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Diana Waring
Writing Tales

 

 

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The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

    

April 24, 2013 

 

Make History Come Alive!  

 


Greetings!

Deborah's  Picture
Deborah Wuehler 
and family

 

Am I making history come alive? Unfortunately, so far this year, I have been remiss in two areas: history and handwriting. The guilt has always chewed at the back of my mind like a little mouse, until I realized the school year was almost over, then that little mouse turned into a lion!

 

So, I prayed. How do I fit these two subjects back into an overcrowded life? I asked for wisdom, and God answered (He promises to give wisdom to those who ask.) He showed that I could ditch the curriculum right now and do something different. I could put history and handwriting together and add them in twice a week. We keep it very simple. We look at our timeline and talk about it, and then practice our handwriting with what we have learned. (We are using Adam's Chronological Timeline, which is partly based on Ussher's The Annals of the World). I am so relieved and the children really love this!

 

Although I haven't been getting in the history curriculum this year, we have read a lot of history books. We read historically true "living" books from men and women who have lived through different periods of time and tell us about their personal experiences. We prefer these books that give us a broader and deeper view to see into the heart and personal convictions of men and women who made decisions that affected mankind whether good or bad. We also use biographies like the Christian Heroes Then and Now, and Heroes of History series.

 

Whenever you have the opportunity, introduce your children to living history by introducing them to those who have lived it, whether in a book or in person. Take a day trip to your own local historical places and then go home and look at your timeline to see where it fits in history. Have your children see where they themselves fit onto the timeline of history. Take your children to the library or other venues where they have a special speaker who talks about his family history. This kind of history is never boring!

 

And of course, start at the beginning where God is ("In the beginning, God . . ."). It will be life changing for your children and their future generations. One of God's continual appeals throughout Scripture is, "remember . . ." Let's look back at Him and His deeds; His Story. And then look to Him today for wisdom as we obey His commands, and trust Him with our future. At the end of our own story, we want our names to be written in God's history book--the Lamb's Book of Life.

 

The decisions you make today with and for your children, will be the living history written for this generation and the next. And, the best history happens as we keep our children Home Where They Belong.

 

~Deborah

TOS Senior Editor

 [email protected]   

 

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Time Travel: It Makes Sense

By Valarie Budayr

 

We are a family who loves history--not the spewing of historical figures, facts, and timeline, but the type of family that opens the annals of history so that we can walk inside to take a look for ourselves.

 

To bring our historical moments alive, I plan activities that engage all of my children's senses and allow them to participate in "time" as opposed to merely observing it.

 

Following is a list of tried and true ways of time traveling through history:

  • Create a Booklist: Oftentimes we start our time travel with a trip to the library and a list of both fiction and nonfiction resources that pertain to the time period we plan to learn about. Being able to relate to a character in a book is a lot like having a tour guide or a mentor friend for the journey.
  • Dress From the Time Period: The next best thing to being there is wearing clothes from a particular time period. We always start our study by talking about the various items of clothing used during that period of history and what each item was used for, and then we design our own "timely fashion."
  • Gather Common Artifacts: Using either photos from the Web or actual artifacts, we create a display board or set up a display on a table. Some artifacts can be gathered easily, such as items from the kitchen, farming tools, toiletries, etc.
  • Cooking in Time: Cooking is one of the most constant practices throughout time. Everyone had to eat--and everyone still has to eat!
  • Go to a Living History Museum: Recently we went to Colonial Williamsburg, where we pretended that we lived in Colonial times. Our children became passionate about that time period and have gone on to discover and learn more about it.
  • Craft Projects: What did people make in the time period? Did they sew, do pottery, weave?
  • Reenactments: To "live" in a specific moment in time is a powerful and enlightening activity.

Audrey Press  

The Ultimate Guide to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a 185-page step-by-step guide with over 20 activities and crafts for you and your children. Have a front row seat into the world of Willy Wonka. ultimateguidetocharlie.com/purchase-options/
 

 

The Familyman

Todd Wilson
Todd Wilson
  
Todd Wilson, Familyman Ministries 



Todd is on the road this week, traveling to speaking engagements. He'll be back next week. If you would like to see if Todd is speaking somewhere near you soon, check out his schedule here
 
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---
Diana Waring
Diana Waring

Relational Homeschooling

www.DianaWaring.com 

 

Dear Friends,

 

To make history come alive is not hard to do. I know that statement might seem crazy if you slept through history class, but, honestly, it's true.

 

All you really need to do is find the link-the "aha" connection--between it and your child . . . the piece that makes them sit up wide-eyed and say, "WOW!!!"

 

I have to admit that creating the "aha" connection is what I've been working at for the past twenty-four years.  In fact, my first book was called History Alive! Through Music, because I had seen firsthand how students would go from dulled to dazzled when they saw how history connected to their own lives.  It became interesting, memorable, even FUN when we exited the realm of dry and dusty dates, names and places and traveled over to the eye-popping, hair-raising, true-to-life adventures that are the real stuff of history.  (Believe me, there are true-to-life adventures taking place in even seemingly quiet moments of history.)

 

So, here are a few tried-and-true suggestions for the journey:

 

Learn history through stories, whether in a book, CD, or movie.  If it is a great storyteller, the story will engage your kids and they will think that history is a sit-on-the-edge-of-your-chair-in-suspense subject!

 

Use the five senses. Can your kids see it, hear it, taste it, smell it, or touch history?  (The answer is, "Yes!") 

See it:  Look at pictures, watch a movie, look at a map, or read a book.

 

Hear it: Listen to music, listen to a story, or listen to the sounds of an event.

Taste it: Make food from the region, from the time period, or from the story.

