Taking the Kids: A trip to Monticello, getting acquainted with Jefferson

The Mountaintop Project was begun last year to tell the stories of the people, both enslaved and free, who lived and worked here. Monticello is the only U.S. presidential and private home in the country recognized as a World Heritage site. Archaeologists have spent 50 years studying the landscape of slavery here, making this the best preserved and best studied plantation in North America.

The youngest visitors especially love the recreation of the slave quarters, said Rachel Baum, manager of children's programs at the Visitors Center. They "cook" with plastic vegetables and over a glowing "fire." Jefferson was such a foodie that he had his slave James Heming trained in Paris when Jefferson was serving there. Later, we see the kitchens and smoke rooms underneath the house. At Monticello, kids are invited to take "Travelin' TJ" -- a picture they can color in -- on their next adventure. Take a photo with Travelin' TJ and send it to education(at)monticello.org or tag it "Monticello for Teachers" on Facebook or on Twitter (hashtag)TJMonticello. (To see where else Travelin' TJ has been, visit him online at Monticello.org/travelintj.)

The kids visiting don't hesitate to design their own Monticello in the Griffin Discovery Room at the Monticello Visitor Center. They make a beeline for the table of blocks where they can build their own dream house -- just as Thomas Jefferson did -- and then lie down on a replica of his alcove bed (it seems so small!), try a polygraph machine, which Jefferson invented to make a duplicate of whatever letter he was writing (when you realize he wrote 19,000 letters in his lifetime, it's easy to see why he needed it.) Kids love the cipher wheel, another Jefferson invention for decoding secret messages.

At the Mountaintop Activity Center, kids try writing with a quill pen, play a colonial game, use an Orrery, a mechanical model of the solar system and look through the camera obscura, an optical device used in Jefferson's time to make silhouettes which, we learn, were very popular. This invention led to photography and the camera.

Check out the huge garden. Jefferson famously planted vegetables and fruits from around the world -- he grew 30 different kinds of peas. There are special garden tours and tours of the slave quarters, as well as special seasonal offerings.

"Do you collect anything?" our guide asks the kids on our tour -- Jefferson collected numerous things, everything from Mastodon bones to Native American feathers. She handed out something for each of the kids to hold:

-- A plush buffalo, as we look at a gorgeous painting on a buffalo skin.

-- An octagon mirror -- Jefferson loved octagons and made his retreat Poplar Forest an octagon. There is also an octagon room at Monticello.

-- The $2 bill -- the same painting depicted on it is hanging on Jefferson's wall.

It's amazing how such little touches can turn what might be a boring tour of an old house into an interactive, fun family experience.

We look at some tiny books and learn that after the British burned the U.S. Capitol during the War of 1812, Jefferson sold the government his library to pay down his personal debts. His books became the basis for today's Library of Congress.

We look around Jefferson's study and bedchamber where he worked and where he died on July 4, 1826 -- exactly 50 years after Congress approved the Declaration of Independence and the same day his fellow founding father John Adams died in Quincy, Massachusetts. A pair of Jefferson's riding boots sit in the corner.

I'm impressed that the kids stay interested throughout the tour. "Very unusual," said Allison Gallup, here with her son and 5-year-old daughter.

"Super well done," agreed Chris Ryan, here with his wife and three sons from northern Virginia.

Who says history can't be fun? Thanks, Tom.

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If you are visiting major American cities this spring, including Washington, D.C., check out Eileen's new Kid's City Guide series available from major booksellers and online. For more Taking the Kids, visit www.takingthekids.com and also follow "taking the kids" on www.twitter.com, where Eileen Ogintz welcomes your questions and comments.