Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Tudor Place

Today we took a field trip to the historic Tudor Place in D.C.  This was the home of Martha Washington's (George Washington's wife) granddaughter.  It was fascinating to tour this house & garden! I could have spent HOURS in each room of this house.  My friend and I joked about how cool it would be to sneak in and spend the night in this place. 



I felt like I was stepping into a Jane Austen novel as I roamed from room to room. From the servants bells lined along a wall, to the copy of one of the few letters remaining that George Washington wrote to Martha, to the antique books stocked on the bookshelves, to the china on the tables, to the drawing room, to the old dresses hanging in a closet, along with shoes and hat boxes lining the shelves.  Oh my, I could go on and on!  I was only disappointed that the guide had to continually usher us along to the next room.  We were the stragglers of the group!  I only had the chance to snap just a few pictures inside before I was asked not to take pictures.



The homeschool class we signed up for was Greek and Roman History. The kids were given 2 clues each and were to find these clues throughout the tour of the home.  We talked about Pompeii and the artifacts found there by archealogists.  We discussed how much of the art of early america, including architecture, originated from ancient Greek and Roman art. We also learned about gilding, which is applying thin gold leaf to surfaces like wood, stone, metal, etc. The kids even got to create their own work of art while learning to gild. 


 
This is a 200 year old tree



Jared, before he was nicely asked to get out of the "historic tree".  (Whoops!)

The kids were just as interested in viewing this home & garden as I was.  I will look forward to going back- and maybe next time I will do the self guided tour so I can take my time!

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