Nashville Vacation: The Hermitage (Home of Andrew Jackson)

The Hermitage is Andrew Jackson's mansion. My abysmal memory of history facts made me check who exactly Andrew Jackson was. He was the 7th President of the United States and sadly I didn't know much about what he had done. In preparation for the trip I found, kind of by accident, a book called Landmarks of Tennessee History that had lots of information about The Hermitage. It was in the pile of books for sale at the library. So I splurged and bought it and read all about some really old mansions. I won't bore anyone with the details but if you are a history buff and want to borrow my book, it has some really fun stories. It told me about Andrew's wife, Rachel, who had previously been in an abusive marriage before marrying Jackson. She had a garden to the east of the mansion that was her special place. Jackson loved her so much and she died right before his inauguration. During the campaign, his opponents attacked Rachel because of her past marriage calling her an adulterer and Jackson believed his wife died of a broken heart. She is buried in her garden and he was buried next to her. It was very special to learn more about her. She became very real to me during our time there. The other stories that really touched me were about Uncle Alfred. He was one of Jackson's slaves. After he was emancipated, he was hired on to work at the home. His job throughout his life was to take care of the horses and the stables. He lived with his wife, who worked in the house as Rachel's personal maid, in a cabin close behind the mansion. After the home was sold to the state (which was part of Jackson's last wishes) to become a museum, Uncle Alfred became the first tour guide. He asked for a proper burial, which the historical society gave him, and he is buried close by General Jackson and his beloved wife. When I walked into the little cabin out back, it reminded me of the pioneer homes that I have seen reconstructed in Winter Quarters. It looked almost exactly the same. And the time period is close. And the stories of Uncle Alfred  just overwhelmed me. I got pretty teary-eyed listening about his life.

The Hermitage was a fun tour because they had audio with two options, one for adults and one for kids. I just listened to the kid version and it was really well-done. Not too long and very lively. Emmett and Melynn both LOVED it. We listened to it all over the grounds, learning about growing cotton, and about the spring house, and about the first Hermitage buildings. There was just so much to learn. The visitor's center had a 20 minute film that we watched right before we left. Normally you would watch it before you do all the walking, but we wanted to take advantage of the kids cheery moods so we saved it for last. Anyway, it talked about Jackson's presidency and how he was the one that forced the Cherokee and other Indian nations to walk the Trail of Tears. There were other things that I can't remember now. It was well-done.

This is the backside of the house. I couldn't take any pictures inside.

This is taken from Rachel's garden, looking back at the house. The garden is like a traditional four-square English garden (I don't know the proper terms) and it had all sorts of flowers and trees, all labeled. It took me back to Botany 201 when I had to memorize over 100 different trees and shrubs.

This is the family cemetery. Their adopted son (they never had biological kids) and his descendents were buried here.

This is the memorial General Jackson built for his sweet wife, Rachel. He is buried beside her. And yes, we still have our headphones on. 

Tucker took Josh's audio tour because it had buttons. He looked like this a lot of the time (with the pacifier!). Now we are back to getting rid of the thing. 

Here is Uncle Alfred's grave.

And his cabin.

Here are the kids playing in the cotton field.

The whole family at the front of The Hermitage. Squinting in the bright sunshine.

It was like stepping back in time just for a day.

Nashville Vacation: Adventure Science Center

This will be the first of many posts about our Nashville vacation. We had so much fun and we did a lot of really neat things. Saturday morning we took the kids swimming at the pool while grandpa did his long run. He is training for a marathon. Then in the afternoon we went was the Adventure Science Center. It was amazing. I would buy a membership there if we moved to Nashville. So worth the money. I will say though that it was LOUD! I figure most of that is because it was a Saturday and they were having a special train exhibit for the holidays. They have a wing dedicated to space that was phenomenal. I hope to go back for a two day trip at the end of the school year since we are learning about space starting in January. I think it would be a great end of the year field trip.

It has always been my dream to play a gigantic guitar while being inside. Okay, not really, but it was fun. You could actually play it and hear the twang of the strings. This was part of the section on music and movement. They had a large piano you could play with your feet and all sorts of other stuff. Very fun and VERY LOUD!

This is part of the 2-level space exhibit. This is Emmett in front of Jupiter. It really helped me see how much bigger Jupiter and Saturn are compared to say, Earth and Mars.

They had a few dinosaurs upstairs and Melynn posed as a paleontologist. 

There was also a large permanent exhibit on the human body with this gigantic heart, a gigantic brain you could go inside and a fun quiz game all about gross body facts (think farts, poop and sweat). We played a few times and Josh beat us all. Good thing he is the doctor in the family. :)

And here is the outside:

There is also a planetarium (the large round part on the right) that we didn't go in. We didn't want to spend the time or pay the extra money for a show. But if I go back I will probably go there too.

