Cracker Country Tour - Visiting the Olden Days

Recently, friends of ours invited us to join them at Cracker Country.

Their eldest son, who is now in second grade, had gone there as a kindergarten student on a field trip and loved it so much that he had been begging to go back, but this time, wanted to not only go with his whole family, but also wanted to invite his friends, Big Bro and Little Bro, as he knew that they would love it too...

Cracker Country is Florida's only outdoor living history museum. Through live demonstrations and interactive exhibits, children and their families get to learn about Florida's rural past, dating from 1870-1912.

This bit is from their website:
“Crackers” derive their name from the rugged 19th century pioneers who developed the territory now known as Florida. Cattle roamed free in the Florida woodlands and had to be rounded up before being sold and shipped up north and to Cuba. Lariats didn’t work in the thick underbrush so cow hunters used cow whips to round them up. The whips were not used to strike the cattle but were actually popped or “cracked,” resulting in a sound similar to a rifle shot. The loud crack would get the cattle moving and could be heard over very long distances. When early settlers heard the sound they would say, “Here come the Crackers.” The name has stuck and the term “Florida Cracker” is still used today to describe native born Floridians.

We had a great time at Cracker Country! 

We toured all of the buildings, checked out all of the interactive exhibits, and in general, we "had a blast learning about Florida's past"...

What struck me as odd was that even though this was all about Florida's rural past, I could not help but being taken back to my days as a child visiting Delhurst Country Store and Old Fort Eriez Outdoor Exhibits in North East, Pennsylvania.


When I was a child, we used to head to Niagara Falls on little weekend day trips with my family. Part of the fun of going to Niagara Falls was the stopover at Delhurst Country Inn. They sold penny candy, miniature glass animals (my sister and I both collected these), along with a variety of other items. My dad used to stop there either on the way to or else on the way home from Niagara Falls. I enjoyed going there almost as much as I did seeing the actual falls. 
They always had big, fluffy cats hanging out on the porch of the store and then, right in the store.
there were old fashioned items to see and buy everywhere. Just an awesome place to visit as a child...
Cracker Country's General Store and Gift Shop were both very similar to the general store at Delhurst Country Inn, so it really brought fond memories back of my childhood...
Big Bro and Little Bro decided to try some rock candy. They also got some replicas of money from back in the time of the Civil War. The store had replicas of both Confederate money and Union money, so we got some of each. We have not covered the Civil War in our studies, but the boys found the money to be neat to see and to compare...

Seeing the different exhibits set up at Cracker Country (church, school house, home, place to wash laundry,  place to make rope,  train station, etc.) seemed so reminiscent of what we used to see when I was a child and we would go on school trips to a place that I believe was called  Old Fort Eriez. 
Not to be confused with Fort Erie up in Ontario, this Old Fort Eriez place was somewhere near North East as well. It was set on an actual farm, made by the owners for children to visit on field trips. It featured a display of child sized outdoor exhibits that included various buildings with interactive materials in each building. Getting to experience something hands on like Cracker Country was as fun for me as an adult as it was to do this same sort of experience in Pennsylvania as a child...so glad that our neighbors asked us to go, as we all enjoyed our day.

All of the children in our group loved the various exhibits, especially learning about how they laundered and ironed their clothes, how they made homemade soap, candles, rope, and toys...

Having an old fashioned wash board and tub or making homemade soap or candles are all things that you could bring into a Montessori setting for a child to try. Doing simple woodworking to make simple wooden toys would also be a possibility in a Montessori setting...
If there would be a way to get a hold of the tool they used to help make rope, it would be an awesome Montessori inspired work for practical life. 
So neat how the took twine made from plant pulp and then twisted the twine into rope. 
Seeing how the community had to work together to help get tasks done, such as making rope, was really interesting. 
Getting to play with the very simple toys from rural Florida was a fun experience, too.

There were volunteers who really helped to make this place come alive, as they told a bit about the history as well as the actual construction of things, such as when they showed the children how to use the toys and tools from back in the day. Both Big Bro, Little Bro, and the three neighbor friends we met up with at Cracker Country all seemed to really enjoy learning about the toys and handmade household products from the late 19th  /  early 20th century. 


Well, here are some photos from our fun at Cracker Country...

Big Bro and Little Bro sitting in the desks in the one room schoolhouse...

Big Bro showing Little Bro how to play with a Jacob's Ladder toy...

Big Bro and Little Bro watching the twine being made into rope...the twine was made from plant pulp...three pieces of twine were twirled into one to make rope.

Spools of thread and old fashioned boots from the general store...the spools of thread looked similar to the Color Tablets # 3 box, so Little Bro found that to be kind of interesting...

