James' Fun Filled Field Trip

Hi all,
Happy Monday!
Are your bathrooms cleaned yet?
If not go right now and clean them.
I promise it'll make the rest
of your week so much sweeter. ;>

So I'm gladly back among the living and functioning.
The gross allergy/sinus stuff I had this weekend
is exactly why Mamas can't be sick...
we don't have time!

Speaking of time,
it's probably time I share last week's field trip with you.
James' 1st grade class visited
Burritt on the Mountain in Huntsville, AL.

It was a breezy overcast day,
but when the sun shone it was warm
making it the perfect field trip weather!
Here's the class in front of one of the homes.
They call this a Dog Trot home...
because a dog can trot right through the middle. 

This is inside one of the homes.

The lady was showing us their bathtubs.

All the kids were excited when they found 

out that people use to just bathe once a week!

Here the kids were learning about how clothes were made.

If a child outgrew his coat, 

for a new one to be ready in the Fall

his mom would start working on it in the Spring.

Oh mercy I've got it good!

To make the clothing they started by sheering the sheep.

Then they combed it into a little wad.

Which I can't remember the technical name for.

That's when they spun it into yarn.

If you were "well to do" then you had your own loom.

If not?

You had to wait until the weaver came by

to weave your yarn into cloth.

Here's James checking out the weaver's loom.

Once we the kids learned about clothing,

we moved on to farm animals.

They actually preferred to have mules,
which comes from a male donkey and a female horse.
Mule's can be trained to pull more weight than donkeys.
Oh the things we learned. :)

Now you can't have a farm without a cow.

And this cow?

Well, she was sticking her tongue out at me!

Simmer down Bessie,

I like your milk just fine.

I only get upset when it's made into

formula and fed to human babies. :)

The kids were astonished to learn that 

there was no such thing as computers 

or telephones in the 1800's.

What if you needed to tell someone something?

Well then you hand wrote a letter to that person,

and mailed it...

which took about a week to get there.

The kids were amazed!

Lastly the lady asked us if we knew
what a jar like this might contain.
The answer she was looking for
was something poisonous.
The answer she got from a kid in our group?
Voo-doo!
Honestly, what are that kid's parents teaching him?!
I think it's safe to say that poor lady
will never ask that question again!

We ended our trip with a picnic lunch.

And this kid,
well he talked me into checking him out
and taking him home with me.
Look at this face,
there's no way I could resist!

Thanks for reliving our fun filled field trip.
I learn so much on field trips as an adult chaperone! ;>