Sunday, July 05, 2009

Exploring our local area: Tocal Homestead


The Tocal property was one of the first land grants in the Paterson Valley in 1822 and has one of Australia's finest collections of colonial farm buildings dating from the 1820's. Tocal Homestead itself was built in 1841.

On Tuesday, about 50 homeschoolers attended a heritage day at the Homestead - and had a great time!

They split into small groups of about 8 kids each and got to try out lots of different "old-style" activities like:


washing the clothes the old-fashioned way!


playing games like horseshoes, elastics & tug-of-war,



carrying water with yoke & buckets


and dressing up!

(As you can see, Will & Billy were pretty inseparable for the day!)

They also got a tour through the house:


including the separate kitchen area -


Here is the guide showing us how to use the milk separator - notice the ice-box beside her!



And of course, the bath for the men - 5 men using the same water, every 2 weeks. I'd hate to be the last person :)

Some very exhausted but happy kids at the end of the day..

I'd like to go back when Billy is a bit older and do the house tour again - they have a self-guided audio tour you can do, but I think he'll get more out of it in a few years time.

2 comments:

Subadra said...

Hi,
This is my first time in your blog. It is a lovely blog. Your family sounds so delightful.
Lovely pics by the way; I like looking at the 'cooler' pics there while sitting in the hot CA weather hereedigam:)
Subadra
http://bookslinksandmore.blogspot.com/

Tracy said...

looks like you had a great time! great pictures