Studying our State

We have been taking a class for homeschoolers once a month this year through the New Hampshire Historical Society. One highlight so far was when the whole class went on a tour of the New Hampshire State House.

It's an impressive building, with a golden dome we've always glimpsed from I-93, and a golden eagle on top.

Right after entering we were in the Hall of Flags, with dozens of flags in glass cases around the room from various battles as far back as the Civil War, many of them in tatters and with bullet holes in them. For my battle-fascinated boy, this was a highlight.

Nearby was a wall plastered with bumper stickers and campaign buttons signed by presidential candidates. We saw the business-like Secretary of State's Office, where all presidential candidates go to file to be on the primary ballot. We get pretty excited about our early voting around here, so these spots were cool to see.

Secretary of State's office at the end of the hall

We got to sit in the 400-seat chamber of the House of Representatives (NH has the largest number of representatives of any state). Representatives get paid so little, they are essentially volunteers, and the one who hosted our group in the chamber was very excited about his job and the lively debates they have there. He said that representatives usually try to host groups from their own district when they come for a tour; when he heard we were a bunch of homeschoolers (from all over the state), he wanted to host us because he was homeschooled himself. He spoke warmly about the opportunities that homeschooling provides. W got to see the little voting buttons that go with each seat so that members can vote electronically. "What will happen if I touch this right now?"

We also went into the much fancier and smaller Senate chamber. Each kid got to sit in someone's labeled spot, and W was in the place of the "Sergeant at Arms," who sits at the front of the room facing the rest, in charge of keeping order and of who comes and goes. There were giant historic paintings of Daniel Webster as a child and of the first Dartmouth College graduation in this room. We also learned we can watch the New Hampshire Senate in session here. (We tuned in just last week and watched senators debating a proposed requirement to teach about climate change in elementary and secondary schools! It was so cool that we happened upon something so relevant to a kid. We had a great chat about it, analyzing the senators' arguments, and their debate styles.)

We visited the Governor's Reception Room and each kid got to sit in the Governor's chair at the head of the table in a meeting room.

Governor for a minute

There were a couple of fossils we got to see in some of the marble floors in the hallways. And W's favorite thing perhaps was some dioramas in an alcove off the gift shop that showed scenes from some regional historic battles.

The Capitol tour was great, but we've enjoyed our monthly Historical Society class in other ways, too. It's the only type of official group learning we've done this year. I haven't participated in other homeschool co-op classes, partly because there are not a lot of options where we live, but mostly because I was excited to get to teach my son this year and felt qualified. But I was happy to lean on others a bit for the required topic of our state history/culture/resources/economy/politics/geography, and I have been learning myself!

Here are some other things we've liked about the class:

Collective Learning
The class gives him the chance to be in a classroom of sorts. It's interesting for me to stop being the teacher on these afternoons and to step back and observe how he does. The staff who run the program really love their state and are full of stories. W hangs on every word of a good story, learns through stories, and he remembers stories. Whether it's the story of Darby Phelps, the first European to climb Mount Washington (a not terribly respectful thing to do at the time, as he was intent on disproving the native belief that it was a holy place), or the fact that tannic acid from tree bark was used to tan hides in the days of the Abenakis, he remembers all the interesting details.

One thing I think W likes about the class is the chance to revisit the familiar old feeling of learning with peers, as he raises his hand to answer lots of questions or tries to win at a game. He often ends up helping another student who is younger or who doesn't know as much about history as he does. In these ways the class is usually a bit of an ego boost for him, and is different from learning at home when he only has himself and his goals to compare himself to.

It has been nice to see W gradually come to feel a part of the peer group in the class, the only time he sees a group of homeschoolers en masse. I observed W in a cluster of boys around his age for several minutes the last time we were there, laughing and talking and pointing things out around the room as they put their heads together to try to figure out the activity they were immersed in.

Laughing in the middle of a cluster of homeschool peers

Big Memorable Activities
There have been a couple of awesome activities the instructors clearly devoted a lot of preparation and materials to, things I could not have done at home, that I think will stick with W for a long time.

