Living History Turns Learning Into Child’s Play : Outdoor museums are offering more hands-on activities to bring social studies lessons to life.

The kids were running and jumping all across the Village Green, trying out stilts and rolling wooden hoops.

Some had just returned from a “school” that was held under a tree behind a house. Dutifully, they had scratched the solutions to math problems on slate boards and answered questions about a story the teacher had read.

Others were drilling with the army militia, marching down to the encampment, following the tough sergeant’s orders, standing by as the cannon was fired.

These kids weren’t at all interested in the historic significance of Williamsburg--that it was the center of colonial government before the American Revolution. For them, learning was simply an inadvertent byproduct of an amusing travel experience.

In this case, they were getting a feel for the way children lived during the 18th Century. And they were having fun doing it. That was exactly the point.

As more families travel together--as more parents seek out educational enrichment for their kids on trips--”living history” museums are revving up their kid appeal.

“We’re programming with children in mind,” says Polly Jontz, director of Indiana’s Conner Prairie, which depicts life in an 1830s plains settlement.

At Williamsburg, the kids were offered fresh squeezed lemonade and gingerbread while they listened to a guitarist play a medley of nursery rhymes. They helped do chores, drawing water from a well, and even dressed up as colonists. (They were astonished to learn colonial children bathed only intermittently and slept night after night in the same underclothes.)

The boys in the crowd were transfixed when the fife and bugle corps--all young boys--marched by in perfect unison. Nearby, the little girls happily chose ribbons for their new straw sunbonnets.

Whether it’s Williamsburg or Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts (which re-creates New England life in the early 19th Century) or Jamestown Settlement in Virginia (the site of the first permanent English settlement in the New World) or any of the other living history museums across the country, children are finding a growing array of hands-on activities designed to bring their social studies lessons to life.

Even historic sites that don’t offer daily programming are getting into the act. In California, for example, 47 state historic parks, including Old Town San Diego and Sutter’s Fort in Sacramento, now have “living history days,” during which costumed interpreters re-create a period in California history by demonstrating lifestyle through craft-making and other day-to-day activities.

Old Town San Diego, which depicts Mexican and early American life in California, has such a day scheduled next Saturday. And on Nov. 21 at Sutter’s Fort--the outpost founded in 1839 by John Sutter--visitors will catch a glimpse of what life was like on a day in 1846. (For more information, write the Office of Public Relations at California Department of Parks and Recreation, Box 94286, Sacramento 94296-0001, or call 916-653-6995.)

In Indiana, Conner Prairie will bring “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” to life in October.

Old Sturbridge Village invites children to “meet a critter,” by petting and feeding different farm animals. Children also are invited to participate in such 19th-Century activities as dipping candles and writing with quill pens.

Williamsburg experimented this summer with a Children’s Resource Center manned by staff members who directed parents to the most child-oriented activities going on at the time. The on-site hotels also offer some children’s programming, and a “Parents’ Guide to Williamsburg” brochure suggests homes, workplaces and buildings that are of particular interest to children.

Instead of a dry retelling of the historic significance of Jamestown, kids can explore replicas of the ships brought here by the colonists in 1607. They can try on soldiers’ armor or even, on some days, help clean the cannon.

In the adjacent Indian village, they may rest on deerskin pallets, help make bone tools and grind corn. “We want them to touch and feel. The point is to draw the children actively into the experience,” explains Ruth Haas, the Jamestown Foundation’s education officer.

But even with the best programming, it will still take a little work on your part if your kids are going to have fun visiting one of these places. “Too many parents think it’s like going to an amusement park,” said one Williamsburg historic interpreter.

If you go, take the time to find out where the most child-oriented and hands-on activities are that day and head in that direction. Let your kids march with the soldiers or do laundry in an outdoor tub, watch a blacksmith work or try on bonnets.

Skip anything too esoteric and anything “hands-off.” No matter what their age, they like to explore by doing.

Look for anything that depicts real life--particularly family life. Seek out the historical interpreters dressed in period costume. They are only too glad to answer the children’s questions, reveling in their character all the while. Kids love the “pretend” aspect, too.

It also will help if you’ve introduced the kids to what they’ll be seeing ahead of time. Tell them about an ancestor who might have lived through this period. Read a book or watch a video about the era. If you’re heading to Conner Prairie, for example, the “Little House on the Prairie” series would be great. For girls visiting Williamsburg, the “American Girl Felicity” stories, which are set in Williamsburg, will help to set the scene. (Both are available in libraries and popular bookstores.)

Then, once you’re there, encourage the kids to put themselves in the place of the children who might have lived in Williamsburg or Conner Prairie or Old Sturbridge Village. What games did they play? What clothes did they wear? What did they eat? What was it like to live without bathrooms or running water?

And don’t forget to take breaks. Sit on the village green. Drink lemonade. The kids may see less but remember more. If you’re lucky--and don’t push too hard--they’ll leave thinking that history actually can be fun. So will you.