When planning our drive up to Washington, DC, a friend sent me a link to a Groupon coupon for a cheap 2 night stay in Williamsburg. Well, we knew we’d need a hotel anyway, so why not stop for an extra day and have some fun? (Plus, we could call it educational and therefore, “home school field trip” HA!)

Little did we know that the closest thing to a cold front we’d have this winter happened THAT WEEKEND. As in, I have no coat (we shipped all of our heavy winter stuff ahead) and it STARTED TO SNOW WHILE WE WERE THERE. Isn’t that lovely???

But here is the GREAT, GREAT news about Williamsburg, especially if you are a homeschooler. They have “homeschool weekends!” Usually on an off-season week, and the prices were ridiculously low. As in, hubby and I paid $10 for full admission, and both of our kids got in FREE because they were under 6.

I will say, that cold nasty weather made that particular visit not so much fun. Not many “outside” events were happening, and being off-season, not as many shops/events were open as normal. Hubbie and I loved it, and it probably went over the girls’ heads mostly, since we really hadn’t started studying any sort of real history at the time.

Our three favorite stops:

1) The Jailer’s house. Our oldest was fascinated by the jail, and the shackles on their feet. She was also particularly interested in the “throne” (ie. the potty you had to climb up to).  She wanted to know that if their feet were shackled (the shackles were bolted to the floor to keep them from being stolen) how did they climb up there to the potty? Thank goodness the guide seemed to have answered that question before, as frankly I didn’t have a clue what to say!

2) The dress shop. I love this, being right in line with my costumed background. And since my mom used to be a seamstress, I really could appreciate the craftsmanship. My girls weren’t so interested, unfortunately, as this was one of the few shops with heat and I would have preferred to stay a bit longer!

3). Lunch. Lunch at the tavern (sorry, can’t remember which one) was AWESOME. We loved it. Super pricey, but since we cheaped out on everything else, it seemed fair to pay a “Goodness gracious!” amount for lunch!

As the day went on, and the weather got worse and worse, and little girl attitudes got worse and worse, we jumped the bus back to the visitor center, stopped at the gift shop (I have an addiction to gift shops and can’t ever seem to pass them up), and headed back to our hotel.

Where we ended up with over three inches of snow on the ground by morning. And that was the only snow we saw all winter!

I am already trying to plan our trip back to Williamsburg this fall during their next homeschool week, since we’re going to be in the area, and hopefully we’ll see more and the girls will “get it” more, since we’re starting to read/study a little bit of American history (American Girl books, Little House on the Prairie, etc.).

Here are some resources, if you would like to build Colonial Williamsburg into your homeschool experience (or not!):

Colonial Williamsburg Education Link and Info: http://www.colonialwilliamsburg.com/discover/educate/

Colonial Williamsburg Homeschoolers Link and Info: http://www.colonialwilliamsburg.com/plan/groups/homeschoolers/

(PS. This fall’s homeschool experience is from September 8-22, 2012!)

Lesson Plans, Worksheets, Teacher Resources, Kids Zone, etc.: http://www.history.org/History/teaching/groupTours/SchoolandYouth/plan.cfm

Since we have such a “short” (Please note both my excitement for being here and my sarcasm. We’re living here in a hotel for two months. But even still, I’m happy to be here.) time in DC, I was determined to take advantage of all the area has to offer!

If you’re planning a trip to DC, the first thing you need to do (even before arriving) is contact your Congressman! My Representatives, Senator Shelby and Representative Bonner, are able to help get tour tickets. We were able to get tickets for a tour of the Capitol Building quite quickly, and so the girls and I headed into DC and got in line for our tour!

(Tip: When they say don’t drive in because parking is horrible, BELIEVE THEM. Plus, the parking meters have a max of two hours, which is hardly enough time to do anything. Lesson learned. If you’re dealing with little legs, take the metro and then get a taxi to drop you off. It’s worth it.) 

Here we are in the Welcome Center. This is where you will find water fountains, bathrooms, lots of people standing in lines, and a lot of statues.

And this is by the exit of the tour. The girls were quite tired of walking and of me taking pictures by this time.

Okay, the coolest part of the tour for us, were the headphones! They were connected to a microphone our tour guide had, so that we could hear her clearly and she didn’t have to yell. This was great, because the echo was crazy.

Here are pictures of the inside of the dome.

This room was the “original” location for Congress. Honestly? There was very little to see in here and was kinda boring.

Plaques on the floor note where certain representatives (the famous ones) sat.

Entrance to "traditional" office of the Speaker of the House. Not sure how much it actually is used, though.

And this is the “crypt”. Originally, they wanted to bury George Washington here. But they didn’t, so now they store his statue. Yup. Along with a few others.

Beyond that, there was very little to see in this tour. (I did not opt to do the viewing of Congress in session. Figured it wouldn’t be appropriate for preschoolers.) The entire tour, including a fifteen minute video, lasted 45 minutes. My overall impression was, “Meh.”

But, if your kids were slightly older, and you had been studying US geography, you could make a scavenger hunt game looking at the statues. Each state has donated a statue to the Capitol Building, and they are all kept in the areas you’ll visit during the tour. In fact, sometimes they are jam-packed and shoved practically on top of each other.

Here is Helen Keller's statue, donated by Alabama

Just FYI, this is the guy you need to thank for air conditioning.

So, that was our trip to the Capitol Building. We can at least say we did it, but the girls were completely uninterested, and I was underimpressed.