Election Day Program for Kids!

November 3rd, 2015

10:00 am - 2:00 pm

Kids can come to WHS  while their parents are voting for local RTM, Finance and School Board officials and have an educational experience exploring the root cellar in the Society’s old barn and learning how families stored vegetables before the invention of refrigerators.

Election Day follows harvest season, when, earlier in the nation’s history, farm children stayed home from school to help bring in the crops. Today, children’s programs that combine learning, creativity and fun are a WHS tradition on Election Day, when kids also have a holiday from school.

The day’s activities will include making “Mr. Potato Heads” with real and fake root vegetables, creating a folk art American flag, and baking a corn muffin snack with the Society’s education director, Elizabeth DeVoll. “Let your children join us on Election Day and let their freedom flags fly,” DeVoll said.

The day will include a tour of the Society’s historic stone barn, where kids will see how root veggies like winter squash, turnips, carrots and potatoes, fruits such as apples and pears, and jellies and jams were put away to prevent spoilage. Root cellars were places where temperature and humidity could be controlled; they were frequently dug into the sides of hills or located in basements, which in the old days were unheated. The root cellar at the WHS lies beneath the restored stone barn, which is also a mini museum where tools once used by Westport farmers are displayed.

In addition to farm equipment, the barn displays a vintage American flag that will serve as a focal point for a talk on the evolution of Old Glory and the symbolism of its red, white and blue colors. Afterwards, the kids will create a folk art flag using weathered cedar boards from an old stockade fence.

And, in the spirit of the Halloween season, there will be a “treasure hunt” in the rooms of Bradley-Wheeler House for ghost-themed seasonal decorations that aren’t hidden but don’t jump out at you either.

$45 members, $55 non-members; registration required, call (203) 222-1424. Bring a bag lunch. Ages 5 to 10.