There are many children who would love to go back into the nineteenth century and experience what it was like to live in those days. Millard’s Crossing Historic Village will provide that opportunity through two summer camps this year designed for children between the ages of 7 through 12.
Children go back in time during the Millards Crossing Historic Village Summer Camps. Temperament, Tasks and Teacakes, a program for young ladies, will be held June 13-17 while Five Days in the Life of a Pioneer Child for children ages 7-12 will be held July 18-22.
The first camp is for girls and is called “Temperament, Tasks and Teacakes”, scheduled for the week of June 13-17 from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm. The camp is geared towards girls between the ages of 7-12 and will include 19th century outfits for the participants. Activities are designed to instruct participants in skills an accomplished young lady of the 19th century might learn as part of her domestic education. These skills will include needlework; spinning; polishing silver; setting a table; making butter; tea and “crumpets;” serving “high” tea; decorum; dancing; songs; reading; painting and crafts.
The second camp is open to boys and girls between the ages of 7-12 and will focus on “Five Days in the Life of a Pioneer Child.” The camp will be held July 18-22. Each day children will begin the day at the “homestead,” a log cabin in the complex where they will get ready for school and do chores such as making the feather bed, dusting and sweeping. After school, they will learn pioneer skills such as knife safety and whittling, log splitting, outdoor cooking, butter making, sewing, farm chores such as push plowing, shelling and planting corn as well as playing old-time games such as “Anty-Over”, hoops, and making and throwing corn cob darts.
“This is our third year to offer summer camps and we are very fortunate to have help from some local volunteers who have much expertise in skills of the past,” said Susie Lower, the director at Millard’s Crossing Historic Village. “The “Temperaments, Tasks and Teacakes” camp will be directed by Vicky Dudley, a local entrepreneur who has a variety of skills in decorating, cake making, flower arranging and often caters for events at Millard’s Crossing. Vicki loves doing things “the way they used to be done” and is very knowledgeable about local history.” Other local demonstrators will be Sara Gannon who will reveal the marvel of spinning, and Deanna Vaughn who will instruct the children in baking and bread making.
The second camp “Five Days in the Life of a Pioneer Child” will be directed by Bitsy Barr, and John Tatum, both professional demonstrators for many museums and events in Texas. “All of our instructors are wonderful interpreters of the old-timey way of doing things,” said Lower. It’s going to be a lot of fun for the children and help them internalize the history they have learned about in books—making it ever so much more “real” and so much fun”.
“The Village’s mission is to portray the spirit and ingenuity of pioneer settlement in East Texas” continued Lower. “But it goes on to say ‘and to connect present generations with those of the past.’ We take that mission very seriously which is why our program offers so many ‘hands-on’ opportunities. We want children to have some experiences like those of their grandparents and older relatives so the present generation can appreciate what it took to survive and build Texas into what it is today. Children of the 19th century worked hard but they had a lot of fun, too. We do both at our summer camps.”
Cost of the camp is $100 per child. For more information or to enroll, contact Millard’s Crossing Historic Village at 936-564-6631 or e-mail them at info@millardscrossing.org.