Smell it*: Cook something or sniff something.

Touch it: Build it with Legos, build it with Lincoln Logs, sew clothing, make a salt-dough map, or forge some chain mail.

 

*My favorite "smell" from history is Napoleon's cologne. I stumbled upon it while visiting a perfume shop in the French Quarter of New Orleans many years ago. They had a display for "Napoleon's Cologne," which led me to query the name.  It turns out that Napoleon's perfumer--the guy whose job it was to make Napoleon smell good--moved to New Orleans after the Battle of Waterloo and opened up a shop. His recipe for Napoleon's cologne has been used for two hundred years!! And, in case you're interested, the citrus-smelling cologne was evidently quite popular with Napoleon. He wore a quart a day.

 

My final suggestion for making history come alive? Check out my world history curriculum!!

 

Remember, stay relational.

 

Diana

P.S. I'll be in Springfield, Missouri, this weekend at the SHEM conference, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, next Tuesday and Wednesday at the OCHEC conference.  Stop by our newly designed booth--filled with student projects, 8 intelligences, and the 4-Learning Phase Cycle, and say "Hi!" I'd love to give you a hug!!

 

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Raising Real Men

www.RaisingRealMen.com 

Young
Hal & Melanie Young

 

"All right, boys, listen up. Major Ferguson and his Tories are at the top of this hill. He has promised to bring fire and sword to your peaceful homes unless you swear immediate allegiance to the King. You have come as free men to defend your families and your country, and surprise is on our side. Let's go!"

 

We were visiting the site of the Revolutionary War battle of King's Mountain. Deep in our family history, Hal had discovered an ancestor who had joined the local militia to counter Ferguson's threat. It didn't take long to find out exactly where his company was placed on the battlefield. Now, 230 years later, we were walking almost literally in our forefather's footsteps, advancing up the steep, heavily-wooded hillside.

 

Now that was a personal moment, connecting our kids in the twenty-first century back to their eighteenth century ancestors and a place in our nation's history. But there were other things we learned, too. For one thing, we realized that the Patriots had a seriously difficult scramble to reach the crest--it was really steep, slippery, and tangled with briers and vines. The trees may have provided a bit of protection but the Loyalist militia was still able to shoot down from the higher ground during that long climb. And as we climbed, we realized we had no view of the summit and not much way of knowing what waited at the top. It's one thing to read about the situation, but a very different thing to actually experience part of it.

 

When we find opportunities for our kids to relive something of history--walking a battlefield, hiking part an immigrant trail, sleeping by a campfire or attending a re-enactment--they gain an insight into the courage, hard work, and vision of the generations that went before us. It takes the written words and the stories told, and makes them something concrete--and that makes them memorable!

 

Yours in the Battle, 
Hal and Melanie

 

Historical fiction can take you back in time with remarkable clarity and impact! Join us celebrating the release of Hope Auer's book, A Cry From Egypt, the tale of a Hebrew family in ancient Egypt before the Exodus. It's Biblically and historically accurate and full of adventure--and written by a homeschool graduate! Check it out at ACryFromEgypt.com. 


Announcement     
   
Coming up in May . . .
 
Homeschooling the High Schooler--You Can Do It!

Featuring Ray and Charlene Notgrass     

Homeschooling a high school student can seem intimidating, but it is simply the next step in training your child to live well as an adult. Ray and Charlene Notgrass homeschooled for twenty years. They will have words of encouragement and practical wisdom to help you be confident about this phase of your child's educational journey. Ray and Charlene are homeschool curriculum writers with

 
Transcripts Made Easy: 
The High School Transcript as a Marketing Tool  
featuring Janice Campbell

A high school transcript may be the most important piece of
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Announcement   

How can we create meaningful, educational experiences?
 
---
in the latest issue of
The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.
---
Contest Corner 

For the month of April, 2013  

 

Classical Acts and Facts History Cards from Classical Conversations

 

It is with distinct pleasure that I share my experience with Classical Conversations; however, to call it a curriculum would not capture the essence of what Classical Conversations (CC) is about. To use their own description, CC is a mission, a model, and a method. The mission is to know God and make Him known. As a model, CC combines classical education and a Christian worldview. As a method, CC creates communities that support parents in implementing curriculum in their own homes, i.e. parents supporting other parents. Therefore, the curriculum I discuss is intended to be used within a CC community in order to reap the benefits of the curriculum and the program to their fullest. CC has program and curriculum offerings for children aged pre-kindergarten to high school. Communities also work together to provide childcare for younger siblings.

 

(. . .)

 

Classical Acts and Facts History Cards: all four sets: Ancient, Medieval, New World, and Modern World ($22 per set). These cards are gorgeous! There are 172 total cards. The plan is to focus on seven historical event cards each of 23 weeks. The remaining 11 cards list the U.S. presidents. The front of the card contains a beautiful picture of artwork or a photograph to help connect the event to be remembered with the image. Also on the front is the title of the card/event, a date reference, and one of seven symbols to represent an historical age. The back of the card contains the title and date again with some detailed information about the historical event. Children memorize all 161 events during every year's cycle. There is also a timeline running vertically up the left margin with an indication of where the card's event fits in history, a small world map, and a number in the upper right corner to help keep the cards in order. All the kids I have seen are delighted with these cards. I keep the seven cards we are studying each week out on a large presentation board. The others store nicely in a 5" by 8" plastic card file box.

 

Read the rest of the thorough review here.

 

TO ENTER:

Email Heather with your name, mailing address, and phone number for contact purposes, with the subject line, "Classical Conversations" for a chance to win* the full set of history cards for your homeschool!
 
The Old Schoolhouse Magazine  
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