The Keeper’s House offers a cozy destination for pre-school students and after-school program participants who are out exploring the trail throughout the coldest months. Park staff, Laura Compagni and Rob Lee, have created field trip programs for local kids that explore a range of questions about what’s under the trail, what you might find in the trees above the trail, and the history and traditions of the people who lived along the trail in the past.
Kids no longer have to imagine what the underground Aqueduct profile looks like. They can climb inside Dionisio Cortes Ortega‘s new model!
Rob Lee explains how to play hoop and stick. This was part of an Historic Game Day program that explores how kids entertained themselves in the 19th century when the Bremner family lived in the Keeper’s House.
Kids discover that speed is your friend. The hoop needs to keep moving and the trail serves as an excellent hoop track.
Kids always love to play with the Keeper’s House interactive exhibit, designed carefully to accommodate the way young people learn.
Most kids are surprised to learn that teenagers helped to build the structures of the Croton System and that school was not legally required in all states the United States until early 1900s. This young visitor tries his hand at carrying water buckets.
The fireplace in the backyard has served as an excellent place to warm up spiced cider in celebration of Winter Solstice along the trail.
The fire must burn for about an hour to create these hot coals.
Cheers!
After learning about migrating birds and how our massive white pine spreads it’s seeds in pine cones, kids made pine cone birdfeeders to bring home.
