On April 27th, the day after Tristan's birthday, we headed to Higgins Armory in Massachusetts with the homeschool group. We may not get very far distance wise with our trips, never really getting out of the Northeast due to work, finance, special needs and needy pets to consider, we hopefully make up for lack of distance with the sheer amount of day trips and running around the northeast we do. In my experience with my own children and their learning I do find there is a place for textbooks but the best learning seems to happen by doing or experiencing.
We had been to Higgins armory before, Trevor and Hayley were of an age to remember but Colin and Tristan were babe and toddler in the double stroller and I don't remember it at all. I'm sure I was busy caring for said babe and toddler. I also went there as a child and remember it jjust a little. One thing I didn't remember at all was the imposing steel and glass building, wow it really stands out there in Worcester MA! It took us about 2 hours to drive there and a few recalculations by the GPS when we were within a mile of the building but finally we arrived and took in the sight of the armory building.
What a building, and what a knight on top!
John Woodman Higgins built this amazing place in 1929 when his collection of arms and armor took over his home and his wife said enough!
It's a grand place to enter, you feel like royalty or as if you've been transported back many, many years.
At the start of our visit we watched a show about armor, some of our group was chposen to help with the demonstations, Tristan was a little dissapointed that he didn't get to hold or wear some armor during the show.
After the show we had a guided tour of the museum. I only added a sampling of pictures but there are arms and armor of many styles all over the place. The great hall was magnificent and we learned a lot about armor over history. Even learned that Darth Vader's mask was patterned after some ancient armor.
Tristan enjoyed taking some pictures oh his own on the dsi he had gotten for his birthday the day before.
Towards the end of our visit we spent some time in the kids room at the armory. There the kids could try on some armor, play with medieval types of toys and take some silly pictures. Tristan enjoyed this room.
There was also a fantasy, dagon type room filled with the stuff of mythology, that was a lot of fun.
Before leaving for the day we spent one last visit looking at the dog armor, one of the highlights of the museum.
Then of course the requisite trip to the gift shop where a few fun items were bought to enjoy on the long ride home.
2 comments:
Oh! This one looks even cooler than the last one. We love armor and such. Thanks for sharing your fun with us.
We went here last year after out trip to the Museum of Science. Our friends near to there took us. It was awesome and one of the best field trips we've ever done. ;-)
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