Riley's Farm

Tagged along with Sage's field trip to Riley's Farm in Oak Glen, about an hour away. Field trips at our school are so limited due to the location of where we are, but luckily Sage's new teacher likes field trips and got us this one. I had never been to Riley's Farm before although we've driven by to go apple picking so when asked if I wanted to volunteer to help, it was a definite yes! Riley's Farm is a working apple orchard and living history farm that features living history education, dinner theater, and historically-themed overnight stays. The 4th grade curriculum involves California history and the gold rush so the program dealt with that time period.

We saw a mine and learned about the conditions and how they worked.

They got to search for "gold" in some freezing cold water.

Saw some really cute livestock.

Saw what kind of chores they had, like washing clothes with a wash board, and then the kids participated in various chores.

More gold panning, this time they got to use pans.

Eureka! Gold!

Also learned how they made candles by melting some sort of berry, and got to try making part of one. It was pretty neat.