Touring the Prudence Crandall Museum

When I woke up this morning my boys were already up and downstairs.  I was glad they were raring to go since we had a full day planned with a field trip and our trampoline class.



While there was some bickering they were working really hard on putting a puzzle together of the world map.  They had started the puzzle yesterday afternoon and really wanted to finish it.

Ian happened to notice me watching them and asked if they were working on problem solving skills.  I told him that he was and he replied "oh good, so we're working on school stuff then."  I just had to laugh and I reassured him that while puzzles were great for problem skills they were also working on geography skills since it was the world map and they were reading the names of all the continents and oceans.


It was a great reassurance to me, who was once again feeling like we just haven't been doing enough with this unschooling path we've chosen to use for homeschooling.  I was all geared up to start a bunch of projects for them and here they were showing me that they're always learning and eager to do so. 


A while back I had signed us up for a tour of the Prudence Crandall Museum with one of our local homeschooling groups.  I wanted the boys to at least know why this was considered a historical site before we showed up there today so I read to them from this site.

We learned that she risked her own safety to open the first private school for African- American women in her home state.  (It tied in rather nicely with our study of the underground railroad so we also read the book Underground; Finding our Light to Freedom that the boys asked me to check out of the library yesterday.)

The book reminds us of the ideals circulating at the time Prudence Crandall was trying to start up her school and just how hard it could be.

The speaker we had showing us around the museum was wonderful and really told the stories in a way all the kids could relate to.  The total tour only lasted an hour and I think the boys got a lot out of it.  We learned much about her life and the school. 



A portrait of Prudence Crandall 
They had some hands on stuff for the kids; like this mini recreation of an old school house


    It was a wonderful lesson in local history!


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