We are lucky to live near The Henry Ford, formerly known as Greenfield Village and Henry Ford Museum. People come from all over to visit it, as evidenced by many different license plates we saw in the parking lot. I tend to take it for granted since I grew up going there. Yesterday was the perfect day for it, sunny but not too hot. I brought along my #1 mother's helper, Audrey. She made the entire trip not only do-able but extremely pleasant. Here she is with the kids at the entrance:
We started off with a steam train ride around the entire village. It passes by an historic working farm, old windmills, ponds, woods and more. The baby was the only one who wasn't captivated:
We took two rides on the 1913 Herschell-Spillman Carousel:
This stork is three and a half years too late:
Excited:
Blurry:
After waiting in a long line we took a ride in a Model T:
We didn't ride the Greenfield Village Omnibus Shuttle but the kids aptly named these two horses Huffy and Puffy:
The baby was content to be in her shuttle most of the day:
It was so nice to have an extra pair of helping hands, especially for the three year old who is quite fearless:
But you have to catch up to her first:
We just studied slavery in homeschool history so I made it a point to visit the slave houses in the hopes that it would bring our lessons to life:
Inside, an interpreter talked about the slaves' way of life but the kids didn't have much patience for her:
They preferred this nearby 1930's southern house:
The inside was really neat. Check out the newspaper on the walls. Its function was decorative and functional (insulation). There was a cardboard ceiling but I didn't get a picture of it.
On the back porch, two women in period costumes gave the children bread:
which they fed to the chickens:
One of the last places we visited was Thomas Edison's office and laboratory. BTW, he was homeschooled too!, along with Alexander Graham Bell and Helen Keller, one of the early proponents of Montessori education in the United States!
It started out as one of those days when I wake up crabby and just know it is going to be a struggle. Getting out, keeping busy and burning energy was exactly what we needed. We walked about 5 miles, stayed way longer than we thought we would and had a great time!
Great pictures! That looks like a great place to visit...wish we were traveling near there on the way to Memphis! It would be a great side trip.
Posted by: Michelle | July 05, 2007 at 11:57 AM