Literacy Day

For today, instead of learning about the Revolutionary War, we went to the homes of famous writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne and Louisa May Alcott as well as the Old Manse which Hawthorne had also lived in. (more on that later.)

We began at the house of Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of the Scarlet Letter, however we could not go inside because it was closed. It was a shade of pink on the outside and there was a very interesting looking thing for a top floor. Following this, we went to the home of Louisa May Alcott who wrote Little Women. Little Women was based on Louisa's real life youth and it was very interesting to learn more about that. Her family was extremely smart and talented, and had very forward ideas for the time. Lastly we went to the Old Manse, an old Scottish word for a preacher's house. The name Old Manse came from Hawthorne's book, Mosses from an Old Manse meaning stories from an old preacher's house. (This is where we heard a lot of funny stories about Hawthorne… for now, I'll just say he was a terrible tenant.)