Hale Farm and Village
Last week, co-op was put on hold, so that we might take a field trip. Our location? Hale Farm and Village. It was such a cool place and I only regret that they were not open long enough for us to really explore the whole place. You see, right now Hale Farm is only open to school groups and advance reservations. The general public must wait until later. So, our little group got there right after they opened and some of us stayed right until the close. I left early with the littles so that we might make our art class obligations. (The littles would be David, Jo, Byron, Mo, and Baby K.) The girls stayed behind with Gabriel, Isaiah, Nate and Andrew to close the place down. Part of the draw to Hale Farm had to do with the K/1st's reading of the book Warm as Wool and their subsequent study of the time period surrounding the book.
Our first activity was to learn how a pioneer would have found his land. Ruth volunteered to do the finding. Here, she is being set at the proper direction for pacing out her "land". A pioneer would have found a visible/marked landmark and then proceeded to pace out his land and mark it upon arrival.
She took some extra big steps since the "land" she was mapping out was done by adult legs
We stayed back and counted for her-she was taking up to 50 paces at a time and we didn't want her to lose count!
Then, we'd catch up to her and go another direction. She was off slightly at the end and evidently, that was not uncommon. Hale farm was already settled when Mr. Hale came to take possession. His neighbor has miscalculated his boundaries and built his cabin on the wrong plot of land. Things worked out, though, and both men were good friends in the end.
We had a tour of the carriage house and a guide there showed us the science and planning behind building a log home
Here, we learned about wool and all the work that went into taking raw wool to cloth. It was quite a job and one done by the female children (woohoo!)
The kids trying their hand at carding-it was harder than it looked
Examples of different dyes-aren't they just the most adorable mittens? So tiny!
More variety in color-all from plants and insects (ew!)
We got a behind the scenes tour of the looms, too. That was super cool. It wasn't actually part of the tour, but she had some time, so she took us over to see that as well.
The Blacksmith's shop
Hard at work
Davie is constantly craving that personal contact. Andrew was the recipient this time with a good old-fashioned hand holding.
The original, I believe, log home on the Hale Farm. It held Mr. and Mrs. Hale and their SEVEN children. Mr Hale was a brick maker, I think, and shortly after he arrived, he built a nicer, bigger house that was brick. This log home was built circa 1806. We were told that anything from 1820 on is not considered a pioneer house. So, we made the cutoff...just barely.
In the log home, we learned about daily life and the chores of the children. The boys were given a lesson in manners-ladies first!-though they weren't thrilled with that concept. Clearly my boys need more training. And, here, we got a taste of toast made on the open fire. Such a tedious way to cook! And I complain about my having to cook on all my modern appliances!
And here is as far as I got. It was a nice morning and I'd like to make my way back there another time to check out more.
Our Group
Back row: (l-r) Jo, Grace, Nate, Gabriel, Ruth
Front Row: (l-r) Moriah, David, Andrew, Byron, Isaiah
Back row: (l-r) Jo, Grace, Nate, Gabriel, Ruth
Front Row: (l-r) Moriah, David, Andrew, Byron, Isaiah
Our first activity was to learn how a pioneer would have found his land. Ruth volunteered to do the finding. Here, she is being set at the proper direction for pacing out her "land". A pioneer would have found a visible/marked landmark and then proceeded to pace out his land and mark it upon arrival.
She took some extra big steps since the "land" she was mapping out was done by adult legs
We stayed back and counted for her-she was taking up to 50 paces at a time and we didn't want her to lose count!
Then, we'd catch up to her and go another direction. She was off slightly at the end and evidently, that was not uncommon. Hale farm was already settled when Mr. Hale came to take possession. His neighbor has miscalculated his boundaries and built his cabin on the wrong plot of land. Things worked out, though, and both men were good friends in the end.
We had a tour of the carriage house and a guide there showed us the science and planning behind building a log home
Here, we learned about wool and all the work that went into taking raw wool to cloth. It was quite a job and one done by the female children (woohoo!)
The kids trying their hand at carding-it was harder than it looked
Examples of different dyes-aren't they just the most adorable mittens? So tiny!
More variety in color-all from plants and insects (ew!)
We got a behind the scenes tour of the looms, too. That was super cool. It wasn't actually part of the tour, but she had some time, so she took us over to see that as well.
The Blacksmith's shop
Hard at work
Davie is constantly craving that personal contact. Andrew was the recipient this time with a good old-fashioned hand holding.
The original, I believe, log home on the Hale Farm. It held Mr. and Mrs. Hale and their SEVEN children. Mr Hale was a brick maker, I think, and shortly after he arrived, he built a nicer, bigger house that was brick. This log home was built circa 1806. We were told that anything from 1820 on is not considered a pioneer house. So, we made the cutoff...just barely.
In the log home, we learned about daily life and the chores of the children. The boys were given a lesson in manners-ladies first!-though they weren't thrilled with that concept. Clearly my boys need more training. And, here, we got a taste of toast made on the open fire. Such a tedious way to cook! And I complain about my having to cook on all my modern appliances!
And here is as far as I got. It was a nice morning and I'd like to make my way back there another time to check out more.
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