Frontier Days at Historic Washington State Park

The weather was supposed to be really nice Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, so I was trying to think of something fun that we could go do outside.  After being under the weather the last few weeks, we needed an outing in the fresh air.  Wednesday I discovered that Historic Washington State Park had scheduled Frontier Days For Homeschoolers on Friday, so I decided that would be a perfect activity for us!

They do Frontier Days twice a year in October and February.  We had been once before in October of 2012 but had not made it back since then.  My girls did not remember it at all since they were so little and my younger boys only remembered a little bit.  Since my younger children are studying American History and we are learning about the frontier and pioneers, it was perfect timing.

I bought the family pass which allows us to go to any of the activities for a year.  The pass was only a few dollars more than it would cost us to get in for one day, so hopefully we will make it back for Frontier Days in the fall, or Civil War days, or another activity.

We spent about 3 1/2 hours at the park, and still did not see and do everything.  We had a great time!

We started out at the candle shop because that is where you sign up for the surrey rides.  The list can get long (last time we were there we did not sign up early and had to wait all day!.)  Going there first made a big difference because we only had to wait around 20 minutes for our turn.  That was just enough time for us to wait in line and made candles to take home.

Then we took our surrey ride.  The children loved this!

Next we headed to the Royston Log Home.  Here we made rag dolls to take home.  So cute!

And saw a hearth cooking demonstration.

We saw the Traveler's Camp.

After that we went to the Block House.

And did some finger weaving.

Next up was the Blacksmith Shop.

Then we took a lunch break.

Next we went into the weapon museum.

And the print shop.  The children could make their own print to take home.

We headed over to the Sanders Farmstead and ground some corn to feed to the chickens, checked out the farmstead kitchen, learned about soap, and got a sample to take home with us.

The last house we went in was the Crouch house.  Here they have half of the house restored and half what it looked like before restoration.  Here the children had an opportunity to draw their own pioneer home.

We finished up with a tour of the visitor's center, upstairs courthouse, and gift shop.  It was a great day!