Betsy Ross House

Friday we decided to go for a day trip to Philadelphia. It was about a 1 1/2 drive and the day was beautiful. We saw the Liberty Bell, toured the Franklin Square where the kids got to see the ghost structure of Ben Franklin's house, we also took a small tour of an 1750's printing shop where a park ranger showed the kids how they used to make newspapers and pamphlets over 200 years ago . It was very interesting, the kids really liked being able to be in an authentic shop and seeing how things worked back then. We then went to the underground museum that had some of Franklin's inventions and personal effects. Then we sat in a nearly empty movie theater (most kids were in school) and saw a cartoon movie 'Ben and Me' in which a mouse is Ben's partner and is responsible for his inventions such as the Franklin stove and bifocal glasses among some others. It was really cute and informative.
We walked around looking at some of the older buildings in the city, the area we were in is called Old City and has some of the oldest building and historical site in the US.
After a trip to the gift shop where F bought a book of Philadelphia ghost stories we took a walk to the Betsy Ross house. This house is the actual house where she lived, which had her furniture and other memorabilia still there behind glass of course. We got to tour 3 floors of the over 250 year old house, learn about her life and her accomplishments, see how some of the items she used compare to what we have today. I liked the ancient toaster. J loved seeing the old style kitchen and the fire place where they used to cook the food. I bought a book on Betsy Ross and F will do a book report on her in the coming weeks.

It was so nice to be in the middle of history and have the kids be interested, be able to see and touch history not just read about it.

We spent about 5 hours there and were home by 7 30 pm...

Today the girls had dance class, F did some work on the computer, the past few days he has been working on long division and reading books. We are in the middle of The Swiss Family Robinson.