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Hands-on fun in Historic Deerfield

By Mara

Tommy loved using a loom to weave in Historic Deerfield

Please click on the photo to see a full-sized version.

Although we drive to the same part of Vermont every summer, and have some favorite places where we just have to stop on the way like Sylvester’s Restaurant, I also try to find new things to visit along the way. This year we spent a rainy weekend checking out some museums in western Massachusetts including the houses in Historic Deerfield.

A highlight there for the boys was the History Workshop, where kids can participate in all kinds of hands-on activities and imaginative play, all of it designed to teach about life in colonial America. The focus there in the summer of 2012 was on flax, which in the 18th century was grown in kitchen gardens and used to make thread and paper. Tommy really enjoyed learning how to weave – he actually sat at the loom for a 15 minutes and probably added a good inch to the pattern. Not pictured is me untangling the thread for the same amount of time! But in addition to Tommy feeling a real sense of accomplishment for what he made,  the activities like this one were a visible demonstration to the boys of just how long it used to take to make everyday items.

This post is part of my Postcards from the Road, Summer 2012 series, where I’ve been sharing short pictorial posts of our adventures from the road. We’ve already been to Switzerland and France – do you think that New England can compare? Check out for yourself and see.

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Filed Under: Massachusetts, Postcards from the road, We've been here

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Comments

  1. Jessica says

    August 3, 2012 at 1:13 am

    I’ve really enjoyed your postcards series from Europe, but this postcard is just as enjoyable. That may be because I can imagine myself doing plenty of untangling in the same situation.:)

    • Mara says

      August 5, 2012 at 9:50 pm

      Thank you Jessica! It felt like a meditative act for a woman who tends to solve such problems at home with scissors.

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