Kids' Day Every Day
Children's Life Program
This kids' program happens every day at Colonial Michilimackinac during the main summer season. It's kids' day every day!
VIDEO
Watch Kids' Day Every Day 30-second video
The Children's Life Program happens from noon to 12:30 p.m. during the main summer season.
During this half hour program, a costumed historic house interpreter will guide children and adults through portions of Colonial Michilimackinac, and will actually show the tour participants, through hands-on activities and interactive discussion, how children in the 1770s lived here.
Kids will try their hands at 18th-century children’s chores like piling wood into a wheelbarrow, retrieving water from the lake, sewing and repairing feather tic mattresses, and shucking corn.
Next, children will visit the animal enclosure, where horses and sheep live, to learn about animals common to the fort in the 1770s. They’ll learn what animals were here, how they got here, and how they were utilized.
Following the tour, kids can participate in authentic colonial children’s games such as graces, hoop and stick, and cup and ball.
Colonial Life Program - Additional Information
Kids are especially tech-savvy these days. Nintendo DS, texting, and web surfing are common activities that many experience on a daily basis. In fact, by using modern technology, 21st-century kids may know everything there is to know about life in the 1770s since all the information is right at their fingertips, right?
Wrong…very wrong, at least when it comes to hands-on learning. It’s time to stop Googling and start engaging. This summer, Colonial Michilimackinac will combine fun, excitement, and interactive learning with a bold, authentic combination of new kids’ programs and activities, many of which happen daily throughout the main summer season.
“We’re building on the positive feedback that we received from the three Colonial Kids’ Days held last season and adding many of these activities into the daily mix of hands-on experiences at Colonial Michilimackinac,” said Kate Arbogast, Michilimackinac interpretation supervisor. “One of these new activities will be the Children’s Life Program, to happen on a daily basis during the main season. During this half hour program, a historic house interpreter will guide children and adults through portions of Colonial Michilimackinac, and will actually show the tour participants, through hands-on activities and interactive discussion, how children in the 1770s lived here.”
During this program, kids will try their hands at 18th-century children’s chores like piling wood into a wheelbarrow, retrieving water from the lake, sewing and repairing feather tic mattresses, and shucking corn. Next, children will visit the animal enclosure, where horses and sheep live, to learn about animals common to the fort in the 1770s. They’ll learn what animals were here, how they got here, and how they were utilized. Following the tour, kids can participate in authentic colonial children’s games such as graces, hoop and stick, and cup and ball.
Even more kid-friendly features and programs!
Join the King's Army
In addition to the special tour, children will have the unique opportunity during the day to muster into the King’s Army and drill for an audience. They’ll be presented with a proclamation after this bold endeavor. Participation in baking and cooking over an open hearth, as well as baking bread in an authentic outdoor bread oven, take place daily as well. Taste the bread to get a true flavor of the 1770s!
“We want children to experience the 18th-century in every way,” Arbogast said. “This includes touch, smell, and taste. We’re giving them as many hands-on experiences as possible throughout the day every day.”
Baggatiway Game, Reenactments, and Crafts
Playing Baggatiway, a game similar to Lacrosse, with all-kid teams is one of these many hands-on experiences. Children will also have roles in the Arrival of the Voyageurs reenactment and participate in Native American crafts.
Kids' Rendezvous Interpretive Playground
The Kids’ Rendezvous Interpretive Playground brings yet another opportunity for play, fun, and learning. The interpretive playground includes a giant ground map of the Great Lakes, a miniature fort palisade, and multiple climbing structures with slides that explore the route of the fur traders.
Interpretive elements within the playground all relate to the route of the voyageurs who were a major part of Michilimackinac in the 17th and 18th centuries when the region was the center of the North American fur trade.
Activation of an audio system with numerous sounds, including voyageur songs, is possible from various areas of the play structure. Introductory panels present a "scavenger hunt" learning activity. Fur bales to lift and a voyageur's mixing pot and spoon encourage discussions and imaginative play.
Special Kids' Weekends
Special kid-friendly days are planned in addition to these many activities. To complement what will already be offered daily for children, Mackinac State Historic Parks is bringing back Colonial Kids’ Days and Voyageurs and Fur Traders’ Weekend.
During Colonial Kids’ Days, children are even more of a focus than they already are. (If this is even possible!) Kids can dress up in colonial children’s clothing while they interact with interpreters who explain why each piece of clothing was worn. Children can also experience kids’ relay games, among many other activities.
“These special days will give children a more complete picture of what it would have been like to be a kid living at Michilimackinac in the 1770s,” Arbogast said.
The kid-friendly Voyageurs and Fur Traders Weekend will focus on Michilimackinac’s uniqueness as a thriving, interconnected village in the center of the booming fur trade.
“During the summer, Michilimackinac came alive,” Arbogast said. “Native Americans, British, French fur traders, and Hivernants, meaning winter trader, all came together here, and the population swelled. In the few short months of warm weather, all of these vibrant groups met at this outpost in the wilderness to live, trade, and interact with each other. Hopefully the visitors will get a sense of this teeming melting pot that was Michilimackinac at its busiest time of year.”
During this weekend, children and adults alike will learn—through interactive conversation with costumed, historic interpreters and through hands-on activities—the difference in trade values between pelts, voyageur songs, the process of transferring goods and furs via canoe through the Great Lakes waterways, and the role of the different groups who came together at Michilimackinac. With so many opportunities for hands-on activities, kids’ might just put down their Blackberry, pull away from the computer, and forget electronic gadgets for a few hours, all in exchange for a different kind of real-time fun and learning—1770’s style.
Kids’ Calendar
Colonial Kids’ Days
June 26
July 15
August 21
Voyageur & Fur Traders Weekend
August 14-15
