Our morning started with a Cool gray sky, slowly warming up as if stretching it self to wake slowly. Faire site in the morning is kinda of erie, quietly waiting for something , a sense of expectation. Yes it seems to know when the "kids are coming". Our Schools, come and learn something of the Faire and the handmade items that we sell, as well as a chance to socialize with other schools. It can be a large challenge to work with 5500 kids at once. Our Security Staff does a helluva job considering all things, and how many kids we have. We open a littler earlier for them 9:15,and the day ends at 2:30. It has always been challenging to do these days, because kids can ask some of the wildest Questions you can imagine. It is a day for us to encourage future clients, teaching about the history of a Spanish held village during the rein of Isabelle and Ferdinand, we are also part Parent, diplomat, and sheriff.
We often see some of the smartest as well as the bored and those kids tend to want to bring out the wood swords and fight with each other - Bad Idea? or Natural Selection?Debra came in to help with the invasion of kids, I thought having an extra hand would help. Oh so glad she was there....
Our Faire gives out questionaires to the kids ,to aid them in learning
about the Period, this includes the Joust, clothing, the technologial of the age . It can be amusing to see a young male student stammer out the question about the farthingale. My personal farvorite is the princess reaction to the gowns , of course. The day warmed up very quick, and it was going to get hotter that we expected. Most of the morning was spend talking to the kids and doing photos with all of them. We are basis photo prop's for most of the kids, on average we are photographed about hundred times a day during kids day. It can be very hard to do this, while talking to them . The energy is crazy and the volume of sound is of rock concert quaility. It is almost like watching a small army taking over a defined area, a swarm that spreads out quick over the site. But for all the insanity it is a wonderful way to see how the education system, so needs our help. If we can make it fun , it will stick. Which is awsome when a past years kid walks up and quote you from last year, you know why your doing this. I really wish parents would really work on Manners with their kids, it is the first thing you notice. Sadly it shows that we are forgetting how important manners are.
We answers questions that are the normal ones and tried to answer the new ones. The best Question of the day for me was, Can you Hide someone under there - meaning my Skirt. The second best : How did they stay Fashionable. The range of questions are becoming more current based, not easy to put in period context. I have to say yesterday seem like a full day, brain wise ,but that is because it was a three day push and those are always hard, we have another next week end.
As the day came to a close I had one group that really showed interest in the Gowns and what we do , so we did this pic ,with them looking forward to bring their families to faire this weekwend. They were great and reminded me of why we do what we do
Sounds like your kids day was well worth it.
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