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Experience the games played by colonial children during the harvest and bees. Learn skills, have fun, and discover the traditions of the past. Engage in corn husking, apple games, mazes, and more!
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Learning Games • In the colonial Period, these games helped children learn skills that they would need later in life as a farmers and parents. Games taught children how to aim and throw, how to solve problems and do things with their hands, and how to follow directions and rules. They also leaned to be fair, to wait their turn and to use their imaginations.
Working Games • Whenever there was a big task such as raising a barn or making apple cider, the settlers organized a work party called a bee. There were bees for husking corn, making quilts, and harvesting crops. Children often took part in the work or joined in the party afterwards. A big part of the bee was feasting, dancing, and playing games. Playing games made the work seem like fun.
A-mazing! • During the harvest, parents sometimes set up a maze of hay sheaves to keep their children occupied. The children wandered though the maze or played hiding games. While the children played, the parents had a chance to get work done or gossip with other adults. Mazes kept children amazed for hours!
Gossip • The first settlers did not have newspapers to tell them what was happening in the world. When people gathered at a bee, they exchanged news and information. Sometimes the news changed as it traveled. • The game gossip shows how the details of a news story change when the story passes from person to person. By the end of the line it is nothing like the original sentence.
Corn Husking • After the harvest, everyone gathered to husk corn for winter storage. The young man who found a red ear of corn was allowed t kiss the young woman sitting closest to him. Not all girls were happy when a young man produced a ear of colored corn.
Apple Games • After the autumn harvest, the settlers gathered to peel the apples and string them up to dry. The dried fruit could be eaten throughout the winter. Games played at these bees involved apples.
Predict the Future-Apple • One Apple game was believed to predict the future. A person pares an apple, trying to keep the peel in one long piece. The person then closes their eyes and tosses the peel. The shape the peel makes predicts the first initial of the individual they are to marry.
Bobbing for Apples • Float some apples in a tub of water. Players put their hands behind their backs. Then everyone tries to remove an apple from the tub with his or her teeth.
Push the Potato • For this race, each player needs a potato to push along the ground. All the players line up in a row. At the starting signal, they begin rolling their potato along the ground with their nose. Players may use only their noses never their hands to keep the potato rolling in a straight line. The first person to cross the finish line wins the race.
Egg-in-the-spoon • Each player places an egg on a spoon and lines up in a row. At the signal to start everyone starts running toward the finish line while balancing an egg on the spoon. The winner is the 1st one to cross with the egg still on the spoon.
Three Legged Races • To enter the race you need a partner. Tie your right leg to your partners left leg. We the signal is given to go the racers must work together to run to the finish line. The pair to cross first is the winner.
