“One of the Missions of the Old Island Restoration Foundation is to provide education and cultural awareness of the rich Key West environment to our local families and children,” said volunteer Andy Herdan, docent and house curator at the Oldest House in Key West. With a grant from the Community Foundation of the Florida Keys, the Oldest House has created “Vintage Play Days” where school children come and learn the “old ways.” One such day focused on learning the basics of quill pen calligraphy, and played a variety of 19th century games such as hoops, quoits, skipping ropes, marbles, and other non-electronic pastimes.
This day the Ecology Group from the May Sands Montessori school learned how environmentally conscious the 19th century residents of Key West were, with a garden tour, planting and a photographic scavenger hunt, allowing the children to have a visual souvenir of their day at The Oldest House.
