Hi. My name is Annabelle Margaret Michaels. I am 15. I live with my 7 brothers and my mother, Sarah and my father. My brothers can be a pain sometimes. Their names and ages are: Henry-4, Peter-6, James Jr.-6 but is 9 months older than Peter. Benjamin 1^st-7, Andrew-8, Benjamin 2^nd-8, but 2 hours older than Andrew and Robert is 12. I am going to tell you about Colonial life in America. First I am going to tell you about our clothes.

My clothes are made out of linen, wool and leather. Some clothes my mother made and all the other clothes are made in England. I wear the clothes that my mother makes. I wear dresses a lot too. Even boys wear dresses sometimes!

In colonial times, there are a lot of people in our houses. There are at least 11 people in our house. They are: slaves, servants, grandparents, visitors, stepchildren, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Slave children usually live with their mother.

My parents grow a lot of food. They grow corn, rice, potatoes, squash, string beans, green beans, cabbage, lettuce, turnips, and carrots. After we eat, we feed the farm animals the leftovers.

School is pretty nice. Schools aren't big like they are in year 2000. They do teach a lot of stuff though. Some schools are private schools, but only very few. The private schools teach reading, writing, and religion. They also have Latin grammar school. Academies opened in many colonies in the 1700’s. They taught bookkeeping, navigation, English, and Latin. Some schools are for girls only. The same with boys. But also, they have school for boys and girls. Most of the schools have just 1 room with grades up to 5 in it. They have benches to sit on, a stove, and a few windows. If you would like to find out more about colonial times, visit some more of Ms. Massanari’s 4^th and 5^th grade classes Virtual Museum pieces.

By Ashley, 5^th grade