Julia Travels to 1850

Julia's class had a field trip today, travelling back in time to spend a school day at the Little Red Schoolhouse, est. 1842.

Could this field trip have possibly been more up Julia's alley?:

As you can see, the children had to dress in period garb.  Julia wore a costume that I had bought her, a few months ago, for general dress-up whenever she plays "colonial school," as well as for a possible future Halloween costume, and, of course, this day's field trip.  Julia, however, was panicked that we were breaking the rules.

JULIA: (handing me the information sheet about the field trip) But MOMMY!  It says "Please do not spend any MONEY on your child's outfit."  And we BOUGHT it!

I assured her that having bought it prior to the field trip, to be used for multiple dress-up events, we were in the clear.

Not only did the kids in Julia's class dress up, but they were all assigned the role of a historical person from the 1850's.  Julia was Mary McCracken, an 11-year-old student at the schoolhouse.  Throughout the school day, students were addressed by their character's name, and all had to follow the rules of the 1850 schoolhouse.  This included lining up by gender and age, curtseying or bowing to the teacher upon entering the schoolhouse, not speaking unless being spoken to, and sitting with elbows off the desk and hands in the lap unless work/writing was being done. 

The children participated in activities that would have been practised in the 1850's schoolroom, including lessons in elocution, the memorization and recitation of poetry, writing in cursive with their ink pen in a copy book, solving arithmetic problems on a slate with chalk, and competing in a spelling bee.  In other words, it was a Julia-the-history-lover dream come true.

Elocution lessons.  Here, the children are learning which parts of a sentence are important to enunciate and emphasize.

Copying the cursive alphabet with a pen and inkwell.  Oh, how long Julia has been dying to do this.  All the days at our house of a feather dipped in paint pale in comparison to the real deal.

Julia reciting her poem from memory.  She put her super-keen memory powers to use and made it through verse after verse without a stumble.

Receiving their arithmetic slates, awaiting the chalk.

 

Playing ring-around-the-rosy at recess.

While at recess, Julia confessed what was on her mind.

JULIA: Mommy?  I've been pretending I'm Laura Ingalls Wilder!

Good idea.  Why only pretend to be Mary McCracken, when you can pretend to be a SECOND historical figure on top of the one you're already in character for?

After the field trip ended, Julia was wistful.  "Mommy?  I wish I *lived* in the 1850's," she told me nostalgically.  I get it.  I mean, never mind the Civil War, the dysentery, and the suppression of women and minorities.  That's more than a fair trade to get the inkwells and bonnets, right??