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Students embrace colonial times

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After a day of sword fighting, creating buffalo horn necklaces and preparing lunch from scratch, Savannah Wray said she'd prefer to grow up as a colonial-era girl.

"You get to be outside a lot," the second-grader said. "You get to cook bread and stuff."

Savannah was one of nine students from Daufuskie Island Elementary School who attended the "Colonial Camp" field trip Tuesday on Coastal Discovery Museum grounds at Honey Horn on Hilton Head Island. The 12-student school is studying America's colonial period.

Graydon Stephenson of Dunn, N.C., began Colonial Camp as a summer program eight years ago. What started as a weeklong camp has morphed into a field-trip day program.

Stephenson sends information on the program to schools along the East Coast, and the Daufuskie school asked that the program be brought here.

Stephenson conducts about 150 field trips a year.

Calling the program "character-based," Stephenson said, "it focuses on the value of hard work, the importance of listening, developing good friendships and integrity. These are American values. We use history as an opportunity to talk about that."

All the students -- who also learned how to make leather-bound journals and cookchocolate fudge -- said they had fun. But some weren't sold on growing up in colonial times.

"I'd rather do other things," said 9-year-old Nathan Moon, a fourth-grader.

The favorite activity, by far, was sword fighting.

Stephenson brought foam swords and two students fought at a time, bowing to one another before each battle. The first fighter to be hit was out. Then it was on to the next round.

"It's hard with me and Stevie together," said 6-year-old Dillon Duncan of his friend Steven Martin, a third-grader. Steven was a tough match for first-grader Dillon.

Savannah took a different approach. Her strategy was to avoid being hit at all.

"I almost won," she said. "I kept jumping away. I just tried for them not to get me, so I could keep playing."

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