Colonial Williamsburg

After Nickie's wedding, we travelled south a few hours to Colonial Williamsburg.  Since we are studying the Revolution, it seemed like perfect timing.  We had just finished reading Johnny Tremain, and the kids were really into the time period.  

We stayed in a restored historic house right in the town.  It was really perfect because (1) it fit all of us and (2) the kids got really into character, pretending they were the "Lewises" -- the name of the family that actually owned the house in the late 1700's.  This went on night and day.

The house was actually owned by the father of Martha Washington (nee Lewis); it was pretty cool.

We had our own tiny backyard, which is always good when you have kids, especially young boys who like to dig up stuff.  Here Peter and Nicholas are planting some cotton seeds that they got from the spinning and weaving presentation we attended that day.

We spent a lot of time just walking through the town and looking in the shops.  It was so neat to see what a town was like in the Colonial period.

Here is the pharmacy.  The coolest part, according to the kids, was the real human skeleton in the back room.

Ellie's favorite part was the horses.

Olivia's favorite part was the dress-up.  She was on a mission to find a colonial dress, and that she did.  We found the dress-makers, and she tried on bonnets, smocks, and dresses.  And, for an early birthday present, received her very own outfit.  Voila:  meet Anne Lewis!  Olivia did not grace us with her presence the entire time we were there; instead Anne Lewis spoke to us with a British accent while we toured the town.

The boys just opted to buy muskets.










The Governor's mansion.

 The wig-makers.

  Spinning and weaving.

Another mansion.

  An street-side debate over the pros and cons of the war.

  Lunch at a tavern.

This was such a good family trip.  We were sad to leave, but, as always, eager to get back to 

home sweet home.

We needed this

We needed to turn this frown

upside down.

We are definitely feeling a bit of the winter blues; more specifically, the homeschool winter blues.  The days have been seeming to drag on, one after another, filled with the same routines and school work.  

Thank goodness our local homeschool group organized a trip to Mountain Creek for some snow tubing.  It was so nice to be out in the fresh air all day.  It wasn't terribly cold (although Nicholas thought so! He is more of a summer guy).

Here are the kids waiting on line to go down the mountain.

Peter and I went tandem a few times.  It was so fun to scream with him, and to hear him say "that was awesome!" at the bottom of the hill.

Next we went on a ride called the Soaring Eagle.  As you can see below, it is almost like a ski lift.  It pulls you up the mountain backward, and then lets you go.  It really did give us the sensation of flying.

I went with Nick, and the other 2 went together.  I am proud of Peter and Olivia for being so brave and going by themselves, because it was seriously scary!

What a fun day.  They can't tell me we don't do fun things in homeschool any longer!

Catch up and some local art

I have been a bad blogger lately.  And a bad friend, and perhaps a bad wife.   It is so easy to get sucked into the "homeschool vortex" and forget about the rest of the world.  Or, not quite forget, but put off.  I keep thinking "Oh, I should call so-and-so, I'll do it after we get through this math lesson…" And then one distraction comes after another, and I get behind.

On top of the homeschooling, we just threw a bridal shower for my sister-in-law.  I love Nickie and it has been such a joy to be a part of her wedding preparation (only as an eager observer, but still…)  Nickie is such a special auntie, or theia (in Greek), to my kids.  Oh, how they love her.

Here, we put a mock veil on Nickie at the shower before opening gifts.

We've been getting a little restless and, dare I say, bored, lately doing our usual school routine.  So, yesterday, I just spontaneously decided we were going on a Chinese New Year field trip.  No, not out to a Chinese restaurant (although that crossed my mind !) One of my favorite contemporary artists, Ai Wei Wei, has an exhibit set up outside of one of the University's buildings.  It just happens to be of the Chinese zodiac sign.  I really wanted to take the kids to see it before the exhibit is returned, so what better time than now, during Spring Festival (the two weeks of New Year celebration)?

We all posed with our zodiac signs:  my monkey, rooster, pig and ox.

