125th Anniversary of Pone de Leon Inlet Lighthouse

On November 1st we invoked on a journey to Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse for "Homeschool Day". 

Prior to arriving I really didn't know what the Homeschool Day would entail.  I couldn't find an itinerary on their website but i did find another website discussing the field trip that said the event involved a lot of workshops for the 10 and older crowd.  Well, since my crew is all under 10, and not of the inclination to sit for hours in chairs during a workshop, I almost backed out upon reading.  However, in the end, I decided that if all we did was tour the grounds and climb the lighthouse the boys would call it a success.

Ponce Inlet is a good 90 minute drive from our house.  I'd like to say I got up the courage to venture out with all four kids that far by myself, but alas I did not, I invited Christina to join us, so glad I did.

When we arrived our packet was waiting for us and Mary walked us to our first activity; "Guess What This is?".  It was a table set up with a variety of useful things from the past that the boys had to guess their use.  The boys really enjoyed this process and the lady attending the table was a incredibly knowledgeable and entertaining.  The activity took place inside one of the permanent exhibits at the lighthouse museum.  I was thrilled to see the exhibit was very baby proof and full of interesting stories about the people who at one time had called the lighthouse their home.  After the activity I took a few minutes to read some of the stories posted around the old house that our guide had suggested reading.

We then proceeded to the other museum house where they had a number of very interesting and informative hands-on exhibits explaining how the shape of the lighthouse glass bent the light just right, how they used a bag/bucket system to rescue people wrecked at see, among other interested exhibits.

Our next workshop was a hands on exercise to teach the children about channel markers and how to calculate a knot. What a hoot!   Lance was the Boatsmans (I think :-), he counted the knots on the rope.  Jared helped carry the rope and Titus was in charge of turning the timer and calling "Mark!".  The kids managed to run 10 knots per hour.  On the way back through the channel to "port" Titus crawled in to help with the boat, which was rather funny since you couldn't see his head above the side.  The couple in charge of this workshop made it not only informative but very entertaining.  I'm sure the boys will never forget how to calculate a knot.  Great tie in to some of the stories of Columbus we read last year.

The final workshop before we took our lunch break was on latitude and longitude; specifically how to use The Mariner's Quadrant to determine your latitude.  This tied in nicely to awesome video we watched last year called "Lost at Sea: The Search for Longitude"; about how John Harrision who found a way to calculate longitude in 18th Century.

After this workshop everyone was ready for a break, so we went out to the picnic tables for a quick snack and then returned for the second half of our day.

First thing boys wanted to do was climb the lighthouse.  Christina was kind enough to offer to carry Amber, which worked out well since the mighty one was fearless on the way up but not so much on the way down.  We had quite a view from the top.

At the top we learned about how a Crystal Radio worked and realized we were at the lighthouse on the exact day of the 125th Anniversary of the original lighting of the lighthouse.  To commemorate the day the last child (now a beautiful woman) to be born at the lighthouse was there to answer questions about what life had been like living at the lighthouse.  I wish we'd had time to just sit, talk and listen to her but sitting still is not one of Amber or Titus' greatest skills yet.  The fact that there was plenty of room for these two to just run around at the outdoor workshops is one of the things that made this day a huge success and enjoyable for everyone.

The final workshop we attended was "Wig Wag Flag Communication", it was lead by an extremely knowledgeable and entertaining gentlemen (both to the kids and the parents).  Again after some back ground it turned into another fun hands on activity of deciphering and then sending their own messages.

During the workshop Titus was getting tired so Christina took him on the nature walk, after which we decided it was time to go home.  Amber was ready for an afternoon nap and everyone was tired after a very educational and entertaining day. All in all it was great day and the staff of volunteers both friendly and informative.  There were still a few things to do but I'll be sure to put it on our calendar again for next year and we'll do them then.  There are other interesting activities at the lighthouse throughout the year so maybe we'll bring Daddy and go back before.

On an aside; when we got home Amber had a belated B-Day gift, her first tutu...

  She was thrilled and pranced around in till Daddy go home.