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I have always loved history - the story of what has happened to people just like us - who happened to live in a time other than our own. It is now apparant that my daughter is destined to share my fascination with all things past. We have only been "out of school" for a short time and already she is begging to start our next year of history. We will be using the "Story of the World - Volume 2 - The Middle Ages". She asked me on the way home tonight if they had slaves in the middle ages. What were their battles like? Did everyone have to do what a king or queen said to? What did they make their houses out of? What did they eat? Did they have time to play? And so it went, all the way home from Baba's house (Great-Grandma) who only lives about 5 miles away. She is just chomping to get into her new history book. We did "Story of the World - Vol. 1" a year ago. This past year we used the "Potraits of American Girlhood" unit study to learn about American history. The success of our approach was brought home to me the other day. I walked to her bedroom door and peeked in at her. A row of well-dressed dolls were sitting in an orderly fashion across the floor. I made a comment about all of her dolls and how fine they looked. She then told me that they were all in a bomb shelter. My eyeballs widened - I wasn't sure how to respond to that! She went on to explain that they were in London and it was during WWII. They had come to the shelter to escape the bombing and were waiting to hear from the "governor" to see if it was safe to come out yet. Granted, she has watched Narnia, but we also did a lesson on the bombings, a geography lesson on Axis/Allies, and other things to learn about that war and the times surrounding it. My Grandfather was a marine in the Pacific. I had heard the first hand account of things from his experience. It is amazing to think of what we can learn from the past. I was impressed that her imagination had so taken hold of the event. She has been carried away as we read the "Little House" books in the past. She wore her prairie dress and bonnet and wanted only to study from the "McGuffey reader" for awhile. She was so adorable! When I look back, I see that there has never been a time in her life when she wasn't, in some fashion, interested in history. We read several of the "Little House" books to her when she was only three. She would sit in awe. Even before that she was entranced by the Beatrix Potter stories. She loved to see real photo's of that area where she had lived and penned her beloved books. She looked at pictures of Beatrix's house and her portraits from different ages. I was impressed that she would sit and listen to those long stories with such big words in them - but she loved them! Now, my two and a half year old son loves Beatrix Potter too. I wonder if it is partly the size of those dear little books. They are so easy for little hands to hold. History seems to grip all of our imaginations. We love to learn about the writers who created our beloved favorite books and the times they lived in. We love to hear true stories from our family about how life was when "Grandma was a little girl". We love to hear about life in times that were completely different and foreign to our own. Somehow we feel connected to them through the stories of who they were and what they did. Now, my daughter is ready to immerse herself in a new study. She informed me that my son was "going to need a knight's costume". I can only imagine the hours they will spend defending castles and noble causes as we travel through the middle ages. I confess she is making me eager to get started! |
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