purtian children

What games did puritan children play?

When growing up in the United States, children play games and sports all the time. I grew up playing football, basketball, lacrosse, and baseball. I also played games like tag, hid and go seek and so on. Understanding that the Puritans were very strict, I wondered what types of games children played. The following is going to include what their lives were like, what kind of games they were allowed to play, and my reaction to it.

Knowing that puritans were very strict, the children “were expected to behave under the same strict code as adults- doing chores, attending church services, and repressing individual differences.” http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schooladventures/salemwitchtrials/life/children.html. Puritans were punished if they showed any emotion like fear, excitement, and anger. Since they had strict punishment rules, games were very scarce and most of them were seen as sinful. Unlike girls, boys got to show imagination. “They often worked as apprentices outside the home, practicing such skills as carpentry or crafts. Boys were also allowed to explore the outdoors, hunting and fishing. On the other hand, girls were expected to tend to the house, helping their mothers cook, wash, clean, and sew.” http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schooladventures/salemwitchtrials/life/children.html. Most children in the Puritan society learned to read but it was only through reading the bible. There were no real reading books for children, the only ones consisted of warning against bad behavior and how they would be punished for their sinful acts. This shows that the puritan children didn’t play around to much they were expected to act and behave as adults did and had the same punishment as adults. So they didn’t get to play many games. https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1192&bih=595&q=puritan+children&gbv=2&oq=puritan+children&aq=f&aqi=g2g-S8&aql=&gs_sm=3&gs_upl=1252l4593l0l4924l16l16l0l2l2l1l261l2025l3.9.2l14l0

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With that being said, kids will be kids, and found out what was acceptable through the Puritan culture and they played those games. The games they played were various forms of tag, scotch hoppers, cats- cradle, hoops, singing London Bridge is falling down, marbles, cricket, and kickball. These were all forms of games they were allowed to play.  The various forms of tag included wood tag, squat-tag and cross-tag. Scotch Hoppers, which is really known as hop scotch. Boys got to play other games which girls couldn’t play, which were chuck-farthing, kite-flying, dancing, dancing round may-pole, marbles, fishing, cricket, kick ball. Some winter games were coating, which is now known as sledding.  One game that was “sternly disapproved of by the puritans for it’d “mothering devices,” http://www.mayflowerfamilies.com/colonial_life/child's_play.htm  was the game foot-ball. With that being said, Puritan children didn’t always work and act like adults. They knew when they had to be mature, but they also had fun when they could. http://americangardenhistory.blogspot.com/2010_09_01_archive.html

I think that The way they treated children is crazy. I would have died in the Puritan culture. Acting like an adult when you very young are hard, even though I think most of us when we were younger wanted to grow up, but now as adults I think we all wish we were young again with no worries in the world.  SO I think it’s crazy how they treated simple games that children wanted to play and should have laid off a little.

Puritan children did get to play some games, but they were very limited because of the Puritan faith told them they couldn’t, but I think they were very smart in thinking of games that there culture acceted.