letter string each week for four weeks to complete the lower case alphabet. After that first week we would watch a bit of the video each week and then she would complete the lessons for that week. There were four days lessons for each week. She was able to learn the entire lower case alphabet in one month including putting them together to make words! She starts on capital letters next week.

CursiveLogic

Whether cursive is an important focus for your homeschool or just something one of your children wants to learn this is a great program. For younger students (they recommend the program for ages seven and above) you will need to spend more time walking them through the process and teaching them how to make the letter strings but older children can work more independently with the help of the webinar and some guidance. My daughter has enjoyed the program thus far and is looking forward to the work she is starting in capital letters. She also has the Art of Cursive coloring book sitting on her dresser just waiting until she finishes the program so that I’ll let her start the coloring book. The coloring book is not a necessary component to the program but is a great addition to reinforce the skills once they have been taught or for the parent to use to freshen up on the cursive and enjoy the stress relief of coloring.

Before

After

If you are looking for a thorough but easy to use cursive program that allows for an early feeling of success, I highly recommend this program. The webinar makes it very easy to teach and the workbook gives enough practice to help achieve mastery without being tedious. Check out the CursiveLogic Quick-Start Pack for your home or co-op and use code CREW2018 for a 20% discount through March 31, 2018.

Resource Library

Pencil Grip Magic Stix Markers

20180129_155450

You may be thinking, why is she reviewing markers? I mean a marker is a marker right? Well Magic Stix Washable Markers from The Pencil Grip, Inc. are a bit different from most other markers that we have used. The first thing I noticed was the nice plastic case that they came in. The markers are all laid out in it so you can see the colors and so far the case has held up well to the wear and tear of my children using them. Next, I know I’m not the only mom that has found markers without caps all dried up and unusable. While I do work with the children to remember to put caps on them, it still happens and ruins otherwise good markers. So when I heard that these markers were guaranteed to not dry out even without their cap for at least seven days I was interested in checking this out.

My daughter picked out a color to help me test the seven day guarantee and because she knows that typically a marker would dry out she picked a color that she wasn’t as fond of (brown) so that if it did dry out she would still have her favorite colors. At the end of the test (which actually ended up being eight days because life was a little crazy on day seven) the marker was still just a dark and sharp as it had been on day one.

20180218_163003

One thing that stood out to me when the children were using them to make some Valentine’s Day projects is that the colors were very bright and vivid. Some markers give dull or muted colors but these were some of the brightest we have used especially considering they are washable and non-toxic. I will note that if the paper is very thin there was a little bit of ‘bleed through’ so if you have important papers underneath or ‘valuable’ surfaces you may want to be careful. However, it wiped off of the kitchen table without any problems and didn’t bleed through the thicker paper. Due to the ‘bleed through’ issue we did decide that in our family these were great markers for my 10 and 11 year olds but probably not the best choice for the three year old.

20180301_184404

Each year we try to send Valentines to some widows that we know to help brighten what might otherwise be a sad day. This year my daughter used the Magic Stix Washable Markers to color the Valentines and they turned out beautifully. Next, my daughter did a beautiful Easter picture that we had printed on card stock. The colors turned out wonderfully and we are using it as one of the decorations in our home.

20180210_153738

When we first received our set they stayed at my desk so that I could try them out, test one, and see what I thought. The children had to ask to use them (which they did and were able to quite often). They are excited that now that I have finished my review they can keep them in the art cabinet to use anytime they want. We may get an extra set so that each of the older children can have their own set at their desks.

As an added bonus, The Pencil Grip, Inc. has agreed to give away another set of these wonderful markers to one lucky reader! Enter below for your chance to win a new set mailed to you! This giveaway is for US addresses only!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Resource Library

‘Winter Games’ Lego Projects

I’m so excited to be able to share with you all of these wonderful Lego projects submitted by readers. These children have done an outstanding job with their building and creativity. I believe that building and creating allows them to not only build fine motor skills but engage their minds in creative and critical thinking that is every bit as beneficial to their brains as ‘book work’.

