Playing dress-up is a great way to learn history
Like most first time homeschoolers, we started with the idea that our home was a classroom and that I was a teacher. Although that method works for some, we were often uncomfortable with traditional worksheets, curriculum-based grammar lessons, and set times to complete lessons. We found ourselves adapting and our homeschool started looking less like a classroom and more like a place where kids played. The learning, though less structured, was richer and more deeply layered and I stopped teaching and started exploring alongside my kids.
I recently wrote a diary about our explorations in math, Living Math.
Today, let me introduce you to our style of Living History.
Today, I'm homeschooling two teens and that means I have a lot of time to myself. But one project we're working on this year, at the prompting of my youngest, is our Family Genealogy. It is one of the easiest ways to introduce kids to history. Because I had already started the research years back, I have file folders of info at hand but none of it is necessary to start the process.
The easiest place to begin is with a child's very own birth certificate. Let them discover all the information available on that one small piece of paper. It's a chance for them to learn something about themselves and about their parents. It's also a chance to learn how to use primary source material, the lifeblood of all successful historical research.
Living History in Marysville, CA (yep, that's us!)
After they've explored their own birth certificate, you can pull out your own. Can they discover the common threads that join one primary source to the next? If their interest is piqued, you have a good beginning that might continue to that next piece of source material, be it your parents' birth certificates, your own marriage certificate, or maybe the death certificate from a loved one who has already passed away.
When you get to those grandparents, have your child do a little research before they make a phone call. What important events took place during their grandparent's lifetime? Help your child come up with a list of questions and use the opportunity to learn how the big events are remembered by everyday people. Ask Grandpa if he watched Neil Armstrong walk on the moon or Grandma how she contributed during WWII.
National History Day Project
That latter question actually came from my oldest son. After his father's first deployment in support of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, he was curious about how children managed on the home front during World War II so he asked his grandma. The question prompted her to mail him old War Ration books and tokens. She told him stories of what life was like on the farm in Oregon. He used much of the material in a project for National History Day.
Never heard of National History Day? It's a great program that allows young teens to share a history project, based on a different theme each year, in their local community. First, kids compete at school level (homeschoolers compete against other homeschoolers in our community), then at the district level, then State, and finally Nationals. My son has won savings bonds both years he participated and took both projects to the State Finals in Austin, Texas. While in Austin, he got to meet other young historians. Overall, the experience was a great one!
But we didn't jump into history projects and genealogy research cold turkey. My kids were little once and the idea of sitting down in a library to conduct research would have been just plain crazy. We did sit down at home and read some great books. Our favorite history books are those by Joy Hakim, especially Freedom: A History of US. The book was based on a PBS Series that we have yet to watch but comes highly recommended. She also has a great series called The Story of Science that we have touched but not finished.
Panning for gold at local state park in CA
The library was all important. We checked out every EyeWitness Book on history we could find, titles like Ancient Rome, Ancient Egypt, and Ancient China. We found many of
David MacCauley's great books used in bookstores, Cathedral, Castle, and Mosque, to name a few. We ordered even more books through Scholastic and then would swap them with homeschoolers when finished. What all of these books have in common is that they are all visually appealing, an extremely important fact when you have young children that are having a hard time learning how to read.
Since both boys were late readers, reading outloud was really important in our house. Textbooks can get dry so we immersed ourselves in lots of historical fiction - much of it too difficult for a young child to read on their own anyway. Imagine tackling The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson as an elementary school kid? Or Moby Dick? (okay, we listened to that one via audiobook because it was too much for me to read aloud!) We also discovered math through American History with Carry On Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham. And I made my two boys suffer through the entire series of Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder (guess which book was their favorite?). One of the first books my oldest read on his own was Crispin and the Cross of Lead by one of our favorite authors of all time, Avi. My youngest, however, is more comically inclined, much less serious, and he would be miffed if I neglected to recommend the British Horrible Histories that are next to impossible to find new in the US but can be found used (and they've expanded to youtube videos but they require a sense of humour... if you can manage Monty Python, these might work for you).
Ancient History from Great Basin State Park, NV
Once both boys were reading, I wanted them to have lots of material so we subscribed to a couple of magazines at different times. My husband's parents have always bought my boys a subscription to National Geographic so we were already very familiar with their excellent history articles and tried out their special kid's edition. Then I discovered a series of history magazines,
Cobblestone for US History,
Calliope for World History, and
Dig for Archaeology and History.
Since kids seem to be drawn to items that are just strewn about the house, the best way to use the magazine is just to leave it lying around. Guaranteed, someone will read it. Usually, an article or two becomes a topic of conversation and then other family members hunt down the magazine and read it for themselves.
And we didn't limit ourselves to books and magazines. We watched little television while the boys were growing up but one of our exceptions were videos and movies on history. Some of the ones that stick with me still - John Adams HBO Series, October Sky, Apollo 13, Master and Commander, Patton, 1776, the Sharpe series, The King's Speech, The Queen, and Charlie Wilson's War. Can you tell we have a bit of a military bent and that I have an English mother?
Living Military History at
The Petting Zoo, Nellis AFB, NV
When their dad deployed, we also watched TV during dinner, the hardest part of our day. I introduced them to
The Waltons and we learned all about the Great Depression. We watched some of the Little House series as well though it is nowhere near as good as the books. Watching a family have a good time and be loving with one another even when life wasn't easy was just what we needed.
When the boys were very young, I read the Story of the World to them and we used the companion book to complete some of the projects. Though my boys did get real excited about building their own trebuchet, the idea of mummifying a chicken at home to learn about ancient Egypt was a little too hands on for me. We started to find our interactions with history outside our home and in our community instead.
