Join us for our March 15th Home School Day! For this Home School Day, we’ll be exploring women’s history through hands-on activities and in-Village activities. Participants will learn about well-known women of the 1830s as well as the not-so-well-known. Bake a cake with maple sugar and explore the contributions women made to the abolitionist movement, imitate the style of women artists, and more.

Home School Days offer you and your family the opportunity to explore the Village and participate in hands-on activities. Sign up for a workshop or explore the Village on your own using one of our many self-guides and scavenger hunts, available at both Museum Education and the Visitor Center.

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 March 15

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.

In-Village Activities

Check back the week prior to Home School Day for more information! Activities may include:

• Women on the Farm
• Learn a 19th-Century Dance
• Performances and storytelling about women in the 19th century
• Drop-in games and crafts

Hands-On Workshops

Hearth Cooking: Cooking with Maple Sugar | 50 Minutes | $7

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

Follow a 19th-century “receipt” for Tunbridge Cakes, a dessert featuring maple sugar! Together, you will mix up these little cakes and bake them in the open hearth. While they bake, we’ll talk about the chores and jobs women did during the 1830s, in the home and outside of it. Ingredients will include: flour, butter, maple sugar, eggs, rosewater, cinnamon, nutmeg

Wool Dyeing | 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+)

Participants in this workshop will learn all about the science behind turning light wool into vibrant, dyed yarn! We will look at different dyestuffs; talk about mordants, metallic substances that help fix the dye to the wool; the mechanics behind spinning; and more. Then, we will dye our own skein of wool yarn using a modern dye: kool-aid!

Make a Terrarium | 50 Minutes | $8

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

Terrariums are very popular now, but did you know that they were also popular in the 1830s?

Participants will learn about heirloom plants that have grown throughout the year in the gardens at OSV and plant an ornamental terrarium to take home with them.

Plan our Garden | 50 Minutes | $7

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

It’s time to start planning the Museum Education garden beds! Together we’ll turn over our garden bed to get ready for planting, then plot out our gardens with potential veggies and herbs. Plant some vegetable seeds to take home, check on our compost, and learn about the contributions that women made on the farm and in their gardens in the 19^th century.

Art from Nature | 50 Minutes | $7

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

Did you know that cyanotypes, one of the first ways to create photographic images, were created in the 1840s? We’ll experiment with photo-sensitive paper to create our own beautiful nature images, weave using natural materials, and look at examples of art utilizing natural materials from the collection.

Make a Decorative Box | 50 Minutes | $7

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

In the 1830s, colorfully decorated pasteboard boxes were everywhere, and used for storing everything from sewing supplies to clothing. The Village’s collection contains many of these boxes, some decorated with shells and buttons, and signed by the woman who decorated it. Use papers, paints, shells, and beads to decorate your own keepsake box, while learning about the ways women learned and participated in the decorative arts in the 19^th century.

Stories and Crafts | 50 Minutes | $7

Enjoy storytime with a classic picture book, then try out a craft relating to the tale. This month’s stories will focus on the real lives of groundbreaking modern women and tie them to women from the early 19th century.

Register for 10:00: Mae Among the Stars (Ages 5+)

Together, we will read this lovely and inspiring book about Mae Jemison, the first Black woman to go into space.  We’ll talk a little about Maria Mitchell, an astronomer from the Village’s period, too, and then make a space-related craft to accompany the book.

Register for 11:00: Shark Lady: The True Story of How Eugenie Clark Became the Ocean’s Most Fearless Scientist (Ages 5+)

After reading this true tale about Eugenie Clark, an American ichthyologist, we will explore some tales of scientific innovation from the 1830s and create underwater scenes with watercolors.

Register for 1:00: Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré (Ages 5+)

Planting Stories is the true story about Pura Belpre, a Puerto Rican librarian and champion of bilingual literature. After reading the book together, we will talk about women in literature during the 1830s and make our own puppets like Pura Belpre.

Woodworking for Beginners: Make Toy Houses | 50 Minutes | $7

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

An introduction for beginning woodworkers! Try out a simple wood project by making a toy village playset. Participants will get a tour of our wood studio and learn about basic tool usage and safety.

Working in the Print Shop | 50 Minutes | $7

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

Did you know that one of the first copies of the Declaration of Independence was printed by a female printer named Mary Katherine Goddard in January of 1777? Though printing was mostly a men’s trade, young women sometimes worked as bookbinders in 19th-century printing offices (or ran their own presses, like Goddard!). We’ll learn more about the printing office and check out some women’s writings of the time. Then, we will bind our own journals and record our revolutionary thoughts with quill and ink!

Make a Collage Portrait | 50 Minutes | $7

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

For this workshop, we will take inspiration from a female portrait painter of the 1830s, Ruth Henshaw Bascom, to create portraits. Pastel and pencil self-portraits will be embellished with paper, foil, and ribbons. We’ll also look at some of Bascom’s portraits of New Englanders from the time period!

Make a Jacob’s Ladder | 50 Minutes | $7

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

Working with wood and ribbons, make a Jacob’s Ladder, a toy from the 1800s. Participants will learn stories, tricks, and visual illusions to do with this popular game piece. If the weather allows, we’ll play with other 19^th-century games outside!

Shelter Building | 50 Minutes | $7

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

Use your creative problem-solving skills and create a shelter from natural and manufactured materials. Participants will be given a scenario before coming up with their own designs for protective shelters.

Make a Butter Paddle and Butter | 90 Minutes | $10

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

It’s a butter extravaganza! Participants in this workshop will first hone their woodworking skills by making a butter paddle, a small spatula to help separate the butter from buttermilk. Afterwards, we’ll make our own butter and enjoy a snack while hearing about women’s role in dairying during the 1830s.

 Wool Gathering | 90 Minutes | $10

Register for 10:00 (Ages 12+) SOLD OUT
Register for 1:00 (Ages 12+)

Participants in this workshop will craft their own drop spindle from wood. After making the spindle, learn to spin wool into thread during this extended workshop.

Make a Decorative Floorcloth | 90 Minutes | $10

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

Durable Floor cloths were widely used in New England in the 1830s to decorate homes and block out drafts. Women would use paper stencils on them to imitate patterns from more expensive woven carpets. Make your own small version of these popular and useful items out of canvas!

Hearth Cooking: Brooks Cake | 90 Minutes | $10

Register for 10:00 (Ages 9+) SOLD OUT
Register for 1:00 (Ages 12+) SOLD OUT

Follow a 19th-century “receipt” for Brooks cake, a cake made with maple sugar. To raise funds for the antislavery cause, Mary Brooks, Headmistress of the Concord Female Anti-Slavery Society, baked and sold her signature tea cake, widely known as Brooks Cake. It was served at all Concord, Massachusetts, anti-slavery meetings. Participants will make the cake and learn a little about women’s contributions to the anti-slavery movement. Ingredients will include: flour, maple sugar, butter, eggs, milk, currants

Village Tour: Women in the 1830s | 90 Minutes | $10

Register for 10:00 (Ages 6+)

March is Women’s History Month! Take a tour of the Village with an experienced educator to learn more about women in the 1830s. We will focus on the types of labor women did during this time, their involvement in social movements, and more. Please note: this tour involves a lot of walking and will last about 1.5 hours. Adults are welcome to join their child(ren) for this tour, but registration spots are for participants only.