Page content
Resize textResize textResize text largerEmail pagePrint pageShare this page
View related multimedia and links

Children's Activities

Children Playing

Interpreters engage in children's activities

At the James Geddy House in Colonial Williamsburg, youth interpreters frequently recreate different aspects of the life of colonial children, including education, music, dance, play, and daily chores. They bring the 18th century to life by dressing in period clothing and demonstrating typical activities of children of that period.

Education widely accessible in colonial Virginia

Education was widely accessible to those who could afford it, so youth interpreters frequently depict educational activities such as practicing letters on slate boards, reading 18th-century children's books and assembling educational puzzles.

Sewing was an important part of a young lady's education, so girls sit by the window working on samplers, mending clothing, or perhaps making doll clothes.

Toys and games

There was plenty of leisure time for children in an upper middling home like the Geddy household. Since toys and games were readily available in Virginia stores, young interpreters also play board games, puzzles, and cards. Outside they engage visitors in activities such as rolling hoops, walking on stilts, or a game of ninepins.

Many of our games today have changed very little over the centuries, and these activities give visitors a sense of how old some of today's pastimes are.

For further reading:

Multimedia and related links

  • podcasts