Colonial Childhood

Childhood for colonial children differ greatly from 21st century children. From the time they are born to the time they become young adults; children did not have the luxuries we have today. Although colonial children have similar lifestyles, detailed things such as toys and clothing are quite different from modern day. Throughout the life of a colonial child, development is important. Responsibilities are fast approaching such as schooling and work. But, this doesn’t become necessary until the late years of a colonial child. From the age of birth to young adult, colonial children had overall a very different lifestyle. The life of a colonial baby was very simple. The attire of a colonial baby was a long gown like dress to cover the feet. …show more content…
They believed education would benefit the colonies as a whole by creating the future generation with beliefs and knowledge of God, had good manners, and a strong work ethic. If families could afford it, children were often sent to school. If the family could not afford an education, the child was homeschooled. In the classroom setting there was one teacher. Students used very little paper or books making most of the learning by memorization. The only books in the classroom were normally the Bible and the New England primer, which included riddles, rhymes, and questions inside. Students did receive a “horn book”. This was simply one piece of paper with the alphabet, numbers, and a prayer on it. The hornbook was often worn as a necklace by a string attached at the top of the paper. After school, the boys continued with their studies while the girls went home and learned the household duties with their mothers. Boys that didn’t attend school usually went on to work apprenticeships around the age of 14 and sometimes as early as 6 years old. High school was the end of the educational path for girls. As for boys, some with wealthy father continued to onto …show more content…
Colonial kids never really had an “exploratory age” like most of today’s youth has. This meaning, responsibilities were put on faster as well as on the path to that child’s occupation. Many of the colonial child’s destiny depended solely on the social economic class of its family. More wealthy families had more opportunities for the child to experience apprenticeships while the less wealthy had a duty to stay home and help provide for their families. A significant percentage of servants in colonial times were under the age of 20. Many of these children were orphans or often sent off by poor families to make a living. At the age of 12, Ben Franklin was being an apprentice to his brother, as a printer. Overall, responsibilities were very important to colonial young