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Community Corner

Campers Get History Lesson at Noah Webster House

Week-long campers learn the life and times of the Colonial Era during Colonial Kid's Adventure Camp.

If there was ever a single person known for perfecting the English language in America, that person is Noah Webster. The centuries-old legend, who was born in West Hartford, created the first American dictionary along with many other notable works.

That legacy lives on today at the Noah Webster House and is passed along every summer to children in a series of weeklong camps and workshops.

“Campers get to do something they have never done before,” said Counselor Lizz Donoghue. “It gives them an appreciation for their past.”

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Located on South Main Street in West Hartford, the Noah Webster House offers a healthy dose of information and education not only on Webster himself, but life during the 1700s.

The Colonial Kid’s Adventure Camp allows children ages 8-11 spend the week in the shoes of a child during the Colonial Era. In fact, the kids do more than just fill the shoes, they take on whole new identities.

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“They all have a character based on a real name, so they are just like a real person who lived in West Hartford,” said Donoghue, who is a West Hartford native and student at Marist. “They get the chance to learn what it would have been like to be a colonial child.”

The children split time during the week between the Noah Webster House and Westmoor Park. While at the Noah Webster House, campers get firsthand experience to life in the 1700s with activities such as cooking lunch over an open flame and writing letters (not emails) while in character to their parents. The closest you will find to an Xbox is the wooden ball-in-cup game.

“The camp really gives the children an appreciation of what it was like,” said fellow Counselor Marsha Anderson. “They get to play with a lot of colonial toys and come to realize, ‘Hey, I can have a lot of fun and not have to sit in front of a video game.’”

The campers then enjoy the outdoors at Westmoor Park while learning how to tend to barnyard animals and care for a vegetable garden. All activities and crafts use supplies found in nature.

The festivities culminate on Friday, when the campers don authentic 1700s-style clothing and put on a skit for their parents at the Noah Webster House. The skit and the weeklong adventure celebrate a return to tradition and a return to simpler times.

For more information on the Noah Webster House and the West Hartford Historical Society, you can visit their website at http://www.noahwebsterhouse.org.

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