FRYEBURG — What kid wouldn’t want to spend a week at the Fryeburg Fair?

Jaylee and Brayden Bean did — and they got to skip school for the whole week, too.

They came with their parents, Jenn and Lance Bean, leaving their farm in Woodstock on Oct. 1.

But it wasn’t seven days of Ferris wheel rides and candied apples. It was pretty much all work in the draft horse barn until Friday when Jaylee, 8, and Brayden, 11, got to go play.

“They’re out of school, but they worked harder this week than they would have in school,” their father said. Like many farm families, they stay at the fairgrounds for 10 days in their camper.

“This is the first day they’ve gone out to go on the rides,” their mother said. During the week they’ve been helping to show the family’s draft horses every day and taking care of them while they’re in the horse barn at the fairgrounds.

“The kids bring water and hay to the horses, muck out the stalls, and brush them,” she said. “They also hold them for us while we’re getting them hitched up to the carts or wagons.”

This year, for the first time in many years, Lance Bean helped organize a junior draft horse clinic and exhibit. Claude Thorne, a judge and instructor from New Brunswick, and other draft horse exhibitors got together on Monday to propose the idea to fair officials, who gave them the green light.

On Friday morning they had 16 exhibitors in two divisions: 6- to 12 year-olds, and 13- to 18-year-olds.

“We hope this will grow into an annual event,” Lance Bean said. “We would also like to have a driving class for the junior division. We want to get the kids driving now before we lose them to video games,” he said.

Saying it’s a family affair is an understatement.

“We have four generations here this week,” he said. “My uncle is here with cattle, and my sister and her kids are here with horses.” His great-grandfather, Arthur Thurlow, brought his horses to the fair, now in its 160th year.

Debra Gardiner, who grew up on her grandfather’s farm in Sturbridge, Mass., now lives on that farm with her husband, Gary. They have been exhibiting at the Fryeburg Fair since the late 1980s.

Although their children are now grown, they were very much involved in exhibiting at the fairs. Their daughter, Katie, began showing sheep when she was just 5 years old. Now 21, she went to the junior national competition in Sioux Falls, S.D.

This year, the Fryeburg Fair judges presented a Grand Champion award to one of their bulls and one of their heifers. The Gardiners bought their first heifer, a breed called Charolais, from Floyd Clement in Bucksport 13 years ago.

Debra Gardiner agrees the farm and fair life has been good for their children. This year, their son, 28-year-old Aaron, stayed home to take care of the rest of the herd, while their other son, Ethan, 22, came with his two young children.

“I remember when Katie was young,” she said. “She spent most of her time down at Loretta’s Kitchen,” a reference to the museum kitchen where all kinds of traditional New England food is cooked up throughout the day on a wood stove.

Another farm family, the Bruce Curriers of Farmington, came to the fair with their boys, Kyle, 9, and Kevin, 7. The two boys were learning how to walk calves Friday morning under their father’s watchful eye.

“If the calves learn to listen to a child, they’ll listen to anyone,” Bruce Currier said. Taking care of the animals teaches them responsibility, he said.

 “This gives them something healthy to do instead of playing video games,” he said.