To wrap up our Grant Wood mini unit study and visit another of the places suggested in 101 Places You Gotta See Before You’re 12 we went to Eldon, IA to see the American Gothic house. Aside from the gas used for a long, two hour drive (each way) this was completely free! Across from the house is the American Gothic House Center where they sell souveniers and have a display of different American Gothic parodies. They showed us a 15-20 cartoon about Grant Wood, then we commenced with the fun part, making our own American Gothic parodies! The center provides costumes in many sizes and a pitchfork to use in pictures, free of charge, and the woman working there happily took pictures for us.
Unfortunately, you cannot go in the house. It is owned by the state and it was decided that the house would not hold up well with many people touring it. However, you can live in it! Since houses deteriorate less quickly when lived in than when left to sit empty, the house is rented out. How fun would that be? Everytime someone was getting their picture taken in front of the house I would run out waving a pitchfork and screaming, “Hey! Get off my lawn!”
Tags: homeschool, home school, writing, art, unit study, grant wood, American Gothic
June 12, 2009 at 3:00 am |
hi there- i am the author of 101 places- i am so excited to see that you are using it- i really had homeschooling families in mind when i wrote it. thanks!
j.o.
June 12, 2009 at 3:40 am |
Thanks for stopping by and commenting, and I’m so glad you wrote that book! Great materials like that keep us excited about homeschooling.
September 18, 2009 at 5:42 pm |
That looks like so much fun! It’s great to see pics of all of you. You are the coolest person I know, Robyn!