While we were visiting Williamsburg, we set aside a day to enjoy Jamestown, which is just down the road. It ended up being one of the highlights of our trip – we absolutely loved it.

During the Homeschool Days, our tickets got us a full family tour of both the settlement, boats, and Powhatan village that was filled with reenactors.

For part of the tour, we were able to go down into replicas of the ships, and had a “sailor” tell us about the voyage.

I have to say our favorite part was the Powhatan village and learning about the Native American tribe. Because my girls are into all things “princess,” I jumped on the Pocahontas story.  Yes, they watched the Disney movie – but we also watched “The Making Of” part, which talked about the fact that much of story wasn’t accurate. I also found a biography of Pocahontas in the thrift store, of all places, and we read the “real” story as well.

We took classes about the Powhatan tribe – how they lived, what they ate, etc. Here is my oldest dressing up like Pocahontas. You’ll be so pleased to know that they wore very little clothes – in fact the ONLY thing they wore was this “apron.” (This is an adult size apron on a seven year old.) My girls spent weeks afterwards trying to be exhibitionists – after all, if Pocahontas didn’t have to wear clothes, why did they? Sigh. Not exactly the lesson I was hoping for them to take home from this!

Making rope

scraping a deer hide

Scraping out a tree log to make a canoe. My youngest really got into this!

The entire family had a fabulous time, and no one wanted to leave! In fact, after dropping me off at the hotel so I could work that afternoon, hubby took the girls back to enjoy more time there, and check out their museum.

We really could have spent more time there. If you get a chance to go, be sure to take advantage of the tours and classes offered. The volunteers there are wonderful!

Historic Jamestowne
Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center Homeschool Days

I wanted to share with you some pictures from our trip to Colonial Williamsburg!

I strongly encourage you to take advantage of Colonial Williamsburg’s Homeschool Days. The prices are SOOO much better, and there are lots of events,activities, and “classes” to participate in. Usually they are twice a year, in September and February/March.

the auctioneer

I apparently was the only one enjoying the auction.

We loved this because we had just finished reading “Farmer Boy”, about Almanzo Wilder and his oxen.

  It was so hot while we were there in September! It easily topped 90 degrees the week we there. We ended up having to buy little hats as souvenirs to help protect our fair skin from the sun. A word of warning – the stuff IN Coloninal Williamsburg is ridiculously expensive. Buy your souvenirs at the tacky souvenir shops in the rest of the city!

The Wigmaker

One of the “extra” activities we did (for just $5 more) was a “Be a Soldier” session. They learned to march, throw a hatchet, and pitch a tent. Hubby had even more fun than our girls did. (Youngest was being stubborn and refused to participate.)

Our Oldest with a “Soldier”

March, 2, 3, 4

Food is very expensive in the park as well. So, to save money, we packed lunches, snacks, and water bottles every day in a backpack. We joked how how you could pick out all the homeschoolers, because they brought their own food. The trick that week was to find a shady place to eat it. This was in the gardens of the Governor’s home and it was one of my favorite spots.

The Williamsburg Bathroom. Chamber pot anyone?

What ended up being some of our favorite activities were the free classes at the Museum! First of all, it was AIR CONDITIONED. I loved it for that alone. But they also offered two free classes each day, and we did quite a few of them. And the ladies who led the classes were so sweet and patient with all the kids.I would HIGHLY recommend taking anything offered at the Museum.

Creating Our Own Self- Portraits

Our biggest expense in Williamsburg was definitely lodging. For months in advance, I watched Groupon-type offerings, and finally found a fabulous deal at a resort we had stayed at once before. It was a condo-type with a kitchen, which meant we could prep our dinners there. This was important to me since I’m gluten-free – which is sometimes to hard to deal with when traveling. So, we brought several prepped and frozen meals with us, along with breakfast food. When we arrived, we stopped at a grocery store and picked up eggs, milk, and bread. Every morning we stopped for coffee on our way.

We didn’t do much “official” homeschool work that week. I brought some activity pages and colors to occupy the girls at the hotel/condo, but it wasn’t really needed.

Beforehand, we had read some of the American Girl Felicity books, which I highly recommend

So, there ya go. Our trip to Colonial Williamsburg! We spent a week in the area and had a BLAST.

Colonial Williamsburg Educational Site
Colonial Williamsburg Homeschool Days
Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Community

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