Getting at the Heart of Historic Sites with Children
This has been something that I have been struggling with ever since my child was born. How do I go to historic sites and keep myself surrounded by history when I always have a child in tow?
While I certainly expected much of what I have found in the historic property sphere, I also used to work at the aforementioned house in this video – so on some level, perhaps my perspective is a bit skewed by the expectation that more sites ought to have interactive children’s programs.
This can be really hard to pull off, especially when your staff might not be the best with children in the first place. As previously mentioned here, we have had experiences where guest services staff tell us that “our guides have been trained to make it interesting for children”. And sure, they may have been. But when you have a full tour, you don’t have time for that. I’m advocating right now: stop telling your guest services staff to say this to parents of kids under the age of seven. Any child under the age of seven, and even some older than that, will have a tough time on a tour designed for adults.
Additionally, some sites that say they have kids tours often have tours designed for older kids. The younger kids get left by the wayside. Some of this is because property directors don’t want to risk collections pieces getting broken, which I can understand. But tours with hands-on elements that keep kids engaged are more likely to protect your collection. A distracted and curious kid can be dangerous – which is often why museums shy away from inviting kids in the first place. (This story about a young boy breaking a 3,500-year-old artifact is a prime example of why people worry about this.) But my experience in museums has taught me that adults are as likely as not to be the instigators of damage.
When I was working on tours for younger children and elementary age school groups, we had a couple of really important rules. Get hands on when you can. Be engaging. If you’re losing them, switch tact. And tell them that if they need to sit, they can sit on the floor. Children often have a hard time distinguishing a piece of furniture they can sit on from a chair that they cannot.
As a result of much of this pondering, and this video, I’ve been trying to make a more vocal push for developing child friendly programming at historic sites. It is possible to do. An engaged child is less of a risk. Let’s find out how to get them on board!
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