The Jefferson Monticello

Our week of field trip posts continue. On our way to my sister's house for Easter, we stopped at The Jefferson Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia.



Monticello is President Thomas Jefferson's house he designed and built over a forty year period.



Just a quick history review: Thomas Jefferson was the third president of United States, and the author of the Declaration of Independence. He also founded the University of Virginia. (Read more here.)



Monticello is open to public daily, year-around. A day pass (12 and older for $25) will include admission to the beautiful grounds, exhibits and documentary at visitor center, and tour of the first floor of Monticello. There is also a behind the scenes tour (for $50) that allows you to visit upstairs at Monticello. The behind the scenes tour was not offered when we were at Monticello (because of spring break), so make sure to check the website if that is something you are interested in.

There are no family memberships, but if an adult purchases a yearly pass (for $50), his/her children will get free admission. This pass doesn't give any discounts for the behind the scenes tour, though, but it still was a good option for our large family.

(More ticket information here.)



The views from Monticello were breathtaking and the gardens gorgeous. Spring flowers were starting to bloom, and some of us walked around for hours. It was a bit chilly on the mountain top.



In addition to the house tour there were two other tours. We skipped the Gardens and Grounds Tour, but attended a tour on Slavery at Monticello.



What a cute photobomber!!



Photography was not allowed inside the house (you can see some photos here), but I took quite a few outside the building and in the dependencies.



We also took the opportunity to pictures of each other there:) Too bad we had lost the Captain and Mr. D!



We are glad we stopped at Monticello, but have to admit the house tour was not very impressive. Our guide was very nice, but may have directed the information toward the youngest visitors, and didn't really get in-depth (as we had heard some guides do).



At the Mountaintop Hands-on Activity Center (open seasonally) Little Miss wrote with a quill pen and the boys cracked codes. At the visitor center there is another hands-on activity center for kids called the Griffin Discovery Room, but we didn't actually make it there this time.



The highlight for at least me was enjoying our half a day at the gardens, walking around and taking photos.



And with our annual pass we might stop by again some time, and see if we can get more out of the house tour.

The Jefferson Monticello website is chock full of information, a great resource for anyone, and especially homeschoolers.


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Yksi viime viikon luokkaretkistämme oli Usan kolmannen presidentin, Thomas Jeffersonin koti Monticello Virginiassa. Upeat puutarhat ja näköalat! Pääsymaksu oli vähän turhan kallis, varsinkin, kun itse talosta näki vain osan alakertaa, olisi pitänyt maksaa tuplasti, jos olisi halunnut nähdä myös yläkerran. Mutta kaunis paikka vierailla, etenkin kameran kanssa!!