This is a picture of a hobby horse
These are boys playing with the hoop and stick on the streets.
During the Victorian Era there were no computers, television, tablets, cellphones, video games, etc. Children of Victorian Times had a very different way of entertainment than kids today do. If children were poor and part of a lower class, they wouldn’t get new toys because they wouldn’t be able to afford it. Lower class children usually didn’t have more than one toy and they’d have to make the toy. Girls, similar to today, had a doll, and boys would have some toy carved out of wood. Children who were wealthier and part of a higher class obviously had more toys that would be of better quality.
One toy that I found interesting was the jumping rope because kids today still use it, well I used it when I was younger, but it was known as the skipping rope in Victorian Times. Children also used the kaleidoscope which is still popular now, but typically it would be used by children of a higher class. The hoop and stick was another common game, the point of the game was to keep the hoop rolling as long as possible, and keep it rolling by pushing the hoop with the stick. Children turned this little activity into a competition to see who could roll the hoop the farthest, and this competition was usually between several children. I kind of want to play this game after reading about it. There were many other various toys that were used by the children in the Victorian era, such as the hobby horse and rocking horse. The rocking horse was used by the wealthier children and the poorer children used the hobby horse because they couldn’t afford the expensive rocking horse. The hobby horse could be easily made by hand so that is why it was mainly used by the poorer children. Overall toys and games were a popular source of entertainment for children in the Victorian Era.
Sources:
http://www.victorianchildren.org/victorian-toys-and-victorian-games/
http://www.victorianchildren.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Victorian-Toys-and-Games-Hoop-and-stick.jpg
http://www.victorianchildren.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Victorian-Toys-and-Games-Hobby-horse2.jpg
