Etowah Indian Mounds | Cultural Experience | Motherhood Unplugged

This weekend we visited the Etowah Indians Mounds + Archaeological museum. Home to several thousand Native Americans from 1000 A.D. to 1500 A.D. This 54 acre site protects earthen mounds, a village, plaza, borrow pits and a defense ditch. I love going on affordable field trips with the kids and the entry fee to this historic site was only $10 for all of us. Totally family friendly!

We began our field trip in the museum where we viewed a miniature model of the entire village. My oldest son, Phoenix, is very detail oriented and was able to point out all of the tiny deer, canoes and artifacts place about the display. It was quite impressive. We then toured the exhibits viewing how the Native Americans used to dress, their tools of trade, food gathering techniques and even saw some of their language written in symbols. We even sat down in the theater to view the film for a few minutes but didn't stay long because well my kids are too wiggly for that lol Upon leaving the museum we headed towards the first outdoor exhibit, which was a small hut. They were small enough to fit in there and take a look around. I stayed outside and avoided walking into any spider webs ;) I loved the breathtaking scenery as we passed over the defense ditch and walked into a vast field of hay rolled all around the grounds. The boys saw this as an imaginary play land and ran around playing hide n seek from each other. Phoenix even tried to count all of them but there were just too many. The very first mound we came to was the tallest and quite a feat to take on for tiny feet but they tackled it with toddler speed and a whole lot of gusto! I was surprised that Cairo, the youngest, was the first to the finish line.

Now, I'm not afraid of heights but I was well aware of just how high were were from the ground and by the looks of it so was Cairo, hence the reason why he is holding onto Phoenix's arm with a death grip. My oldest, Phoenix, has quite and adventurous spirit and he gave me a few mini heart attacks while walking basically on the edge of the cliff. Yikes! Times like this makes me understand why some parents put their kids on those leash book bags lol We were able to see for quite a distance from the mound and the boys loved seeing the smoke stacks from afar. I can't tell you just how many steps there were to the top. We actually climbed this mound 2x because I'm a psycho lol just kidding I just wanted to take in the beautiful view again plus ensure that they were both good and tired when we got back home. I live for nap time, don't you? I was also cautious and brought along our Britax stroller just in case Cairo got tired and didn't want to walk. Pushing a stroller over grassfields is quite tough but nothing I haven't done before. You can see just how tiny the stroller looks from atop the mountain in the picture below.

A mom that passed us by with her 3 kiddos told us about the creek further towards the back of the property so we headed there afterwards. It was much shadier there and a good place to have them explore under the tree canopy. We sat on a bench and ate our snacks while watching the activity on the creek. I did not walk the entire nature trail. I wanted to reserve that for the next time we visit and my husband or a play date friend can join us. Overall, the boys learned a lot about their Native American ancestors. I've been told by my father that my grandmother was part Native American but I have yet to do an ancestry DNA test to prove it. It's on my list of things to do. Have you ever done one? Speaking of cultures, I've been on a quest to introduce the boys to other cultures through experiences like this when we are not traveling abroad. I think it is a good idea to expose them to the world at large so that they have a broader scope of life. They spotted another 'brown' family and my oldest shouts out that they look like us. This is mostly because we live in the North of Atlanta where there aren't very many brown people that look like us in the neighborhood or school district. I'm not concerned with them being immersed in an African American commuity experience because I morseo want them to have a Global experience. To that point, they were also recently exposed to other 'brown' people via a cultural fieldtrip with The Compassion Experience where they were able to view how an impoverished little girl lived in the Dominican Republic.

We also created a cool 1 minute video of the trip, now playing on Snapchat. Click here and follow us!

How do you choose to teach your children about different cultures around the world?

Thanks for reading + Happy Traveling!

#motherhood