Fun Historical Field Trip

We went on another great field trip with our homeschool group this past week. We had to travel a ways to get there, but it was worth it! Since history is our absolute favorite subject, this was the perfect place for us...it was a visit to the oldest stone house in New England...built in 1639.

Here's a bit of history about the house: The house was owned by a puritan minister. It was built by the settlers who had help from the local Native Americans living in the area approx. 32 years after Jamestown and 19 years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. They called their new home the plantation of Menuncatuck after the Native Americans who lived here.


Here is a view of the house from the main road.



Lionel & Sweet-Pea in front of the house.



Waiting to go inside the house - complete with notebooks in hand. They had a scavenger hunt inside...they had a list of items they had to find which were typical of the time period in which the house was built. They learned quite a bit!



Here they are standing beside the statue erected in honor of Rev. Whitfield, the puritan who came here from England to find freedom. He did end up going back to England once there was a new reigning King - one who favored the puritan beliefs.



Here is our group on the tour. Our tour guide was very nice (the lady in the green coat)...she was very patient with some of the younger kids on the trip.



Sweet-Pea on the very cool spiral staircase which led from the first floor to the second floor. There also was an attic full of great items, from clothes to weaving looms to war items.



This is the main hall of the home...this room was used as the kitchen and main living area. There was a drop down wall attached to the ceiling which would divide the room into two separate rooms if the need arose.



This was one of the bedrooms. There were 3 bedrooms on the 2nd floor. All of them were quite unique but fairly comfortable - as comfortable as one could be in the 17th century!!



Here is Lionel posing with the Revolutionary War uniforms...pretty awesome huh?!? He wished he wore his 3 pointed hat to the house, but we forgot to bring it.



Here are Lionel and Sweet-Pea with two of their good friends up in the attic of the home.



Yeah, this is Lionel acting silly - yet again!! He finds humor in everything, I love that about him! This cannon was actually used in the war of 1812...can't you just imagine hearing Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture playing in the background? ha ha


We had a great time on our trip today. There's something to be said about hands-on learning vs. textbook learning. My kids both enjoy seeing, touching and experiencing history rather than reading all about it the old fashioned way. We like to read living books which tell history in story form. Beautiful Feet curriculum is the way to go if you're like us!