That may seem strange, but stick with me on this.
Genius is currently using the book The Write Stuff Adventure: Exploring the Art of Writing by Dan Rea, as part of our language arts curriculum. One of the writing assignments was to report on the sights, smells, sounds and tastes of downtown.
This prompted us to take an afternoon and do exactly that – and oh what fun (and learning!) we had. Genius brought her camera along so I will even share some pictures with you!
The Sights of Downtown – We strolled down the streets, looking into shop windows, gazing at jewelry we could not afford (okay, okay that was just me!), antique furniture, coffee beans and clothing. Our downtown has a “Sculpture Walk”, where local business sponsor an artist’s sculpture displayed on the sidewalks, block after block, for all to enjoy! It was so interesting to see the variety of talent.
The Smells of Downtown – What could smell better than a Dutch bakery? No I mean really? Fresh apple cake and chocolate, the scents had us salivating. Well that was until we walked by the Italian restaurant, that gave the bakery a run for its money.
The Sounds of Downtown – Horns honking and engines revving, unfortunately our downtown is not immune to those. Then there were people chatting and birds chirping, music softly playing, all of those far more pleasant to the ear. The best sound though was the sound of the trolley bell as it came to its stops. Yes, we are fortunate to have a refurbished trolley that takes passengers roundtrip from downtown to a park at the end of the shopping district, it is very neat.
The Tastes of Downtown – We were looking forward to this part of the report the most! But where oh where should we do this? Should we go to the Dutch bakery or the Italian restaurant? I know – the old fashioned soda fountain in the back of the variety store……unfortunately that was closed. So we chose the next best thing (according to Genius) a train car diner. Spruced up and very nostalgic, it was a great place to taste brownie sundaes and root beer floats!
The great thing about this field trip/assignment is that anyone can do this. No matter how small or large your town, I’m betting it has a downtown of some kind. Just look for the street called Main that might give it away if you’re not sure! Now your particular place of residence may not have some of the flair our small city does – or it may be one hundred times better! Maybe, all you have is a post office. Well call them up; maybe your kids can have a tour. A Stop and Shop may be the only place to grab something to eat. Well unless they’re allergic, a Ho Ho or Twinkie is a great downtown snack!
The interesting thing about our time downtown was through this assignment it got Genius looking at things in a different way. Tactically taking in the sensory information around her, enjoying it more than just a normal visit may have. When we were in the furniture store, she pointed out Renaissance style furniture. We had been studying the Renaissance at the time in social studies. On a routine day, I honestly don’t know if she’d have noticed that.
If you live in a four season location, I challenge you to take a morning or afternoon and do this with your children before the weather gets cold. And even if you don’t expect them to write a report at the end, I guarantee you will have a great time, and you might even learn something about your city you didn’t know!
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You can hang out with Tammy at Three Different Directions where when she is not reviewing products or entering contests, she just might be posting poetry about spiders.
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On our very first day of homeschooling EVER, we went on a field trip “downtown.” Not the downtown of the bigger city near which we live, either. Our downtown. Our little quaint center of town. It was really neat. We have some great pictures of that day and have gone for a downtown field trip one other time since then. It’s really neat what you can learn when you just take some time to slow down and look arond what you normally take for granted.
Thanks for the post, I’m now thinking of all the downtown I’ve known.
The main street close by the St. Laurence where I grew up. Every christmas all buildings would be outlined in white lights. The Church street nearby with various churches all in a row and the Christmas concerts they would put on in cooperation with each other, timed so that you could walk from Church to Church listening to each concert.
Uptown in the city where I went to university, so called because the city was right beside a larger one and you could walk from uptown in the one city to downtown in the other in less then an hour (for a while I walked the distance twice daily). The fact that while it was customary to treat the two cities as one, they still had separate city councils and no desire to merge.
Living in Ottawa, the capital of Canada with a downtown filled with historic buildings and embassies.
I love this idea. My Hubby grew up in a small town much like this. Before his parents sold their business and moved away, I alway enjoyed strolling, shopping, and eating at the little cafes.
What great fun and educational too!