Having 4 kids ages 8 and under, we allotted 2 hours of time to explore the Mystic Seaport Museum. Boy, were we wrong!
See our full weekend guide to Mystic, CT.
There are 19 acres of things to explore, grounds to run around on, ships to climb in and out of, lighthouses to visit, and museum exhibits to read through. WHEW.
Thank you to the Mystic Seaport Museum for allowing us to visit in exchange for this honest overview of our field trip!
We started out our trip to the museum in a room where there were some woodworkers presenting their craft.
I think I basically had to drag my husband out of there as he talked to them for a long time about the tools they were using, how they achieved their end goal, and more. It was really beautiful to see it all in action and it was a good initial image for the kids to see that someone had to do all of this stuff. It takes time and skill and resources.
Learn about Ship Figureheads
We then went into the newly redesigned figureheads exhibit. It was awe inspiring to see all of them knowing just how small they look on the front of a ship, but this huge carving sticking straight out at you are actually very big! And very detailed.
For a museum that has so much on ships and boats, I felt like this exhibit was important. Often times we view ships as just things. However, people spent time crafting and building them and then months and years living on them as their homes.
The figureheads seemed to bring some of this to life!
Explore an old whaling ship and other interactive exhibits at the Mystic Seaport Museum
Launched in 1841, the Charles W. Morgan was an American Whaling ship now docked at the Mystic Seaport Museum and available to crawl through!
Especially after exploring the “Voyaging in the Wake of the Whalers” indoor museum, climbing aboard a whaling ship brought it all to life!
My older two enjoyed the whalers section of the museum a lot — there were some videos and interactive screens that allowed them to peruse information about whaling. For them, they knew about whaling but not the process {which for them was a sad realization} or what all was harvested from whales {which opened a variety of conversations about how if whaling stopped, what replaced things like oil for energy and baleen in so many commercial goods}.
One of the kids most memorable things from the museum for the girls was actually this interactive screen and crow’s nest where they learned how to spot whales.
None of us knew that the blow hole of different whales made different shapes and it was a fun piece of trivia to learn! {And the kids spent the rest of the day shouting “Thar she blows!”
A few more ways kids can learn at the Mystic Seaport Museum
- Play with old fashioned toys and ocean-themed games or on the playground!
- Walk through the different exhibits showing life in the 1800s
- Talk to guides about woodworking, shipbuilding, and more.
- Climb on board ships and walk the board walks {more than just the Charles W. Morgan!
- Enjoy online resources and Virtual Field trips as well. More on both homeschool programming and classroom programming here.
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