Hey y'all,
Another subject came up!
How old are the children who stay in the creche? When do children start harper classes? I was assuming it was around age 5 or 6, much like the age of children in real life who start school, but do things work differently? How long do the classes run? Would they go part or the entire day similar to real school? Would younger children (below age 10) go to the creche and older children go to chores afterwards?
Well,I think it depends on where you are, as far as who stays in the creche. I think in the Holds and most Halls, the mothers are expected to be home. Very few would have duties outside of their own home and family, and when they did have chores and errands to run, I think they'd usually ask a friend or relative to watch the children. I think only the Ladies with some rank could afford to pay someone to mind their children just for luxury's sake. Someplace like the Dolphin Hall, of course, would have to have an expanded creche.
In the Weyr, though, it would be different. Many if not most women would be working outside the family. So I think there you'd have children ranging from a few months old to roughly 10 (depending on the child and their maturity, I would think). Just think day care now.
I think generally children would start around the age of five. A rich Hold or a Weyr where there are many harpers might offer some kind of pre-school class, but it would not be required. I think around five to 12 is the average age. And I think they would be in school about 5-6 hours a day, like in our modern educational systems. They'd be learning roughly the same subjects, so they'd need roughly the same amount of time.
Anyway, I hope that helps!
i know im late to the game here and Triad may work a bit differently but.. the DLG says that Weyr children will start doing small chores around the age of 8 turns. It also says that Weyr children will be much more independent and mature compared to hold children the same age. Now those small chores according to it will be things like assisting the healers with gathering common herbs, gathering kindling, picking fruit, etc as age determines.
But it makes me get the idea that part of their day would be spent in classes then doing supervised chores so that they'd be running the tunnels and catching tunnelsnakes and things by the age of 10 unsupervised like F'lessan was. Of course they wouldn't be able to officially craft or whatever until 12 turns but I get the idea they'd be completely independent by then.
hope that helps.