History Alive!

When I was in high school, I LOVED my history class. I loved it because we would come in and sit down and the the teacher would come in and basically talk to us for an hour. Just talk! About history.

And when this team of teachers would talk (this was a team of 3 guys!) they made it seem that they were talking about a friend, or a neighbor, or someone they knew personally! They made it A STORY!! with drama and comedy. It seemed to me that the only way to get flunk that class was to either not show up or to fall asleep, because they made the stories interesting and compelling. They took dreary textbook dates and turned them into human events. I loved that class.

That type of environment is even easier to re-create in the homeschool! Here are some things that I have tried that seem to work.

1. Lots of DVDs and videos – documentaries like the Civil War and historical movies like the John Adams DVDs. You can watch these as a family and the kids don’t even realize that they are learning!

2. Music of the era. I have always hoped that my kids would like a wide range of music. Rock for sure, but also country, baroque, folk, celtic…everything. Good music is good music. Listening to a piece from the time period they are learning always helps to set the mood I think. And even if some of my kids protest, I have caught them whistling or humming pieces I have chosen for them to be exposed to.

3. Same with art. I think art of the time puts us more in touch with the actual people. It’s a way of seeing as they saw.

4. A timeline. You know, that class I loved never used a timeline but I find that using one has helped ME keep track of history better! Here is an old picture of our timeline – we have added to it a lot over the past year!

5. Speaking of timelines, try to put some of your family genealogy in there as well. For example, when we talk about World War II, I make sure to mention that grandma was a teenager then, and their great- grandparents were heading towards middle age. I think that gives some perspective and makes older and departed relatives part of the story as well.

6. It’s fascinating to see how much geography has affected our history! Always keep maps around to help visualize how the story played out.

7. Good books (living books!) fiction or non fiction, but I think I prefer historical fiction and then filling in the facts around it.

8. Don’t be afraid to be part of the class! I know it’s hard for homeschool moms to war a lot of hats, but homeschooling provides a great opportunity to learn with the children. If it is a time period you are a little shaky on, show some enthusiasm as you learn about it all together!

Here are some history sites I have found this year. Maybe some of these will be helpful!

My History Links on del.icio.us and Stumble.

Please browse my eBay items!
Visit my new Amazon Store!