Igneous Rock Fudge

Our Earth Science experiment was tasty this week. We took rocks (the ingredients for fudge) and heated them to make new rock. It was also a great way to teach Emmett how to make candy so he can help me at Christmastime. We had a great time and the result was great: a symbolic extrusive rock with no crystals and lots of smooth goodness. Each step of his lab had him thinking of how it related to the rock cycle and how igneous rock forms so it really was a good visual.

Field Trip: Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI)

Emmett and I had a date to the University of Memphis on Tuesday, November 12th for a field trip about earthquakes and the New Madrid seismic zone. The presenter was a professor and he was well-prepared. The information was mostly about 3 major earthquakes that occurred in 1811 and 1812 in the Memphis area. Just northwest of here, actually. The New Madrid earthquakes are estimated to be over a 7 on the Richter Scale, although since they happened before the seismograph was invented all they have is an estimate based on eye witness accounts and written records. Oh, and the evidence they can see in the rock. He told us about paleoseismology, where they dig down and look for faults and evidence of earthquakes and then use carbon-dating to see if they match the time period they are studying. The evidence under the earth showed that major quakes occurred in this seismic zone at an average of once every 500 years. So, the New Madrid quakes were 200 years ago and there is a small chance that another big one could be coming. The researchers see seismic activity all the time but luckily it is all very small (1-2). The people that live closer to the fault can feel them but they do no damage. This seismic zone is also strange because it is in the middle of the North America tectonic plate and usually earthquakes are seen along the edges of plates (like California or Japan). So there was a lot of historical and scientific information that probably bored the kids.

They liked the demonstrations the best. Emmett got to participate with the slinky demo. The slinky showed how the energy of the earthquake passes as a wave through the ground.

He also had a neat globe that showed the tectonic plates and it opened up to show how scientists use earthquakes to learn about the center of the earth. Cool stuff!

And last, but not least, is the shake table that showed what happens as the intensity of an earthquake increases.

Borrowing the Neighbor's Leaves

Emmett and Melynn took the rakes and gathered up what they considered a HUGE pile of leaves. It took about an hour for little bodies to rake this much up. It was pretty fun to watch them enjoying work as if it were play. They had no idea they were working. I was weeding at the time and was well aware that I was working.

Anyway, they made a pile and jumped in it. Then Emmett started dumping Melynn in it off of his back. Then they started burying each other. It was just good, clean fun. I loved seeing them become friends. The fighting has lessened some and they are enjoying time together more and more. I have high hopes that we will make it as a family!

I am so grateful for my kids. They bring me the most joy I have ever had in my life.

Rice Krispie Stone Castle

Another history project to write about today. We learned about castles last Friday and tried building one out of rice krispies (well, some peanut butter cocoa puff cereal that was supposed to look like stone) and failed miserably. They tasted good but wouldn't keep a shape for anything. So...after some sticky finger-licking we just enjoyed a treat and had to call it good.

We did learn about the keep (the large tower in the center) and how it could be used as added protection and contained food stores, weapons and additional rooms. We learned about the portcullis (front gate thing) that can be dropped to prevent an attacking force from entering the castle. The other day we learned about why the Norman people built stone castles and how the feudalistic society was born. All very interesting stuff. I swear I am learning more than my kids.

Field Trip: Whole Foods Market

This was a fun field trip and FREE! Love that. We learned all about why Whole Foods Market is different from your normal grocery store. Let's see what I remember:
1. They do not carry any products with artificial colors
2. None of their products have preservatives or trans fats
3. They have the largest organic food selection
4. Their mission is to encourage consumption of whole foods (hence the name), basically keeping food in its natural form instead of processing all the nutrition out of it

There was more than that, but I don't remember it all. We got to sample papaya and pomegranate in the produce section. They have a neat sign showing which items are in season at the moment. Then they made fresh peanut butter. Melynn helped with the honey roasted peanut butter (super yummy) and Emmett helped with the almond butter (which only I liked). She gave me the container of it! Score! Then we tried some dehydrated vegetables. I think they were freeze-dried but I'm not sure. They still looked like corn kernels and peas but were slightly shriveled and very crunchy and light. Not too bad. They reminded me of corn nuts actually. Next we went to the meat section where she let the kids touch a whole pompano fish and talked about grass-fed beef and bison meat being leaner than beef, etc. Then we got to sample their pizza and a green smoothie. Right before we finished, they let us have a vegan chocolate chip cookie (I'm sorry but that one did NOT compare to a real chocolate chip cookie).

