I’m a little behind in my blogging thanks to the storm, so here, finally, is our trip to Boston. 

My dream is to see EVERY important history sight on the East Coast and even though that is impossible, we are slowly checking the big ones off our list.  At the end of October we went to Boston.  We spent the month prior to the trip studying all about the American Revolution so the boys would be able to appreciate what they were seeing and understand its significance.   I have to say that I succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.  They ate up every detail, every book and every activity we did in preparation for this trip.  They could not get enough!   By the time we left on our trip they really knew their stuff.  They were so excited to see these places from such an important time in our country’s history.  I was thrilled because one of my main goals of homeschooling is to help them understand and love their country,  its founding principles and its founding fathers. Was it an easy trip?  Nope, not with four little kids.  But I think I can say it was worth it.

The Preparations:

As part of our studies we learned about the Boston Tea Party and had our own tea party with homemade scones from the time period, hot chocolate and our own homemade candles.  I did try the real beeswax dipping process, but the instructions I got online must have been bogus because it didn’t work!  We gave up on the dipping and dumped the wax into some Styrofoam cups.  Not as authentic as I’d hoped, but the kids were happy.

Long live the king!!  ( I know, cheesy beyond belief, but so fun!)

Here is the stack of books on the Revolution that we read during our study.

The librarians think I’m a nut.  I suppose I am.  I could fill 2 laundry baskets with the books I get on each trip to the library.  But my boys are reading so voraciously now I cannot keep them in books!

They made a big timeline showing all the events leading up to the Revolution. 

It’s pretty fun, so
Here it is up close:

The French and Indian War

The Boston Massacre

Paul Revere’s Ride

The Battles of Lexington

and Concord (the North Bridge)

The Battle of Bunker Hill- “Don’t shoot till you see the whites of their eyes!”  The boys thought this was the coolest thing ever said.  That, and Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death!”

And..

The Declaration of Independence
Note the biggest signature of John Hancock.  Also something they thought was very cool.  Reagan especially liked the idea of being a big time rebel.  Go figure.

So then it was off to Boston.  I had carefully planned out what we would see each day in what order so as to stay true to the history timeline.  Of course those plans went out the window pretty early on.  Between traffic, sight closing times and the occasional “I have to go to the bathroom but mom and dad can’t find a bathroom in suburban Connecticut” our well laid plans had to be totally changed just about every day.  Here’s what it looked like:

Day 1: Drive to Plymouth, then go to the hotel.  Drive to Lexington, then  the hotel.  (Plymouth was 5 hours away and when we realized we weren’t going to make it before it closed we had to head change course and then only had time for Lexington)

We managed to get to the Minute Man National Park in time to pick up these awesome souvenirs and walk along the path that Paul Revere took on his midnight ride. 

He’ll grow into it.

Shooting the Redcoats on the Battle road as they ran away from the Colonists.  (Reagan’s favorite part of the whole war)

 
More along the battle road, path of Paul Revere’s ride
They were very excited to be retracing Revere’s steps.  Of course I was more excited than all of them put together, but that’s beside the point.

They were dutifully respectful when we found this grave marker for two British soldiers.

Ok, really this was their first reaction:
 

Reenacting Paul Revere’s arrest right where it happened!!!  I’m sorry, this was just so cool to me.  I know some of you are just snoring, but I can’t tell you how exciting it was for me to see these places!  In his journal Reagan titled this one, “Paul Reveagan”

And then it was too dark to do anything else, so we found a Mexican restaurant to celebrate Reagan’s real 9th birthday.
I don’t know which he was more excited about, the gun or the sombrero.

Stay tuned for part II!