Thursday, September 16, 2010

A visit to Colonial Williamsburg, part 1

We had a great family vacation to the Historical Triangle area in Virginia. We saw Colonial Williamsburg, Yorktown Victory Center, and The Jamestown Settlement. We combined lots of family fun with an educational experience for Olivia. It went right along with our current history reading of colonial America and the early years of our country. They were having their biannual homeschool days which meant lots of great programs and extra hands on activities. I will break this up into several blog posts because there are so many pictures to share.

First Olivia got to dress up in a colonial dress and hat.



Then we headed out of the 21st century and into the 18th century of Colonial Williamsburg. We headed down the street to find the printing office. We got to see the Virginia Gazette being printed and hung to dry. This tied in great with our history reading last week on Benjamin Franklin and Poor Richard's Almanac.



On our way there we ran into a gentlemen. It was fun talking to him. He was wearing clothing of the day and acted as though he lived during the Colonial times. He asked Olivia what colony she was from. He asked how she traveled, whether by horse or by sea. He explained that the last time he had been to North Carolina it had taken him 7 or 8 days so therefore we must have had very fast horses to bring us there. Olivia, in her very literal way, said, "no, we came by car and then boat" (she meant the ferry). We then explained that they didn't have cars in those days so that travel took much longer.


We watched the weaver at work.


We visited the Govenor's Palace kitchen and garden maze.


Note: Ezra slept through all the family fun here.

She got to play a hoop game on the Palace Green.


We visited a farm of the middling class just outside of town. There she got to try her hand at candle making. (This was her favorite activity of the day.)


She learned her courtesies (waiting at the door to be invited in, not speaking unless spoken to, and how to curtsy).


And of course was a kid.

Oh, how I love that picture! :)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very interesting Olivia! XXOO Nana!

Amber said...

So awesome. Glad you guys had such a great time in my old neighborhood. I used to live in Brown Hall at the end of DOG street (right next to Baskin Robbins behind all the little shops. CW was our backyard and we loved every minute of it. So proud to be a W&M grad :) The Burg is an awesome place to raise families. I lived in a neighborhood on Jamestown Road just near the settlement for 4 years. I will always love that town :)

Becca said...

That area looks like it would be a great place to live for several years. You would need that much time to get around and see it all. JR and I also noticed that the town has tons of good looking restaurants to try. We could go just to eat I think. :) I did stop and get some veggie sides from a place called Food for Thought. The whole menu looked fabulous! There were locals eating at the bar while I was waiting. They said it was their favorite place to eat.

Amanda in NC said...

LOVE all the Williamsburg posts and pictures! We went during homeschool week last year, and had such a wonderful time!!