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 It can be a real challenge to meet your children’s demands for action during the school holidays. Getting them away from the computer or TV screen and busy outdoors, tests the creative limits of many parents.
With this in mind, the Education staff members at Ferrymead Heritage Park have designed an outdoor school holiday programme that is all about imagination, creativity and exploration. Get your children to come along and give it a try!
Based at the 1850s-style colonial V-Hut created in 2002 by the Hutton family for the “Colonial House” television programme, children can experience first-hand what it was like to be a colonial settler in Canterbury.
After setting the scene with a long and arduous, but imaginary, sea journey from Mother England and then the walk over the Bridle Path, a new life of felling trees, pumping water and thatching the roof awaits.
Another morning session involves the children in the games and crafts that early settler children entertained themselves with, such as making cards, clay marbles, peg dolls and spinners.
Coming forward in time a little, the first session each afternoon is lots of fun with Victorian and Edwardian heritage games – skipping, croquet, cup and ball games, sack races and washer woman races! The last session each day is an archaeological dig in the V-Hut vegetable garden to find and identify bottles, tins and other artefacts from the past.
Ferrymead Heritage Park Education Co-ordinator Nicola Pearcy said, “Parents are welcome to be involved and the children can bring dress-up items to suit the times, for example a waist coat and cap for the boys and a bonnet and apron for the girls. The activities suit children aged three to 12 and are designed so that various ages can work together. It’s a chance for them to do imaginative things that can’t be experienced at home.”
The Ferrymead Heritage Park “Colonial House” school holiday programme runs daily from Monday 26 January to Friday 30 January. There are four, 45-minute sessions a day, each supervised by NZ-trained teachers:
- 10.30 am, Colonial V-Hut activities (incl. sawing, polishing, sweeping, making graces, thatching, washing)
- 11.30 am, Victorian craft activities (includes making Victorian cards, clay marbles, peg dolls and spinner)
- 1.00 pm, Heritage games (includes skipping, croquet, cup and ball games, egg and spoon race, three-legged race, sack race, washer woman race)
- 2.00 pm, Archaeological dig (children make up a sheet with photos of artifacts and what they were used for, find and identify items)
Normal park admission costs apply, which include tram rides all day and all the usual Ferrymead museum and Edwardian village attractions. There is no additional charge for participation in the holiday programme.
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