Hershey, PA

Oh what a day! We spent all day Wednesday in Hershey, PA; home of the Hershey Chocolate Factory and Hershey Park. Hubby took the day off work so it was a family affair. The amusement park is not yet open but Hershey offers a myriad of fun and educational experiences all year long. We took advantage of the homeschool day offered at both The Hershey Store Museum and Chocolate World.

It was amazing. We all learned so much. Milton S. Hershey was a phenomenal man! I'm sure his museum wouldn't broadcast his shortcomings, but I'd surmise the sheer volume of positive contributions he made would far outweigh the average man's negative aspects. He had a few failed businesses but once he gained success with chocolate he set out to change lives. He built orphanages, schools, hospitals...a town. During the depression he paid the bills of 4 (I think) churches so they wouldn't go bankrupt. During WWI when sugar was scarce and it looked like he may have to close the plant or lay off some workers, Hershey went to Cuba, bought some land and built a sugar refinery (and another orphanage) so he could supply sugar for his plant in PA. I could go on and on but I won't. I have decided to seek out a biography on Hershey though, and I will encourage Biggest to write a report about him.

But back to our day. We started out at 9AM at the Hershey Story Museum. This was great, we watched a demonstration in the chocolate lab where they made a chocolate bowl using a balloon and a "bug" cookie. I'm using the bowl idea to make edible "baskets" for Easter. You can make the basket completely edible by dying flaked coconut green and using that in place of plastic grass! After the lab we went upstairs to the museum. This is where we learned all about Hershey's life, business and contributions. Biggest was given an activity sheet with economic/entrepreneurship questions. We walked around at our own pace, reading and observing until the questions were answered. I now have a great addition for our portfolio.

After the museum area we watched a quick presentation on the journey of the cacao bean (those things look SO unappetizing!) And I learned the difference between cocoa beans an nibs. The nibs are simply crushed beans.

Then it was onto the gift shop with adorable and seriously overpriced wares. We bought a few things anyhow :)

By now it was around 11:30AM. We were finished with the Hershey Story Museum and we weren't due for Chocolate World until 1PM so we went out for lunch and a little drive around town. Hershey is a really adorable town. See the Hershey Kiss street lamps?

Around 1PM we headed over to Chocolate World. Here we were treated to a tour of the "jungle" which is pretty much an atrium in the middle of a HUGE gift shop. I missed most of this presentation because I was chasing Littlest around trying to keep him out of the merchandise. After the jungle we went on the Chocolate Tour. This was an adorable ride where animated cows sang a catchy jingle (think Disney's It's a Small World After All ) and an automated voice shared the journey of chocolate-from beans to bars. Littlest loved this ride, he thought the cows were wondrous.

Then it was onto the highlight of Biggest's day, The Really Big 3-D Show. This was so much fun, I won't give anything away. I'll just say that I highly recommend you take in the show. It's worth it. After the show, since we were part of the education tour, we were invited to the front of the theater where the "professor" (who was homeschooled her whole childhood!) explained all the cool effects. The kids were given certificates to take home, another addition to the portfolio :)

And that was our day! It was fun and educational and not too terribly expensive. The museum, including the booklet and activities cost 8.00 per person and Chocolate World, including the tour and 3-D show was 6.00 per person.

If you live too far away and can't physically get to Hershey the websites offer lots of info and some activities. Click the links for The Hershey Story Museum and Chocolate World sites! But if you are close enough to have the experience I should tell you that the amusement park opens for a few weekends in April, then full time in mid May (I think). And May is Homeschool Month-ALL MONTH homeshcoolers are offered an admission discount. Check it out here. Hope you can make it, physically or virtually!