What was it like to live in 18th-century Virginia? Who did the work? Where did people buy the things they needed? How did they dress? What did they eat? Colonial Williamsburg's new eight-part instructional television series, A Day in the Life, introduces elementary and middle-school students to the world of 18th-century America. A Day in the Life makes history lively and exciting for them, right in their classrooms.

As students travel through Williamsburg in the days preceding the American Revolution, they'll meet and become acquainted with a gentry girl and her father, a young black slave, an apprentice blacksmith, a shopkeeper and his daughter and a free black family. They'll discover a dramatic and engaging world of work, play, business and labor, from the excitement of horse races and fencing lessons to the everyday world of cooking and cleaning, all in the context of family stories and all in one day. Each episode introduces a new character and new developments in A Day in the Life.

This series is designed to complement elementary and middle-school curricula. For elementary students, A Day in the Life explores the concepts of history and communities as well as the individual's role in those communities. And for the middle-school student's first introduction to America's colonial history, nothing could be better. A Day in the Life immerses children in colonial times and sets the stage for the study of key events in American history.

A comprehensive Teacher's Guide, accessible online and included on CD-ROM in the boxed set, accompanies A Day in the Life and includes historical background materials, primary source documents, lesson plans for classroom use and technology extensions. The Teacher's Guide and series support state and national curriculum standards.