Revolutionary War Adventure

Revolutionary War Adventure

I took the kids to a Revolutionary War adventure field trip last Wednesday. A friend and her son came with us. Rather, we hitched a ride with them! LOL! The place was not too far but it still was an hour's drive from our place which takes its toll on this pregnant lady. DH would not have let us go if I was the one driving. Thank goodness for friends. :)

DS particularly enjoyed the field trip. DD1, on the other hand, was sick! Ok... I did not know she was sick when we left. She seemed fine. Once we got to the place, she began to be lethargic. She really did not care for the activities. Instead, she lay on the grass under the sun most of the time. She was such a trooper though. Even though she was not feeling well, she let the rest of the family enjoy the adventure.

The whole group was divided into smaller groups or townships. We were in the Brooklyn township. DS was our flag bearer. He was so proud! There were several "village posts" that the groups rotated going to: period games, the blacksmith, the military drill, admiralty court, farmer's post, standing up for your rights and weaving.

One game (tap ball) that we got to play was very similar to a game we used to play as kids called sha-to (sp?). Theirs was just a more elaborate version since they had a contraption that would shoot out the ball when you hit it. In sha-to, we only needed a stick and stone. :)

While we were in the blacksmith's post, he mentioned that in those days, boys of 10 years of age were usually sent off from their parents' homes to become an apprentice somewhere. 14 years was the marrying age. Anyone in their 20's and had not married yet were probably considered unmarry-able! How different those days were, weren't they? He also mentioned that they did not buy too often. Instead, they bartered a lot with other folks. Why? Well, buying stuff required paying taxes. Bartering did not. Makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? Because of the difficult living conditions back then, the only "life insurance" they had was their trade. Life expectancy was much shorter too!

I learned a lot during this field trip. I was not born in this country so I was not very familiar with the details of colonial life. It was very interesting to have a glimpse of how life was lived back then. I bet that a similar "adventure" of life back in colonial Philippines would definitely make history come alive for kids back in the Philippines, would it not?