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Making History Come Alive
by Sharon Wilharm

I never gave much thought to history until 10th grade. That's when I took American History with a teacher who had a gift for telling stories from history, making us feel like she was there when it happened. Now, I knew she wasn't that old and it wasn't possible for her to have experienced the events first hand, but she certainly made me wonder. Suddenly, I was fascinated by history and couldn't wait to find out more that happened. That excitement has stuck with me and I still love learning about history events and people I don't already know about. Now I try to carry on her tradition of storytelling and bringing the past to life. I'm more fortunate than her, though. I get the privilege of teaching in homeschool, which means my options are much greater. Not only can I tell stories, I can cook foods and act out scenes and we can play games and make projects, and the sky is the limit to what we can do in our history class. If you want to bring history to life for your students, here are a few ideas to get you started. Explorers Experience Let your students feel the first hand experience of what it was like to be an early explorer. Take them to a park or other area they've never been to. Provide each student with a notepad or sketch book and tell them to discover everything they can about the area. They can write descriptions or draw pictures. Have them look for plants and animals that seem to be native to the area. Look for anything they've never seen anywhere else. When you get back home, discuss particular explorers and find out what they might have seen during their explorations. Use an encyclopedia to look up the explorered areas and find native plants and animals. Try to think of things they would have found that they had never seen before. For medieval history: Turn off the lights and the heat and then dress in layers and light candles. Eat from a roast using only a knife. (I won't suggest throwing the bones on a straw-strewn floor!) Have most of you sew while one 'lady in waiting' reads aloud from a stirring epic poem. Research herbal cures or old recipes. Eat lots of brown bread (around a pound a day per peasant), dipped in vegetable stock. submitted by Sarah Schira, BetterHomeschool reader Hold an Indian event Northwest Indians were prosperous and proud of their prosperity. In order to show off their wealth, they would hold a potlack festival. A potlack would last for several days. During that time, the hosts would invite many guests, serve them much food, and give away gifts to all the guests. If they felt particularly rich, they might even destroy belongings to show that they didn't need them. Wealth was measured in canoes, blankets, slaves, and copper. Hold your own potlack. Invite friends over. Feed them plenty food and give them a gift to take home. Northwest Indians ate lots of wild greens and sunflower seeds. Make a salad using your favorite greens and sunflower seeds. Serve to your guests. Used by permission from Patchwork Primers Volume 1 Re-creations Whatever the history topic, bring it to life through drama. Have students dress up in period clothing and present a monologue as if they lived during that time Put on a puppet show Make a video Play charades and act out famous scenes Artistic Endeavors Make a diorama or peep box to represent a history scene Make a time line of pictures Make a mural Make a newspaper. Include appropriate articles, pictures, comic strips, classified ads, advice columns and more © 2003 Sharon Wilharm. All rights reserved. Re-printed with permission.
Homeschool educator Sharon Wilharm is a former classroom teacher and the author of over 150 published articles. Her work has appeared in such publications as Jack and Jill, ParentLife, Living With Teenagers, Brio, and Young Salvationist. She has written curriculum for Group Publications and the Southern Baptist Convention. Sharon received the Woman's Day Friends and Neighbors award in the July 10 issue. Sharon and her husband and daughter live in historic DeFuniak Springs, Florida. You can visit Sharon's web site, Patchwork Primers, which offers a unit study homeschool curriculum for elementary grades.

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