Philip Foster Farm

This month we were thrilled to go on a homeschool field trip at Philip Foster Farm.  Hannah and I are reading Laura Ingall's Wilder's seventh Little House book.  This farm brought Laura's world to life for us.  As we were waiting for our adventures to start, our toes began to freeze.  They stayed that way through the field trip, as there was little heating in any of the buildings.  They were authentically cold. We sang jingle bells while pointing out the one horse open sleigh in the barn.  A blacksmith hardened steel the children had twisted, created a square-headed nail, and showed us around his shop.  The kids hopped onto a 1914 wagon, used a cross-cut saw, read stories upstairs in the cold bedroom, gnawed on hard gingerbread cookies, and looked through tools.  One challenge of the day was the shortage of volunteers and a lack of acknowledging children's wishes to sing Jingle Bells with the old time piano.  And it was so cold, but that added to our experience.  We really enjoyed how Philip Foster Farm brought Laura's adventures to life outside the beloved books.  (After our visit, I checked out all the Little House extension books I could find.  So far my favorite is The Wilder Life by Wendy McClure.)  We look forward to attending an open-to-everyone event at the farm in the near future.

Hannah cross-cutting in my childhood prairie dress and her own Mickey Mouse jacket

1914 wagon and a little covered wagon in the background