Field trip

Yesterday was the field trip I had planned for the local homeschoolers......to the museum. The roads were so nasty I was worried about driving into town but I took it slowly and took the Range roads instead of highways......the junctions were so slippery though because of the amount of snow......

Some of us met at McDonalds first for lunch...it was crowded there though.......then we headed to the museum. It was such a great afternoon....first of all we all sat in the Village Square while Starr (the museum manager) gave us a talk about the history of the museum...

Actually, she started off by telling how wonderful Chris is...what a great volunteer and how she didn't know children like him still existed....so polite and helpful and friendly! She said he was a credit to homeschoolers and before Chris she had not met any homeschoolers and didn't know much about homeschooling, but thanks to Chris she now sees how wonderful homeschooling can be! And she wants to encourage more homeschoolers to volunteer at the museum and use the museum for field trips because of the type of children homeschoolers are!!!!

So after a talk then we did a rain dance that went along with a First Nations tale about a frog! That was fun! We then split into groups and each group got to spend ten minutes or so in each part of the village.

We started off in the old school room....WOW is the bell ever loud! It would sound out across the farmland when the children were walking or riding horses to school. We got to write on the old slates with slate pencils (NOT easy!!)

We tried on the old fashioned softball mitt and goalkeepers padding and we felt the strap for naughty children ;) and we learnt about the red cross checklist for pioneer school children......whether they had brushed their teeth, drunk milk, had a weekly bath, used a handkerchief etc etc.......

We then moved into the old Church and the Barber shop.......Susannah sat in the chair with her head in the old hair dryer.....we learnt that the Barber would also pull teeth!!! :) I also learnt that my children didn't know what an ash tray was!! Isn't that great???? :)

After that was the Pioneers kitchen.......we learnt how to light the stove and the morning routine........imagine having no heating except in the kitchen on a day like today!!!! The children would fetch water from the well..........and all that before breakfast on a cold day like today! We saw the 100 year old ice cream scoop! the tiny fridge box (no room for cookie dough!!!)

After that was the First Nations room...the teepee where we got to play with all kinds of toys, held a piece ofMammoth tusk found by the North Saskatchewan River in Edmonton (wow imagine those walking around here!!!) and we got to try various tools they would have used for skinning animals, grinding berries etc etc we got to play on a drum made from hide too and learnt that you can embroider with colourfully dyed porcupine quills!

Next was the blacksmiths shed with all the tools, we learnt about the machine that makes rope, how to shoe a horse and all about wooden cart wheels................then the farmers barn where Susannah tried milking a cow and we learnt about old farming techniques in the area........then on to the animals of Alberta, the fossil room where they all got to hold the dinosaur bone..........then the old firestation and police cells!!! Then we headed to the general store which is actually a real store from the early days of Sherwood Park...the children got to play with some old toys, use the cash regsiter, try on some hats etc and look at how different the old packaging was.........it was great that so much of it all was 'hands on'!!!

After that we all met up again in the village square where we listened to the gramaphone and learnt a song about being a bum!!!!! :) I'm a bum, thank goodness I'm a bum, give me a hand out to help me along'.......................

Then it was free time to look around th emuseum so we headed to the Remembrance Day dispplay to see the collectiuon of dioramas they have there....a local man has been making them since he was 8 and he is now 57!!! They were amazing....so real!!! I'm glad we saw them before the display ends!

The roads on the way home were nasty and we skidded a few times but were ok.....I was glad to get home and to get Lloyd home too!

The children wantt o make dioramas this afternoon..........and Abigail wants to make one of the First Nations toys we played with yesterday!