Making History Come Alive: Living Books for All Ages

Living Books for All Ages

If you want to make history more meaningful to children, teach them that it is made up of real people, places, and events. Instead of making facts and figures the focus of their lessons, make history come alive for them.

Sure, it is important to have a sense of when events happened. But, rather than memorizing the dates of World War II, why not read a real book about it, or better yet, learn from a real person who experienced it?

"Memories are the key not to the past, but to the future." — Corrie ten Boom

In our homeschool, history has become the core of everything else we do.

Not having the benefit of being home educated as a child, I was subjected to the textbook (boring) method for most of my school years. I never appreciated how interesting and important history is until I started learning it again with my children.

Determined to make history a living experience for my children, I’m using primary sources, literature, and oral histories, along with field trips and hands-on experiences, to immerse my children in different time periods and make history more interactive and memorable. By integrating history this way, my children also learn many “habits” or virtues, like attention, compassion, courtesy, gentleness, kindness, respect, and tolerance.


Read the rest of my article at Home Educating Family
and look for it in 2014, Issue 4 of Home Educating Family Magazine!