Book Club and Field Trip

I have changed book club up just a little bit for this year.  We are studying our states history through great historical fiction so I had the great idea to try to do some field trips around town.

The books we have been reading have been so good.  The kids love them.  I only read a chapter a day and they always beg me to keep reading.  (Occasionally I do!)  We also have been studying little extras like the Native Americans in our area and the very early explorers.  This month is different towns and cities in our state.  Before book club begins we have a little "class" on whatever little extra subject we have been reading/studying about.

Our state has a pretty rich history dating back to the 1500s.  (Well, even before that because the Native Americans were here.)  Anyway, we have a lot of local historical sites around town and the pictures are from a field trip we took to one of them.  It is a museum of sorts based on a mission that was here in the area back in the 17th century.

The kids learned all about daily life in the mid-1600s.  We think, because there was also a school group at the mission the same time we were, that we got the benefit of the whole place being staffed with "actors."

The blacksmith showing us how to make a nail.

The soldier protecting the fort and sharing with us the life of a soldier.

The Friar.  I think the big hand was a way they taught music to the Native American children.

The mother of the house.

The garden and gardener of the house.  He shared with us what plants were native to the area and what they were used for.

We had been on a field trip to this place once before, but it had never been completely staffed.  It was a great tour and the kids (and I) learned a lot.  

I love history and book club and homeschooling . . .