Looking for something fun to do with your children or grandchildren during February vacation?  Come to the Windsor Historical Society’s Hands-On-History Learning Center, where kids will find a variety of programs to delight, entertain and even educate!  Activities for children ages 5 to 10 will run continually from 10am – 1pm starting Monday, February 18 through Friday, February 22, with new activities offered daily.  A parent or guardian must accompany their children, and participants are encouraged to wear clothing suitable for messy play.  Costs are $5 for adults, $4 for seniors, $3 for children, $2 for WHS members, or $10 per family.  All families will receive a stamped Vacation Week Activity Card which will entitle them to a discount on Family Admission on additional Vacation Week days. 

 

The Society will offer a range of fun activities and craft projects that change from day to day.  On Monday, kids will celebrate President’s Day with some presidential crafts while also looking at the meaning of some of Windsor’s monuments and memorials.  Kids will then create their own 3-D monument to honor a hero or leader who’s special in their life using paper or modeling clay.  On Tuesday, kids will learn how families recorded their history before the invention of cameras by creating a family portrait using paint or modeling clay.   On Wednesday, children will explore the ways other cultures have recorded history by creating Navajo sand paintings, European mosaics using paper, South African rock art, or Chinese scroll paintings.  On Thursday, children will explore different ways to create their own family crest or get their very own lesson in scrapbooking, a creative way to save and record family vacations, summer camp, or just hanging around with friends.  Children are encouraged to bring a few of their own photos to create some scrapbook pages.   On Friday, children will create and decorate 3-D photo frames.  Bring an empty shoe box and learn how to create a shadow box!  A variety of other materials will be available each day for independent creativity, and children can always enjoy a variety of activities at the Society’s Hands-On-History Learning Center, including playing dress-up in reproduction colonial clothing.

 

The February Vacation Week activities are offered in conjunction with the Society’s exhibition, Camera Crazy:  Photographers of Windsor 1885-1930 and will be open for viewing during the programs.  The exhibition highlights five late-19^th century photographers who turned their cameras on Windsor, producing an invaluable record of the town in Victorian times.  Parking is available around Palisado Green and in the First Church and Windsor Discovery Center Parking lots.