Field Trip - State Capital

California State Capital Building, Sacramento

Today we had our first homeschooling field trip. I took the day off from work and we went to the State Capital in Sacramento. I had never been there. I grew up in Washington State and have been to the capital building in Olympia, but have not been to this one.

It was an awesome mother-daughter day. We learned alot and had a blast doing it!

Our day started off with us stopping by my work. My daughter got to meet a few of my friends including my soon to be new manager (I'm transferring to a new position in January).

Then we headed to the Capital. We signed up for a free tour which took us through the capital building and went over California State history. Since I did not grow up in California I'm not very familiar with its history - so I found this very interesting. I grew up learning about Lewis & Clark, not California Missions.

We then got to go into the balcony above the Assembly. There are 80 members of the assembly. In one of my pictures you can see the board with all the Assemblymen names. When a new bill is introduced they have a green and red button at their desks that they use to vote. The screen on the wall shows their vote. The Assembly members are supposed to be closest to the people which is why the room is all done in green. It represents the earth and shows that they are closer to the people (I think I got that right!) They serve 2 year terms and can serve up to 3 terms.

Assembly Floor - note the list of names on the left side. The fuzzy portrait

at the top is of Abraham Lincoln.

Assembly floor - note all the green,
you can see the desks in this picture but can't

make out the button. We could see them though.

Then we were able to visit the Senate. There are only 40 of them and they vote by roll call. So no board with names or green/red buttons. Not sure of the meaning behind the red color. They serve 4 year terms if I remember correctly. Just like our president.

Senate floor - the columns are red with pink - kind of hard to tell here.

Note no board with names, they vote by roll-call. The portrait here

is of George Washington.

Our tour guide was impressed that Tyler recognized the paintings of Lincoln and Washington and was a bit surprised when she volunteered that Washington was our first president. He was really impressed when she told him that the president served 4 year terms and could only serve 2 terms.

Inside of the dome at the Capital. Makes you dizzy to look up like that - but it is beautiful.

We also got to see portraits of past California governors. I remember knowing in the past that Ronald Regan was governor of California (when I was born in fact!) but I had forgotten about that. When we got to the portrait of Gray Davis (the only governor of CA to be recalled and the governor in office when we moved to CA and Tyler was born) the tour guide asked Tyler about the flowers in the painting (Gray Davis is standing in a field of poppies). I don't think he expected an answer because he was really surprised when Tyler answered that it was the State flower of California. Those state books from the library and the state journal she has been doing is paying off! (And Mom's not biased or proud at all!!!)

Tyler in front of the Capital - technically on the side of the Capital I guess. I was using my phone camera and the lighting was not good to take it in front.

We ended the day with a trip to Starbucks (of course!) and a visit to the library to get some more state books.

We will definitely be going back for the tour again in a couple years when she is older and will get more out of the tour.

Tonight while confirming a few facts I learned today I came across this site for kids which I'll be showing my daughter. It walks them through the law making process in California. They are able to write up a new law themselves and then follow it through the entire process. Pretty cool. Check it out!

Your Idea Becomes a Law