FORT MCHENRY FIELD TRIP

This is our last week of homeschool! So hard to believe. We enjoyed visiting Fort McHenry today, as we are wrapping up our study of American History. We have learned about the War of 1812 and how Baltimore played a part in that period of history. We have learned how the British force of some 5,000 army and navy veterans sailed up the Chesapeake Bay to the Battle of Bladensburg and then went on to burn Washington. They then turned their attention on Baltimore. However, Baltimore was better prepared for the invaders than Washington had been!! Thanks largely in part due to Fort McHenry, standing guard at the key to the harbor.

Ft McHenry is famous as the birthplace of the Star Spangled Banner. Francis Scott Key, a young Washington lawyer, witnessed the attack on Ft. McHenry and captured much of the feeling of the day in verse.

This painting "The Bombardment of Fort McHenry" really helps one imagine what it looked like the night our national anthem was written. I think of the line "That our flag was still there" when I see the famous flag over the fort. Francis Scott Key described how he felt when he saw McHenry's flag still waving at dawn after that terrible night... "Through the clouds of the war the stars of that banner still shone in my view, and I saw the discomfitted host of its assailants driven back in the ignominy to their ships. Then, in the hour of deliverance, and joyful triumph, my heart spoke; and 'Does not such a country and such defenders of their country deserve a song?' was its question."

Looking at a replica of the star-shaped fort.

I love this sign - Explore, Discover, Reflect - it became our theme for the day.

EXPLORE: One of my favorite parts of Ft. McHenry is sitting and watching a short educational video about the history of the fort, and then the curtains open wide to reveal the flag flying high over the fort, while the Star Spangled Banner is playing. This is our little buddy Gabriel watching the flag.

The flag ceremony - learning all about the large flag that was made to fly over the fort. Can you see the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the background? At this ceremony, we learned that Major George Armistead wanted Fort McHenry's flat to be large enough "that the British will have no difficulty in seeing it from a distance." The flag he received measured 42 x 30 feet and was made by Mary Pickersgill. We had to stop and think about Betsy Ross here.... and then we remembered that she was the one who sewed the original flag for our country.

Holding a small section of the large flag - the same size as the one that flew over the fort during the attack.

DISCOVER: We wandered around the fort seeing all the places that things might have been stored, and where the soldiers slept, and discovered fun tunnels and passageways.

One of the original drawings of the architectural plans to build the fort.

I love this picture.

Exploring the fort...

Little girls can find flowers anywhere!!

Enchanted Warrior and son walking along the fort walls.

After a tiring morning of learning so much about our flag, wars, and forts....somebody is getting a little bit sleepy....

REFLECT: After enjoying a wonderful lunch with our friends, we came home and wrote down and thought about all the things we had learned.... Boo made her very own American flag.

Banana and I thought about and wrote down all the words to the Star Spangled Banner. We decided to look up the definition of the word "spangled". Banana wrote out the original first verse to the song, and then she remembered singing four verses of it in school last year, so we looked up those verses too.

Boo LOVED her little flag and put on a little parade for us!!!

Plumb-tuckered out!!!