Kids Zone II
A place where you can learn about pioneer life in the Mead area, what kids did for fun, learn how to do crafts and play games, just like the pioneer children did.
School Days
It's hard to imagine, but in the 1800s, a single teacher taught grades one through eight in the same room. As Highlandlake grew, a second classroom was added, and then a third for the high school. High schools back then were called grammar schools and usually only available in larger towns and cities. We were lucky in Highlandlake and later Mead, because we had high school classes.
Below: Schoolchildren wrote in class on miniature blackboards, called slates.
Below: Primary class in the Highlandlake School about 1880. Notice the wood blackboards. Slate, while plentiful in the east, was expensive here, so they used rough fir boards nailed together and painted with a mixture of egg whites and the carbon leavings from charred potatoes!
Just like today, recess was looked forward to. Who doesn't like playing with your friends?
Below: Children playing during recess at the Mead Consolidated Schools a bout 1921. On the left, the girls are playing basketball. In the middle, the children look like they might be playing a unknown circle game, and on the right, Ring around the Rosie. 1921 was the first year that girls were allowed to play basketball! What sports do you like to play today?
Below: Not all school classes were about reading, writing, and arthmatic, these boys are learning something called husbandry, or the art of raising farm animals. Do you think the cow went back to the barn or to the butcher?
Question. Why do you think that children learned different things in school than what you learn now?
Ring Around the Rosie
Ring-a-round the rosie,
A pocket full of posies,
Ashes! Ashes!*
We all fall down.
*Today the words Ashes! Ashes! is often changed to green grass-yellow grass.
Children form a circle with one child in the middle. When they get to the part, "We all fall down," the children drop to the ground. The last one down, gets sent to the middle of the ring..
Duck, Duck Goose
A group of players sits in a circle, facing inward, while another player, who is "it", walks around tapping or pointing to each player in turn, calling each a "duck" until finally calling one a "goose", which designates the chosen player as the chaser.
The chaser (goose) then stands and tries to tag the chasee (it), while the chasee tries to return to and sit where the chaser had been sitting before. If the chasee succeeds, the chaser becomes the chasee and the process begins again.
If the chaser tags the chasee, the chaser may return to their previous spot and the original chasee restarts the process.
Jacks
This game can be played on any flat surface, indoors or out. The player scatters the jacks on the playing surface, often by just tossing them out of one hand, as if rolling dice. The ball is then tossed up, is allowed to bounce once, and is caught before the second bounce.
The player tries to scoop up jacks and catch the ball with one hand before the ball's second bounce. The number of jacks to be picked up goes in order. First you pick up one ("onesies"), then two ("twosies"), then three and so on. There are many variations to the rules of this game including things like "pigs in the pen" and "double bounces."
