Join us for our June Home School Day on Wednesday, June 21! Home School Days offer you and your family the opportunity to explore the Village and participate in activities. This is a great opportunity for kids to gain exposure to many aspects of 1830s New England life in an interactive way. During this Home School Day, we’ll celebrate natural resources. See what’s happening on the farm, immerse yourself in the sights and sounds of nature, and learn about how early New Englanders utilized the plants, trees, and fields around them.

Register for one of the in-person programs with the Village’s knowledgeable staff or explore the Village on your own using self-guides, scavenger hunts, and more. All activities will take place at Museum Education, unless otherwise noted.

Admission and Ticketing

On Home School Day, homeschoolers (ages 4-17) get in at the discounted rate $10 and one adult is admitted per home school youth at the discounted rate of $15. Additional adults above the 1 to 1 ratio are admitted at the full rate of $28. As always, members get into the Village for free.

Workshops are an additional fee; see below for details.

Click here to purchase standard daytime admission for June 21

Things to know:

• Unless otherwise noted, workshops will take place inside or outside the Museum Education building. You may park at Museum Education during the day; click here for directions.
• The Museum Education building closes to the public following workshops due to our afterschool program
• Home School Days are rain-or-shine programs.
• Pre-registration is required for all activities listed below, unless otherwise noted.
• All events are limited to 10 students, unless otherwise noted.
• Please respect the age requirements for the workshops. They are set for the benefit of our educators and all program participants.
• These are not drop-in programs and our staff will have a list of registrants for each workshop.
• Please let us know as soon as possible if you need to cancel your workshop tickets. As these workshops are in high demand, refunds for workshop fees will only be given up to one week prior to the event date, or in the case of cancellation by Old Sturbridge Village.
• Students’ guardians must stay in close proximity of the program location for the entire duration of the activity for safety reasons.
• Workshop times are approximate. Please stay close by during your child’s workshop.
• Meeting locations for these workshops may change. Stay tuned to your email or signage at the Visitor Center on the day of the program for any potential location changes.
• When visiting the Village, please note that children must be accompanied by an adult when visiting the Miner Grant Store or Ox & Yoke Mercantile. Guests are welcome to eat at picnic tables around the campus but due to limited space, guests are not permitted to dine in the Bullard Café unless purchasing food.

Check back the week prior to the event for more information on in-Village activities.

Hands-On Workshops

Stories and Crafts | 50 Minutes | $7 

Enjoy storytime with a classic picture book, then try out a craft relating to the tale.

Register for 10:00: Boxitects (Ages 5+) SOLD OUT

Together, we’ll read Boxitects by Kim Smith. After hearing this delightful tale, we’ll look at different types of buildings throughout the Village and then create our own constructions.

Register for 11:00: Me on the Map (Ages 5+)  SOLD OUT

In this introduction to maps by Joan Sweeney, participants learn about geography in a playful way. After listening to the tale, we will examine maps of OSV and from the Village’s time period, learn about compasses, and then see if we have the skills to follow a treasure map!

Register for 1:00: Jo MacDonald Had a Garden (Age 5+) SOLD OUT

In this story by Mary Quattlebaum, students will learn about garden ecosystems and how to help a garden thrive. We will also talk about what is growing in the Village’s gardens and do a garden-related craft.

Hearth cooking: Make a Trifle | 50 Minutes | $7

Register for 10:00 (Ages 10+) SOLD OUT
Register for 11:00 (Ages 8+) SOLD OUT
Register for 1:00 (Ages 6+) SOLD OUT

Follow a 19th-century “receipt” for trifle. We’ll celebrate June’s fresh strawberries as we made this delicious layered dessert. While the cake bakes, we will talk about what is starting to grow on the farm. Ingredients will include: strawberries, eggs, flour, milk, jam, cream

Petal Power | 50 Minutes | $7

Register for 10:00 (Ages 6+) SOLD OUT
Register for 11:00 (Ages 6+) SOLD OUT
Register for 1:00 (Ages 8+) SOLD OUT

This workshop will combine nature and science to make beautiful watercolor paints. The paints will be made by steeping the leaves of flowers and adding either lemon juice or baking soda to create different tones. Students will learn about various flowers and discuss the pH scale and how it relates to color. Once the colors have been made the students will have an opportunity to paint with them on canvas.

