Parents, preachers and philosophers all agreed with medieval author Philip Novare that “children should be allowed to play since nature demands it.” And although parents were advised to use strict discipline and Christian morality to guide their children, most felt that children younger than seven were not really capable of learning lessons or telling good from evil.  So the first years of a child’s life were generally free from the burdens of formal education or hard work.

As always, children enjoyed playing outdoors, fashioning mills and dams out of water, earth, and sticks, or they built houses or castles out of sand.

Group games such as hide-and-seek, ballgames, and winter snowball fights were popular, and younger children learned the rules by imitating their older brothers and sisters.

Children used their imaginations to transform blocks of wood into knights, sticks into horses or swords, and pieces of bread into boats. Some were lucky enough to have a toy crafted solely for play: Spinning tops, miniature windmills, rocking horses, hobby horses, dolls, balls, hoops, whistles and clay birds all made up the medieval child’s realm of playthings.