The Second Albany County Militia reenactment group has for several years provided a Colonial Learning Program to middle schools in the capital district area, of Albany, New York.

Interpretive demonstrators provide students with colonial activities during this interactive experience. Students are divided into smaller groups and rotate around several stations that depict different 18th century crafts and skills.

Some of the stations that can be provided are: military militia musket drilling, candle making, flax spinning & weaving, open fire cooking, pewter & tin manufacturing and molding, quill pen writing and 18th century medicine and surgery practices.

Although we are an American militia unit, we can also have British regular soldiers at a program to represent the Crown point of view.

We provide a fun and relaxed program, in which students can get hands-on learning of colonial skills and trades.

All of the activities take place outdoors on school property. Our group can determine the types of stations offered, based on the age of the students, availability of demonstrators, and recommendations by teachers. Some schools run this Colonial Day in conjuction with a semester long classroom learning of the American colonial period.

Liberty

Our reenactors are dedicated enthusiasts who participate in 18th century reenactments throughout the spring and summer seasons. Our goal has always been to promote, advance and encourage interest in colonial and early American history.

We actively participate in living history demonstrations, military and civilian historical reenactments, and through public and private exhibitions, lectures, demonstrations, and roundtable discussions.

We join other groups and units at many historic properties in upstate New York as well as traveling to events in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut , Pennsylvania, Ontario, Nova Scotia, Vermont and New Hampshire.

Planning your Event

We encourage your school administrator to contact us the semester before you have your event to discuss terms.

In our experience, we find that 4th and 5th graders are ideal for this program because it coincides with an American history curriculum in the classroom.

Some things that we do strongly suggest is that you provide a chaperone or teacher for every 10 students, and that the chaperones and teachers remain with their groups during the Colonial Day experience. We also encourage the teachers to have students Not use phones or music players during the event.