Ancient Hearth: Riley's Apple Farm Field Trip

Welcome to my Ancient Hearth

A hearth is the heart of the home. It is where we come to gather, especially at the end of the day. We draw about the fire to warm ourselves; we take in the smells of the cooking, nourishing our bodies; we come to tell stories of our day, nourishing our spirits. Yearning for the wisdom of the past, I hope those who come to this blog will feel the warmth of the hearth.

I am homeschooling my Grade 5 twin girls using Waldorf inspired education and that is the primary focus of this blog.

I have spent quite a bit of time documenting our Grade 1 year, which can be found through the links below. Grade 2 is sparse and for that, I apologize. Grade 3 is even more sparse as life keeps us more and more pressed for time. Nonetheless, I have decided to leave this blog up because I know how much I have relied on other blogs to enhance my children's lives and even if I don't have time to put as much content up as I did when my twins were younger, I hope the efforts I have put out in prior years will help inspire other families who have embarked on their own unique journeys.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Riley's Apple Farm Field Trip

In late September, we attended a field trip at Riley's Apple Farm in Yucaipa, CA. We went with a local homeschooling group and had a blast participating in pioneer day life.

When we arrived, we were greeted with music by the Riley family and our children were invited to play along.

We then were divided into groups and began by learning how to start a fire using twine and flint.

While they were busy preparing lunch for all of us pioneers, we were allowed an hour to explore the various stations and participate in pioneer chores. There was apple coring/peeling/slicing/drying...

There was laundering - washing and hanging on the line...and gardening...

There was log sawing...and corn grinding...

There was even log cabin building by stacking pre - cut logs to form the house...while lunch was cooking,

The girls practiced their quill pen and ink writing...& made a corn husk doll...

After a lovely lunch, we headed over to the apple cider press section where the kids lined up in a row, chose apples and dropped them into the press which was hand cranked by a homeschooling pappa...