And I am a tiger (but not a Tiger Mom!):

Then we took pictures of the Rabbit for Daddy, and the Dog for Elijah:

Here they all are.  Magnificent.  I wonder what Ai Wei Wei was saying through these heads?  A lot of his artwork uses traditional Chinese artwork to criticize or call question to his government.  

Happy New Year!  The Year of the Snake!

Fun Day Out

We had a very fun day of learning and fun at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.  We went with some good friends and neighbors who had the week off from their school, and with our wonderful babysitter Leah.  We got to go through the Titanic Exhibit, which was amazing and thought-provoking (we weren't allowed to take any pictures).  Olivia, in particular, loved the Titanic Exhibit because the museum staff gave each of the kids a ticket with a real passenger's name on it, including what class ticket they bought, and where they were from, etc.  

At the end of the exhibit, you got to see if your passenger survived the disaster or not.  Very poignant.  Probably a bit too much for the littles, but Olivia and her good friend were really into it and I think got the full impact of how sad it all really was.

The boys were really happy that we visited the physics section afterwards, as you can see below.  Here they are launching rockets after pumping up air pressure.  Cool!  

Nicholas played around with some gears.  He is so mechanical.

Then we went on to the human biology section.  Here the kids are getting their heart rates up.  The faster they pedal, the louder the "opera singers" on the TV screens sing.  We must have spent more than an hour here, seeing how much blood is in each of our bodies, climbing through the enormous model of the human heart, looking at a model of open-heart surgery, etc.  Fun times.

Of course, ever the Numismatist, Nicholas fund his way to a coin exhibit.  This one asks "which one is the real penny?  After getting out a penny from his pocket, he figured it out...

After lunch, we got to see an experiment with liquid nitrogen, and learn all about heating and cooling and how that causes expansion and contraction.  The science teacher shrank balloons, cooled off a bouncy ball so much that it shattered when he dropped it, and just plain showed off (to our delight).  So much fun!

Ellie loved it so much she almost charged the poor Science Dude.

I can't believe I was afraid I would not make my goal of 5 field trips this year (I am a little bit of a homebody):  we've already exceeded this goal in January!  Its so much easier to motivate myself to plan ahead for these days when I see how much fun the kids have, and how easily they learn, when they are interacting with the subject.  And I don't even have to sign-up to be a school chaperone!

A Revolution!

It was Patriot's Week last week in our area.  This is the time of year that the Revolutionary War battles were fought in New Jersey, and there are a lot of reenactments and exhibits going on to celebrate this time of our history.  We really wanted to see Washington crossing the Delaware on Christmas Day (as he did in 1777) but because of the holiday, we did not make it.  So, instead we watched the 1st Battle of Trenton a few days later.

Nicholas was stoked.

Here an actor is performing the "mourning pose" which soldiers would hold when a soldier was lost in battle.  The actors are doing this in honor of the announcer of this reenactment, who was involved in the historical society of NJ for 19 years.  He passed away just last week.

The gunfire was spectacular.

Here are some Hessian soldiers, who helped the British during the war.  They did not anticipate some of the Colonist's tactics.

Oh, the Redcoats.

 Here are some Patriots.  I am so excited that this coincided with our studies of US history. We are not quite at the war yet, but we are learning about what led up to the war.

I did not get a very good picture of this Massacusetts troup, but they were especially interesting as they were dressed in various, homemade "uniforms" (they were not uniform) and rags.  This is what the Patriots looked like, especially in there beginning of the war:  they were just a bunch of town militia joined together.  A MA group came up and blocked off the bridge in Trenton, cornering the Redcoats and the Germans helping them.

We headed to the soldier's Barracks after that, but it was snowing pretty hard and we were freezing so we didn't stay long.

What fun!  It was so cool to watch and learn alongside my whole family. This is the type of thing I would not have done if our kids were in school.  I certainly could have done so, but most likely my lazy self would have assumed they would learn about it in school.  I am so grateful for memories like these.  Not to mention my gratitude for our forefathers who died so that we could be a free nation.