Drive-Thru School

We've driven through Virginia before en route to other places, but never really explored it.  What a mistake.  There is so much beauty, history, and charm there.

Coming into Virginia we crossed the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel.  Yeah, it's a bridge AND a tunnel.  The kids were obviously impressed to be driving along the bridge over the water, and then just continue driving down under the water through this tunnel.

Virginia is so historically rich, so we took advantage of the chance to study the birthplace of our great country in Jamestown.  We also visited Colonial Williamsburg, Yorktown, Manassas and the Bull Run Battlefield, Thomas Jefferson's home, and George Washington's home, Mount Vernon.  I'm not sure about the kids, but I'm so excited by all I'm learning.  I'm wondering what on earth I was doing during school.  How did I miss all this cool information?  I disliked history so much in school -- now I'm fascinated by it.

Colonial Williamsburg.

Grinding corn like the Powhatan Indians in Jamestown, VA.

Defending the Jamestown fort.

Playing dress-up at Yorktown.

Six soldiers would've slept in a tent like this during the battle at Yorktown during the Revolutionary War.  SIX.  Full grown men.  Think freezing conditions, bloody feet, inadequate food, clothing, and blanket supplies, infected wounds and rampant disease.  And I thought living in the RV was challenging.

One of our goals on this journey was to take advantage of the fact that we could control the type of weather we experienced.  If a cold front, or a bad storm is moving through an area, we just avoid it until it passes.  Or if we land somewhere and the forecast calls for extended rains, we just pack up and find a new front yard.  We like 70 degrees.  Our goal was to stay as close as we could to 70 degrees and sunny.

Woops.

This was our fist snow sighting while camping.  Looks like we're not going anywhere for a while.

The kids LOVED the snow.

At one point I leaned out of the RV to take a picture of the snow.  Every time I stuck my head out the window, Mr. Fix-It hit me with a snowball.  Three, in fact.  Then I got smart and decided to forgo the photo.

Somebody get her some hot chocolate.

Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello, was really amazing.  We've been studying early American History and the framing of our country.  Seeing the place where the Declaration of Independence was drafted by Thomas Jefferson was the perfect way to punctuate our study of his role in our nation's history.  The kids were able to sit out on the lawn of Monticello and exercise their hand at writing with a quill.

CBR drafting his own declaration.

We decided to embrace the snow and enjoyed a couple of days of hiking through Shenandoah National Park.  I'm glad we did.  We entertained ourselves by tracking different wild animals in the snow.  And, as it turned out, it was perfect snowball snow.  Game on.

Please notice the remains on CBR's jacket from being struck by a snowball.  That was just the beginning.

What ensued on the peaks and valleys of the Shenandoah range nearly divided our family.  The snowball fight quickly escalated to full-on war.  It all happened so quickly, I can't say for sure who instigated it all.  In the end, CER went home wet -- soaked with melted snow.



Approaching the target.

 

 

Mission completed.



The Easter bunny found us at an RV park in northern Virginia.  Thank you Easter bunny.

We spent Easter at National Community Church in Washington, D.C.  Pastor Mark Batterson has written some great books that have impacted me, so it was super to spend Easter with his congregation.  Afterwards, we enjoyed an Easter lunch in Alexandria, VA.

We toured George Washington's home, Mt. Vernon.  My, my, what a property overlooking the Potomac. 

What are the chances that I'd run into a friend from home at Mt. Vernon?





Pretty good, I guess.

Stonewall Jackson memorial statue on the Battle of Bull Run battlefield - Manassas, VA.

We had been studying much of the Revolutionary War period in history, but we jumped ahead about 85 years to take in some Civil War history as well.  I had no idea how bloody the Civil War had been.  At the Battle of Manassas we learned that more lives were lost in the Civil War than any of the other battles (involving American soldiers) since . . . COMBINED.  Consider the casualty rate of the Vietnam War alone.  Then consider that number with all the other wars in between -- let that sink in.  The Civil War was extremely deadly!  All that death . . . over slavery. 

It struck me.  As Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence, he would've looked out his window to see his slaves laboring on his plantation.  At the same time many of the framers met to design our Constitution, they owned slaves that were being beaten if they tried to escape.  Their words pronounced with persuasion the notion that 'all men are created equal, and have unalienable rights to liberty', but their actions spoke differently.  They were forming a brand new nation.  They had the voice and the power to enforce their stated principles.  They could have addressed the issue of slavery, but chose instead to treat it like a blind spot.  They believed the wretched institution of slavery in America would naturally unravel on its own.  It didn't.  Quite the opposite.  As slavery grew in the South, the North championed more industry and infrastructure.  The tensions grew, nearly dividing our country . . . and led to a devastating battle.  Lives lost so that our country might live.

I appreciate what history offers us.  It affords us the opportunity to learn from, and not repeat the mistakes of our past.  Slavery seems so obviously wrong to us now, but 150 years ago nobody blinked at the idea of going to the market to buy some people.  I wonder, what are we accepting in our culture today that will seem obviously wrong to those who study us 150 years from now?

Enough history . . . on to science.  While in Virginia, CER had the opportunity to meet up with home schooled students from around the country for a two day science lab intensive.  Her cousin "P" was also in the course.  Mr. Fix-It and the other kids went on toward Maryland, while my sister and nephew joined me and CER in Virginia for the science class.    It was jam-packed with lectures, lab reports, dissections, and experiments on every topic from DNA to sublimation.  I was concerned we hadn't covered enough science this year, but not anymore.  I think they did a full year of science labs in two days.  Whew!



CER and cousin "P" dissecting an earthworm.

This experiment was a race.  The first to take the blue modeling clay and design a boat that could float won.

Starfish dissection.

History . . . check.
Science . . . check.

Now, let's play!

Playing with our new friends from the science class at the hotel pool.