Hands-On History

Scott was training in Huntsville for 2 weeks in April. We had the pleasure of getting to go out there for a little over a week of his stay and we had a great time finding new things to do around town- anything to get out of the hotel during the day while Scott was at work.

We started by visiting the Visitor Center which ended up being very interesting. The ladies that worked there were really nice and showed the kids around some of the mini-exhibits they had there on loan from various local museums. She gave them stickers and all kinds of brochures about the things we were going to do that week. Most importantly, they issue coupons for 20% off many of the attractions in the area!

The kids and I met up with Gracen and her mommy, Crystal- some army friends of ours that we now regularly see while in Huntsville. We went to Sci-Quest one day and went to visit them in Fayetteville the next day.

Later that week we visited the Early Works Museum which is a hands-on history museum and the coolest place ever!!! I highly recommend it if you are visiting Huntsville and you have children under 12 or so. We started by visiting "The Backyard" which is a play area just for my kids' ages. They have a little town set up with things like a Grocery Store, Post Office, Barn, Treehouse and a water table. I think the children could have played here all day. Ella even enjoyed pushing the cart around and of course pulling all the things off the shelves. After "The Backyard" we took a trip down the Hall of Presidents where you could read facts about all the past presidents. We proceeded to the main part of the museum where you could learn about early life, architecture and work in the Americas. The kids got to dress up and even practice games the children used to play, see a one room cabin, and pretend to live the life we were studying. The museum also had an area where they showed toys dating back to the early 1800's and differnt building materials so the kids could construct their own things. There was a talking tree, a music exhibit playing jazz-style and patriotic songs, and an area to learn about early inventors. We left about an hour before lunch and I expected we would stay for no more than 2 hours---4 hours later we were starving, the place was about to close and I still had to drag the children out of there!! We will definitely be visiting it again whenever we are in Huntsville!!

All-in-all this was a great educational trip that also allowed us to stay and see Scott while he was training. We were fortunate to have great accomodations and plenty of things to keep us busy!

The mom.