Inside the CHS

Calling all builders! Join other families at the CHS as we build our own community on our giant floor map.

Enjoy Free First Saturday at CHS with a historical twist on “arts and crafts time”!

Looking for a fun activity for the whole family to do over spring break? Come to CHS and experience what life was like for kids long ago.

Looking for a fun activity for the whole family to do over spring break? Come to CHS and experience what life was like for kids long ago.

Looking for a fun activity for the whole family to do over spring break? Come to CHS and experience what life was like for kids long ago.

Looking for a fun activity for the whole family to do over spring break? Come to CHS and experience what life was like for kids long ago.

By Corinne Swanson, Coordinator of Youth and Family Programs, Connecticut Historical Society I’m a huge fan of maps. When studying history, maps are essential for getting a visual, concrete understanding of the places where events take place. They can be incredibly powerful in influencing the way we think (Remember the episode of “The West Wing” where C.J….
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Where in Connecticut do you call home? Join us as we make a giant map of our favorite places in Connecticut.

By Corinne Swanson, Coordinator of Youth and Family Programs at the Connecticut Historical Society Do you have a childhood memory of visiting a museum with your class or family? During these visits, did you ever feel that if your voice rose above a whisper, or if you dared to try to touch something, that you…
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Explore our new exhibit Connecticut: 50 Objects/50 Stories with an educator-led tour designed especially for kids!

Explore our new exhibit Connecticut: 50 Objects/50 Stories with an educator-led tour designed especially for kids!

Explore our new exhibit Connecticut: 50 Objects/50 Stories with an educator-led tour designed especially for kids!

Beat the heat this summer with a story-time program that’s great for our youngest visitors!

Beat the heat this summer with a story-time program that’s great for our youngest visitors!

Beat the heat this summer with a story-time program that’s great for our youngest visitors!

Beat the heat this summer with a story-time program that’s great for our youngest visitors!

Join us on the CHS lawn for all your favorite childhood games! Enjoy everything from hopscotch to hula hoop, and play them with your kids, parents or grandparents.

Calling all detectives! Decorate your own magnifying glass, then work with your family to figure out clues and search through the galleries to see how many objects and pictures you can find.

Discover the traditions behind West Indian carnival costumes and celebrations at this fun program for all ages!

Come see this pop-up exhibit featuring objects submitted by kids from all over Connecticut!

Join us for spooky storytime at the CHS!

Join us for Tellabration!, a world-wide celebration of storytelling from the Connecticut Storytelling Center that happens each November at sites around the state.

Join us for storytime at the CHS! Children will listen to a reading of I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie, make a thanksgiving craft, and help “cook” an old-fashioned dinner.

Pop! Celebrate the holidays at CHS with our annual popper craft! Poppers, or crackers, make great gifts, holiday party favors, or New Year’s Eve noisemakers.

Join us for a holiday storytime at CHS! Listen to a reading of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and make a holiday craft to take home.

Discover the stories of your unique history with a family tree activity! Kids and adults will work together to make a family tree of the people and stories that make up their family.

Share the best moments of 2015 with a scrapbook! We’ll provide the scrapbooking supplies, and we invite kids and families to bring their creativity and memorable photos and create a scrapbook of your favorite family moments.

Celebrate New Year’s Eve by making a “good luck bag”, filled with good luck charms used by families around the world to ring in a happy and lucky new year.

Celebrate Grandparents Day at CHS! Discover a new hobby and be creative with your grandma, grandpa, or special person. Grandparents and kids will each design garden pots to give to each other, then pick a pair of seeds to plant together.

Express yourself through music-inspired art! Design and create a CD art piece that’s all about you to personalize your room. Then, check out retro musical objects featured in the Growing Up in Connecticut exhibit.

Be a scientist for the day at CHS! Travel from station to station in the auditorium trying out different experiments and science projects. Test out paper airplanes and helicopters, design a water filter, and more!

Pop! Celebrate the holidays at CHS with our annual popper craft! Poppers, or crackers, make great gifts, holiday party favors, or New Year’s Eve noisemakers.

Looking for something to do with the kids during winter break? Visit the CHS and help us build a city!

Visit the CHS during winter break for an afternoon of innovation and creativity, and work with your family to engineer a structure that can support weight.

Beep beep! Join us on Free First Saturday as we explore our favorite forms of transportation. Work with our supplies and your imagination to create either a boat or a car. Then, see if your boat will stay afloat, or test how far your car will go on our racetrack.

Instead of buying your Valentine’s Day cards this year, come to CHS to create old-fashioned, hand-made Valentines! Get inspired by Valentines from long ago, then use your creativity to make Valentine cards to give to your friends and family.

Come celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday and Read Across America at CHS! Join us for a reading of the Dr. Seuss book The Lorax at 10:45 and 11:45. After the story, make your own Dr. Seuss-inspired invention to take home.

Celebrate April with a Saturday of traditional Finnish kid-friendly crafts. Inspired by the CHS exhibit Sisu and Creativity: Finnish Cultural Heritage in Connecticut, kids can try sewing birch bark and weaving with paper to make a beautiful traditional craft to take home!

Can you show someone a sound? Can you “see” objects without using your eyes? Explore how senses work by trying out different activities that investigate all the ways we see, hear, and feel the world around us. Try to guess the items in a mystery box, test out all the different ways sound travels, and create a sensory portrait of yourself or your favorite things.

Kids will have a blast playing at the HSO Instrument Petting Zoo, trying out dozens of musical instruments from the violin and the saxophone to the tuba and the glockenspiel. Come learn how playing a musical instrument is a whole-body experience; you’ll feel each instrument’s vibrations humming differently from your head to your toes!