Dresses & Dancing!

This morning started again with greeting buses as they arrived to the village. The museum education access road was still closed but should be open again tomorrow.

Then we observed some of the programs the village offers for visiting school groups. First we watched "Grandma's Trunk" which is about the American Revolution. The story is that the performer is going through her grandmother's old trunk in the attic and finds items dating back to the Revolution. A lot of guests come in thinking that Strubridge is a colonial village and really we're about 60 years later. Anyway... the items in the trunk make a timeline of key events before and after the signing of the Declaration like a cone of sugar to represent the Sugar Act and a painting of the men who went to sign the Treaty of Paris ending the war. The kids get to hold the items while the teacher makes a timeline with titles and pictures in the front of the class. It was a really cool way to teach because it hit on a bunch of different learning styles and had lots of repetition. This group of kids also already knew a lot. They were excited about Paul Revere's painting of the Boston Massacre because it's in their textbook.

The next program was an anti-slavery petition. Kids were told about the abolitionist movement in New England in the 1830s and given a petition asking Congress to abolish slavery in Washington D.C, to convince the museum interpretors to sign. The kids learn that slavery was a complicated issue and not just the clear cut wrong we see it as today. For example, interpretors might voice concerns about the economy if slavery is ended. They also learn a little about government at the time. 

In the afternoon we got to watch the last round of studios before learning about costuming kids for summer camp and doing a bit of camp prep-work. 

The best part of the day was joining the volunteer dance group. They practice Monday nights and preform at special events at the Village. The group seemed happy to have us and were all friendly and patient while we learned the dance steps. Tonight we learned four dances. Once you got the hang of them they aren't too bad. Some moves are similar to square dancing and all the dances had short sequences you just repeat over and over. The only tricky part is that for most of them we danced in couples down a line and once you got to the end of the line the steps change slightly and you start going the opposite direction! It was very fun though and I'm looking forward to going back.

If you're in the area I hope you'll come out and visit one day!