This month’s theme was ‘Winter Games’ and you can see we had a variety of ideas related to that theme. (If you forgot to send in your pictures I will take submissions through the weekend.) The theme for March is ‘history’. So anything related to history. A person, a monument, a place, a battle, etc.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Please feel free to share this post to show your friends and family your hard work and invite your friends to join in next month’s Lego Challenge.

Resource Library

St. Patrick’s Day Fun and Resources

St. Patrick’s Day takes on many different forms in different families. For some it is a celebration of the life of Saint Patrick, for some it is about everything green, leprechauns and rainbows. With a new baby in the house we are not planning on going ‘all out’ this year with any kind of St. Patrick’s Day celebration.

Saint Patrick’s Day Homeschool Food Ideas

However, we are still going to do a few fun and simple things to remember the day. We love corn beef, so any excuse for corn beef and cabbage is welcome in our home, even if it’s nor really and “Irish’ dish. If you want to make your own from scratch, or you’re interested in some culinary history, check out the Corn the Beef Good Eats episode. It is also a simple meal to cook in my crock pot which is a big plus!

The children love fun thematic snacks, so I’ll let the older children choose a snack or two from the ideas below to fix on their own. Then I can read one of our St. Patrick’s Day books while we all enjoy the snacks.

Preschool Saint Patrick’s Day Ideas

For my three year old, we have changed out his Valentine’s Day sensory bottle for a St. Patrick’s Day themed bottle. I simply took out the pink and white beads and hearts (putting them in a bag for next year) and added in some adorable Shamrock jewels.

I found my Shamrock jewels at Hobby Lobby but you could also use something like this confetti that I found on Amazon Prime. The ones I found are different sizes so we can talk about smaller and larger. You could also use them for counting. Younger children will just enjoy seeing the colors and movement as they shake the bottle.

Shamrock Jewels

Add Water

Shake and Enjoy!

Saint Patricks Day Bible Lessons

I also want to use the St. Patrick’s Day Bible verse resource to cover the Beatitudes. We will use them for copy work with the older children. This is an easy way to incorporate it into our regular school day.

We will watch the clip about St. Patrick from Veggie Tales: Sumo of the Opera which tells the story of how he ended up ministering to the people of Ireland. I will probably also substitute the abbreviations page for their grammar work one day because I’ve noticed recently that we could use a review of some standard abbreviations.

Saint Patrick’s Day Homeschool Art Lessons

We will hopefully have time to enjoy a chalk art pastel lesson. They have one with a shamrock as well as a rainbow in their Spring Art Lessons that would be perfect to go along with this study. If you are going to do rainbows there is also a fun Magic School Bus episode about rainbows.

20170317_104441

What are your favorite ways to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day? I’d love to have you share your favorite traditions or resources in the comments and check out some of the fun resources below.

Saint Patrick’s Day Homeschool Resources

Saind Patrick’s Day Foods:

Appetizers (several of these could be used to make lunch of dinner and most are naturally green)
St. Patrick’s Day Snack Ideas
Festive Treats
Traditional Irish Dinners
Shamrock Shakes (this looks yummy though I’d skip the artificial dyes and either use natural or add some green fruit to color it naturally)
Lunch Ideas

Saint Patrick’s Day Books, Movies, and Music:

Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland
St. Patrick’s Day, Gail Gibbons
Happy St. Patrick’s Day Curious George
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Clover
The Story of Saint Patrick’s Day
10 St. Patrick’s Day Rhyming Stories (free with Kindle Unlimited)
Irish Folk Classics (Free with Prime)
Magic School Bus: Makes a Rainbow (great for learning about rainbows to go along with St. Patrick’s Day)
Veggie Tales: Sumo of the Opera

Resource Library

PI Day! Ideas and Resources

What is Pi Day?

