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Kids Wade Into Navigating on the Sea

Vacation week program aligns with Fairfield Museum and History Center's current exhibit

Children explored how sailors navigated on the sea during a nautical exhibit at the Fairfield Museum and History Center.

“Find Your Way,” the last installment of a sea-themed week of educational sessions at the 370 Beach Road museum, showed children in grades 2 to 5 how sailors navigated, used maps and survived at sea.

“There’s a lot of maritime history in this area, so there’s a lot to draw from in terms of our exhibits, to create educational activities,” said Christine Jewell, the museum's director of education and leader of Friday afternoon's program on navigation.

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At the onset of Friday's session, children were led around the museum to see ship models and navigation-related artifacts that are part of the facility’s “From Sea to Shining Sea” exhibit, which runs through Sunday.

Then, the kids were armed with compasses and clipboards with guidance sheets and challenged to an Orienteering Scavenger Hunt. Beginning at a set starting point in the lobby, children were steered by directional cues, such as “Go 3 steps east,” and then asked a question about an adjacent display – “What is upside down in the painting?” or “How many life boats are on the ship?”

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Essentially, while learning orienteering skills, the children’s attention was focused on the finer details of the displays.

“Ok, five steps east,” Jewell called out.

“East is that way!” a child replied, checking a compass and pointing.

The group marched in the suggested direction, came face-to-face with a display and answered a related question.

One display was of a rare map of New England.

“Why do you think this type of map is important?” asked Jewell.

“So ships don’t run into any islands,” answered a child.

A quick walk followed, over to the adjacent Old Fairfield Academy, a one-room schoolhouse built in 1804. There, kids got some additional insight into how and what students learned many years ago.

“Why is there a fireplace in the classroom?” asked one student.

“How do you think they heated it?” replied Jewell.

After returning to the museum, kids designed nautical signal flags, sketching them out first and then applying their designs to felt pennants. While the children worked, Jewell read aloud about shipwrights, sailmakers and sea captains.

“I would like to have been a sailor back then,” said Abigail Julio, 7, from Fairfield. “It would have been very adventurous.”

“I think it would have been tough to be a sailor,” countered Abigail’s brother Adam, 9, “especially having to eat the hard biscuits. Navigating would have been kind of difficult, too."

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