Earlier this year the wife and I saw the musical Hamilton. Our kids became addicted to the music. We pounced on this obsession by creating a historic family vacation to give them context to what they were hearing. We headed up to Virginia and stopped at the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown (and Yorktown battlefield) and the Jamestown Settlement (no direct Hamilton connection, but the historic hook was already baited).

photo courtesy of www.HistoryIsFun.org

I didn’t know how the kids would react to a vacation like this. We’re traditionally more theme park people (heck, we even went to Busch Gardens Williamsburg while we were in the area). How far would this Hamilton obsession take us? Every vacation I went on as a kid was a learning experience – and I pretty much hated them all. I didn’t have a cultural guidepost to lead me, however. Would my kids’ experience be different?

Listen to the podcast episode here:

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Did the seeds of history sprout within our kids? Was a song like “Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)” able to give them context to what they were seeing? Would going to these places of historical significance in turn give them greater context for the musical?

photo courtesy of www.HistoryIsFun.org

In the weeks that follow, I’ll continue to post new and old episodes from our show. Let us know if there are experiences you’d like us to take on for you. If you leave us a comment on iTunes with your name, we’ll give you a special shout out on a future show. You also can connect with the show on Facebook and Twitter.