Let them eat dirt! Well- not really. But let them
experience it. At events (both 18th & 19th Century) I often hear how well
our daughter behaves and interacts with the environment full of visitors,
fires, and loud guns. I often attribute it to the fact that she is being raised
going to events. Her first outing was at seven weeks old when we day tripped to
an event where she slept most of the day- even through the battle. Now, that
she is three, my husband and I have learned a lot and are usually armed with tactics
to keep her entertained at events.
Use
Familiar Items
We have a small basket trunk that is filled with various
items depending on the period of the interpretation. These items range
from simple pasteboard boxes, to a china tea-set. Our daughter plays with these
items in her daily life, not just in reenacting scenarios. On an average Civil
War weekend, her trunk will contain: a cloth doll, doll quilt, slate &
pencil, copper measuring cups, wooden spoons, wooden bowl, small sword, and a
tea cup. We include her wooden kitchen items with her play kitchen at home so
that she uses them often, just like many of the items in my own kitchen which
play double-duty. She discovered her cloth doll at about eight-months old and
would drag her all over the house with her. Her chosen souvenir on a recent
vacation was a wooden spoon that she chose herself. She drinks tea, yes, hot
black tea, almost every day and even has her own reproduction tea set that sits
on our kitchen shelf (this we did splurge on).
Another familiar item, dirt and water. I have entertained
my child for hours with a bucket of
water and a towel or spoon. Extra points if you are near dirt. She daily wants
to go play outside, mostly because there is a spot in our yard where the grass
does not grow, and she can “garden” as she calls it, bringing up clumps of
black earth with her hands. Don’t be afraid to let them get dirty. They can be
washed off, and so can their clothes (this is why multiple pinafores are our
friends).
Use
real items
Our
daughter is one who usually wants to have the same thing you have and to help
with the task at hand, so we provide her with her own versions of what we have,
mostly. She does not have many reproduction toys in the traditional sense. You
will not usually her with a yo-yo or expensive reproduction games, she will
usually be digging in the dirt. In that dirt with her you will find wooden
spoons, copper measuring cups, and a small stoneware pitcher (we do keep her
actual eating utensils clean). She can
look up from her pile of dirt and see me using the same items, just in larger
form, and that makes her happy.
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| Bowls & wooden spoon with leftover mud |
I
find myself not wanting to lay down many dollars for something that will not
last. We often find pottery, baskets, and other pieces at discount prices from
local shops and we snag it up. Since we usually portray a working-class family
in North Carolina, I think having multiple “fancy” toys would be a little odd
for our impression. So, by handing my child a duplicate item like the one I
have in my hand (ie. Wooden bowl) it makes her feel more included in what we
are doing. She knows which items are hers too! She has her own basket which
often gets filled with wildflowers or a rock collection on weekends.
Keep
them Involved in Interpretation
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| The cutest flower seller! |
One recommendation
I make above almost everything else, is to keep children involved. Years ago,
before I had my own child, we brought my niece to events with us. I would lay
down a blanket and hand her some toys and other items, and left her there. We
always use the “see you” rule- we must maintain site of each other regardless
of what we are doing. Soon, we over heard her talking about using items as
substitutes and how children would help on the farm. It made me smile to
realize how much she had listened to myself and others around her. From that
moment, I promised myself to not shuffle the children off from a demonstration.
Look at period images of women performing their daily tasks such as laundry,
cooking, etc. many of these images include children playing at their mother’s
feet or climbed up in chairs to have a closer look.
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| Little Laundry Helper! |
Last year, during a
school day, there was a photo taken of me with my toddler on my hip, a laundry
paddle in one hand, and boiling kettle in front of me talking to school
children. In that one photo, I found a sense of real. I did not stop what I was
doing, instead, I hoisted my sleepy child up in my arms and kept moving. She
was there, in the middle of everything, just as she is every other day. Moments
later she would be in the middle of a crowd of student playing hoop-and-stick
with them, her laugh ringing out over the hum of play.
These learning
experiences are what I strive for. To get her hands dirty while going knee-deep
in history, though to her she is just playing. I hope that one day, she will
look back and be thankful for the days that I let her eat dirt.
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| Leave plenty of time for exploration, free play, and rest! |
