History . . .

When I say this word, I get many different reactions. Some wrinkle their nose, some give a blank stare, and some smile politely. Very rarely does one find another person that gets excited about History. I was always interested in history. When I was little, I loved to sit and listen to my grandparents talk about their past and those of their ancestors.

When we began studying history in school, I was very interested but felt that the information in our text books was either too dry or incomplete. Because of this, my interest in history fell by the way side. As I have gotten older, I have chosen to read more historical novels or books and this has peaked my interest in history once again.

I believe that a strong knowledge of one's history can shape that person into a productive and strong person. Through reading and studying history, one can not only learn about an event in time, but can learn about the emotions and effects that all those involved experienced because of that event. Why does our country believe what it does? Why did our Founding Father's include this or that in our Constitution? When we take time to learn about those individuals and not just the event, then we can more closely come to understand the dream of our ancestors for us.

Aristotle once said,

"If you would understand anything, observe its beginning and its development."

When children are learning, in their early stages, what is a common occurrence? When my children were toddlers, my day was often filled with the "twenty questions". "Mommy, what is that?" " What color is that?" "What is that's name?". But the questioning did not end there, " Why is it called that?", "Why is it that color?"

The word HISTORY is defined as the study of the human past. The word HISTORY comes from the Greek word historia, meaning "inquiry, knowledge acquired by investigation."

So, when we think our children a just going through their toddler learning stage. What they are truly doing is inquiring or investigating more about something. That is how they learn, by finding out the history of something. So, is that not one of the many ways that we should learn, is through history?

I've tried to convey upon my children the importance of history. We display pictures of our nations history, family history, and religious history around our home.



We just recently made a World History Time-line and hung it in our learning space. It is just a general time line that begins at the Creation of the Earth and ends at the Present time. We made this so that our children can use it as a reference of time when they are learning about different things in history, math, science, religion, etc.



We chose to divide the time line up into time periods, pre-history, ancient civilization, etc., and then we chose a few pictures of specific historical events as reference points. We are planning on making more specific and detailed time lines of the things we read about, possibly in notebook or binder style. I will share that when we get that going.


Our studies of history will not only focus on World History or United States History, but will also include Math history, Science history, Art history, Music history, and Family history. We will also learn about local and state histories.

Right now, the books we are currently reading and learning from are:

-The Bible (King James Version)
-Mathematicians Are People Too
-American History Stories, Volumes 1-4

I think Rudyard Kipling expresses my feelings exactly,

"If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten."

The reason I like the books we use, is because they take REAL, HISTORICAL people and events and tells them in story form. My kids love them and they get very excited when it is time to read them. Enjoy!