ES - Children at events

[housedragonstar]

Maria,

We do have existing programs for the youth interesting in fighting.  There
is a boffer program, a youth rapier program, and I have never seen a youth
excluded from archery shoots.  To my limited knowledge, each has a kingdom,
regional and local level officer.

If gently guided, (that is to say told by their parents), these youths often
make excellent water- bearers at events - Alexander has been doing this off
and on for about three years now, when he is not dealing with his younger
sister or walking a dog.

I agree with Darius that "page" is an appropriate term.  Very often, in
noble feudal families, children were fostered out to other families for a
number of political reasons and very often, they were referred to as pages.
If we were to "foster" our children, then we get the advantage of them being
on their better behavior for a time, and they would actually get a chance to
participate in the game that we play.  Thus the term would be period correct
and in line with the other terminology we use.

Something else we might consider doing is involving them in our activities
in a more adult way.  I was VERY surprised at College when Alexander and I
spent the day together and didn't have one tense moment.  I had a chance to
teach him how to hold a chef's knife, how to slice cucumbers, and how to
chop chicken.  Taking our tween's to classes with us, giving them an inkle
loom, or outfitting them with boffer or rapier gear will give them some
focus.  I even know of a young man who used to brew up his own root beer.

We have all the tools, programs, outlets we need.  We just need to use them.

I would say it just's my 2 cents' worth, but I think I have something more
like a quarter here....

Medb Liath

----- Original Message -----
From: "Christine Huse" <maria_elfsea at hotmail.com>
To: <elfsea at ansteorra.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 18, 2001 8:55 PM
Subject: Re: ES - Children at events


> Buenos Dias!
>
> Ok, I think it's time for the ex-single mom to speak up.....
>
> One of the deciding factors in my decisions to join the SCA was the fact
> that I was told that there are children's activities. Though I feel guilty
> for leaving Ameline with my children, it does allow me to work as a
> Chirurgeon or a water bearer at the field while they are with Ameline.
But,
> I do try my best to get over there and help her. I agree that some adults
do
> abuse the system, but those few rotten apples shouldn't be allowed to
spoil
> a good thing.
>
> Darius, great ideas! I don't think "page" would be a good term. I've been
> giving serious consideration of starting a page program for our youth who
> interested in the sports aspect of our game (ie. heavy and light fighting
> and archery). However, I think we could make a teen group, maybe call it
the
> "Rising Star Club" (it's just an idea)? You are correct in saying that the
> children over the age of 10 don't want to go to children's acitivty.  This
> new teen club could be responsible at events for such things as classes
for
> their age group or other such activities that would keep this older group
of
> children busy. We could set this up very much like Explorer Scouts (I was
> one mundanely). In Explorer Scouts, the children run the meetings and set
up
> the activities while the adults are there merely as adivsors (much like
> Mistress Stella is to us..ie. she keeps us in line and makes sure we
follow
> the rules and regulations).
>
> I think that giving this age group responsibilites is a good thing. It
will
> not only help us out at events, but most importantly it will make our
older
> children feel important and worthwhile in our game.
>
> Maria
>
> ------
> Hey every body Darius here, anfter our recent experiance I got to doing
> some thinking about how we handle children at events.  I have come up
> with a few ideas that could maybe help on a local lever but need some
> development of the ideas.
>
> 1. Most of the kids I see at childrens activities are between the ages
> of 6 and 10 (Amiline please corect me if I am off) Elfsea has been
> wonderfully generous in the past with our childrens activities and
> Amiline and several others have done great jobs. The issue is what to do
> with the older children. Well How Many of us would be willing to take on
> a Page. Teaching them proper courtly behavior as well as helping them
> get involved in a positive Manner??? This is an activity that would
> require a good relationship between the people having a page, the youth
> in question and of course the youth's parents. When I first started
> playing SCA 9 or ten years back this was marginally practiced and themn
> has faded out into the mist. Pages would not be slaves, although I am
> sure some fetch and carry would be involved, but a wise man once said "I
> would rather but one men follow me out of love than one hundred out of
> obligation."
>
> 2. I think a sign up for helping with Childrens activities is a great
> Idea. Just like we have a sign up for troll. We can run the activities
> with out killing our MOC.  I would still be willing to sign up to help
> some one who was in charge of them for an hour or two I just need to be
> able to schedule it into my day.
>
> 3. Enlist the Older children.  Most kids 13 -16 want to stop "sitting at
> the kids table" They want to be involved in the event, how can we help
> them do so?? If the older kids set an example of working with the
> adults  _and being recognized for it occaisionaly_ the younger ones will
> typicaly follow.
>
>
> Well there is where my brain took me, any other suggestions??
> Darius
>
>
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