Children at play Although many children worked in

Children at play

Although many children worked in Victorian times, they still had time to play. Outdoors, most children could play in the streets, in the fields or in the woods. Some rich families had playrooms or nurseries, but poorer children played wherever they could find space. With often or more children into one or two rooms, play-space for poor families was a luxury. Playing outside was the usual escape for them.

As regards the street games, children shared toys like hoops, marbles and skipping ropes, with friends in the street, or also in the school playground. They played chasing games such as tag and played catch with balls. If they didn’t have an appropriate ball, they made balls on their own, from old rags, and bats from pieces of wood. Hoops Skipping ropes

They also played hopscotch. Hopscotch (mainly for girls) consists of dropping a stone on a square and jumping on it so as to go as far as possible to beat your friends. Victorian children were able to play out in the street since there wasn’t too much traffic unlike today. Moreover, there were no cars until the 1880 s and only the richest could buy one.

The Victorians played outdoor games, such as football. The first FA Cup Final was played in 1872. The Victorians made up rules for many games we still play. An example is badminton, which is adapted and mainly developed from an old game called “battledore and shuttlecock”. If they played football and If they didn’t have a proper ball, poor children kicked around a blown -up pig's bladder, from a butchery.

Football Tossing an egg into a cap Playing cricket Skipping ropes

Ø Indoors, children played board games such as Snakes and Ladders (which became a popular toyshop game towards the end of the 19 th century), Ludo, Draughts, and also card games. A popular card game was called Happy Families, introduced in the middle of the Victorian period. There were also pencil and paper games, such as Noughts and Crosses, which we still play today. Children played table games, such as Tiddlywinks, popular in the 1980 s. < Tiddlywinks The objective of the game is to score points by sending your own winks into the pot and preventing the opponent from squopping your winks by placing your own winks on top of them.

ØThere also Shove Halfpenny and Bagatelle At parties, children played traditional 'ring' games like Oranges and Lemons and Kiss in the Ring. In quiet moments, they pasted pictures into Scrapbooks.

What toys did Victorian children play with ? Victorian children had fewer toys than we can find today. Poor Children : Poor families made their own toys, such as cloth-peg dolls and paper windmills. Children would save their pocket money to buy marbles, a spinning top, skipping ropes, kites or cheap wooden toys. Rich Children : Girls played with dolls and tea sets while boys played with toy soldiers and marbles. During Victorian times, people became fascinated by toys that made pictures move. One of the earliest and simplest of these was the thaumatrope (disc with a picture on either, which is attached to two pieces of a string or a stick so as that the pictures combine into one ). We can also find alphabet bricks, sailing boats, jigsaw puzzles and Noah's Arks in rich families. The rich children had rocking horses with real horse hair manes, and dolls houses with miniature furniture. Other popular toys for rich children included china or wax dolls for the girls and clockwork train sets for the boys.

POOR CHILDREN'S TOYS Spinning top Paper windmills Noughts and crosses Marbles Draughts

RICH CHILDREN’S TOYS Alphabet bricks Battledore and shuttlecock Tea sets Happy Families Hoops Jigsaw puzzles

Toy soldiers Snakes and ladders Rocking horses Clockwork train Wax dolls Bagatelle

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