We never quite got to Mount Vernon when we were studying the Revolutionary War (we are studying Victorian Era to the present this year) so we took advantage of our trip to Washington, D.C. to come visit. We got to Mount Vernon in the early afternoon and there was almost no crowds to speak of. The Ford Orientation Center and the Reynolds Museum and Education Center were added since I last went to Mt. Vernon about twelve years ago, which made the visit even more interesting for the kids. Here they are in front of life sized statues of George and Martha Washington and her two children. Martha was 4'9" and George was 6'2".
After getting oriented and getting the "Historic Trails Handbook for Scouts" we walked up the hill to The Mansion. We had yet to learn about Ha Has but had unknowingly gone between some.
Janet chased butterflies in the Upper Garden near the green house. There are several active archeological digs going on in the garden and we got to see the people sifting and digging carefully to learn more about the original gardens.
They have a nice fall crop in with lots of egg plants growing.
We waited in line for about fifteen minutes to see the Mansion. This gentlemen was an actor playing the part of a Scottish doctor who attended troops during the Revolutionary War and knew General Washington.
The guides talked to us about how the house was small when George Washington inherited it and he enlarged it to three stories when he was in his twenties. Then he added wings to both sides. One wing was the private areas for George and Martha. Upstairs was their room and her dressing area. She used it as a school in the daytime. The downstairs room was Pres. Washington's study and dressing area. He had over 800 books and a fan chair - you pedal it and it waves a fan over you. (Photographs are not permitted inside the building.) The main dining room had farm symbols all over - in the plaster of the ceiling, on the mantel over the fireplace and over the door. In the main entry there is the Key to the Bastille, given to him by Lafayette who felt The Father of Liberty should have the key.
After the Mansion tour we enjoyed looking out from and sitting on the porch of the Mansion to see the Potomac River. It was a lovely, warm day with a gentle breeze. Above is one of the stables. We also saw the Gardener's House, the Laundry, the Clerk's House, the Salt House, the Smoke House and a Dung Heap - to compost waste for use as fertilizer.
Above is one of the General's coaches. One of the other rooms also held a riding chair. It was basically a chair fastened securely to a cart bed that could be pulled by a horse.
Above is a HaHa wall. The idea here is to keep animals from coming up on the lawn. That was one of the fun things we learned about. It may have been named because it might fool some of the animals and the humans can say "ha ha". They are discreetly placed around the greens of Mount Vernon but it doesn't feel like a fence because the top is at the level of the grass. Admittance is through a gate.
Next stop on our trail was the old burial vault, where the bodies of George and Martha were buried until the official burial vault was finished. Above is a photo of the finished burial vault. George and Martha had previously selected the site and the materials but it took a few years for it to be finished. Scouts can actually prepare wreaths and participate in a Wreath Laying Ceremony between the months of November and April.
The Slave Cemetery is a monument in the general area of many slave burial sites. Exact locations are few but there is enough information to verify that this is the place.
The path down to the river edge and the Innovation in Farming exhibit.
At the river's edge tickets can be purchased for river cruises. There is a nice breeze by the Potomac River.
It was a short walk to the farm. Here is what a shed and fence looked like to shade some of the animals and keep them in.
We had read about George Washington's innovative threshing barn so it was really fun to see a real one. They often have live demonstrations but we had an audio demonstration. It even sounded like horses were walking around and around. It is basically a two story structure.
Upstairs would be spread the harvested wheat. The floor was made so that the wheat seed could fall between slats. Horses would tread on the wheat and the wheat would be loosened and fall through. Harvested wheat crops could be ruined in the rain so moving it indoors improved the output.
Downstairs the wheat would be scooped up, cleaned and then taken to the grist mill for grinding.
The back side of the threshing barn. Next stop was the Nature Trail.
We learned that there were Native Americans at Mt Vernon a couple of hundred years before the Washington family was there.
There were originally a great variety of trees. One of the trees that has disappeared from the area is Chestnuts. There was also signs about animals that are no longer in the area like the black bear, the timber wolf and the passenger pigeon (extinct).
This was an impressive bridge that crossed a divide. Next stop for my weary travelers is the Reynold's Museum We took the Education Center route and were not disappointed. They had an exhibit on how they figured out what George Washington really looked like when he was young. There was a death mask and they did a "best guess" at going back in time, based also on paintings and drawings of the General at different times of his life.
We also saw, among many other things, an amazing movie-show about three major Revolutionary War battle victories of General Washington. They included Boston, Trenton and Yorktown. When ever there were big cannons going off our seats vibrated. When the soldiers were in Boston and there was fog - fog started coming into our theater. When it was snowing in Trenton - snow started falling on us in the theater. I wish I knew how they did the snow - it wasn't cold, it didn't smell like soap or anything - but it did definitely drift down like lightly clumpy snow.
Then we discovered a Hands On room for children J's age. She had a great time. She put her face in various holes of a Washington family painting. Above is where Patsy Custis's face would be.
There were clothes to try on, puzzles to do , pictures to color, books to look at,
and a doll house of Mount Vernon to arrange and re-arrange the furniture in. It was almost 5 pm and closing time so we hope to go back again someday and see all the stuff we didn't quite have time for. We spent time in the shop and found a great book on crafts and things that were done at Mount Vernon - like carding wool and so on. We also got the scout badges for the Historic Trails and Innovation in Farming. Visiting Mount Vernon was well worth the time.
About once a month we get together and talk about a book we've all read. This month it was the Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. We met in the local park. The first activity was to draw/color a garden - the one you imagine your secret garden to be. Then Ms. S. collected all the pictures and passed them out to different people. The children then talked about how the liked or didn't like the pictures they were looking at and why.
Next two children presented either a synopsis of the story or some of their favorite parts. C. did a little puppet show.
C. did a synopsis of her favorite parts.
Next we sowed seeds for butterflies in the butterfly meadows.
Then Ms. S. conducted a discussion on various points related to the "Secret Garden" learning and thinking about how Mary Lennox is like a seed in the story. She is hard and unfeeling in the beginning, like a seed. But then she is "planted" starts to make friends and feel "rooted" to her new home. She blossoms and helps others to blossom.
The last activity was to make an individual garden. We started with dirt and added moss, rocks, Christmas cactus. Ms. S. provided a mirror, so there could be a lake or pond or blue aquarium gravel for a creek or river. She also had miniature animals.