Some of you are as excited as I am about Pi day, some of you think I don’t know how to spell, and a few are wondering why we are celebrating a math concept. Pi day is a fun day that in our family also involves pie. While we didn’t celebrate when my children were really young, we have been celebrating Pi day for several years, and last year started celebrating with a group of our friends. It is celebrated on March 14th because the number PI starts with 3.14.

Homeschool Pi Day Celebrations

We gather together with round snacks, anything from sweet pies, pizza pies, and even a few moon pies. Then we have lots of fun with a variety of activities. Last year we did an art activity about pi, read some of the Sir Circumference Books and enjoyed our time together with friends.

We intend to have a very similar Pi day this year though I’ve found a few new resources and come up with a couple of extra ideas to keep things interesting. One thing we are going to do this year is to have the kids work together in teams to come up with as many words that begin with the letters ‘pi’ as they can in a set amount of time. This is a great way to include a little spelling and a lot of fun. We will still enjoy a read aloud from the Sir Circumference series though I will choose a different book this year. They are always so much fun for all ages and do a great job introducing or reinforcing the geometric concepts.

Preschool Pi Day Ideas

In our group each family contributes, so there will be several other activities or ideas included in our Pi Day party. I also found these simple ideas for including preschoolers in Pi Day. While our group is geared towards tweens and teens, as is the case with many home school groups there are plenty of little sibling tag alongs. They will enjoy the some of the other activities but can enjoy one of the simple crafts like cutting out circles or doing some circle painting while the older children focus on the more complex ideas.

Pi Day Snack Ideas

For food you can make your own homemade pies and pizza, find other round foods (burgers, english muffins, etc) or call Papa Johns and let them take care of it. Since I will have a new baby and a busy day we plan to order pizza and let the children either bake a pie or some chocolate chip cookies. This is our favorite easy homemade pie crust and it works great with any filling we have tried. If you want to make a savory pie this recipe uses that pie crust to make a potato bacon torte that is really yummy, or if you’re feeling adventurous and historical you can try onion pie. If we are not all tired of pie by dinner, we may have one of those for dinner.

I hope that you enjoy Pi day! Tell us your Pi day plans in the comments!

A Few Pi Day Resources:

Resource Library

Deals and Freebies

Free Makeover Your Morning 5 Day Challenge! This is a great way to help re-focus and get your day off on the right foot.

Harry The Happy Mouse (Free on Kindle)

Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)

You Are An Artist Clubhouse Membership is back open for enrollment!!

Drive Thru History Review

When the opportunity came to review Drive Thru History Adventures I jumped on it. We had seen a few of the videos before and knew they were something we would be interested in. We have been working our way through their Bible History course, The Gospels as a part of our one year subscription Drive Thru History Adventures. This program can be used as a full course for students with videos, discussion questions, scripture, worksheets, and other articles and information to help students dig deeper into the topics.

Each lesson has a video and discussion questions to get you started. They also include a worksheet that could be used to guide a student through the lesson if they were completing them independently (with a separate answer key). There are articles and updates included at the end of the lesson to allow students to dig deeper into what they learned about in that lesson. There is a lot included and they are continually adding various things to this component. Even while we were reviewing the product we saw several articles added to various lessons.

screenshot Drive Thru History

Most Christians have read about the many places that they visit in the Bible history course and know that they are real. However, when you have not seen them it can sometimes be really hard to conceptualize. I love that these videos are taken in actual places giving our whole family the opportunity to see the places where Jesus actually walked, the palace (or remains of) where King Herod lived, and other places that were important parts of Jesus’ ministry.

The program does a great job of combining theology with history. The Bible is a historical account but it is also so much more. Drive Thru History does a great job of showing the historical aspects while not leaving out the important theological implications. That said it does not delve into denominational theological issues, making it appropriate for most Christian homes.

For our family, based on the ages of my children and our current needs we watched the videos together in the evenings and then discussed them using a combination of the discussion questions provided and any thoughts or questions from the children. I consider this part of our school; however, the children think we are having more family movie nights than normal. They enjoy each lesson and request to watch one almost every night (though we are only watching about 3 per week). As a bonus for me, they do a great job helping get the kitchen cleaned up after dinner so that we will have time to watch an episode.