Playing checkers with pieces made from corn husks.

McGuffey Readers, slates, chalk, and yo-yos on sale at the general store...

George Washington Brand item from the general store...

Big  Bro playing with one of the toys at Cracker Country...

Display inside the train station...

Train display that was set up to resemble how rural Florida would have looked back in the day...

Big Bro checking out a handmade toy...

A Photo Recap: A Few Very Busy Weeks

Making Memories Monday:
Some of our recent memory makers...and having fun while at play...

We have been super busy here lately, celebrating Big Bro's 7th birthday, trying to implement an awesome new hands-on math program that ties in beautifully with Montessori Math***, and visiting all kinds of fun places...Hilton Head, Epcot,  Downtown Disney, and the new Glazer Children's Museum, to name a few...plus, we have been working on some home projects that have kept us extraordinarily busy, too...hopefully, some neat memories in the making! Noy yo worry, though...took plenty of time to play and to enjoy the outdoors, too.

***I am going to do a more extensive post about integrating Montessori and Hands-On Standards in the future, but want to get more into it so that we can give you a better idea of how the integration really works. So far, we just love it!

Have not been blogging that much, but here is a photo tour of some of what we have been doing:

We Play: in trees...Big Bro and Little Bro hanging out in a tree in Hilton Head

We Play: in fountains...Little Bro enjoying the new Coligny Fountain in Hilton Head

We Play: in the sand. Beach fun in Hilton Head

We Play: at the playground...Big Bro enjoying spending time at the playground in Harbour Town

Little Bro climbing at the Harbour Town Playground

Little Bro riding the motorcycle toy at the Harbour Town Playground

We Play: in a tree house...Loving the tree house area at the Harbour Town  Playground

We Play: in the hotel...Little Bro enjoying jumping from pirate ship bed to pirate ship bed at Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort

Big Bro and Little Bro having fun in our pirate themed room at Disney...

We Play: in the water...Ahoy, Matey! Big Bro is having such fun!

Little Bro going head first down a slide.

We Play: at Disney's Epcot...Epcot China exhibit

Electronic shuffleboard type of game at one of the exhibits at Epcot

We Play...and pretend to drive...Little Bro driving and Big Bro giving some pointers to Little Bro

We Play: in the stores...Having fun, Viking style! Gotta love Epcot!!!

What a birthday celebration! Thanks to the Grands for bringing us this cute cake!
Happy birthday, Big Bro!

Birthday balloon swords!

We play: with props...Big Bro checking out x-rays at the Glazer Children's Museum

We Play: to be like our community heroes...Little Bro digging being a firefighter

Big Bro hanging out by the fire hydrant

The boys having a ball at this exhibit...definitely one of their favorites...

We Play: and help out, too...Helping the pets at the Glazer Children's Museum

 Figuring out sets using Montessori and Hands-On Standards materials...yes, math can be fun!

We Play: to help turn on to math...Happy Big Bro, who loves using Hands-on Standards in conjunction with Montessori for math...

We Play: with blocks for math...Little Bro practicing ordinal counting...first through fifth...

Big Bro and Dear Daddy...when Big Bro was newborn...seems like it was just yesterday that Big Bro was this tiny!

We Play: with Daddy...Big Bro and Dear Daddy having fun working together to build one of Big Bro's birthday presents.
Happy 7th birthday Dear Big Bro! We love you so much!

This post is linked up at Childhood 101 with the We Play Link ups.
Be sure to pop over and see all of the posts about play and children. Always feel inspired when I read all of the neat things others are doing with their children to encourage play and learning...



This post is linked over at Adventures in McQuill-land as part of her Making Memories Monday link ups.  Thanks to Jennifer for always having a  place to link up family memories. It makes me reflect on the fact that even when life is very busy / bordering on frenetic, to take time to savor the small and large moments in life with your family.
Thanks, Jen, for the reminder. Please be sure to read Jennifer's post and all of the link-ups over on her blog.

Our "Friday" Field Trip, on Wednesday!

Usually, we do field trips with some of our co-op friends every Friday...but this Friday, we have company coming in town, so we took our Friday field trip on Wednesday. It ended up being a fabulous field trip, as there were very few people at the zoo. The volunteers had prepared a really nice show for a whole group of people but there were just two or three families, so we all got a chance to be very up close and personal with the animals. Both Big Bro and Little Bro got to hold a Red Rat Snake, which is also known as a Corn Snake. Big Bro and Little Bro also got to touch a Gopher Tortoise, as well as a variety of other things such as turtle shells and snake skins.