First Field Trip

I have been reading this book for Science to the kids called Diary of an Early American Boy. The author found the diary of 15 year old Noah Blake written in 1805. It speaks of Noah & his family and how they lived back in those days. It also includes pictures & diagrams of a mill they built and the tools they made to buid the mill. It actually started off pretty boring.

 So one morning last week it was unusually warm. I thought we should get out & do something fun. So I googled Pennsylvania Mills and found the Newlin Grist Mill was only 15 minutes away and the next tour was at 2pm. I packed a lunch and when we arrived, the woman had also read the same book we were reading. We had some time to waste so the kids LOVED playing in the creek. They didn't want to leave! On the tour we saw the mill run and watched it grind corn into flour. We also visited the original house which was so neat to see how they lived 200 years ago!

This is why I love homeschooling. It was a spur of the moment trip but will most likely be one of the highlites of our school year! The trip took this once boring book & made it come to life!
Enjoy the pics...
Oh & I almost forgot. Madison found a very old rusty nail near the mill & they kept it to show to the archeologist. A little piece of history...Madison was happy. Just that day we read how when they built things they never used nails because they would rust & rot the wood...pretty cool.