I have an 11 year old, 10 year old, and 3 year old that watch along with my husband and myself. We all enjoy the episodes although my three year old does not fully grasp the content. I can tell he is paying attention though because in talking about it one morning at breakfast he chimed in with, ” I like how he just changes cars”. He had noticed that he was driving two different vehicles in one episode. He also knows that they jokingly call one of the main cars that Dave Stotts drives the “Holy Land Rover” and will start talking about that the minute I turn on an episode.

In addition to going through the curriculum videos, we can go into the Adventure TV section or download the Adventure TV app and stream both the curriculum videos and some additional content. The app is available for both iPhone and android devices. Some are short videos talking about various holidays (the Groundhog Day one was a big hit in our house). There are also some great behind the scenes videos as well as some that dig deeper into various topics covered in the curricula.

20180124_195815 — We use a cable to stream the videos from our computer onto the television.

The Bible History Program starts with the historical background that was pertinent to the time around the birth of Jesus and then goes through his life, crucifixion and resurrection. We enjoyed all of the episodes but one of our favorite’s was Jesus Travels the Sea of Galilee. I have always loves the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 with just one little boy’s lunch as it is such a reminder that He can use even me. The children really enjoyed the historical information about the ‘Jesus Boat’ which while not actually linked to Jesus himself is an archeological find dating to the time of Jesus that shows us what a fishing boat would have really been like and helps us to better understand what the disciples were using to fish when Jesus called them to be ‘Fishers of Men’. I am also really looking forward to using the lesson on the Resurrection of Jesus as we move into the Easter season.

As you are working your way through the programs they are fairly self-explanatory but they do also offer a Facebook group where you can ask questions or get ideas to go along with the curriculum.

Once we have finished up the Gospels series it is my intention to have us work our way through the Ancient History curriculum. We love that the curriculum allows us to incorporate education into our family movie nights. While I have been a Christian for many years and have studied the Bible, I am still learning things as we watch each episode. It really is good for the whole family. I recommend this series for both entertainment and education. For older students it could be a curriculum or like our family it could be something you work through together in addition to whatever you are already using. For more information check out the Drive Thru History Adventures website or ask in the comments.

Resource Library

Starfall Home Membership Review

20180216_083930

I am so excited to be able to share with you our review a one year subscription of The Starfall Home Membership by Starfall Education Foundation. Years ago I used the basic version of Starfall with students when I was teaching in the public schools. I enjoyed the program and used it some when my oldest two children (now 11 and 10) were younger. However, at that time they did not have the subscription program available and I had not used the program since they were younger. During that time it was almost exclusively phonics and early reading. I was excited to see that it has been expanded to a variety of early skills including math up through second grade.

Registration was quick and easy and then I was able to download the app onto our Kindle device. While my three year old does not have his own Kindle he enjoys getting to occasionally use his sister’s Kindle. Once it was downloaded I pulled it up and let him choose which activity he wanted to try. He is enjoying colors at the moment so he chose the Colors! activity. After spending just a few minutes doing the activity with me, he understood what he needed to do and how to navigate with-in the program. The program can also be accessed from a computer if that is your preferred method. We have found that the kindle is easier for our family but the program works well on either device.

starfall colors

When you go to the website you will see that some activities are still available for free. This is a good way for you to get an idea of how your child would enjoy the variety of activities that are available with the subscription. However, the subscription has many more activities and a larger variety so the free activities are not a substitute for the home membership.

Some days my son would play on his own exploring the ones that looked most fun. His favorite was the colors activities. Some days one of my older children or I would work with him and encourage him to try activities that were different or slightly more challenging. My daughter enjoyed showing him the various holiday activities and the talking books. We were able to incorporate the Groundhog Day activity into our other fun activities on that day and the Valentine’s one for Valentine’s Day.

starfall valentine

There are some great activities to introduce phonics and reading as well as sections for math. While my son is not yet ready for the first and second grade math, I took some time to try them out myself to get an idea of how they worked and how we might be able to use them as he gets older. I liked that they were simple to understand but varied enough to hold the interest of a young child. They had activities from a variety of math strands including arithmetic, geometry, measurement, and place value.

