Homeschool Day at the History Center

I’ve been feeling quite unhappy lately about how little we’ve been getting out and about in Atlanta lately. Especially in these economic hard times, I think that we should be doing all we can to support the arts, music and museum in Atlanta, but I’m having a hard time balancing everything. We used to go to the museums every day almost, but lately, we’re lucky to get there once a month. I try to remind myself that we are dong other things (like going to DC on a regular basis and visiting the museums there), but I still would like to try to get out more.

Today the Atlanta History Museum hosted a homeschool day and it seemed like a perfect excuse to get us over there. We are members, so I’m not sure how much our visit helped their purse, other than the fact we had to pay a pittance for the girls to participate in the activities. We were slow in leaving the hose, but made it to Buckhead by 11. The girls first had a look at the Norman Rockwell exhibit, which was, in my opinion, not very interesting. There was little explanation behind why the covers were significant in their time.

We then headed for the crafts, which both girls loved. They made some interesting things, like candle holders for the tree (they removed the wicks so kids don’t set the family tree on fire) and sachets of nice smelling herbs. We then headed over to the Swan House. I had never been there before and was happy to get the chance to visit, though disappointed to hear that photos weren’t allowed. The house was all decked out for Christmas. The girls enjoyed visiting the rooms, but in particular had fun playing the games available in one of the bedrooms — dominoes, jacks, checkers and more. I did sneak a camera phone photo there.

We then headed down to the farm. The farm house too was decorated for Christmas, though of course in a different way. We went to a cooking demonstration in the farmhouse kitchen, then the girls worked on dipping candles. I was impressed by the kids in the dipping line. They kept themselves entertained, and there was no “cutting” or bad words. Nice.

We also went to a storytelling. I was really surprised all day by how much Camille knows about not just the what, but the why. I don’t teach her, really, so I’m always reassured by her learning while we are an outing like that.

The girls played some fun early 19th century games, like rolling a hoop, etc. We then headed into the museum again, because I wanted to see the Jim Henson exhibit. It was really fascinating, but we were all so tired and hungry we couldn’t really enjoy it. I snuck some photos int he kids’ play area — it was probably okay, but I still felt self-conscious. Sure wish I could have taken photos of Kermit, Bert and Ernie!!