Home Education Day 2025

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Book tickets
Come and join us for a day of learning for children aged 5+ who are home educated.

The day will feature some of our most popular sessions, showcasing some of the amazing objects in our handling collection.

Every ticket includes entry to one of our interactive, hands-on workshops, as well as access to the Aquarium and Butterfly House. Home educated families will have exclusive access to our Education Centre, giving you space to meet other families and chill out.

Ticket information

  • For home educated children aged 5+.
  • Ticket price includes 1 child with 1 accompanying adult.
  • Tickets are non-refundable.
  • Please ensure you book your child on to an age-appropriate workshop to ensure learners get the most out of the session.
  • Only children booked onto the workshop may attend (with their accompanying adult).
  • We are able to offer a small number of free tickets for home educating families in receipt of Universal Credit. Please email schools@horniman.ac.uk to claim one of these tickets.

Each booked child and one free accompanying adult will receive:

  • Entry to one booked workshop,
  • entry to the Aquarium and Butterfly House,
  • access to the Education Centre (for home educated families only) to use as a lunch room and break out space.

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Workshops

Tickets include a booked workshop, all-day Education Centre access (exclusively for home ed families) and entry to the Aquarium and Butterfly House.

Lunar New Year

10.45am – 11.30am, 11.45am – 12.30pm | Recommended age range: 5 – 7 years old

Discover some of the ways that people celebrate Lunar New Year in this exciting hands-on session.

Hear the story behind the Lion Dance, wear a beautiful lion mask and explore traditional clothing. Take on our chopstick challenge, learn about traditional Chinese foods, and play traditional Chinese musical instruments. Finally, take part in a celebratory Lunar New Year parade.

Around Africa

11am – 12pm, 12.15pm – 1.15pm | Recommended age range: 5 – 11 years old

Discover the diversity of Africa in this exciting hands-on workshop. Visit the largest market in Ghana’s capital Accra, try on clothes, play a ‘talking’ drum and buy local food. Play with African toys and try to spot the recycled materials used to make them. Explore Maasai people’s traditional way of life, their home and the animals that live there.

After a short introduction to vastness of the African continent, all children will explore three stations: roleplay at Makola market; engage with African toys through play; explore Maasai objects and savanna animals. We will finish by discussing what we learned through hands-on object handling at each station.

African Kingdoms

2.45pm – 3.45pm | Recommended age range: 11 – 16 years old

In this workshop, young people will have the opportunity to handle objects including artworks made by brass casters in modern-day Benin City as well as exploring the historic objects on display in the Museum.

In the first section of the workshop, learners will find out about the origins of the Benin Kingdom, including the transition from the first to the second dynasty and the development of its political structure centred around a powerful monarch known as the Oba.

Through hands-on activities, they will explore the importance of trade as well as artworks created by guilds of craftsmen, which were both highly personal objects and acted as historical records.

Gamelan: Group Music Sessions

1.30pm – 2.30pm, 2.45pm – 3.45pm | Recommended age range: 8 – 16 years old

Gamelan is a musical ensemble featuring bronze gongs, cymbals, other metallophones and drums. The Horniman has the only Balinese Gamelan angklung in London.

Create interlocking melodic and rhythmic patterns as a group to produce a uniquely rich sound. These sessions encourage children to work together as each person produces part of the whole sound.