Harbor Defense Museum

On Monday, we went with the homeschool group to this little hidden treasure called the Harbor Defense Museum.  It's a nice collection of actual (and models of) weapons used from the Revolutionary War to WW2.   It's in the Fort Hamilton military base in Brooklyn.  The museum is housed in a brick structure that was built in 1825.  It was used as a fort to protect enemies who came in from the Narrows waterway.  The arched, brick windows had cannons place at each one.  The original wooden building on this location was used in the Revolutionary War.  The Battle of Brooklyn (also known as the Battle of Long Island, since Brooklyn & Queens are physically part of Long Island) was fought right on that spot.  The workers in the museum are all military veterans and are so knowledgeable and enthusiastic about these artifacts.    

We saw muskets, bayonettes, many different cannons, and ammo.  We also saw Revolutionary War uniforms from England and Scotland.  After a tour of the museum, the kids watched a couple of videos on how to load and shoot an 18th century musket and how large cannons were used and maintained.  W really enjoyed it, as the subject matter is right up his alley.  

After the class the kids ran around a big, grassy field playing Nerf guns and manhunt for over an hour.  We had lunch in a beautiful spot overlooking the water.  I was surprised to see some big boats going by.  

The wooden front door of the museum has iron built into it so enemies would break their weapons when trying to chop the door down

Talking about the Battle of Brooklyn

Big chemical ship in the Narrows (Lower NY Bay)

This guy was playing his steel drum down in the subway last week.  He was amazing.

In other news, we started on some academics yesterday.  W did 2 pages of math.  We're using a 5th grade, $7 bookstore workbook for review and to solidify the basics.   He did a page of spelling - contractions.  And we read about James Watt in The Story of Inventions.  Today he's doing 2 more pages of math, another spelling exercise, and we're reading about Michelangelo, and a chapter in A Child's History of the World.  He'll be doing a written narration, too.  I'll let you know how it turns out.   :)

J is now in her 2nd week as a sophomore in the Fame school.  She's still loving every moment of it.  Her schedule looks like this:  1. History  2. Ballet   3. Ballet   4. Modern Dance  5. Modern Dance  6. Science  7. Lunch  8. Math  9. English.  She also has Dance History once a week replacing one of the ballet classes.  No French this year so she has a free period.  She loves every one of her teachers (surprisingly) and feels real good about this year.  She's still going to physical therapy for her knee twice a week.  I think this is her 6th week (2 more weeks, 4 sessions, to go).  It's seems to have done the trick, but J hasn't been working it all that hard yet this year.  We'll have to wait and see.

K's doing great in college.  I didn't realize how much the textbooks cost.  $134 for one book?!   It's a brand new one so she can't even get it used anywhere -and it's only sold at the college bookstore.  WTF??