Education was probably for the most part informal. Children learned their adult roles by watching adult activities and by being encouraged in their attempts to copy. Such practical skills for survival as swimming were taught at an early age.[461]Little boys played at shooting toy bows and arrows.[462]Girls played with miniature cooking pots, and they also participated in the work of planting and tending the fields as soon as they were old enough.[463]
An education in the beliefs and values of the Wampanoag people was gained in part by listening to the stories told by parents and grandparents.[464]