Fort Ligonier

I love the "If you give a mouse a cookie" book series, and although those books are humorous, there is definitely some truth to the fact that one thing often leads to another. I was thinking of this on Wednesday when the five of us were at Fort Ligonier. We drove by the fort last summer when we were visiting Idlewild (amusement park). I thought it looked like a place we should visit sometime, and so I got on their mailing list to be informed of special events. I contemplated two different homeschool days that both took place on April 18 - one at Valley Forge battlefield and the other at Fort Ligonier. I let Paul pick, and he chose the fort in part because it was mentioned when we were at the Conrad Weiser homestead in March. While we were at the fort on Wednesday, I learned about Fort Frederick in Maryland, which was a fort used in three different wars (French and Indian, Revolutionary, and Civil). I went on their website and have printed out a registration form to sign Nadia and Ian up for a 5 hour program on June 16. We had already planned to be in Maryland June 13-15, so I've just decided to delay our departure home by one day and come home on June 16 after this program. It says "they will experience the life of a soldier stationed at Fort Frederick during the French and Indian War. Activities will include enlisting, a military drill, a soldier’s meal and more." It's for children ages 8-12 so Oliver isn't old enough to participate. Now we shall see if our trip there leads me to learn of other places to visit!

We had a three hour drive to Fort Ligonier. That's about my limit as far as how far I will travel if we are coming back on the same day. In fact, I greatly prefer to spend at least one night if we're traveling that far. The drive felt familiar to me as much of the route was the same as what I took every weekend when I was working on my doctorate at IUP. The kids each ate a bagel in the van for their breakfast, and we ate our packed lunches at the fort. We stopped at a drive-thru at Wendy's for dinner on our way home. Evidently they have two Home School Day events each year (fall/spring) and each one has a theme. One they had recently was all about George Washington. The one this week was focused on Native Americans. They had seven different activity stations that lasted 30 minutes each, and if you ate your lunch quickly, you could do six of the seven stations.

We started at "Meet the Cherokee Peace Chief." A man was dressed up as Attakullakulla who met King George II in London and led the largest tribe in North America for decades. He was at Fort Ligonier in 1758. Next we visited "Native Americans at Play" which was one of the favorites for our kids as they got to play some games outside. Our third session was about food and tools. The kids helped grind corn into corn meal, and we also had a little tour of the hospital ward. Next we had a guided tour of the museum, which was Paul's favorite part. Later in the day we went back and explored the museum some more. Paul was impressed that the collection included two of George Washington's pistols. The kids favorite part of the museum were the costumes they could try on. Our fifth session was a craft - the kids each made a necklace. Our last session was a reader's theater. That was one of Ian's favorite parts of the day. He did a great job of using different voices as he took on multiple roles. The reading focused on what happened to those taken as captives by the Native Americans. I'm thinking that at some point Ian might be involved in some theater camps or productions like Nadia! Paul was impressed by the fort and museum. He said when he was a child he would have really loved learning about the history of a place like that. None of our kids are (thus far) as interested in history as he was a child. We shall see if any of them develop that passion at some point. Thus far none of them share his desire to read all the displays in a museum.

We got home about 30 minutes before it was time to leave for AWANA. Paul used the time to finish putting the wheels on their cars. I checked my email and responded to some from student teachers. The kids' choir at church had added four Wednesday night rehearsals just for those with speaking parts. I told the director it conflicted with AWANA and they'd only be able to come to one of the four rehearsals, but then on Wednesday night I took the kids to AWANA and asked if someone could listen to Ian and Nadia say their verses so I could take them to church for the rehearsal. That is what happened. Ian and Oliver's cars were the correct weight. Nadia's was a tiny bit too heavy. Ian finished his extra credit book (woohoo!) and Nadia finished her book (yay!). Oliver stayed at AWANA for the duration, but I took Nadia and Ian with me to church. I was very late for my choir rehearsal, but it seemed like a good compromise.

Almost everything in the summer schedule is focused on the kids. I decided today to add in a few ballroom dancing dates with Paul. When I went back to work I thought this was one of the advantages was that we could afford to pay a babysitter and go on a date, but then due to lack of time and/or energy, it hasn't happened except for our trip to Lancaster to see Amazing Grace on March 4. I am not working this summer so I shouldn't lack the time or energy. My goal is that we will start going out on a date once a month. I figure it's better to aim high so that maybe we'll at least end up going out six times a year. I know of at least five places that are each 20-25 minutes from our house that hold a ballroom dancing event once a month. I put five dances in our calendar between May 10 through September 1, which if we do all of those would mean we would have tried four of the five places. I figure we can try them to figure out which ones we like the best. Some of them are at restaurants so we could also have dinner together those nights. Considering we met at a ballroom dancing lesson 21 years ago, it seems that we should still do that every now and then. I certainly could use the exercise!