"Let's Play, the Old Fashioned Way!"

Docents from Ponce Inlet Lighthouse and Museum had a two- hour play date with some thirty local kids ages four to thirteen last Thursday at Volusia County’s DeBary Public Library.  “I’m not really sure who had more fun, the folks from the lighthouse volunteer docent corps, or the kids who attended,” said Debary librarian Karyn Dombrosky.  “Playing children’s games popular a hundred years ago or more, sure gave our kids a great look into the past.  And the introduction and instructions for the day reinforced the idea that many of the games were helpful in developing physical and learning skills needed for success in life,” she concluded.

Kids will rotate in groups through Charades, a French literary riddle game, made popular in the 18^th century in England and its colonies.  Other groups will accept the challenge of Hop Scotch.  The first recorded reference to Hop Scotch in the English world was in the 1660’s.  Some say the Roman’s invented the game as a training routine for its army’s soldiers.  Stereoscopes, made of wood, had double-image cards which when viewed through a usually wooden and handheld device produced a 3 D image.  While there were larger “hoop and stick” street games, parlor game enthusiasts, as well as earlier American Indians, used a twelve-inch stick, and attached by a foot-long string a wooden hoop.  It is said that those American Indians “invented” this child’s game to teach fine motor skills and for sharpening bow and arrow shooting.

The Ponce Inlet Lighthouse has worked extensively with our county’s library system over the years in presenting programs and workshops.  The “Let’s Play” program will be available to at the Port Orange Library on July 7 at 2 pm.  Ormond Beach Library will host the “Let’s Play Program” on July 18 at 3:30 pm, and at the Daytona Beach Library on City Island on July 26 at 2:00 pm.   There is no charge for admission, and no preregistration.