Eagle, Wis.–Parents looking to add a new dimension to their children’s summer experiences can now add time travel to their wish list. Old World Wisconsin’s Summer 2014 “Time Travelers Adventure Camps” send campers back to the rugged days of the late 1800s and early 1900s. Kids can experience one-of-a-kind challenges, care for animals and do farm chores, cook on a wood-fired stove, be an Old World Apprentice, or spend a day in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s world, or as a Civil War soldier, or as a student in a one-room schoolhouse.
Camps like the Amazing Race Through Time invite kids to use their wits to solve puzzles and decipher riddles as they compete on a site-crossing, heart-thumping scavenger hunt.
Kids can find out if they could make it as a settler at Survivor: Pioneer Wisconsin. They will test their mettle as they trek through the woods and the farmsteads, with bucketsful of courage and old-fashioned grit.
Jennifer VanHaaften, curator of interpretation, who oversees the program at this historic site, identified the draw of the Old World Wisconsin camps: “There’s nostalgia for the past as being a simpler, less complicated time. Our goal is to share what life was like over 100 years ago while making the experience fun for 21st-century kids.”
Camps are available for preschoolers through high schoolers. Animals Up Close and Moo, Baa! Preschool Camp afford different hands-on views of animals and their relationship to farmers in the 1800s. Farm-to-Table invites young foodies to experience life before drive-throughs and microwaves. Civil War Camp and Little House Adventures transport kids back to the days of Abraham Lincoln and Laura Ingalls Wilder. Campers of multiple ages spend a typical school day together, including outdoor recess, at One-Room Schoolhouse Rocks. And for kids who want to take the next step, Old World Apprentices lets them walk in the shoes and wear the clothing of a regular interpreter, sharing the museum experience with guests on the final day of camp.
Old World Wisconsin, located in the Chicago/Milwaukee/Madison triangle, is spread out on almost 600 acres, making the most of its site in the Kettle Moraine State Forest. Parents frequently drop off campers and spend their day touring the museum.
Fees, Dates and Times: Monday, July 7, through Friday, August 8. Most camps are $50 for the entire single-day experience and run from 8:30 am to 3 pm. Exceptions are Moo, Baa! Preschool Camp, which is $30 per child/adult pair and runs from 8:30 to 11:30 am, Farm-to-Table Camp, priced at $55 to include lunch, and Old World Apprentices, which is $160 for the four-day experience.
Online Registration Now Open: Details available at: http://wihist.org/owwdaycamps or by calling 262-594-6301.
Overview of Old World Wisconsin
Old World Wisconsin, located in southeast Wisconsin and owned and operated by the Wisconsin Historical Society, is a premier outdoor museum of late 19th- and early 20th-century Midwestern immigrant farm and rural life. During the daily operating season May through October, the museum offers family friendly activities, led by period-clad interpreters, as they visit 10 working farmsteads, explore 14 heirloom gardens, interact with historic animal breeds, and try historic crafts and trades. Catch Wheel Fever!, the site’s newest interactive experience celebrating the bicycling boom of the 1890s, will open June 14-15. There will be nothing like it in the country; watch for details.
Old World Wisconsin is located at W372 S9727 Highway 67, Eagle, WI 53119. For general information, call 262-594-6300 or visit www.oldworldwisconsin.org.
