Our first field trip of the year was to the Latta Plantation in Huntersville, NC.

Latta Plantation was built in 1800.  On the plantation is the original house, barn, slave cabins, kitchen, and other out buildings. 

On this particular day, the Latta Plantation was having its HomeSchool Day.  Several families from our co-op met up there to see what life was like in the 1800s.  This is very nice for us as our focal point for this year is the 1800s. 

We started off this year learning about the French Revolution and Napoleon.  We then looked at the presidency of John Adams, the Industrial Revolution, Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase.  For literature, Brian just finished the Diary of an Early American Boy, Noah Blake.  It is great to take what we have learned about in books and see it with our own eyes.

On our tour of the house, a young woman was sitting in the front room spinning yarn (thread).  The people who "work" on site are dressed in period costume and talk as if they live there.  Most of these people are fellow homeschoolers. In fact my good friend Lori and her children were all there that day dressed in costume. 

Bonnie has asked if she can work at the plantation as well.  We are in process of seeing if she and I can work on site.  I hope so.

Here are some pictures of that day.

Here are just some of our homeschool friends ready to enter the gates of the Latta Plantation.

The Latta House has only four rooms.  Nothing like you would think of when you hear the word plantation.  Downstairs there are two medium size rooms.  Upstairs are two and a half bedrooms (Parent's room and children's room).  In the half room is the loom used to make their fabric.  I was not able to get any pictures because photography was not allowed.  Sorry

Behind the Latta House is the Kitchen House.

For obvious reasons the kitchen was separated from the main house - heat, risk of fire, etc. 

The woman doing the demonstration is my friend Lori.  Here six year son is quietly sitting there while she explains how food was cooked during the 1800s.  Lori is also our Shakespeare director that I have told you about.

It was very hot in the kitchen.

The boys were quite curious about all the things in the kitchen.

There are all sorts of animals on the plantation - chickens, cows, horses, donkey, and sheep. 

Besides history, we also had a science lesson.  How do you start a fire without matches? We saw this gentleman farmer start a fire using 19th century tools.

Bonnie hopes to volunteer at the Latta House like her friend here.

One of the activities on site was to make games that children played in the 1800s.  Here the children and I are making an Alphabet Dice game similar to the game Boggle that we play today.

Brian couldn't resist taking a picture of all the tools hanging up in the barn.

More friends to enjoy the day with.

Cotton is still grown on the plantation to show us what the crop looked like.  The children noted that it was green seed cotton; the type that Eli Whitney worked with when he created his cotton gin.

Two other demonstrations on site were an old school house and a gunsmith. 

We had so much fun.  We have several more field trips planned in the next month.  All of them focus on life from 1760 to the 1800s.  I can't wait to share them all with you.