US Historical Locations Tied to SOTW Volumes?

[wendyroo]

Say you were going to take your kids on one or two trips a year that in some way related to the history the family is studying that year.  

 

Say you were going to be using SOTW as a spine, so you would prefer locations that are mentioned (or allude to) in those books, but you would settle for any location that is associated with those time periods even if it is not covered in SOTW.  

 

Say you live in the US and your budget limits you to domestic travel.

 

Say your kids are going to be elementary age and you are looking for destinations that are interesting and interactive for those ages.

 

Where would you go?

 

Thanks,

Wendy

[LibraryLover]

For sure, Washington, DC.  The ancient architectural influence is easily seen. DC is also gorgeous and kid-friendly, for the most part.   I would include the various fountains as well. (Quite amazing.)   Our Smithsonian collection is colossal. It would take years to see it all.

 

NYC, and any US city with major museums.  We've done many museum 'hunt lists' based our interest and study.  Many also have decent children's programming. At the Satler in DC, my children were able to take an ancient instruments workshop, which ended in a concert  (musically supported by musicians, so it wasn't just a plinging and a banging) where the children were actually able to play some of these instruments, or recreations of them. It was wonderful. (We were on vacation, and I specifically looked for children's activities at the various museums to see what was happening where.) 

 

DC also has an impressive collection of ancient North American artifacts at The Museum of the American Indian. (Their cafeteria is one of the best in the city, by the way. lol) There are also ancient ruins in the US. Colorado Plateau comes to mind. You can also search for' ancient ruin sites' in the US to see what might be near you.  I'm not sure how much it overlaps with SOTW, however.  

 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC has the ancient Egyptian Temple of Dendur (time of Augusta), which was a gift to the US from Egypt. It's pretty cool and my kids always enjoyed it.

 

PS I realize that there is also modern SOTW spine. That's another (huge) post. lol  Which volume(s)?  :)

[Farrar]

DC and NYC would also be my top picks for much of the same reasons that LibraryLover just said, and maybe also Gettysburg and Philadelphia. But I'm in the mid-Atlantic, so those all make sense, you know? If I lived out west, I might have a very different list.

 

We did most of SOTW, but we also took a year off for US history, in part so we could really make it a field trip year. And it was awesome.

[Miss Tick]

What region of the country are you starting in? Smart idea to be thinking ahead!

[wendyroo]

We live in Michigan.

 

I know there are good museums in NY and DC, but I'm really trying to think of places you can visit where the actual history happened.

 

This all started when DH and I were talking about how we want to take the kids to Boston in a few years.  DH and I both went to college in that area and then lived and worked nearby after we were married.  It occurred to me that if we time "a few years" correctly then we could make it coincide with when we are studying early modern history (I'm planning to stretch SOTW 3 & 4 out over 3 years and add in additional units of US history somewhat chronologically).  There is something about going in Paul Revere's actual house or reenacting the Boston Tea Party while standing on a boat in Boston Harbor that make history seem less like a story and more like things that actually happened to real people.

 

For modern history I was thinking Appomattox Court House and then later in the year Montgomery, Alabama.  I think I will save DC until they are older because there is just so much to see.

 

For the middle ages I would LOVE to take the kids to Mesa Verde, but that is a long trek that the kids might be too young to get much out of, so we will probably save that for the next history rotation.  I don't know what historical sites are available to learn about Mississippian culture or some of the other Native American tribes.

 

And then the ancients....  We clearly will go to a couple museums; the University of Michigan has an amazing collection of ancient artifacts and we will probably head to Chicago's Field Museum.  I'm also going to see if there are tours available that would let the kids see an actual archaeological excavation site.

 

Where would you go to experience where actual history happened? 

[Garga]

Read through the volumes (you only need to find the American history chapters) and go to those exact places.  Like you said:  Paul Revere's house, Boston harbor, Philly for sure, along a wagon trail, to an underground railroad station, etc.  Really, just read the volumes and go to where they talk about.    

 

How about a colony--Roanoke or Williamsburg, etc.?

 

Monticello, Mount Vernon.  

 

Gettysburg.  

 

If you could give us a list of the places mentioned in SOTW, then I'll bet people could respond with specific details about those places.

 

And, whenever possible, find a cathedral to tour and pretend you're in Europe in the middle ages.  This one in DC has free parking and a free tour and they let you wander much more than in the national cathedral.  The National Cathedral was gorgeous, but not as much fun as the one linked.  We wandered for hours in there. 

 

If you head out west, check out the pueblos in Arizona.  They're 1,000 years old and probably the only structures of such age on the continent (I'm guessing here.)  My kids were blown away that they were seeing houses that old.  We don't get to see that sort of thing very often here in the New World, you know. 

[happypamama]

At my house, we'd hit Plimoth, St. Mary's City, Williamsburg (and Jamestown and Yorktown along with that), Gettysburg, and Boston, but it's all a bit subjective. Where are you, and how far do you want to travel, and how detailed do you want to get?

[Miss Tick]

Cahokia Mounds is a huge excavation in Illinois, about 20 minutes east of St. Louis. We haven't been, yet.

 

Jeffers Petroglyphs is in Minnesota, near the South Dakota border. Neat place, small but lots of petroglyphs. Not far from Pipestone National Monument.

 

There is a whole section in SOTW on the Battle of Tippecanoe (IN). They have a yearly reenactment.

 

There is also a reenactment thing (Feast of the Hunter's Moon) at Fort Ouiatenon (also IN), set in the French trader/Native American times, early 1700s.

 

Tons of things along the Lewis and Clark trail, obviously. I planned a notional trip for last summer, but couldn't get it to work out.

[MotherGoose]

I went to Cahokia mounds and recommend it. There are other Ancient Amercian people sites around in IL and places too. Also, you might consider visiting the Laura Ingalls Wilder sites if you've read the books. I doubt she's mentioned in SOTW, but it's still interesting. They are spread out all over the midwest. Charleston, SC has a lot of history, and there are many Revolutionary War battle sites around SC and other parts of the east coast.