On December 9th, I drove Finn and a couple of his classmates to their field trip at History San Jose, where we all learned a bit about what life was like in the Silicon Valley in the 1800s. We started off with the household chores each family would do daily. Collecting water from the well:
Washing clothes:
Milking the cows:
Cleaning rugs:
They also practiced ironing, baking, churning butter and a long process of buttoning shoes.
The children of the time did get to have some fun — with these hoops in the yard.
We also visited the school house and learned how much more formal classrooms used to be.
The kids were told they had to stand up and bow or curtsy before speaking, and that most kids walked up to five miles to get to school each day.
After our tour, the kids got a chance to run around a bit before we headed back to school. Here’s the whole crazy lot of second graders.