More to homeschooling then textbooks & pencils... Field Trip Time!!!

After going on a wonderful field trip to the Railway Museum here locally I was reminded of how much more there is to homeschooling than textbooks and pencils. I live in a small city in Southwestern Ontario and it also happens to be the railway capital of Canada. We have a wonderful Railway Museum that we were delighted to tour today. So...

as we tour my local Railway Museum. The Museum arranged for us to have a Railway Adventure Day. It included making our engineers hat and going on an adventure through the museum where we earned stickers at the various stops along the way for answering questions about the information we heard. The kids were all asked to try the Telegraphy and type out their initials in morse code to earn their "telegrapher" badge.

We visited the Agents' office and got to see how it was set up in St Thomas back in 1913. There were 30 different railways running through St Thomas back then. We were told the museum was also used to fix trains and repair cars.

One of my kids recognized a telephone on the desk. It was very clumsy and large but she still noticed it was a telephone. Also in the back of the office there was a typewriter that one of the children thought looked like a printer. Time sure has changed when the children don't recognize a typewriter.

We were able to see how messages were delivered to the train as it passed through different stations.

The children got stickers are each station they visited and added it to their engineers hat.

On to The Grand Trunk caboose to learn that two men would share this small caboose and they would have everything then needed in the caboose.

They had their own stove to cook on two bunks to sleep on and a table. Very little room if you ask me pictured to the right is the seat that they sit on  up high and well just too crowded for me. I do not like to be in small quarters like that. This Caboose was restored in 1924 and really it is hard to believe it is that old. It has been kept in really good shape.

The kids loved being on the caboose and learning so much about it. Even now that we are home they are playing trains for the rest of the day.

Engineer Mack told us how steam engine CN 5700 works and the kids counted how many drive wheels the engine has and how fast is goes. They were able to share this information with Mack to earn their "5700" badge.

One of the favourite places of the tour for the kids was the Model Railway area. The kids got to help control the model trains around the track and one certain boy a brought was just in heaven with all the trains. He is pictured to the left controling them as they go around the tracks.

All in all we had a wonderful time at the Railway Museum and I highly recommend it as a place to take a tour of. Definitely a hidden gem in the city of St. Thomas.