Thursday, April 10, 2025
Times: The Village is open from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Workshop times vary.
Cost: On Home School Day, homeschoolers (ages 4-17) get in at the discounted rate $12 and one adult is admitted per home school youth at the discounted rate of $17. Additional adults above the 1-to-1-ratio are admitted at the full rate of $30. As always, members get into the Village for free. Workshops are an additional fee to cover materials and staffing.
Join us for our April Home School Day on Thursday, April 10! 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 the coming springtime through an exploration of the Village through the lens of science and engineering. How did New Englanders utilize natural resources? What kinds of things were 19th-century people inventing to make their lives easier and more efficient?
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 $12 and one adult is admitted per home school youth at the discounted rate of $17. Additional adults above the 1-to-1-ratio are admitted at the full rate of $30. As always, members get into the Village for free. The April 10th Home School Day falls within our Kids Free promotion (March and April, 2025) where up to two kids, 17 years old or younger, are admitted for FREE per adult paying for full-price standard daytime admission ($30 at the door, $27 online for adults, $28 at the door, $25 online for seniors age 55 and over). The Kids Free promotion cannot be combined with the Homeschool parent discount ($15), please choose the best tickets for your family.
Workshops are an additional fee.
Purchase admission for Home School Day on April 10, 2025
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
Make Seed Balls | 50 Minutes | $7
Sign up for 10:00 (Ages 5+)
Sign up for 11:00 (Ages 5+) SOLD OUT
Sign up for 1:00 (Ages 5+) SOLD OUT
It’s spring, which means that it's time to get planting. Participants will work in a raised bed, plant a seed to take home, and also try out a 21st-century planting activity: making seed balls from clay, soil, and wildflower seeds!
Wool Dyeing | 50 Minutes | $7
Sign up for 10:00 (Ages 6+) SOLD OUT
Sign up for 11:00 (Ages 6+) SOLD OUT
Sign up for 1:00 (Ages 8+)
It's April, which means new lambs on the farm and soon, new haircuts for the sheep. 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.
Open-Hearth Cooking: Carrot Fritters | 50 Minutes | $7
Sign up for 10:00 (Ages 8+) SOLD OUT
Sign up for 11:00 (Ages 6+) SOLD OUT
Sign up for 1:00 (Ages 10+) SOLD OUT
Follow a 19th-century “receipt” for carrot fritters. During the early spring, farm families might have to dig deep into their root cellars to prepare meals. These fritters are a delicious treat and celebration of the humble carrot. Ingredients will include: carrots, eggs, orange, flour, sugar
Basic Food Preservation: Make a Soft Cheese & Shrub | 50 Minutes | $7
Sign up for 10:00 (Ages 10+) SOLD OUT
Sign up for 11:00 (Ages 10+)
Dairying was an important business in the 1800s! We will get into the science of food preservation as we talk about the process of transforming milk to butter and cheese, then make our own soft cheese. We will enjoy our snack with shrub, another receipt that preserves the harvest. Ingredients include: milk, vinegar, salt, cream, flour, butter, berries, sugar
Make a Sachet and Herbal Remedies | 50 Minutes | $7
Sign up for 10:00 (Ages 8+) SOLD OUT
Sign up for 11:00 (Ages 10+) SOLD OUT
Sign up for 1:00 (Ages 6+) SOLD OUT
In the 1830s, many people did not have access to doctors, so women took on a healing role in their families. Examining period books like The Frugal Housewife and The Family Nurse, we will learn about how people treated illnesses using herbs, then make a sachet to take home.
Stories and Crafts: Percy’s Museum | 50 Minutes | $7
Enjoy storytime with a classic picture book, then try out a craft relating to the tale. Together, we’ll read Percy’s Museum by Sara O’Leary. This sweet story tells the tale of a boy who admires and collects things from the outside world to create his own museum. We’ll talk about what museums—like Old Sturbridge Village!—are, and then create our own craft inspired by nature.
Stories and Crafts: The Boy who Drew Birds | 50 Minutes | $7
Sign up for 11:00 (Ages 5+) SOLD OUT
Enjoy storytime with a classic picture book, then try out a craft relating to the tale. We will enjoy this beautifully illustrated biography of John James Audubon, whose love of birds and careful study of their migration patterns informed much of what we know today about our feathered friends. After the story, we will look at some bird-related artifacts from the OSV collection before creating a simple bird craft from fabric.
