Share family history with your child, particularly your own memories
of the people and places of your childhood. Encourage your parents and
other relatives to talk with your child about family history.
Read with your child about people and events that have made a
difference in the world and discuss the readings together. (The list of
publications in the Resources section at the end of this booklet can serve
as a starting point for choosing materials.)
Help your child know that the people who make history are real
people just like her, and that they have ideas and dreams, work hard
and experience failure and success. Introduce your child to local community
leaders in person if possible and to national and world leaders (both current
and those of the past) by means of newspapers, books, TV and the Internet.
Watch TV programs about important historical topics with your
family and encourage discussion about the program as you watch. Check
out library books on the same topic and learn more about it. See if the books
and TV programs agree on significant issues and discuss any differences.
Make globes, maps and encyclopedias (both print and online
versions) available to your child and find ways to use them often.
You can use a reference to Africa in your child’s favorite story as an
opportunity to point out the continent on a globe. You can use the red,
white and green stripes on a box of spaghetti to help her find Italy on a map
and to learn more about its culture by looking it up in the encyclopedia.
Check out from your library or buy a collection of great speeches
and other written documents to read with your child from time to time.
As you read, pause frequently and try to restate the key points in these
documents in language that your child can understand.
Enjoying History With Your Child
As a parent, you can help your child want to
learn in a way no one else can. That desire to
learn is a key to your child’s success, and, of
course, enjoyment is an important motivator for
learning. As you choose activities to do with
your child, remember that helping her to learn
history doesn’t mean that you can’t have a good time. In fact, you can
teach your child a lot through play. Here are some things to do to make
history both fun and productive for you and your child:
1. Use conversation to give your child confidence to learn.
Encouraging your child to talk with you about a topic, no matter how off
the mark he may seem, lets him know that you take his ideas seriously
and value his efforts to learn. The ability to have conversations with your
child profoundly affects what and how he learns.
2. Let your child know it’s OK to ask you questions.
If you can’t answer all of her questions, that’s all right—no one has all the
answers. Some of the best answers you can give are, “Good question. How
can we find the answer?” and “Let’s find out together.” Together, you and
your child can propose possible answers and then check them by using
reference books and the Internet, or by asking someone who is likely to
know the correct answers.
3. Make the most of everyday opportunities.
Take advantage of visits from grandparents to encourage storytelling about
their lives—What was school like for them? What was happening in the
country and the world? What games or songs did they like? What were
the fads of the day? Who are their heroes? On holidays, talk with your
3
Share family history with your child, particularly your own memories
of the people and places of your childhood. Encourage your parents and
other relatives to talk with your child about family history.
Read with your child about people and events that have made a
difference in the world and discuss the readings together. (The list of
publications in the Resources section at the end of this booklet can serve
as a starting point for choosing materials.)
Help your child know that the people who make history are real
people just like her, and that they have ideas and dreams, work hard
and experience failure and success. Introduce your child to local community
leaders in person if possible and to national and world leaders (both current
and those of the past) by means of newspapers, books, TV and the Internet.
Watch TV programs about important historical topics with your
family and encourage discussion about the program as you watch. Check
out library books on the same topic and learn more about it. See if the books
and TV programs agree on significant issues and discuss any differences.
Make globes, maps and encyclopedias (both print and online
versions) available to your child and find ways to use them often.
You can use a reference to Africa in your child’s favorite story as an
opportunity to point out the continent on a globe. You can use the red,
white and green stripes on a box of spaghetti to help her find Italy on a map
and to learn more about its culture by looking it up in the encyclopedia.
Check out from your library or buy a collection of great speeches
and other written documents to read with your child from time to time.
As you read, pause frequently and try to restate the key points in these
documents in language that your child can understand.
Some Basics
4 Helping Your Child Learn History Helping Your Child Learn History
What Is History?
“Once upon a time . . . ” That opening for many favorite children’s tales
captures the two main meanings of history—it’s the story of people and
events, and it’s the record of times past. To better understand what history
is, let’s look closer at each of these two meanings.
The Story in History
Unlike studying science, we study history without being able to directly
observe events—they simply are no longer in our presence. “Doing”
history is a way of bringing the past to life, in the best tradition of the
storyteller. We do this by weaving together various pieces of information
to create a story that gives shape to an event.
There are many possible stories about the same event, and there are good
storytellers and less good storytellers. Very rarely does one story say it all
or any one storyteller “get it right.” A good student of history, therefore,
tries to determine the true story by looking to see if a storyteller has
backed up her story with solid evidence and facts.
The history with which we are most familiar is political history—the story
of war and peace, important leaders and changes of government. But
history is more than that. Anything that has a past has a history, including
ideas, such as the idea of freedom, and cultural activities, such as music,
art or architecture.
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child about why the holiday is observed, who (or what) it honors and
how and whether it’s observed in places other than the United States. At
ball games, talk about the flag and the national anthem and what they
mean to the country.
4. Recognize that children have their own ideas and interests.
By letting your child choose some activities that he wants to do, you let
him know that his ideas and interests have value. You can further
reinforce this interest by asking your child to teach you what he learns.
How to Use This Booklet
The major portion of this booklet is made up of activities that you can use
with your child to strengthen his history knowledge and build strong
positive attitudes toward history. And you don’t have to be a historian or
have a college degree to do them. Your time and interest and the pleasure
that you share with your child as part of working together are what
matter most. What’s far more important than being able to give your child
a detailed explanation for the concepts underlying each activity is having
the willingness to do the activity with him—to read, to ask questions, to
search—and to make the learning enjoyable.
In addition to activities, the booklet also includes:
★ Some information about the basics of history;
★ Practical suggestions for how to work with teachers and schools to
help your child succeed in school; and
★ A list of resources, such as federal sources of history, helpful Web
sites and lists of books for you and for your child.
