I don’t know that I’ve made an official announcement but, we are homeschooling! Last school year we started our homeschool journey and now we are headed into year two. It’s seriously been everything our family has needed. The Lord is just so good that way! Many prayers, reading lots of books about homeschooling and listening to advice from MANY homeschool families lead us here. We are all so grateful for this incredible life change! We needed it!

Time with each other was our main focus. Then we started adding in the curriculum. Then we found our CO-OP! I will share more on this part of our journey later but for now. . .check out this incredible, history filled field trip we went on this week with our babes!

Washington, Georgia is where we found ourselves this week with about 100 other homeschool families from our CO-OP. We first toured the Robert Toombs House. There we discovered more about his life and his significance in Georgia’s rich history.

Let’s start with Robert Toombs house! I went around touching every part of the house! I know that sounds so weird. I want to absorb the history. His home started off as a fairly normal sized home and as his wealth grew, Toombs added on! In one of the photos below, you will see what his house was before the very large addition to the front. He created an entirely new front. The plants around the property are from all over Europe. As he would travel he would bring back clippings from other stately properties and grow them in his own yard. His yard was originally over 100 acres, now it’s just three acres. As homes and churches were built in the city, the land to his property was sold.

Several of the furnishings in the home are originals that belonged to Toombs. It was fascinating seeing the details and craftsmanship each piece has. The newel post to the staircase, the stunning china cabinet under the staircase with original wavy glass, his personal collection of books. . .unreal to get to stand in that history.

We had the sweetest tour guides that lead us through his home and told us about his life. They showed us the first “laptop”! His desk, it’s just his desk but what was so cool about his desk is that is folded up into a chest. He would take off the legs and lock the front of his desk and take it with him to all of his meetings. Robert Toombs was an attorney and became heavily involved in politics. Later he became a Senator and then the Secretary of State. He opposed war between the north and the south.

After our incredible tour of Toombs home, we walked down the street to the Washington Museum where we met our next tour guide and we learned more about our US History.

Once we were finished with our guided tours our family traveled down the road into town where we found the first free library, Mary Willis Library! It was the pretties library I’ve ever seen in my life! Filled with loads of old books - OLD books! Like, spines falling off the edges old! Sky high oak books shelves, Tiffany stained glass windows. . .I wish every library was this magical! I even found a book that I used to enjoy when I was little when I stayed at my Memaw and Papaw’s house, A Field Guide to the Birds. I may have teared up a little when I found it! I wasn’t even looking for it. I took the photo of RyAnne reaching for a book and as I glanced down the row of books - there it was!!!