Frontier Culture Museum celebrates 25 years with 1988 admission prices

It's our Silver Anniversary at Staunton's Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia, and this weekend we're rolling back admission rates to what they were in 1988 when we first opened. If you've been thinking of visiting, this is the perfect time. Bring the kids and tour like it's 1988!

Saturday and Sunday, September 7 and 8:
Adults 18 and up: $3.00
Children 6-17: $1.00
Children 5 and under: Free

Tour the farmsteads, interact with costumed historical interpreters, participate in hands-on activities, and  enjoy being outside on a beautiful Shenandoah Valley day. Get up close and personal with history ... walk back in time to when America began at the Frontier Culture Museum.

Photo by Lynn R. Mitchell

#3 ... Frontier Culture Museum in pictures

Photos by Lynn R. Mitchell
Irish Forge
June 5, 2013

#2 ... Frontier Culture Museum in pictures

Photos by Lynn R. Mitchell
Irish & German farms
June 5, 2013

#1 ... Frontier Culture Museum in pictures

 

Photos by Lynn R. Mitchell
June 5, 2013

Shenandoah at War ... Luray Civil War reenactments Sept. 11-12

Next weekend the upper Shenandoah Valley will turn back the hands of time to 1862 when America was at war with itself, brother fighting brother, with reenactments of the Battle of Front Royal and Fisher's Hill. It's an "up close and personal" history lesson for those who want to know their American history.

What: Civil War Reenactments of the Battles of Front Royal and Fisher's Hill
Where: Luray Valley Museum at Luray Caverns
When: Saturday, Sept.11 (Front Royal) and Sunday, Sept. 12 (Fisher's Hill)
Cost: $10 for adults (age 13 and Up) and $5 for children (ages 6 thru 12) each day. Includes admission fee for Luray Valley Museum

The Luray Valley Museum at Luray Caverns will host reenactments of the pivotal Civil War battles of Front Royal (which took place on May 23, 1862, during Conf. Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson's legendary Valley Campaign) and the Fisher's Hill (which took place on September 22, 1864, during U.S. Gen. Philip Sheridan's Shenandoah Campaign).

Luray Caverns will donate proceeds of this event to the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation for battlefield preservation.

Reenactment of the Battle of Front Royal
Saturday, September 11, 2010
9:00 – 11:30: Camps open to public
9:00 – 4:00: Medical demonstration
2:00: Battle of Front Royal
Dusk: Fireworks

Reenactment of the Battle of Fisher’s Hill
Sunday, September 12, 2010
9:00 – 11:30: Camps open to public
9:00 – 1:00: Medical demonstration
10:00: Church services
2:00: Battle of Fisher’s Hill

David Barton coming to Harrisonburg

David Barton of Wallbuilders.com will be the special guest speaker at the Valley Family Forum luncheon at James Madison University on Monday, May 24.

Headlining "A Celebration of Our Christian Heritage," the lunch will be held from 12:00-1:30 p.m. and costs $25 per person. Reservation deadline is Tuesday, May 18.

From Dean Welty, Director of Valley Family Forum:

Seats are still available for the "Celebration of Our Christian Heritage" luncheon with David Barton, which will be from 12:00 to 1:30 p.m., on Monday, May 24, at the JMU Festival Conference and Student Center. However, the deadline for reservations is Tuesday, May 18, so it is important to confirm your seats as soon as possible.

The Program
Barton will be speaking about "Keys to Good Government - According to Our Founding Fathers" -- principles that are just as important to us now as they were 223 years ago. Barton has been featured recently on FOX news with Glenn Beck, talking about the faith of our Founding Fathers.

"Gen. George Washington" will also be with us in full dress uniform, with colonial-era fifer Greg Hernandez and pianist Miriam Clark. WHSV-TV's Kay Norred will moderate the program, along with Pastor John Sloop, and Cong. Bob Goodlatte will join us as well.

Who Is David Barton?
Barton is the Founder and President of Wallbuilders and one of America's foremost authorities on our Christian heritage and the faith of our Founding Fathers. He is an award winning author, nationally acclaimed speaker, featured guest on numerous media outlets, and frequent advisor to legislators and educators. (For more information, go to www.wallbuilders.com.)

Reservations
You can reserve your table(s) or individual seats by writing to family@valleyfamilyforum.org or by calling (540) 438-8966. Seats are $25/person, or $200 for a table of eight. After confirming your reservations, send your check to the Valley Family Forum at 3465 Izaak Walton Dr., Harrisonburg, 22801. Business and individual sponsorships are also still available.

Can We Attend Both Lunch and Dinner?
The dinner is already sold out, but if you already have confirmed seats for it and would like to attend the lunch as well, you are more than welcome. The topic, the menu, and the program are all different, so you will be able to enjoy both. It's a great double-header.

It's a great opportunity to see David Barton and hear more about our American Christian heritage.

Back in the home school classroom: "America ... The Story of US" from History Channel

As a home school mom, I was constantly searching for teaching materials while educating my two children at home. With a strong emphasis on American history, civics, government, and geography, our classroom displayed the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution as well as an American flag, a Virginia flag, the Bible, the Ten Commandments, and books with other great documents including the Magna Carta and maps of the U.S.

