Mississauga Home Schoolers Field Trips

Trips and Journeys
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	Field Trips Mississauga Home Schoolers is a cooperative group. Anyone can suggest field trip ideas, at any time, for any age group and for any reason. Please send Marc your suggestions and watch the Yahoo! once the COVID Pandemic is behind us
	ROAD TRIPS!!! This section details recent road trips taken by some of our members. To contribute your memorable (and not so memorable) trips, please send them to the yahoo list. Please include a rating rated out of 5 stars. Dundurn Castle, Hamilton, Ontario: ** The home of Ontario's first premier. The restoration covers several periods, before 1920. There is one particular interpreter, Chris, who is exceptionally good, and suggests discussing "scandals" and how bathing and toilets worked in each period. Excellent for grades 5-8. The grounds also hold the Military Museum, which has a couple of hands-on exhibits for younger children. www.myhamilton.ca/myhamilton /CityandGovernment/CultureandRecreation /Arts_Culture_And_Museums/ HamiltonCivicMuseums /Dundurn/Dundurn_Castle.htm Reptilia, Durham, ON: * A small zoo (some 65 exhibits) of "herps". The staff are absolutely fantastic, never seeming busy, and answering all questions thoroughly. They go through the zoo to gather visitors for feeding time: call ahead for specifics of feeding times and animals. We saw infant vipers being force-fed, monitor lizards, tortoises and chameleons being fed. The "live theatre show" was tailored to the children attending, and the kids got to choose which animals they wanted to see. The gift shop sells some souvenirs, but also books on reptiles and amphibians, small pets (herps only) and all the supplies needed to care for them. www.reptilia.org The Donnelly's Homestead, Lucan, Ontario *** The place where the legendary Donnelly Family (one is apparently not to address them as "Black Donnellys"), lived. The original house was burnt down during the murders, but the barn still stands. The modern house is not part of the tour, but you can spend quite a bit of time in the barn. The talk and tour is given by Robert Salts, a former teacher, who now owns the land. He is a self-described clairvoyant, and talks about the ghosts of the Donnelly family as well as the "true story" about their lives and deaths. Whether it is the "true" story, one can never know, but it seemed a lot more reasonable than Thomas Kelley's version. Mr. Salts was very good with the kids, and answered all of their questions. He has some artifacts which are presumed to belong to the Donnellys. The talk is for older children, only (he recommends ages 13 and up). It's graphic, and straight-forward. But it was very good for finding a basis for human behaviour, especially pertaining to vigilantism. All in all, it was worth the $30 fee. www.donnellys.com/