History as a fun activity in Kitchener, particularly on a stormy Monday afternoon
Museum draws small but enthusiastic group to kids day
KITCHENER — Lisa and Conrad Kellman of Kitchener have recently returned from Alberta to their home turf and are finding all sorts of entertaining places for their kids.
“It was a holiday and our kids really needed to get out,” said Lisa Monday afternoon at the Waterloo Region Museum, while standing just inside one of the museum’s barns at Doon Heritage Village, a living history centre where interpreters are garbed in 1914 clothing and provide information as well as activities for visitors. Unfortunately, visitors were few Monday afternoon despite the entertaining events at this annual Kid Summer program which included bread making, leatherwork, crafts, horse drawn wagon rides and outdoor games, the latter two cancelled because of a thunderstorm rolling in threatening to ruin everyone’s fun.
The Kellman kids didn’t seem to mind and their curious little hands were poking everywhere during their visit to the Huron Road museum.
“We’ve been living in Kitchener three years, this is our first time here,” said Lisa, watching with her husband as their two kids, six-year-old Jeanne and nine-year-old Rowan, tried their best to commune with a flock of glossy black chickens. The chickens were protected inside a wired coop, but there was that bucket. What kid can resist a big, dusty albeit empty bucket?
“Put it down Jeanne,” warned her mom.
Despite the drizzly weather, the kids were having a blast as were the parents. Mom loved the fact the kids were learning, dad was happy to share his love of history with his family. Their eldest son, 12-year-old Everrin, was away at his first army cadet basic training.
“I was surprised by all the period garb,” said Lisa, who blames Conrad for the family constantly seeking historic sites to visit. Conrad apparently worked for a couple of years helping to restore the HMCS Haida, the Canadian naval vessel now a historic site at Pier 9 in Hamilton Harbour. The family has also visited TheMuseum in downtown Kitchener and they’ve ridden the steam train from St. Jacobs to Elmira operated by the volunteer group Waterloo Central Railway.
Conrad, who like his wife was raised in Elora, was impressed with Doon Village’s historic recreation and attention to detail.
“I’m surprised to see the preservation of this place,” he said, to which Lisa added “it’s great for the kids” to explore history in such a hands-on way.
The couple had been living in Western Canada, taking advantage of the plethora of well-paid jobs available during the oil boom. When that all crashed it was time to return home and rediscover Kitchener.
Lisa was particularly interested to learn that the train tracks preserved at the museum were part of a system that went west, right to where they lived, connecting the entire country.
The family soon dashed off to try their hands at a decorative art known as Fraktur, which is basically coloured ink on brown paper, a method used by Mennonite settlers and also known as illuminative writing.
Inside the museum, gallery interpreter Shawn Courtney, a history undergraduate student at Western University, was giving guests a citizenship test with a lot of basic questions but a few tricky ones, such as who is Canada’s head of state? Apparently it’s Queen Elizabeth and what province is officially fully bilingual? New Brunswick is the answer.
At last year’s event, Courtney had a mom with two young kids ready to take the test and when he offered the kids’ version, they turned it down. These kids wanted the adult test.
“They demolished it,” he said, grinning. “I asked them ‘have you been practicing?’
“At dinner the night before, they’d studied for the test.”
He also said new Canadians often ace the test particularly if they’ve recently passed the citizenship test.
As for the rest of us? Not so much.
Not wanting to be critical Courtney admits that on average, Canadians get about 60 per cent of the questions right. Anyone who scores 75 per cent and higher wins a Canadian lapel pin. His basket was still full.