One history series I discovered was America: The Story of US, a graphic- and photo-filled series of books depicting the history of the United States.

Now the History Channel is featuring America: The Story of US beginning Sunday, April 25, with 12 one-hour episodes:

America The Story of Us is an epic 12-hour television event that tells the extraordinary story of how America was invented. With highly realistic CGI animation, dramatic recreations and thoughtful insights from some of America's most respected artists, business leaders, academics and intellectuals, it is the first television event in nearly 40 years to present a comprehensive telling of America's history.

Elaborate, ambitious and cinematic, America The Story of Us will take you into the moments when Americans harnessed technology to advance human progress, from the rigors of linking the continent by transcontinental railroad--the internet of its day--to triumphing over vertical space through the construction of steel structured buildings to putting a man on the moon. It is an intensive look at the people, places and things that have shaped our nation, and the tough and thrilling adventure that is America's 400-year history.

Episodes 1 and 2 were shown April 25. Watch for repeat showings on The History Channel with follow-up episodes, two a week, the next five Sundays.

Will this be a politically correct series? We will find out.

Happy Birthday, George Washington

~Virginia Founding Father first American President~

When I was a little girl attending Chesterfield County public schools, we celebrated George Washington's birthday by remembering this great American and Virginian who was our first American president, a Virginia statesman, leader of the revolution against Britain, and a farmer at Mt. Vernon.

It was traditional to have cherry pie (because George cut down a cherry tree), hear a lesson about always being truthful (because George didn't lie about cutting down the cherry tree), color pictures of a youthful George Wasington as our teacher read to us, and learn about the Founding Fathers, colonial times, and early Virginia.

His birthday is blurred these days, rolled into "Presidents Day" that was held a week ago. Will his accomplishments in the founding of this country become blurred, too, as we revise American history for future generations.

In our home school classroom, we celebrated George Washington's birthday with many of those fun activities I remembered as a child as we enjoyed both American and Virginia history. It was the theme for the day at our house.

Happy Birthday, Mr. President!

"John Adams" weekend

It's a "John Adams" weekend at our house ... the miniseries. Tonight it's "Join or Die" and "Independence."

He united the States of America ...

While our new nation was suffering attacks from both winthin and without, John Adams had a vision of a nation of liberty and injustice for all. He guided his peers -- General George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson -- in setting the values and agenda for a glorious, free America. Adams and his wife, Abigail refined these ambitious democratic ideals, and their partnership became one of the most moving love stories in American history.

John Adams, the Pulitzer-winning book from author David McCullough, is now the critically acclaimed seven-part miniseries from HBO Films.

We are such history nerds at my house....

When dolls teach more history than public schools....

Just about anyone with a little girl has heard of the American Girl dolls that have been popular the past 20+ years.

My own daughter received her first American Girl, "Bitty Baby," when she was six years old. That was followed by Felicity (1774), a spunky girl of Colonial days in Williamsburg, Virginia ... and then Samantha (1904), described as "a generous and loyal orphan growing up in Victorian times." Accompanying these was an on-going birthday subscription to the American Girl magazine.

My passion, besides politics, is American history ... and what I liked about the American Girl dolls was the fact they were historically correct as far as clothing, furnishings, and the accompanying books that taught the history of that particular doll's time period ... in an entertaining way, of course.

My daughter and her friends loved them and would get together with their dolls. One of the dolls would travel with us ... and Felicity even made a trip to Williamsburg when we spent a family vacation there ... a hands-on field trip vacation enjoyed by all. Felicity, in her period dress, fit right in.

An article out today, American Girl Values, in the American Conservative Union Foundation newsletter, called attention to these toys that often teach more American history than today's public schools:

Yet there is much to like in the American Girl phenomenon. At a time when U.S. public schools have ceased teaching real U.S. history, substituting instead blatant indoctrination in ethnic and sexual victim thinking, the American Girl dolls teach girls what it really was like in America in the past. The dolls represent a variety of ethnic heritages, and each is from a different, important period of American history.

SWAC Niece spent the 4th of July weekend in Staunton with her American Girl doll, Kit ... and that brings up the new movie that has hit theaters, Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, a story that "tells the life of Kit who is growing up during the Great Depression and is plunged into poverty when her father loses his job."

What? Teaching the Great Depression through play? That's what the American Girl dolls are all about.

We will be heading to the theater to see the "Kit movie" just as we all watched the previous movies: Samantha: An American Girl Holiday (2003); Felicity: An American Girl Adventure (2005); and Molly: An American Girl on the Home Front (2006).

My little girl is all grown up now but her American Girl dolls are carefully tucked away, along with their high-quality accessories, to someday pass along to her daughter. We still enjoy the movies, and we enjoy contributing at Christmas and birthdays to SWAC Niece's accessories for her dolls. And I am still on the email list to receive updates on new dolls, movies, and other happenings.

Much as the Little House books taught history in an entertaining way, so it is with American Girl.

Today in 1781 ... surrender at Yorktown ... American liberty

October 19, 1781 ... the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia, and the end of the American Revolutionary War. Talked with a SWAC volunteer yesterday who was heading to Yorktown for the celebrations. His great-great-great-something was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and he carries on the tradition.

American freedom....