Old Sturbridge Village Trip Review

Old Sturbridge VillageName:Old Sturbridge Village
Location: Sturbridge, Massachusetts
Website: http://www.osv.org/
Length of stay: 2 1/2 hours & 5 1/2 hours

Old Sturbridge Village is a great trip with lots of hands on activities for you and the kids to learn about the colonial life from the 1830s. You can see daily life and various activities they would have done during that time. People are dressed in period clothes and can answer questions about the time. Every trip you can learn something different. This review will be a combination of two visits.

When you enter you get a map of the place and things that are going on that day. They change each day. Each of the days had different activities they were showing during that time. The map helps your get around the village and also gives you the times that everything is available. There is also more information about the village and a kids play area that is a lot of fun.

Old Sturbridge Village

For all the house in the village you can see where they came from and information about the houses. They are a collection from various places. one of the first house you see is a small house. The girls were shocked to find out that most likely that was the size of house they would have lived in. Each visit the house had something different for them to see and learn about.

Old Sturbridge Village

The girls were loved learning about the sheep and their wool. We learning about dying wool and spinning different types of materials. We saw how they made different pinks and brown colors. My oldest was fascinated that they used a bug to make pink her favorite color. We watched as they washed the wool and prepared different pots for dying. We got a demonstration on a spinning wheel as well.

Old Sturbridge Village

We got a look at different meeting houses a various sizes. They found it interesting that they had two floors with a hold on the top floor to look down. They liked to wander up the around the different benches. In one of the buildings they said it looked like a maze of benches.

Old Sturbridge Village

There are several barns and different farms. You can see a barn and farm in town. Then there is one further out that has more cows. IN town the girls got to look at different equipment you would have had in a barn and their use and also got to learn how to milk a cow. They loved doing that. As the Freeman house we saw a baby calf, a pig and some chickens with a rooster.

Old Sturbridge Village

We stopped at several different places. We saw the printing house and got a demonstration on how the printing press worked. We talked about how different it was from out printers today. We saw the glass house and many different glasses, bottles and creations from glass. The Bank had coins and showed you how things would have been set up. The Tin Shop had a demonstration of making apple corers.

Old Sturbridge Village

There were several different types of homes in the area. They saw various things used for cooking, cleaning and drinking. We got to try several different types of beds to try. The girls like the kitchen in places the best.

Old Sturbridge Village

There was a play area that has been set up for older kids to use. The girls loved playing here. There was a wagon, pretend out house, slide in a barn and farm animals to play around.

Old Sturbridge Village

There are 3 different types of rides at Sturbridge Village: a stage coach, boat and wagon. The stage coach and boat cost money to ride and were both a lot of fun. The wagon takes you for a ride around the village and makes 3 stops along the way. It made it easier for littler girls to get around without having to do all the walking.

Old Sturbridge Village

The girls loved the one room District School house. They saw lots of different games outside to try. Inside they got to sit in the seats and learn about school in those days. We learned about who sat in the front benches (ages 4 to 6) and how the kids learned. We looked at slate boards and some books they used. It was a learning lesson for them both and everyone was in the same classroom.

Old Sturbridge Village

Old Sturbridge Village offer some crafts that you can pay and do. We did one of those a penny rug. It was the girls first time trying to sew. They loved it. Even my youngest did great with trying her best at the craft. We had not finished but they sent us home with extra thread and a needles to finish the project at home.

Old Sturbridge Village

Both trips over all the girls learned a lot of information and still did not see everything. They want to go back again. We learned so much about the era and how they lived.

Cassie – 3Dinosaurs.com

3 Comments

    1. I’ve not heard of that one. We are not close enough to that one to go easy. But I’ll add it to a list if we get in that area.

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