Charlestown, Mass – Daddio has been reading Nathaniel Philbrick’s book Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution. He admitted to me that he had never been to the Bunker Hill Monument, despite growing up in the Boston area and now living about three miles away. I had also never taken the twins to the monument. So we concocted an outing.
Now that they are nine, we figured, the twins are the perfect age to run up and down the 294 steps. We were right. In fact, they did it twice.
Turns out, the twins were also a source of fun facts about the Battle of Bunker Hill, thanks to watching Liberty Kids at school. For example, most of the fighting took place not on Bunker Hill, but on Breed’s Hill, which is where the Monument stands today. Both the battle and the monument were misnamed. The twins also knew why this was an important battle for the colonists — not because they won, but because the British suffered so many casualties.
Afterwards, we went across the street to see the National Park Service exhibits. There was a diorama of the battle and a decent selection of old weapons from the actual battle. What more could we ask for? The only thing missing was a musket demonstration like I saw last summer.
It’s been a while since I have been able to convince my children to join me for an outing to a historic site. Like, years. (Six years since we went to see the USS Constitution, apparently!) So this was a pleasant surprise, to have them truly engaged, not only in the climbing but even in the history of the Bunker Hill Monument. Every age presents a new set of challenges and a new set of rewards. And so it goes.