What was life like for children in the 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.

What did children do in the colony?

A lot of hard work had to be done on a farm, and children (even very young ones) had to help out as much as they could. 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.

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 was school like for colonial children?

Many children were taught at home, and their schooling often centered around religion and practical skills like cooking or growing food. Children in early colonial America usually learned to read at home when they were young.

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.

Colonial Times for Kids | Learn about the colonial America

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.

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.

Did all colonial children attend school?

The 13 Colonies for Kids - Colonial Schoosl

Kids were taught reading, writing, and arithmetic. Mostly boys attended school. Girls were taught at home.

What was life like in 13 colonies?

Life varied between the thirteen colonies. Ways of life differed due to trade, commerce, religion, and political views in each colony. Southern colonies were mostly agriculture-based and less restricted than the northern colonies. Middle colonies relied on lumbering to make their profit, and traded with the British.

How were kids punished in colonial times?

Corporal punishment was acceptable and expected in colonial schools. In Puritan New England, beating students was divinely sanctioned. “The rod of correction is a rule of God necessary sometimes to be used on children,” read the rules of a Massachusetts school from 1645.

What was it like to be a child in the 1600s?

During this era, many believed that children learned obedience to God via their parents' use of harsh discipline and strict parenting. Children were typically viewed as being “willful” and were used as household servants. Babies were born with original sin and were very egocentric.

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.

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.

How many children did colonists have?

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 was education like 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.

How did colonial children have fun?

Even though colonial kids worked hard, they still found time for outdoor fun, like swimming, fishing, and flying kites.

Did colonial girls go to school?

Only young men were allowed to pursue higher education. Although there were a few opportunities for girls to receive a more extensive formal education in the colonial period, most families kept their daughters at home to learn how to run a household and to be a dutiful mate for her future husband.

Did girls go to school in the colonies?

Throughout the colonial period education was limited to both men and women, but was even more limited to women. There was a gap in education between males and females for education. Males were more likely to go to school than females due to the facts that you had to pay for schooling.

What did the 13 colonies do for fun?

In all the colonies, kids played with balls and bats and marbles and dolls. They played tag. In the south they played lawn bowling. In the north, they played shuffleboard.

What are 5 facts about the colonies?

What was the youngest colony of the 13 colonies?

The largest of the U.S. states east of the Mississippi River and the youngest of the 13 former English colonies, Georgia was founded in 1732 and included much of present-day Alabama and Mississippi.

How were children raised in the 1600s?

During the 1600s, a shift in philosophical and social attitudes toward children and the notion of "childhood" began in Europe. Adults increasingly saw children as separate beings, innocent and in need of protection and training by the adults around them.

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.