My one observation that will probably sound judgemental (which really isn't supposed to sound that way) is that fat people don't shop at Whole Foods. I don't think I saw a single chubby person in there during the hour long tour.

We finished our field trip by eating very unhealthy pizza for lunch. Don't judge me. Emmett's pizza was free and it is fun to take the kids out to practice their manners (or lack of) every once in a while. I got a video of Tucker being a cutie pie.

Growing Our Own Crystals

We started this science experiment on October 22nd by dissolving 2 1/2 cups of sugar in 1 cup of water, creating a super-saturated solution. Then we cooled it, poured it into an empty peanut butter jar and placed a string inside, hanging from a pencil. The hope is that crystals would form over time on the string to create rock candy. We added rum flavoring and some green food color (Emmett's favorite).

Here is Day 1, with the experiment all set up:

This is Day 3 or 4

After waiting three weeks, we drained off the green sugar water and this is what we were left with:

Sugar crystals. The question at the end was good: Why is this crystal NOT a mineral? Answer: Because it is a product of a living thing and a mineral has to be inorganic. This is why coal is NOT a mineral. Good stuff.

The Blending of the English Language

For history, we are studying the Middle Ages and we just learned about William the Conqueror and the Norman invasion of England and how the English had changed as the people assimilated "foreign" words. This activity was to show how Old English was changed when the Angles and Saxons were conquered by various groups of people. They just used the words from Greek, Latin, Scandinavian, Celtic, and French that worked to describe something they didn't have a word for, I guess. I had never really thought about it much because we don't think of the word "leg" as being from the Vikings, or the word "garden" to be French. They are just English words now to us. We started with a lump of our glow in the dark playdoh leftover from co-op and used food coloring to make all the different languages. We labeled and then blended to get brownish-gray English playdoh. It was really fun and I think the concept was learned.

And a bonus picture of a Jungle that Emmett drew on the dry erase board.

Field Trip: Cedar Hill Farm

Warning: This will have a lot of pictures (trusting that Blogger will let me upload anything!). We went to Cedar Hill Farm the day before Halloween with our homeschool co-op and even chartered a bus for the one-hour drive there and back! It gave the kids a real "school" experience and they didn't seem thrilled with it by the end. Emmett said it made him feel like he was on an airplane (which totally freaked me out because I thought he would throw up on the way back). Thankfully, he made it without any problems. I asked the daughter of the mom who thought of chartering the bus if she liked riding on the bus and she said, "It was boring." I truly hope she didn't tell her mom that!

Cedar Hill Farm reminded me of Vala's Pumpkin Patch from our Omaha days. It wasn't as big and grandiose as Vala's though. More like a farm, actually, without the cows. I never saw any cows. Enough talking about it though. Let's get all those pictures on here!

 Tucker on the bus. Despite my best efforts at getting him to look at me, he insisted on gazing out the window at the beautiful fall colors flashing outside his window. Getting the carseats on the bus was a HUGE challenge. One mom ended up taking one newborn in her car along with another mom because the newborn seat wouldn't fit in between the seats. That was a bummer.

Here is Melynn and Emmett posing for a picture.

We took Dallin with us because his little sisters were sick. He and Emmett are in the same class at co-op are becoming good friends. They are very precocious boys and it is nice having Emmett as the older one, and having to set a good example for his buddy. This was taken before we entered the corn maze.

Me and my kids. I told Melynn that if she wandered off at the farm and got lost (away from me) she was to tell somebody that her mom's name is Alicia and she is wearing a zebra shirt. We didn't have any problems with her wandering off, thank goodness.

The corn maze had a fun monopoly game and we were trying to complete it in the very limited time we had available. We missed about 6 of the signs. Each one had a hole punch (or 2 or 3 or 4) for us to mark.

This is what happens when you have to share with a sister. Pout-face.

Melynn by the pumpkins. Each kid got to take a pie pumpkin home. We painted ours and put them on the doorstep. No pictures of that project.

Emmett and his pumpkin.

The boys.

Melynn posing by the beautiful Christmas trees. If I wasn't so allergic to all things living it would be fun to get one of these trees. They just oozed Christmas to me!

Parker, Emmett and Dallin on the hayride, with Tucker watching the tracker tires with intense attention. 

These boys are getting to be really good friends. I love it!

Abby and Melynn. Melynn LOVES Abby. Can't get enough of Abby. Follows her around like an annoying little sister and all of that. Abby is a good sport (despite being 8 years older).

A rare shot of Tucker with a smile on his face. He would have been all smiles had I let him roam on his feet but stuck in the stroller? No way would he smile for me.

By the bus:

And here is the whole group by the bus. 

It was a fun, exhausting day. We loved it!