How was life for children in colonies?

Children were expected to help with a share of the family's work. Boys helped their fathers and girls did chores at home. By a time a girl was four she could knit stockings! Even with all the work they did, colonial children still found time to have fun.

How were colonial children treated?

Colonial children were viewed as miniature adults; and boys and girls were dressed alike until the age of 7. The infant^1,7 wore a long linen smock; was covered with a woolen blanket; and a wooden or wicker cradle, hooded to protect from cold draughts, much like those in which Indian babies slept, was its bed.

What did children do in the colony?

The chores children had to do were often the simplest and most boring ones. Children might have to carry wood or water, husk corn, gather berries, lead oxen, card wool, gather eggs or churn butter. When children weren't doing chores, their parents often sent them to school.

What role did children play in colonial society?

Girls were expected to help their mothers sew, spin materials, cook, and clean. Boys would hunt, tend the farm, feed the farm animals, and chop wood for the fire. Although life was busy, colonial kids still found time to play. Like children today, colonial kids played with dolls, took care of pets, and went fishing.

What was life like in the New England colonies for kids?

The area's cold climate and rocky landscape made large-scale farming difficult. Many New Englanders therefore made a living through trade, seafaring, or fishing. They used lumber from the abundant forests to build ships. The colonists used the ships for fishing and for trade with Europe, Africa, and the West Indies.

A Day in the Life of a Colonial Kid, part 1

What are the 13 colonies for kids?

In 1776 the 13 colonies declared their independence from Great Britain. The names of the colonies were Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Virginia.

What was daily life like in the colonies?

For the majority of colonists, daily life consisted of supporting the profession the family was centered around. Nearly all rural communities were supported by farming while the larger, more concentrated port cities were hubs for mercantile businesses and artisan trades.

What was life like in the 1700s for kids?

The children of average or poor families began working very early on in life, sometimes even as early as age seven. They worked mostly on farms as shepherds, cowherds, or apprentices and often left home to do so.

How did colonial families see children?

Patriarchal control was the norm, and family and community were intertwined. Children were important to the family and to the community because economic and religious survival depended on them. It was the children who would carry on and maintain their parents' religious beliefs and values.

How were children educated in the colonies?

Children learned to read the Bible so they could live by its principles. The people in the New England colonies used hornbooks in-home or schoolhouse education. Students were often educated in one room, regardless of age. The New England colonies were the first to establish public schools.

What was life like for kids in the 1770?

Kids had a lot of chores to do, so they did not have much time for playing. Even young children had jobs such as shelling corn (removing dried kernels from the cob) and carding wool to prepare it for spinning.

What age did colonial children start working?

Children were expected to contribute to their families in the form of working. Children began working as early as age four or five.

What was life like for a child on a Virginia farm?

As they grew older, children were given more chores, often following in the footsteps of their father or mother. Some chores might include tending tobacco, looking after younger brothers and sisters, and caring for the farm animals.

Did colonial children go to school?

How much education a child received depended on a person's social and family status. Families did most of the educating, and boys were favored. Educational opportunities were much sparser in the rural South. The New England Primer was the first and most popular primer designed to teach reading in the colonies.

What was life like in the 13 colonies?

Much of colonial life was hard work, even preparing food. But colonists found ways to mix work with play. They also enjoyed sports and games. For most of the 1700s, the colonists were content to be ruled by English laws.

What was parenting like in the 1700s?

Motherhood was the primary role filled by all but a very few women in colonial Middletown. Yet as common as bearing and rearing children might have been, they often proved difficult, physically and emotionally draining, and even downright deadly for the weak of body or faint of heart.

How were children viewed historically?

More often than not, children were treated as miniature adults. There were no separate clothes, food, furniture, or space for children. Childhood, as a separate and discrete part of human development, didn't exist.

How many kids did people have in the 1600s?

Children in colonial families were numerous and averaged between seven to ten in each household. The number of children at home varied, however, for a variety of reasons. The most common of these being (sadly) early death; roughly half of the off-spring would not reach maturity.

What did mothers do in the colonial times?

Women's roles in colonial society included tasks that related to the household and child-rearing. Women were sometimes seamstresses, laundresses, and general caretakers of children. They were also responsible for the spiritual upbringing of the children.

What is Colonisation for kids?

Colonization occurs when one country takes control of another country or region, establishing a settlement, or permanent part of the colony, in order to control the area and gain riches. For example, Jamestown was the first settlement in the American colonies.

How were children treated in the 1700s?

Children of wealthier families, whilst not expected to engage in manual work to earn money, were still expected to take on responsibilities, and start training for adulthood as soon as they could. They might have more toys, but toys were not primarily for frivolous amusement, but for education.

Did kids go to school in the 1700s?

In 1600s and 1700s America, prior to the first and second Industrial Revolutions, educational opportunity varied widely depending on region, race, gender, and social class. Public education, common in New England, was class-based, and the working class received few benefits, if any.

What did colonists do for fun?

Shooting and woodchopping competitions were popular, and, making the most of two important forms of colonial transport, boat races and horse races became common forms of entertainment. However, indoor activities relied more on things the settlers had done back in Britain.

What were the colonies unhappy with?

Each colony had its own government, but the British king controlled these governments. By the 1770s, many colonists were angry because they did not have self-government. This meant that they could not govern themselves and make their own laws.

What did colonists eat?

Colonial cooks fried, roasted, baked, and boiled. They used many of the same foodstuffs found in today's groceries: beef, lamb, pork, chicken, fish, vegetables, and baked goods. Then as now, coffee, tea, and chocolate were popular beverages. Beyond these common roots, though, little was the same as it is today.