October 29th, 2021

Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children

Number 350

Childhood

 

Hello Everyone

 

 

Are you enjoying your childhood?

 

What is your childhood like?

 

Everybody’s childhood is different according to where they live in the world, how rich your family is and how your parents influence their family’s life.

 

lt maybe hard to believe, but childhood has not always existed.

 

Not as we know it now anyway.

 

Of course, children have always existed, but in most of human history children have had to do their best to look after themselves and help in family chores from as soon as they were able – especially if they lived in a poor family.

 

This was probably from about the age of five or six.

 

They would help collect the harvest and carry things.  They would follow their parents everywhere and be a small person in family group.

 

lf a small baby died in Roman times, they were put on a rubbish heap instead of in a grave.  lt seems as though they were not thought of as ‘proper people’.

 

Children were used as labour in factories as recently as Victorian times.

 

They monitored machinery and cleaned up around them.  They worked in mines where they could crawl through the small tunnels that adults could not get into and very small children were sent up chimneys in order to clean them.

 

These jobs could be extremely dangerous and children were often killed or hideously injured doing these jobs.

 

Teenagers would be sent to work in large houses as servants, and might spend more time with the family that employed them than families of their own for the rest of their lives.

 

ln 1833, the Ten Hours Act said that the children working in the cotton and woollen industries must be nine years old or above.  They thought this was a big step forward!

 

lt also said that no person under the age of eighteen was to work more than ten hours on a week day and eight hours on a Saturday.

 

Nobody who was under twenty-five should work through the night.

 

ln 1901, the permissible child labour age was raised to 12.

 

lt was at this time that children’s literature really took off and in 1908 the Scout Movement was begun.

 

During the first part of the 20^th century, toys were quite often designed for girls or boys.  This assumed that they would grow up to take distinct gender roles.  That is to say that, females would keep house and look after babies and boys would become soldiers and engineers, etc.

 

Do you think this has changed at all?  Has it changed enough?

 

Children from noble families in mediaeval times were often married when they were children.  They were promised to each other by their families who wanted to cement political alliances – sometimes from the time they were born!

 

Children did not celebrate their birthdays, but the saints’ days relating to their name. 

 

Before the 1600s, children were thought of as mini-adults.

 

Church law held children as equal to adults in some ways and distinctly different in others.

 

During the 1600s, there was a change in attitudes towards children and in Europe the concept of childhood began.

 

Children now became thought of as separate kinds of people from adults.  They needed protection and special training to prepare them for adulthood.  They would need to be taught reading and writing and a correct way of thinking so that they would be moral and upright citizens.

 

The Protestant movement was keen to instil a spiritual education in children.  lt was keen on children having a right to food and care, education and training.  lf children were naughty, they were punished.

 

Children had to be moulded into what society wanted them to be.  They were thought of as a sort of ‘blank canvas’ when they were born.  Or like a piece of rough clay that had to be moulded into the kind of young adult that society would want to have as a member.

 

The Poor Relief Acts in Elizabethan England expected each Parish (area assigned to a church) to take responsibility for all the poor children in their area and make sure they got any help they needed.

 

Before the lndustrial Revolution, more than two thirds of babies died.  Despite best efforts of parents, child mortality was high too.  lt was very normal for a family to lose children before they reached adulthood.

 

Children might have had toys to play with, like dolls, but children did not wear clothes especially designed for them.

 

lf you look at paintings of children from history, the children often look like they are very stiff and uncomfortable, dressed in clothes that are just like adult clothes but in a smaller size.

 

lt looks so odd to us now, because not only are today’s children’s clothes especially designed for children to wear, but they are designed to be comfortable and allow movement and play.

 

ln Tudor and Stuart times, little boys wore dresses up to the age of six.

 

ln the Edwardian Era, girls and boys were dressed in clothes that were only worn by children.  Little sailor suits were made for boys and girls wore shorter dresses than women did.

 

ln modern times, children don’t go to work, but they do go to school.

