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We like to explore local, state, and national parks, but we also like to explore historic landmarks. Sometimes these are national historical monuments, national military parks, or are privately owned- we’re not too picky. We live in Virginia, which is home to many historic landmarks, some dating back to the earliest white settlers, and we’ve had the opportunity to visit a good number of them.
Last fall we went to Montpelier, James Madison’s home near Orange, with one of the homeschool groups we belong to. We’ve been to Montpelier a time or two before, but it had been a few years since our last visit.
While Sunshine toured the house with the other older kids in our homeschool group, Jeremy and I accompanied the boys on a tour of the house aimed at younger kids. Our guide did a good job of simplifying things and keeping the kiddos in our group engaged. Touring old houses and seeing how people lived many years ago is so fascinating, and we highly recommend it if you haven’t had the chance.
You do pay a fee for the house tours (the same is true at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home), but you can explore the grounds for free. This includes archeological dig sites, miles of trails through the old growth forest and surrounding farm fields, and the Annie duPont Formal Garden.
There are several sites near the house that are currently being excavated, and they have an archeology office with artifacts that have been found on the property on display there. They even have a “sand box” on the porch of the office where kids can dig for pottery shards, iron pieces, bone fragments, and so on. The boys enjoyed finding things (and then hiding them and finding them again) while Sunshine and Jeremy went inside for a presentation on items that have been found on the estate.
Last time we visited we hiked through the old growth forest, but since then they’ve marked and opened up a number of hiking trails that intersect the grounds and the forests, greatly increasing the total mileage of hiking trails available. We’ve added Montpelier to our list of places to explore during our weekly hikes.
The Annie duPont Formal Garden is a walled garden with a wide variety of plants that were brought in from all over and planted about a hundred years ago. We participated in a scavenger hunt, looking for various architectural highlights of the garden, but it’s also fun just to wander around and look at the plants and sculptures.
What’s your favorite historic site to visit?
