Old Sturbridge Village Homeschool Day

We spent another day at Old Sturbridge Village and had a great time! Maddie was totally outfitted this time in her dress and pinafore much to her delight. When we arrived they had a sleigh and cloaks set up in the visitor center. Maddie hopped right into the sleigh and I took a couple of pictures that we love!


Then we zipped off to Maddie's class in tin punching to make a lantern.


The theme for this visit was The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. We participated in a scavenger hunt so we had to keep our eyes open for Jack O Lanterns scattered around the village. When we spotted one we had to visit the place where it was and figure out how it might relate to the story. This was a ton of fun! We found Jack O Lanterns outside some of the houses, the graveyard, Knight's Store and by the bridge.



Uh-oh! Poor Ichabod!
We also saw a shadow puppet show telling the Legend of Sleepy Hollow plus a little history behind puppets. It was easy to see this was a group of kids who love stories because there was little to no movement in the audience and all were enthralled with the low tech show....I loved it!


We saw lots of interesting things today as we walked around! We watched some boys from the local school acting as apprentices in the Blacksmith Shop. Maddie was invited to help but had just heard that girls didn't do that job so wasn't interested!

Then we saw a blue heron on our way back to the village from the education building. Maddie was quite annoyed with the other kids because they kept yelling to the heron at the top of their lungs and she was trying her best to get a picture! Obviously these children had never been in the woods with their poppa is what she decided afterwards.

We saw this man while waiting to get into the puppet show. I was surprised at the number of people we saw dressed in costume today!

When we stopped at the farmhouse they were having afternoon tea. One of the women recognized Maddie from previous visits and invited her to sit with them. Then they all explained that they were having tea with their "serviettes" (no idea if I am spelling that right!) tucked into their collars to prevent spills. They also explained that they were having a "dish of tea" not a cup of tea. Their cups didn't have a handle and they poured their tea into a saucer. They did this because they used loose tea leaves. By allowing the tea to brew in the cup the leaves would fall to the bottom then they could pour out the tea and avoid the leaves. Very interesting!

As usual we had a wonderful time and can't wait for the next Homeschool day so we can go back!!