Home school day at Biltmore was very busy. We did the morning house tour and the afternoon activities. The house tour was self paced and audio tours were available for purchase. Some members in our group purchased the audio tour and enjoyed learning more about each room. It is always fun to imagine living in such a large house and how life must have been for the people that lived, worked, and visited during the days of George Vanderbilt.
After we toured the house, we drove down to the greenhouse and gardens. The garden railroad exhibit was the star of the show. The train and model buildings of the Biltmore estate delighted all the visitors.
We enjoyed our picnic lunch as we drove from the greenhouse to Antler Hill Village. The outdoor learning activities were being hosted in this area of the estate.
We discovered a second part of the garden railroad exhibit in the village. Many of the buildings on display were places George and Edith Vanderbilt traveled to during their honeymoon.
We spent over a half hour watching and talking to the blacksmith. Several of our boys are interested in smithing.
We made the rounds to different booths to play games and learn more about the environment and the estate. We even got to visit Biltmore's solar farm and learn about solar energy. They only do this tour for homeschoolers!
We visited the barnyard to pet the farm animals. No matter how old the kids are they have to visit.
Finally, we made our way up the winery and into the mercantile. We have to stock up on our Wassail mix and we added some flavored syrups to try in lemonade.
It was a long day, but we had a ton of fun!
