Leonard's Mills

What a great day today! A few months ago one a local homeschooling mom volunteered to set up a Homeschoolers Day at a neat living history museum called Leonard's Mills. We've been looking forward to going for months although I was dreading the two hour drive.


A local friend & I borrowed another friend's minivan so that we could ride together. When we got there we met up with my sister & another friend. We had a great time walking around together. (A couple of the kids are cut from the photos as their parents don't want them on the 'net.)


After we entered the "museum" we headed through the covered bridge. They had an entire area set up games that were used back in the 1800's. A big hit was the Tug 'O War rope. It was great to watch. It started with these three on one end & one little boy we came with on the other end all alone. It was so fun to watch as other kids jumped on the rope - they always jumped on to the side that was loosing. Sad to say, this group above did end up loosing but only because three parents jumped on the other side. I was getting ready to jump on to this side but I had to take the photo & then it was all over. The kids had a great time - as you can see by the faces above.


This young girl came over to invite the kids to play another game. I thought she was saying "Stocking the Drum" until she started explaining the game. It made so much more sense when I realized it was really "Stalking the Drum." oops! The point of the game was to hone your hunting skills. She would hit the drum & then move. Think Marco Polo in a pool. The other children had to find her but their eyes were closed. Unfortunately, one little boy with us hurt himself. He was doing great - he was actually crawling on the ground listening to her steps but crawled right in to the side of a brick fire pit. Ow! He recovered after a bit.


The next stop was stilts. How fun! Or I really should say - how hard! And yes, I did try them & no, I'm not sharing the photo. I literally could not stand on them. I just fell forward although with a bit of good photography, my sister got a shot of me that looks like I'm actually walking! N did a great job but I did have to help him some.


This very friendly lady was in a small house next to the blacksmith's shop weaving. The kids could jump up beside her & have a go at it. I thought my trailer was tiny until I was in this house. Talk about small! It did have a loft, but oh my - I think I would have been claustrophobic in the winter.

The boys tried out the bed....they assured me it was comfy. Although, J did not want to stay to take a nap.



The views along the walks were amazing. There were small footbridges to walk over & there was a great little stream flowing through the middle of it all. If you'd like to see another photo I took while there, click on this link to go to my photo blog.

We happened upon a really neat natural amphitheater that I'm sure is used during other days at the museum. The kids had a great time trying out the stage. There was also a HUGE hill behind it that the boys just had to climb & then RAN down it. Silly boys.

This was a great spot & may have been one of the favorites. There was a hand pump that the kids could try out. See the silly ones trying to drink? We left with a few kids a little bit more wet than when they had started.

The sawmill started up about mid-way through out day. How cool! It was run by this waterwheel. The kids were inside watching the saw but wanted to run out to watch the waterwheel go. I admit it was pretty cool.

We ended the day on the way out by stopping by a paper-making table. There was a very nice man there from the paper mill in Lincoln helping the kids make the paper. They even got to add in some glitter.

We had a picnic lunch & then the kids played a rousing game of freeze tag while the parents chatted. It was such a nice and relaxing day. The neat part - this was a day just with homeschoolers there. It was so fun to see a bunch of little girls show up in pinafores & bonnets. I even spotted one boy with a civil war cap & sword on. I loved it. We showed up with our matching homeschool shirts. ;-)