A fun weekly gathering at The Farmers’ Museum designed for families with children. Each week, a variety of new games, craft activities, and lessons will be introduced, with elementary academic content best suited for children ages 4 – 10. The program ends at approximately 11:30am. Parental involvement encouraged. Build lasting friendships and rediscover the simple pleasures of traditional New York lifeways through the summer months at The Farmers’ Museum.

Appropriate dress is recommended for the weather as each program will include a guided walk through the Museum grounds. We encourage parents to RSVP by registering via Eventbrite or by contacting Michelle Bosma, Manager of Youth Programs (email m.bosma@fenimoreart.org or telephone 607-547-1414) with the number of children planning to attend. This program is provided free of cost to museum members and retired career military. Non-members will be charged for regular museum admission.

Family Farm Fun! Schedule 2022

(Subject to change pending severe weather)

July 5th - The Noble Farmer. Using an inquiry lesson, we will learn that many of America’s founding fathers and mothers were also farmers. To celebrate the noble farmer and our countryside, we will decorate banners, perform a marching drill, and parade with streamers and drums to Bump Tavern. There, the democratic process will be enacted as we vote for our favorite ice cream, ending with a complimentary carousel ride.

July 12st – A Sense of Place. Families will be introduced to a series of maps demonstrating our changing Otsego County landscape through time. Particular points of interest as preserved by local folklore will be introduced as well as natural features. We will then engage in our own mapmaking project, traveling the grounds of the Historic Village and Farm, completing our colorful maps in the Main Barn. To test our map-making and navigation skills, we will then use maps of The Farmers’ Museum to discover a treasure marked by an “x” before ending with a carousel ride.

July 19th - The Natural World. After listening to rich descriptions of Cooperstown as remembered by Susan Fenimore Cooper in Rural Hours and by James Fenimore Cooper in The Leatherstocking Tales, families will embark on an animal tracking adventure, identifying the tracks of common mammals in Central New York. We will then gather in the Main Barn to create paper bird mobiles.

July 26th – Farm Chores and Soap. At Lippitt Farm House we will strike a bargain: the children can make personalized soap if they agree to help with the dirty farm chores. Using nontoxic materials and pre-melted soap, participants will personalize their soap with essential oils, dyes, and molds. Then, we will get to work: separating stones from peas, carding wool, weeding the garden, sweeping the barn, watering the livestock, collecting chicken eggs. To end, we will wash up with sudsy soap and play an outdoor historic game.

August 2nd – Native America. We will meet at the Main Barn of The Farmers' Museum and then walk to the shores of Otsego Lake to tour the reproduction Mohawk Bark House and original Seneca Log House at Fenimore Art Museum. On the stage of the Lucy B. Hamilton amphitheater, we will then hear a traditional Haudenosaunee story, experiment with hand drums and rattles, and dance to an original beat.

August 9th - Inventions. Join us for a guided tour of the Historic Village and Farm with an eye for important inventions that changed the way we work and live. To end, we will gather in the Main Barn and try our hand at two special inventions that harness mechanical and chemical energy: small catapults and erupting “volcanoes.”

August 16th – American Decorative Arts. Hear a talk and view images of traditional American decorative arts and color palettes. Using colored pencils, we will practice re-creating some of the best-recognized designs. After a tour of the Historic Village to see such decorations in situ, we will use stencils and paint to decorate small wooden keepsake boxes.

August 9th - Friendship Books and Goodbye. The sentimental movement of the 1820s found expression in friendship books, often made at schools. We will learn about friendship in early America, create colored images for our friends, and paste our art and signatures into our friends’ decorated albums. We will then celebrate with cake, ice cream, and outdoor children’s games.