Putting history in perspective
in Washington DC
Wherever you live in the United States, there is history nearby. Take advantage of what is local. As a military family, we're lucky in this respect because repeated moves mean we have been exposed to the history of multiple areas of the United States, including the South, the desert Southwest, and California, as well as parts of Europe and South America. But living in one location can be beneficial as well because repeat visits to a single location allow for a deeper understanding of the history of a place. Count yourselves lucky if you can truly get to know your area.
Here are a few tips for all of these trips:
- This trip is for your child or children, not you. Walk through at your child's pace. If they want to skip a bunch of stuff, don't worry. You'll get it the next time. Or you won't. This is about what they are capable of soaking up in the moment, not about what you want them to learn in a lifetime.
- Break the above rule if it's something you're really excited about - it's good for kids to realize that adults have passion too! Just don't let your passion rule all the field trips, that's all!
- Answer your child's questions with an age appropriate response and remember to stop talking. Let them respond.
- If your child is old enough, hand them a camera and ask them to document the trip.
- Take a sketch pad and drawing tools of choice. Children of all ages can document a trip by drawing pictures of what they like or what they think a place would have looked like when it was full of people. Kids are more likely to give this a try if you start first. Be brave and don't make negative comments about your own drawing. Your child will learn that they can try new things and not be perfect.
- If your child's grandparents can come along, invite them. They may be able to add a different perspective to the visit. For example, visiting the Air and Space Museum with my dad is a completely different trip than with me alone - he is still in awe of the planes he worked on while an active duty Air Force NCO and that wonder comes across when he sees the planes in a museum.
BTW, although school field trips are great, taking kids outside of a group setting has it's advantages because kids can soak up the history at their own pace and they aren't concerned about what their peers are thinking. Basically, they can focus on their own enjoyment.
Living History Civil War event near Montgomery, AL
Here are some ideas for trips -
Learning about mining at
Berlin Ichthyosaur State Park, Nevada
- Field trips to see historical monuments. Yeah, this one is pretty obvious. But I want to make a point about this kind of trip. They can quickly get boring for kids if they are approached like a stereotypical history lesson. Skip the dates, skip all the plaques even, and follow your child. Listen to what your child has to say. Be amazed with your child and share your sense of wonder with the place. If he or she asks questions, then answer them. Or say, "I don't know. Let's see if we can find out." Then head to the explanatory info to see if you can find the answer. If your child likes videos, watch the video presentations. Feel free to leave if they're boring. The whole point of visiting these places is to encourage a love of the visits - you want your child to want to come back and learn more the next time even if you don't know when the next time will be.
-
Meeting Charles Darwin at the
Natural History Museum in Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Field Trips to Living History Museums are naturally more interactive than a visit to a historical site. These locations usually have people in historical dress acting historical parts. The best places allow children an opportunity to play a part as well. Sometimes, a local historical site will offer a living history day once or twice a year. Though these events can be packed, they are usually worth the effort, especially for elementary aged kids. Older kids may have more fun volunteering at these events.
- A field trip to a National or State Park doesn't have to be just an outdoor adventure. All of these Parks have a history and the local rangers are usually very willing to share what they know. Better yet, the Junior Ranger programs have come a long way and even the smallest State Park will have a program. Guaranteed some history will be included in the package. Take advantage of it.
-
Grinding corn at Folk Festival in San Antonio, TX
- Don't limit yourself to history museums - Science and Natural History museums are full of history and might make a better introduction to an historical topic. The Monterey Bay Aquarium, for example, has an excellent exhibit on the history of Cannery Row.
- Visit history on the move - We've seen sailing ships that are in harbor for only a week and King Tut as he stops at the local children's museum.
- Take advantage of local festivals - especially those focusing on farming and folk arts. People sometimes forget how much our nation is built on working with our hands and it's a good way to remind our kids that much of what we take for granted was not so easy to come by in years past.
- The best field trips are those where history is in the making! Call attention to those moments you know will be remembered for years to come, like the Inauguration of the first African-American President of the United States.
Living History at the Inauguration of Barack Obama
After you've incorporated at least some of these things into your family life, then remember to follow up in the most important way of all - share what you have learned. Sharing can take place in many shapes and forms - the drawings and pictures from a trip or a written description of a trip can be posted online or shown to friends and family, and then added to your homeschool portfolio. Think outside the box - take out the trebuchet and use it at the next gleaning with your CSA (we've done that!) or invite a friend to take a repeat field trip and have your kids serve as the tour guides. At the very least, share around the dinner table.
Sharing a little American History
through coins with an Argentine friend.
Conversations about history and politics at dinner are a mainstay in our home. First, that means we have to schedule a dinnertime together. Yeah, that's the hard part for most families but it's a very important thing to do. As my boys have gotten older, we've pushed dinner time back so that we can still continue to eat as a family (living in Argentina helped us realize that 7 or 8pm isn't really late at all). And we use this time to bring up current events of the day and who can discuss current events without discussing history? I mean, the war in Afghanistan didn't come up out of nowhere and understanding the long history of Western influence in the Middle East helps to understand our current situation today. Understanding today's Presidential Election means understanding the current safety net which takes us directly to the Great Depression. Current events are history in the making and dissecting their historical background places them in historical context, an important skill for today's youth.
I hope you've enjoyed this journey through our Living History - see, no curriculum! No work sheets! No reports! Just two boys who love history and want to continue learning everything they can.
Goofing off with teens helps
keep heavy history lessons light
Thanks for reading Education Alternative's Series on Homeschooling!
We publish Saturday mornings between 8am and 12noon EST
We follow the kos rule of Participating in someone else's diary
Follow us at Education Alternatives for our occasional weekday pieces on homeschooling.