While this program is not a full curriculum that will teach your child everything they need to know, it is a great resource. It can introduce or reinforce many phonic and math concepts for preschool through early elementary age children. We limit screen time in our home but have found this program to be a good use of screen time that is both fun and educational. It is also very reasonably priced with the The Starfall Home Membership being only $35 per year. If you have any questions about the program feel free to ask in the comments.

Resource Library

The Gilded Age: Biltmore Estate

20170921_124920

Our family went to Biltmore Estate back in September even though we knew it was out of order for our history journey. We wanted the chance to go during their homeschool days. The theme for that session was Farm to Table, which is a concept that is near and dear to my heart. We make a concerted effort to teach our children where their food comes from and to buy local whenever possible.

Biltmore had a variety of activities set up for the children to participate in and learn more about food and where it comes from. These activities took place at Antler Hill farm which is on the estate property. They were able to see farm equipment from the early 1900s, watch a blacksmith and a carpenter at work, see a bee keeper and his equipment and participate in a variety of hands on activities. They played farm to table matching, made corn husk flowers, carrot seed tapes, learned about and matched up a variety of foods with different methods of preserving them, and other fun activities. They also had a chance to see and pet some farm animals. My three year old particularly enjoyed an activity where they used a variety of vegetables to paint pictures showing different patterns and textures.

My eleven year old son enjoyed seeing the blacksmith and the carpenter at work. My daughter loves anything crafty, so the corn husk flowers, bean seed magnets, and painting were favorites for her. They also sent us home with several activity sheets that the children could work on at home and we had a packet of education activities that they could do before and during our trip that incorporated Biltmore and the Farm to Table theme.

Biltmore raises part of the food for their on-site restaurants. They were able to show and talk about how they use hydroponics for lettuce and sprouts, raise their own beef cattle and pork, as well as eggs from chickens and other crops.

We spent our morning going through the activities over at the farm and then having a picnic lunch. After lunch we drove over to the actual home for our tour and a chance to see the gardens. The tours are self-guided and self-paced. There is information in the handout about the rooms on the tour and some of the rooms also have employees available to answer questions. They also offer a scavenger hunt/information sheet for the children. I highly recommend this as the house can be a bit overwhelming for children and this helped to keep them focused.

You do not see all of the rooms in the house but there are a good variety on the tour. You see bedrooms, kitchens, pantries, laundry, living areas, the library, and much to the children’s pleasure the pool and bowling alley. While I truly have no desire for a house that big, I have to admit that the wonderful walk in pantries did make me a tad jealous. I can’t quite imagine having a kitchen that large with so much storage area around it. The children all wanted the indoor pool. I really enjoyed the tour but do think that the highlight of the day for the children were the extra activities and the waterfall at the lower end of the bass pond.

Once we had finished the tour we went on a walk through the gardens and green house area. This was beautiful with many roses and other flowers still in bloom. On the far end of the garden is a bass pond and a small waterfall. That was a fun chance for the children to run, play and get a little energy out after a long day. It is a great deal of walking so you want to be prepared for that, especially if you have small children.

20170921_151836

All in all this was a great chance for them to learn about agriculture as well as how the wealthy would have lived during this time period in history. One of the unexpected connections and ‘take-aways’ that the children had was that the games they demonstrated, Graces and hoop and stick, were essentially the same games that they played during colonial times. In today’s world of new games and toys every year it was interesting to see the longevity that toys had in past times.

If you are not already signed up to get our monthly list of history resources as well as all of our other freebies, sign-up below. I’ll send you an email every other week letting you know what new stuff we have on the blog and in the library.

Resource Library

This post may contain affiliate or referral links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.