 

Education has been around for a long time.  At first, it was only for the privileged. 

 

Even today, many millions of children in the world don’t get to go to school and well over twenty countries discriminate against girls and do not allow them to have a formal education. 

 

Children will learn a lot of things from their parents and grandparents too, whether they go to school or not.

 

One of the important things children learn in schools today is how to use technology.  This is very important for children to know for their future.  They will need this knowledge to get a job when they grow up.

 

Youth culture was around in the 1920s.  Young people got so much more freedom when they could drive around in their own cars.  Teenage culture really started in the 1950s with pop music and teenage fashions.  Nowadays, teenage fashion and culture is very influenced by the lnternet and those followed on social media.

 

How to bring up children correctly was much debated from the middle of the 2oth century onwards.

 

The psychology of children was studied.  Debates about whether children should be smacked, or not, went on for years.

 

One thing is for certain; children were not brought up as strictly at the end of the century as they had been at the beginning of it.

 

Today, there are special play areas and theme parks for children. 

 

There are television channels and interactive museums. 

 

There are educational toys and ipads especially designed for children.

 

And of course children can follow my blog.

 

What do you like learning about at school?

 

What kind of things do you not do at school that you would like to do?

 

Are you glad that you are a child in the 21^st century?

 

 

Bye bye everyone – don’t forget to subscribe to my blog!

 

lf you like my blog, please support it by telling all your friends and followers about it.

 

Thank you!

 

And see you again next Fun Friday!

 

Love and kisses

 

 

Salty Sam

www.christina-sinclair.com

 

 

 

Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week

 

Bob:  How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?

 

Bill:  l don’t know.  How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?

 

Bob:  Well, only one, but the light bulb really has to want to change.

 

 

Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of material from this blog without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited.

Links may be used to www.christina-sinclair.com

 

Picture Gallery

 

Queen Victoria at the age of four

 

A child’s costume from the 18^th century

The shoulders are very padded but the clothes allow freedom of movement

 

Children’s clothes were scaled down adult’s clothing for most of history (1780)

 

A girl’s dress 1812

 

A girl’s dress 1840 – 50

 

Boys’ suits from 1760

The one at the front is made from silk and the one at the back is made from cotton

 

Edwardian sailor suit for boys

 

Toys are often scaled-down versions of the adult world

 

 

     THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK

 

 

It is hard to imagine how horrible people can be sometimes.

Auntie Alice went to do her stint as a volunteer at the Rocky Bay Animal Rescue Centre this week and found that some little kittens had been found under a hedge by someone. 

They had brought the abandoned kittens into the centre, wet and cold and bedraggled.

It looked like they had been found just in time!

They were cleaned up a bit and a vet checked them over.

Then Auntie Alice brought them home with her because they needed round-the-clock care.

She put them in a big cardboard box in a quite corner of the kitchen where it was lovely and warm and the kittens looked much calmer and less distressed.

They had a blanket to snuggle up in.

We don’t know where they came from originally or where they will be homed eventually, but at the moment they are being well taken care of.

Auntie Alice sets an alarm clock so that she can give the kittens regular feeds. 

She even has to get up in the night to check on them.

Looking after babies can be hard work.

She tried to keep her other pets away from the kittens.  They needed to feel very safe.

The kittens are doing really well and Auntie Alice is pleased with their progress.

Auntie Alice usually has a firework display in her garden every year just for the family.

She has decided to cancel it just for this year because the loud bangs of fireworks can really upset animals.

The children said that they understood her reasoning and we are definitely all going to the Rocky Bay public display instead.

In fact, the children are not sure that they don’t prefer peeking in the box to see the kittens more than fireworks!

Anyway, before I come back next week…

 

 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

 

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PLEASE CONTACT:

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Quick Quiz

 

Do you know the meanings of these idiomatic sentences?

