A Kid's Work Is Never Done…

Social Studies

Students will compare and contrast the lives of eighteenth-century children with their own.

What You Need

• Access to the Internet or reference books containing information about daily life in colonial times.

What To Do

1. Ask students to research children's daily life in colonial America at a Web site such as Colonial Kids (http://library.thinkquest.org/J002611F/) or in reference books. Have them find information about the kinds of chores children had to do each day to help their family household run smoothly.
2. Tell students to draw up two lists: one containing the chores that colonial children did, and another containing the chores students do now.
3. Ask students to compare and contrast their lives with those of colonial children. Does anyone think it would be better to be a kid in colonial times?