Remember James Taylor’s 70’s song with
lyrics, “Don’ know much about history, don’t know much geography…”. If you really don’t know much about it, don’t pass those feelings on to your children. It’s not too late for you either. What you may have thought of as boring and a waste of time when you were in school, might be very thing that a family can build upon for family outings, vacations, and memories. After all, history is memories and can be an exciting vehicle for a family bonding like no other. Whether it be recorded historical events or local/family memories, these happenings can be a springboard for conversation and study. Not everyone is going to have same intensity of interest that will have them running out to earn a BA or MA in history, but everyone has ties to past and to other cultures.
In order to lay out a plan for family support and involvement in history, think of using these six suggestions to help . These ideas include: researching family history; watching educational TV programs together; having frequent meaningful communication; understanding different kinds of history; designing home activities that enhance history, and making school connections.
1) Researching family history - History can be a habit that a family can develop, but it will take a parent’s positive push toward developing an interest. An excellent starting point is to begin with family history. Sharing information and researching information about past family members can be an exciting endeavor for youngsters. Beginning a family tree is logical way to approach journey in looking at people and events in a family’s past. There is excellent and inexpensive software than can be used to help set up a template for recording data that has been gathered about past family members. Children really enjoy being able to share some interesting tidbits at school about their relatives. What a way to hook children on history and research. What a way to boost a child’s self-esteem.
2) Watching educational programming - Take a look at daily reporting and commentary about people and events. Watching news together as a family can offer a multitude of topics for family discussion and debate. Other TV opportunities can include programs from history channel or travel channel. Biographies are one of those things that are easy and enjoyable to which children can relate. Watching programs together as a family can be a rewarding experience for everyone. Besides TV, atlases, Internet access, magazines, and newspapers are important resources to have available at home. In addition, a family outing to local public library is another way for families to access materials that relate to history and current events.
3) Everyday communication - Daily communication is a must. Children love to have adult conversations with their parents. Guide conversations into worthwhile topics that include historical and current topics. Children’s enthusiasm can be contagious. Finding out what they are interested in and what they think is humorous can be eye-opening. Adventures can and should include local library visits, weekend outings and family vacations. Vacations can easily revolve around historical perspectives because most every destination will have tourist information about he area. A tourist pamphlet or book will include history of area, sightseeing suggestions, and other insights. The Chamber of Commerce of your vacation spot can be an excellent starting point, or a visit to a bookstore to purchase a travel book is another source.