Impressions of Nature | 50 Minutes | $7

Register for 10:00 (Ages 8+) SOLD OUT
Register for 11:00 (Ages 6+) SOLD OUT
Register for 1:00 (Ages 10+)

Through history, naturalists have studied things around them and the relationships between them. They have collected “found” objects and words to represent their observations so they act as memories of experiences. After exploring found objects and words, participants will create a clay relief artwork and list poem about their experiences.

Make a Set of Block Printed Cards | 50 Minutes | $7

Register for 10:00 (Ages 6+) SOLD OUT
Register for 11:00 (Ages 10+) SOLD OUT
Register for 1:00 (Ages 8+) SOLD OUT

Together we’ll learn about what life was like in a rural, 19^th-century print shop. Who worked there, and what did they do? After that, we’ll use printing blocks carved with beautiful animal designs to create a set of cards to take home.

Make a Wet Felted Design | 50 Minutes | $7

Register for 10:00 (Ages 10+) SOLD OUT
Register for 11:00 (Ages 6+) SOLD OUT
Register for 1:00 (Ages 8+) SOLD OUT

The sheep have been shorn of their thick winter coats, so it’s time to process all that wool! During this session, participants will learn about people picked, scoured, and dyed wool during the 1830s. Then, we will create a modern art project, using colorful wool roving to make a unique design through the process of wet felting.

Sew a Carrot Pincushion | 50 Minutes | $7

Register for 10:00 (Ages 8+) SOLD OUT
Register for 11:00 (Ages 8+) SOLD OUT
Register for 1:00 (Ages 6+) SOLD OUT

Celebrate the coming bounty of the summer with this cute, carrot-shaped pincushion for all your creative sewing projects.

Design a Bug | 50 Minutes | $7

Register for 10:00 (Ages 6+) SOLD OUT
Register for 11:00 (Ages 6+) SOLD OUT

Participants in this workshop will take a short bug walk along one of the Village’s nature trails and learn more about the bugs that live here and their importance to the ecosystem. After that, we’ll use our knowledge to design our own bugs from paper and modeling clay.

Make a Wooden Peg Board | 50 Minutes | $7

Register for 10:00 (Ages 9+) SOLD OUT
Register for 11:00 (Ages 9+) SOLD OUT

Try out 19^th-century woodworking tools, work together to assemble a timberframe structure, and make a small peg board to take home in our recently revamped wood shop! Participants will also learn about the importance of woodworking in the past and then many different tradesmen who worked with wood.

9-Men’s Morris Board | 50 Minutes | $7

Register for 10:00 (Ages 8+) SOLD OUT
Register for 11:00 (Ages 10+) SOLD OUT
Register for 1:00 (Ages 8+) SOLD OUT

Learn the rules of the classic game 9-Men’s Morris and practice your skills. Then, make and decorate a wooden board to bring home with you!

Extended Open-Hearth Cooking: Strawberry Tart | 90 Minutes | $12

Register for 10:00 (Ages 10+) SOLD OUT

Work together to cook a tart using seasonal fruits! During this workshop, we will follow a 19^th-century receipt for a strawberry tart. While the tart is baking, we’ll discuss what is growing in the gardens, gender roles on the farm, and more. Ingredients will include: strawberries, raspberries, sugar, butter, flour, cream

Village Herbs Tour | 90 Minutes | $12

Register for 10:00 (Ages 12+)  SOLD OUT

Have you ever wanted to know more about the culinary and medicinal properties of some of the herbs growing in the Village’s gardens? During this program, participants will tour through OSV’s gardens and talk about the many uses of herbs during the 1830s and today. At the end of the program, we will plant some herbs to take home.

Make a Miniature Rag Rug | 90 Minutes | $12

Register for 1:00 (Ages 10+) SOLD OUT

Coverings like carpets and canvas floorcloths were important to help protect a house’s floors from fires, dirt, and daily wear and tear. We will use scraps of wool and fabric to weave our own small rag rugs.

Make a Flower Press | 90 Minutes | $12

Register for 1:00 (Ages 10+) SOLD OUT

People have been collecting and pressing botanical specimens for hundreds of years. Participants in this workshop will look at examples of flora and fauna from the collection, see what’s in bloom, and construct their own flower press from wood.

Geology Tour of OSV | 90 Minutes | $12

Register for 1:00 (Ages 13+)

Learn about the geological history of the area surrounding Old Sturbridge Village. As we walk through the Village, we will look at the mineral and stone deposits that were useful to industries in the 1830s. Check out geological formations around the campus that you’ve never noticed before.