Ocali Days

We went on a really fun field trip today to the Silver River State Park for Ocali Days. The first thing we did was make candles. The kids started with a wick and went through about a dozen stations where they dipped the wick into melted wax and then water and repeated that 2 more times then on to the next station to do the same thing. In the end they had a candle! Hannah and Grace loved this and later went back and made another candle.



Next stop a one room schoolhouse built in 1930. All the kids got to sit in desks and a man talked to them about school back in 1930.

This man was amazing. His job "back in the day" was a telegrapher and he was so good with showing the kids morse code and explaining how it works. Hard to believe he could so easily make sense of what sounded like just a bunch of tapping. Below is a man and his wife who talked about the Civil War and the role that black people played.

All of the kids got a chance to try out the various tasks that people were working on. In the picture above, the kids are turning a sugar cane press and actually expelling juice from sugar cane. And, below, Grace is grinding corn.

Joe and KK are doing a little laundry and then later Joe and Jake visited the 1890 schoolhouse.

The big kids spent a lot of time playing checkers and all of the kids especially loved the little shops. Joe tried on this coonskin cap and really wanted to buy it but he had already spent his money on a crossbow.

Boys and their weapons....Joe is totally thrilled with this crossbow and arrows that he bought. I haven't seen him this happy over a toy in a long time. The man below used a magnifying glass and the sun to burn Joe's name into his crossbow. It was fascinating to watch.

Joe especially enjoyed this field trip and said that it was the best field trip he had ever been on. :0)