The children and Dad went on an excursion to the the Simcoe County Heritage Museum to take part in the day in the life of a Pioneer. They got dressed up in the official garb of the time and took part in activities traditionally carried out by people in that time period.
Some activities were: locating the kitchen in a typical home, the washroom and the fridge. All of things were located in places the children would not have thought of. They got to make butter in the Stone House. They went outdoors to the oven to see where the baking was done. Surprising to everyone was how they took temperature of the oven. They would insert their arms into the oven and based on how long the could keep it in they new how hot the thing was and how long it would take to cook the food. To keep food cold they would cut ice from the lake and cart it, by horse, to the ice house and stack it on the inside of the walls to keep the stone cold. This was the only stone building everything else was wood. Butter and cheese and anything else that would spoil was kept here. Oh as a side note, after the winter season the first fresh food, not salted or preserved, that they could eat was rhubarb. It was what grew the fasted during their growing season!
Lastly was the school house. They would line the children in two lines boys in one girls in another by height, shortest to tallest. She told the kiddos to go play for a second and once she rang the bell they needed to promptly get back into their lines in the shortest to tallest order. Girls would enter the room first and go to one side of the room and the boys would do the same there after. Slates and slate pencils were passed around by a volunteer from each group, boys and girls. She had a cow illustrated on the board and had children label the each part and the children needed to spell the words on their slate. Any child misbehaving needed to sit on a latter type apparatus and face the corner.
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| Too funny! |