Stories and Crafts: Snowflake Bentley | 50 Minutes | $7
Enjoy storytime with a classic picture book, then try out a craft relating to the tale. Together we will read this award-winning story about Wilson Bentley, a farmer born in Vermont during the Village’s time period. Through curiosity, patience, and determination, Bentley became the first person the photograph and document snowflakes. We’ll learn about how photography came to be during the early 19th century and then experiment with photo-sensitive paper!
Needle Felting | 50 Minutes | $7
Sign up for 10:00 (Ages 8+) SOLD OUT
Sign up for 11:00 (Ages 10+) SOLD OUT
Sign up for 1:00 (Ages 8+) SOLD OUT
Try out this fun craft that involves sculpting wool into shapes using special needles! We’ll also explore the ways in which people utilized natural resources in both useful and artistic ways in the 1830s, as well as the 19th-century inventions that helped innovate textile creation.
Woodworking for Beginners: Make a Wooden Ox | 50 Minutes | $7
Sign up for 10:00 (Ages 6+)
Sign up for 11:00 (Ages 6+) SOLD OUT
Life for kids in the 1800s wasn’t all about work! This is a great introduction to woodworking for younger participants. We will sand and paint a wooden form to create a fun, wooden ox to take home. This toy is inspired by one in the museum’s collection.
Make a Passenger Pigeon Sculpture | 50 Minutes | $7
Sign up for 10:00 (Ages 6+) SOLD OUT
Sign up for 11:00 (Ages 10+) SOLD OUT
Sign up for 1:00 (Ages 8+) SOLD OUT
During the Village’s time period, the passenger pigeon migrated in huge flocks, filling the skies of North America. An important source of food, the passenger pigeon was driven westward and then eventually hunted into extinction. Participants in this workshop will hear the story of the beautiful passenger pigeon, learn a little about early American naturalists, and shape their own bird from clay.
Block Print a Set of Animal Cards | 50 Minutes | $7
Sign up for 10:00 (Ages 6+) SOLD OUT
Sign up for 11:00 (Ages 6+) SOLD OUT
Sign up for 1:00 (Ages 8+) SOLD OUT
Use a set of wood block prints featuring animals—or create your own design--to create your own animal-inspired notecards to take home. While we work, we’ll talk about working in a 19th-century print shop.
Make a Flower Press | 90 Minutes | $12
Sign up 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.
Simple Machines Scavenger Hunt | 90 Minutes | $7
Sign up for 1:00 (Ages 6+) SOLD OUT
There are so many simple machines in use around the Village! Join an educator for a fun scavenger hunt around the Museum as we search for pulleys, levers, and more!
Make an Herbal Swag and Herbal Remedies | 90 Minutes | $12
Sign up for 10:30 (Ages 10+ ) SOLD OUT
For many people, daily life in rural New England rotated around the farmer’s year. In an area like Sturbridge, most families had at least a small farm or garden. Herbs and flowers were used to flavor and preserve food, heal the sick, dye plants, and repel insects; and many natural remedies were influenced by Indigenous practices. We’ll talk about the ways that 19th-century people used these goods while making a beautiful and decorative swag.
Working with Yeast: Muffins | 90 Minutes | $12
Sign up for 10:30 (Ages 9+) SOLD OUT
In the 1830s, cooks could not buy yeast for baking at the store, so they had to collect their own from nature. Together, we will make our own 19th-century yeast trap and then bake muffins (probably different from most muffins you have had before!) on a griddle. Ingredients will include: flour, butter, eggs, yeast, milk; yeast trap will include hops, molasses, and cornmeal
Extended Open-Hearth Cooking: Herb Pie | 90 Minutes | $12
Sign up for 1:00 (Ages 10+) SOLD OUT
Follow a 19th-century “receipt” for herb pie, which is similar to a modern-day quiche. In the 1830s, April was known as a “time of want” on the farm. Even though the weather was starting to get warm, fall food stores were running low and few plants sprouted in the garden. Families would take advantage of eggs, wild greens, and herbs to make dishes like this one. Ingredients will include: eggs, cheese, herbs, greens, flour, butter