Today was Kaitlyn and Caleb's first school field trip. I actually like school field trips. I mean it's a cool place that I get to go to that I'm sure I wouldn't otherwise go to. And believe first on my list was NOT the Frontier Culture Museum (how's that for a name?!) but I was pleasantly surprised that we all actually had fun!
The three amigos on the way - look how awake they are for leaving at 7 in the morning! None of them were this awake when we left :) Neither was I!!
The basic idea of the "museum" was that the kids can go from farm to farm from different countries all from about 300 years ago. All the foriegn houses were transported from their given countries are were actually built 300 years ago. So cool!
First up, the German farm.
Each farm (house) had a guide dressed up in period dress to teach the kids about how people would live in that time period. No, he isn't playing with a knife (scary right?!) - he's telling us how his knife was a tool and not a weapon as serf's were not allowed to have weapons.
The other thing the museum does is have the kids practice some of the chores in each of the house - in this house they each got a turn to sweep :) They look so happy doing it - I think I know what their new chore at home is!
Inside the very tiny German house that would have very little heat in the winter and at least 3 generations would live together inside of it - and I thought my house was cramped!!
After Germany we headed to Ireland - first the blacksmith that we watched make nails - very cool - and then to a small Irish house - again I'm so glad I wasn't alive then! Besides the small houses there were no bathrooms - yikes!
Inside were two rooms - one with the fireplace where the parents slept and one where the kids would sleep with the weaving loom.
Outside the kids practiced more chores like learning the process of turning flax into linen - or at least getting the flax to the point where it's ready to be spun.
The kids used the threshing machine to break the flax:
Then they beat the flax - called scutching:
Lastly the flax needs to be heckled:
The kids all seemed thrilled to be part of the process. Of course none of them have to do this for hours every day!
After Ireland we moved on to England which I thought was the nicest house of the ones we saw.
We were brought into the kitchen and shown how the women would have cooked a meal for the entire family. Seemed like a huge chore! I guess I don't have it so bad :) The food is really cooking on the pot behind her - apparantly the staff eat in "England" all the time.
This is the only house we were allowed to go upstairs in (though Ireland had no upstairs) - and we had to go up through a very narrow staircase - no gaining weight there!
The kids in the upstairs master bedroom.
I'm sure the water bottle isn't period authentic but since I don't yet know how to remove it in Photoshop (yes, Kirk is going to teach me - yea!) you're stuck with it.
While the English house was my favorite the kids found the African houses the most fun. Why? Basically because the houses aren't built yet and everyone got to pitch in and help build the house! No kidding!
The teachers wouldn't let them get in and stomp around in the clay (hmmm, wonder why?) but the kids helped by rolling the clay and setting it on a tarp.
They seem so proud of their mess!
Each kid got to throw one of the bricks they rolled onto the wall. Now they can say that they had a hand in building a house!
The end result will look something like this:
All in all we had a great day, learned a lot and wore ourselves out! Looking forward to the next field trip but hoping it isn't too soon :)
