(Chelsea Update would like to thank Catherine Alter for the information in this story.)
For more than 40 years, the Waterloo Area Historical Society has provided an education program to the schoolchildren of Jackson, Ingham, Washtenaw and Livingston counties.
Children are immersed in history during their visit to Dewey School and the Realy homestead as they become a child of the 1860s. This wonderful program will end without people to lead activities
Imagine yourself teaching students in a one room schoolhouse (with outhouse), using chalk and slates (no iPads), reading from the McGuffey primer, ringing a bell to call them in from outdoor play (no video here)
You, as Mr. Realy, in the barn helping children saw logs, find eggs, shell corn to be ground into cornmeal.
For Mrs. Really, children are fetching water from the windmill using buckets hung from a yoke, beating rugs, scrubbing laundry on the washboard, making cornbread and applesauce.
Perhaps you are willing to be the shepherd herding children (not sheep) to activities. Imagine yourself sharing these pastimes.
Help a child forget they are “book” learning history while they are having fun experiencing it. These activities that bring history to life are not forgotten. Seeing their joy and excitement is priceless.
Qualifications are few – a love of history and the desire to share it. Don’t let this wonderful opportunity for students end. If you can envision yourself as the schoolmarm(master), Mr. or Mrs. Realy, or the shepherd, please contact Arlene at 517-392-3195 or email [email protected] for more information.