 

1. Don’t rub him up the wrong way.
2. My plan is well under way.
3. We are way off course.
4. He is in a bad way.
5. The meeting paved the way for future agreements.
6. They have gone their separate ways.
7. He bluffed his way in.
8. Where there is a will there is a way.
9. You can’t have it both ways.
10. l have come a long way.

 

 

 

 

lt’s the Weekend!

 

 

HOW TO MAKE A CHOlR BOY

This little boy is happily singing away.

You can hang him on your Christmas tree as another decoration if you like.

 

CHOIR BOY FRONT (KNIT ONE)

Using 4mm knitting needles and red dk yarn cast on 12 stitches

Purl 1 row

Purl 1 row

 

Change to white dk yarn

Knit 14 rows of stocking stitch

 

Change to pink dk yarn

Knit 6 rows of stocking stitch

 

Change to brown dk yarn

Knit 2 rows of stocking stitch

 

Don’t cast off

Cut off the yarn leaving a length of about 15-20cm and thread this through the stitches on your needle and pull the knitting needle away

 

CHOIR BOY BACK (KNIT ONE)

Using 4mm knitting needles and red dk yarn cast on 12 stitches

Purl 1 row

Purl 1 row

 

Change to white dk yarn

Knit 14 rows of stocking stitch

 

Change to brown dk yarn

Knit 8 rows of stocking stitch

 

Don’t cast off

Cut off the yarn leaving a length of about 15-20cm and thread this through the stitches on your needle and pull the knitting needle away

 

CHOIR BOY BASE (KNIT ONE)

Using 4mm knitting needles and red dk yarn cast on 40 stitches

Cast off

Curl the knitting around into a spiral

Sew across with yarn in a knitter’s needle in different directions until you have a solid disc

 

CHOIR BOY ARMS (KNIT TWO)

Using 4mm knitting needles and white dk yarn cast on 8 stitches

Knit 6 rows of stocking stitch

 

Change to pink dk yarn

Knit 2 rows of stocking stitch

 

Don’t cast off

Cut off the yarn leaving a length of about 10-15cm and thread this through the stitches on your needle and pull the knitting needle away

 

TO MAKE UP

1. Sew up the side seams of the body right sides together using over-sew stitching
2. Turn the body and head the right way out
3. Pull the top of the head shut and stuff the head and body
4. Sew a strand of red yarn into the back of the neck and wrap it around the neck a couple of times, pull tight and secure the yarn into the centre back of the neck
5. Insert the base and sew into the bottom of the body
6. Embroider a face onto the front of the head using one strand of black yarn (you can pull double knitting yarn apart to get thinner strands)
7. Sew along the under arm seams using over-sew stitching right sides together and turn the arms the right way out
8. Tightly bind the wrists twice around with pink yarn
9. Stuff the arms with just the ends of the yarn left over from the knitting so that the arms don’t become too stiff and sew securely to the sides of the body so that they point forward
10. Leave a loop of yarn at the top of the head of you want to hang your choir boy up – or use a length of sewing thread if you want a hanging loop that is less obvious

 

 

Please note that the material on this blog is for personal use and for use in classrooms only.

It is a copyright infringement and, therefore, illegal under international law to sell items made with these patterns.

Use of the toys and projects is at your own risk.

©Christina Sinclair Designs 2015

 

 

Quick Quiz Answers

 

1. Don’t rub him up the wrong way. – do not annoy him
2. My plan is well under way. – my plan has started and is progressing well
3. We are way off course. – we are not in the place we should be
4. He is in a bad way. – he is very unwell or badly injured
5. The meeting paved the way for future agreements. – ‘to pave the way’ means prepare for other things to follow
6. They have gone their separate ways. – they have decided to split from each other/they are no longer associated
7. He bluffed his way in. – he gained entrance by bravado and cunning
8. Where there is a will there is a way. – if you want something badly enough, you will find a way to get it
9. You can’t have it both ways. – you have to make a choice to have one thing or another but you can’t have both
10. l have come a long way. – l have progressed and become successful