On Thursday we went on a field trip with other Calvert School homeschoolers from around Maryland to Fort McHenry in Baltimore. We got to learn all about what the fort was used for during three wars (War of 1812, Civil War, and World War I) and how and why Francis Scott Key was inspired to write the words to The Star-Spangled Banner. We got to explore the fort. It’s amazing how nice and breezy a fort can be on a 90-degree day.

Fritz asked the young man playing the part of a soldier if they had games. He showed us several games they played during the War of 1812. Fritz asked if they had Mario and the young man said only the soldiers of Italian ancestry.

We got to unroll and reroll a flag like the one Francis Scott Key saw from the ship with the 15 stripes and 15 stars. It was 30×42 feet! The young man playing the soldier talked about why Key was on the British ship and why Armistead had that giant flag raised following the 25 straight hours of bombardment by the British. The whole time he was talked we were holding the flag. It was really neat.