Summer Day Camps

Junior Explorers

4- and 5-year-olds. This high-energy, fast-paced program features hands-on activities in exhibits and ships, unique games and fantastic craft projects. Travel the universe on Star Day, explore the ocean deep and the Mystic River on Sea Critter Day, and discover the secret lives of sailors aboard ships on Jack Tar day. Half day sessions.

Seaport Sampler

6- and 7-year-olds. Boys and girls get a kids-eye-view of Mystic Seaport while sampling many different hands-on activities in exhibits, and do games, crafts, and music. The children absorb maritime history through active learning.

Arts from Around the World

7- and 8-year-olds. This is a hands-on arts program for children to learn about countries and cultures around the world. Each day, the children will “travel” to a different area of the world and make fantastic art projects as well as explore the Museum’s unique exhibits.

Girls of Long Ago

8- to 10-year-olds. Discover what opportunities girls in the 1800s had and what their daily lives were like. Step back in time as you try your hand at 19th-century cooking and housekeeping. Learn to hand sew and make old-fashioned accessories for the home, and explore our gardens. Discover real stories of young women who lived aboard sailing ships.

Serpents, Secrets and Sailors’ Superstitions

8- to 10-year-olds. Examine secrets, sea monsters, and superstitions of the sea. Explore the facts and fiction of mermaids, ghosts, and shipwrecks based on survivors’ sightings and scientific research. Make art projects and do hands-on activities.

Shared Earth, Water, and Skies with the Nature Center

8- to 10-year-olds. Join us for our first joint Mystic Seaport/ Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center summer camp. Learn how life on land and life at sea are interconnected. Find your way through the woods and across the oceans using compasses and by following the stars. At the Nature Center campers will test their orienteering skills, meet live animals and investigate the food webs that link the land and sea. At Mystic Seaport they will explore navigation, life in a coastal town, and how the marine world connects with the terrestrial world.

Growing Up in Greenmanville

11- to 13-year-olds. If you have always wanted to learn about the past by living it, then this camp is for you. 1876 is an exciting year full of nostalgia for America’s colonial past as well as visions of the future. Here you will investigate the families, manners, and pastimes of the girls who called Mystic home in 1876.

Living the History: The Girls of Greenmanville

14- to 16-year-olds. The young women in this program will learn about first-person interpretation by researching and adopting personas of young women living in Mystic 1876, to understand how girls at that time became women and how little difference there is between young women now and then.

Mystic River Adventure with Mystic Seaport and Mystic Aquarium

9- to 12-year-olds. Join us for a joint Mystic Seaport/Mystic Aquarium summer program. At the Aquarium (8:30 a.m.–12 p.m.) your child will learn about the animals and habitats of the Mystic River and Long Island Sound. After lunch (12–1 p.m.), we will travel to Mystic Seaport for a sailing adventure (1–4 p.m.). No matter what your child’s knowledge level is, they will find the sailing at Mystic Seaport an incredible experience. Your child must be able to swim.