A little pre-school fun

Last Friday we headed up to Wellsville, Utah to visit the American West Heritage Center.  Our first lesson block of the year is local/Utah geography, and I hoped to take the kids to Wellsville in a week or two, however when I learned that the Heritage Center closes it's living history exhibits near the end of August, I decided that a pre-school field trip was in order.  We were not disappointed!  Even though you will have to wait until next summer to take advantage of all the fun this museum has to offer, it is well worth it.  The children had a blast!

Our first stop at AWHC was the early 20th century farm.

 Dallin milked a cow.

 Then the kids watched the farmer feed the milk to the very smelly pigs.

We had a chance to see several animals, and the kids even got to pet a baby colt, which was one of the highlights of the day for them.  We walked through the farmhouse and got a nice tour by a little girl who couldn't have been more than seven years old.

After the farm visit, we headed across the way to try our hand at panning for gold.

  Preston thought it was much more fun to pan for water.

In this replica 1870's woodshop, Dallin got to use a hand plane.

Next, we headed over to the pioneer area.  First stop there was this dug-out:

 The dirt walls were crawling with spiders, and the guide told us she found a snake just outside earlier in the day.  My great-great-great grandmother lived in a dugout in Manti, Utah, and she writes of many times finding rattle snakes on her mantle. 

 Next we saw the move-up house, the log cabin.

 The kids had fun playing this pioneer game where you have a ball wrapped in cloth, tied to a rope, tied to a tree branch, and you try to see how if you can knock the tin can over.

Our final destination was the mountain man/Shoshone Indian camp.  Dallin and Sariah enjoyed relaxing in the tipi on these cool chairs.  Dallin loved seeing the bow and arrows as well as the guns in the mountain man cabin.

 Then Dallin tried his hand throwing a tomohawk (aka axe).

 We took grandma with us and just plain had a really fun time!  And best of all, it's educational and counts as a school day!  I love homeschooling!