One activity followed a lesson about New Hampshire and the Industrial Revolution and it had stations kids rotated through for different types of production: craftsmanship, piecework, and assembly line. There were props to represent chocolate truffle production: glass blobs for nougat, clay for chocolate, little foil wrappers that had to be cut, ribbons to be tied, labels to be adhered. Kids had the same length of time at each station. As craftsmen, they individually created the whole product from start to finish and then started on the next. At the piecework station, each child had one specific job to do in the process. Sometimes they had to stand around waiting for the people in front of them to finish their jobs and sometimes they ended up with a backlog; meanwhile the "agent" was running around shouting orders and out of breath. At the final station they experienced assembly line work: each child had a job-- rolling, wrapping, putting on the sticker-- and the assembly line belt kept moving whether they were done or not (a loop of fabric around a long table that got pulled ahead every few seconds). They got a first-hand experience with the comparative speeds of production, the quality that resulted, and the pleasures and frustrations for individual workers doing each type of work.

On a different day, after learning about immigration to New Hampshire in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, kids went through an immigration simulation, as if they were immigrants having just arrived, not speaking the language, not understanding the directions, having to undergo multiple inspections and hold-ups, and having to figure it out as they went along. (We had recently read a couple of articles about Ellis Island and this magically brought those descriptions to life.) W was as engaged as he could possibly be.

Next month I am looking forward to seeing the kids play some geography games with a giant map of New Hampshire they can walk on.

Artifacts
It's neat to be at the Historical Society because often after giving us some background information about the topic for the month and showing some images and passing around a few novelties, the instructors lead our whole troop upstairs to the museum gallery to see relevant artifacts. We've been intrigued by a drum found on the Bennington Battlefield, a 500-year-old dugout Abenaki canoe found in the bottom of a lake, several powder horns that predate the Declaration of Independence, many campaign signs and memorabilia, a Revolutionary War flag showing interlocking rings of the thirteen colonies. Even looking at online images at home would not have been the same as seeing, and in some cases touching, these objects in person.

Flexible Learning Environment
This class is very comfortable and homeschool-friendly. It's run by a long-time homeschool parent. Kids can sit on the floor or at a table for the presentations, whatever they want. Some parents drop off and some stay and participate. Some kids have/need parent help and participation with the activities, some don't. Some siblings seem to need to stick together when the kids count off to split into small groups, so the instructors just adjust the counting accordingly to allow this. The class is not ideal for my preschooler but one month we didn't have another option and she joined us. The class is for a certain age range but much younger kids are welcome. One toddler attends every session and plays with blocks with his mother in the corner and it's not too distracting. We leave with lots of optional resources each time. There's no formal assessments; it's up to each parent to take the content from each class and do with it what they will.

A Little Culture
Just driving to Concord, our state capital, feels like the big city to my son, so going there is a little cultural experience in itself. Sometimes we've taken the opportunity to visit an interesting place nearby before the class, like an art museum, a good lunch spot, or the time we checked out the NH Audubon Society. We've gotten familiar with the statues and monuments on the grounds of the State House, as we generally park on one side of it and walk past it to the also fancy Historical Society building. W likes to walk by the Governor's two marked parking spaces every time in hopes we will spot him or his security detail one of these days. It's only a little over an hour away but every month he says things like, "Gosh I can't imagine living in the city....you wouldn't have a yard, and there's so much traffic, and it's so much warmer, there's no snow...." I point out to him that there is plenty of Concord that isn't like the few blocks downtown that we visit, and that Concord is pretty small by city standards. But it's fun to get to know a polished little section of the closest city to us-- the best place we've found to park, the burrito place we've found to pick up an easy take-out dinner, the other large and imposing buildings, including the post office, courthouse, and New Hampshire State Library (the source of so many of our audio books).

Historical Society

New Hampshire State Library

A display of New Hampshire state symbols. I learned one of these last summer, when I asked our neighbor if he would cut down some overgrown, badly located lilacs for us...he really didn't approve of this idea, telling me, "well, they're the New Hampshire state flower!" (And they're still standing.)