Posted Wednesday, August 10, 2016 2:10 pm

Summer day camp at the Van Cortlandt House Museum, the oldest surviving building in the Bronx, feels like a step back in time. Instead of the usual T-shirt and khaki shorts, staff members and volunteers don knee-britches, waistcoats and cocked hats, and many students wear 18th century-style costumes. They play popular games from the 1700s, such as hoop-and-stick.

Through period clothing, games of the day and discussions, students at weeklong Adventures in Summer History Time camps learn about life in that era.

“It’s like the unknown gem of the Bronx,” said Lisa Hicks. Her 11-year-old daughter Catherine, whom she describes as a “history buff,” is returning for her third summer. “She’s been studying the early colonial times and the Revolution, and I thought that would be a great way for her to have a camp where she gets to learn about a topic that she’s really interested in.”

Charlotte Levenson, 12, was also back for her third summer, and for a re-enactment of the Boston Tea Party.

“We get to put war paint on and run down with a pretend bag of tea. It’s just really fun and I love that part,” she said. “Everyone’s laughing a lot. The whole thing is like living in the past, and you get to dress up and have battles. It’s just really cool.”

Camp activities go deep – in more senses than one.

“We did Revolutionary War battles and they have a fort that they made a long time ago. You dig it out,” said Laszlo Stein, 11. “You make the trench lower and it’s all covered in grass. It’s really fun to hack away and dig at it.”

“It’s really solid learning disguised as fun,” said Laura Carpenter, executive director of the Van Cortlandt House Museum.

From the furniture in the home to the household chores, everything follows 18th-century fashions. When it is game time, students play hoop-and-stick on the lawn of the museum. The wooden hoop is approximately the size of a hula-hoop. Campers roll the hoop down the grass and hit it with a stick decorated with ribbons to keep it upright and rolling.

“The games are my favorite part,” said William Keck, 9, wearing a red waistcoat and a black triangular-shaped hat with the brims turned up toward the crown.

Dressing the part is not mandatory, but for those who choose to do so the museum offers reproductions of 18th-century garments, such as shift dresses for girls and waistcoats and knee breeches for boys.

Laszlo, who wore knee breeches, said that wearing costumes and playing games from the 1700s was educational.

“Not only what we were doing was fun, but overall [it] sort of helped you learn about the 18th century,” he said. “Not only the outside activities but inside the house. You can see furniture, how they lived and all of that kind of stuff.”

Ms. Hicks said that “one of the coolest things” her daughter enjoyed at the camp was the “interactive” way the adults who run the program responded to the kids. Each camp session has a ratio of three students to one adult employee, giving students more time ask questions and get in-depth answers.

Michael Grillo, Van Cortlandt House’s museum educator, said he wants students to appreciate the differences between their lives and those of their 18th-century counterparts. Instead of flipping a switch to turn on a light, people used flint and steel to light candles, spending a few seconds or a few minutes to spark a flame. Since there was no running water, buckets of water would be drawn from the well and heated for a bath. Cooking was done in Dutch ovens, placed in a pit surrounded by hot coals.

“I want them to take away, this is how [their] life would have been,” said Mr. Grillo.

There is also a room in the back of the nursery where house slaves might have slept. According to Mr. Grillo, the family had 10-12 field hands and two or three people who worked inside the house.

The will of Frederick Van Cortlandt referred to three slaves, and that there were no other records to clearly indicate the total number of people who were free or enslaved, Ms. Carpenter said. Staff and volunteers discuss this with students who are interested in learning about this topic.

“What I would like to see them take away from it is a love of history and an understanding that history is not what you just read in a book. Your history, especially in New York City, especially the Bronx … is right under your feet and right at your fingertips,” Ms. Carpenter said.

There are two one-week sessions, which run Aug. 8-12 and Aug. 15-19. Each session accepts up to 15 students, and is open to those who completed second, third, fourth or fifth grade in the spring of 2016. For more information, contact the Van Cortlandt House Museum at 718-543-3344.