St. Augustine

Last week, we went to St. Augustine for the Old Florida Museum's annual Homeschool Day. We went with another family and actually ran into a couple more families from our own homeschool group. That was pretty cool. We went up on Sunday, the 20th, to our friend's property west of Gainesville, then on Monday morning, we drove over to St. Augustine. We had a great time! It was a really fast trip because we left St. Augustine about 4 pm and drove home that afternoon. Whew! (It's nice having a relief driver now....even if she only has her restricted!!)

So here are some pictures of things we did. Today I'm going to show you pictures of what we did at the Old Florida Museum. They had 4 stations set up for us to do a bunch of hands-on things....and I mean a bunch. The first station was an Indian village. First, we were in the village yard where there was a hut with hunting tools and weapons (You know the boys love that!) and a fire pit with a shelf built above it for roasting meat. In another area of the yard was a garden area where the kids could use Indian tools to dig a hole and plant some corn...and they actually had some already growing. Pretty cool. And, in another area, they had a lot of Indian games. There was a really cool game that we want to make. It was corn cobs that had been dried and stripped of corn with 2 feathers stuffed into the ends and then you threw them through a grapevine wreath that was hanging for an aiming game. It was really fun and the kids didn't want to leave it! There was also a place to "grind" corn with a stick. They tried all the things.

This is Levi trying the throwing game.
This is a close up of a corn cob with the feathers. Indy looks really authentic with his mohawk, doesn't he?? lol Except for the blonde hair, of course.

Here's Indy grinding some corn.

Another thing to do in the Indian village was to "dig out" a canoe. It was an old log and they used stones to dig out the insides, which must have been hit by lightning, because it was black. This, of course, means Levi's hands were black, too. Ugh. And, the day had just begun.

After the Indian yard, we moved into the "chief's house", which was a huge tent type building with a bunch of animal skins inside, along with musical instruments, misc. tools and weapons, the chief's "throne" (a big chair) and a little fire pit (with no actual fire) with food around it, like corn and beans. It looked really authentic and the kids loved it. Plus, they got to make a shell necklace. That was fun.

The third station (we'll get back to the second station) was an early pioneer home and yard. The house was very big and we all went inside while the guide (who was in costume) talked to us. Some of the kids got to hold spears and some got to lay on the "beds" and some got to sit on the potty. They were all amazed that the potty was right there in the house, with nothing to separate it from the rest of the living area. They also learned about sweeping the floors and how the youngest child in the family had to empty the potty. We teased Levi about that and he kept saying, "No way." lol Then we stepped outside the house into the yard where there were all sorts of typical games for that time period, including pick-up sticks and a little bowling game. It was really cool. Savannah found this weaving thing on the wall and started weaving on it. She liked that.

The kids also learned about how they made candles with a cotton strip for the wick and then dipped it in tallow (animal fat) repeatedly to make the candles. All the kids got to dip the candles a few times and when we left that area, we each got to take a candle home. That was neat. Here's Savannah and Levi dipping candles (yes, Levi has a mohawk, too). See the candles in the back hanging to dry?

The second station was an archiological dig area. They had buried actual findings that belonged to the Museum in boxes of dirt for the kids to find. First, they noted their "location" (see the "D 14" in the back?) then they filled their buckets about half full and emptied it into a sieve where they shook and shook until they found their treasures. Once that was done, they took their finds over to a table with a toothbrush to dust it off really well and then classify it by looking at the samples on the display wall. This part was a little bit over Levi's head, but Indy really liked this part. One neat thing even I learned was the difference between and artifact and an ecofact. I had never even heard the term "ecofact", but it's obviously pretty self-explanitory. I described it to the boys as this: "An artifact is something that's man-made. An ecofact is something that's God-made." For example, a pot or arrow head is an artifact and a turtle shell or bone is an ecofact. Pretty cool, huh? I thought so! :-)

The final area we went to was a more "modern" pioneer area (more like the mid-1800's). This area had a school house with old desks, slate boards (though they actually used little chalkboards) and ink and ink wells with feathers for writing. Levi liked the little chalk boards, but Savannah and Indy really liked writing with the ink. Outside the school house, they had a yard with a lasso to throw at a fake bull, a water pump and wash tub with washboard and some clothes to try washing. They also had some games, another weaving thing on the wall, and a plow for the kids to try pushing and plowing. It was a really neat area and the kids all had fun, even Savannah.

Here's Indy trying to roll this thing with a stick.

Here's Levi trying to plow with one of the little girls we went with.

Here's Savannah trying to lasso the bull. She got it more than once and decided that she now wants a lasso. lol Hmmm.... a rope for Christmas. I might be able to handle that. lol

Here she's trying to teach Levi how to use the lasso. I'm not sure he really ever got the hang of it, but he sure had fun! lol

Well, that was the first 2 hours!! :-) Stay tuned tomorrow for the next couple hours! lol It was a really neat experience, though, and I'm really glad we went. :-)

Oh, wait....I forgot this. This was a corn stripper thing. It was neat how it just stripped all the corn right off it. The kids all got to try it and really liked it. Oh, one funny thing was that they told us that people used these corn husks for toilet paper. The kids all got a kick out of that. :-)