When Victoria came to the throne in 1837 many children of primary school age worked long and hard, six days a week for very little pay. It was later in her reign that children had to go to school. Answer these questions about Victorian children by clicking on the link below each one. You could write down the answers as you find them or you could do a bit of multi-tasking by clicking here and typing them into a word processor. Good luck!

1. Watch the slideshow (just the first 10 slides). Make a list of the sort of jobs children had.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/victorians/standard/work/learning/slideshow/index.shtml

2. The life of children changed a lot during Victoria's long reign. How?

http://www.channel4.com/learning/microsites/E/essentials/history/units/victchild_bi.shtml

3. Help the boy to get out of the coalmine by answering the true/false questions correctly. Children could get hurt or killed in the mine. How?

http://learningcurve.pro.gov.uk/victorianbritain/industrial/activity1.htm

4. Lots of children got into trouble with the law. Click on the picture of the boy. How old was he? What was his crime and what was his punishment?

http://learningcurve.pro.gov.uk/snapshots/snapshot25/snapshot25.htm

5. Take a walk down the Victorian Street. What is the little boy selling? Why isn't he at school?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/walk/games_index.shtml

6. What was the job of a "scavenger"? What did the "sweep's apprentice" have to do? How old were these boys?

http://www.lsstrafford.freeserve.co.uk/victorians.html

7. Later in Victoria's reign children had to go to school until they were 13 years old. Do a search of the Berkswell Census database. What kind of jobs were 13 to 15 year old children doing in the village of Berkswell when they left school?

http://www.channel4.com/learning/microsites/I/ict/communicate/index2.shtml

8. Explore this Victorian schoolroom. How did teacher's punish the children? What did the children write on?

http://www.channel4.com/learning/microsites/Q/qca/victorians/schools.html

9. In Victorian times a lot of children from poor families died. Why? What diseases did they catch?

http://www.nettlesworth.durham.sch.uk/time/victorian/vfam.html

10. Watch the rest of the slideshow. Who helped Victorian working children? Name some Acts of Parliament that were passed to help bring an end to child labour.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/victorians/standard/work/learning/slideshow/view11.shtml

Well, that's an end to all the questions. If you have time visit this VIRTUAL VICTORIANS website (CLICK ON "eToys") and play with some of the toys that Victorian children played with. You could dress Florie the doll, try a spot of Decoupage or maybe view the Fantascopes and more. Have fun!