Helping Your Child Learn History - Activities: History as Story

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The essential elements of history as story are records, narration and evidence.

Records

History is a permanent written record of the past. In more recent times, history is also recorded on film, video, audiotape and through digital technology. You might tell your child that the time before we had any way to record events is called prehistory. It was in prehistorical times that dinosaurs walked the Earth. She should also know that before written languages were invented, humans told stories as a way to preserve their identity and important events in their lives. Over time, however, the stories changed as details were forgotten or altered to fit a new situation. Written languages allowed people to keep more accurate records of who they were and what they did so this information could be passed down from generation to generation.

Narration

Narration is storytelling, a way that people interpret events. History, with its facts and evidence, is also an interpretation of the past. George Washington, in his Farewell Address in 1796, said: "Though in reviewing the incidents of my administration I am unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors." Your child needs to be aware that events can have more than one cause and can produce more than one effect, or outcome, and that there is more than one way to look at the relationship between cause and effect.

Evidence

All good histories are based on evidence. Your child needs to learn the importance of evidence, and she needs the critical thinking skills to evaluate historical accounts and to determine whether the they are based on solid evidence or rely too heavily on personal interpretation and opinion.

Listen My Children - Preschool-Grade 1

A great way for young children to develop an interest in history is for parents to make books with history themes a part of their reading-aloud routines.

What You Need

Picture and read-aloud books about historical people, places and events or with historical settings. For possible titles, see the list of books under the Books for Children heading of the Resources section at the end of this booklet.

What to Do

• Talk with your child about the book you're going to read to her. Have her look at the pictures and notice costumes, types of transportation, houses and other things that show that the book isn't about modern times. Talk with her about history—the story of past times.

  • As you read, stop occasionally and ask your child to talk about a character or what is happening in the book. Encourage her to ask you questions if she doesn't understand something. Explain words she may not know and point to objects that she may not recognize and tell her what they are.
  • Show enthusiasm about reading. Read the book with expression. Make it more interesting by talking as the characters would talk, making sound effects and using facial expressions and gestures.

• Help your child develop a "library habit." Begin making weekly trips to the library when she is very young. See that she gets her own library card as soon as possible. Many libraries issue cards to children as soon as they can print their names (you'll also have to sign for your child). Regularly choose books with history themes to check out and read at home with her. And, when she is old enough, encourage her to continue this habit.

• After reading a book with a historical theme, encourage your child to make up a play for the family based on the book. If possible, allow her to wear a costume or use props that are mentioned in the story.

What's the Story? Preschool-Grade 5

Good history is a story well told. Through storytelling, children are introduced to what's involved in writing the stories that make history. They begin to understand that different people may tell the same story in different ways.

What You Need

Family members and friends
A book of fairy tales or folk tales

What to Do

• Gather your child and other family members in a circle and have a storytelling session. Choose a person that you all know well—a relative, friend or neighbor. Begin a group story about that person, explaining that nobody can interrupt the story. Say, for example, "Remember the time that Uncle Jack decided to help us by fixing that leaky faucet in our kitchen?" Then go clockwise around and have each person add to the story. Set a time limit, say three times around the circle so that you must end the story somewhere. Talk about the story. Are there any disagreements about what really happened and what was just opinion—or just added on for fun? If so, how can you settle any differences of opinion about what "really happened"?

• Read aloud a fairy tale or folk tale. You might choose, for example, Little Red Riding Hood or The Story of Johnny Appleseed (for more titles, check the Resources section at the end of this booklet). Talk with your child about how the story begins and ends, who the characters are and what they feel and what happens in the story. Ask him how a "made-up" story is different from the story you told about the real person you know.

• Pick a moment in history, for example the fall of the Berlin Wall, the storming of the Bastille in France, the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln or a current event in the news. Take your child to your local library and ask the children's librarian to help you choose books and other materials about the event that are age-appropriate for your child. Read the book aloud with a young child; for an older child, have him read it aloud to you or read it on his own and then talk with him about the book.

History Lives - Preschool-Grade 5

At living history museums children can see people doing the work of blacksmiths, tin workers, shoemakers, weavers and others. They can see how things used to be made and learn how work and daily life have changed over time.

What You Need

Visitor brochures and museum maps
Sketch pad and pencils, or camera

What to Do

• Plan a visit to a living history museum with your child. Write or call the museum ahead of time to obtain information brochures and a map. Well-known living history museums are located in Williamsburg, Va., and Old Sturbridge Village, Mass., but smaller museums can be found in many other places across the country. If you can't visit a museum, travel there by reading books or conducting "virtual" tours on the Internet.

  • Talk with your child about the information in the brochures and what he can expect to see at the museum. Make sure that he understands that what he will see is life the way it was once actually lived—not make-believe.
  • Help your child sketch something in the museum and put it in his history log. Tell him that drawings were the way events were visually recorded before there were cameras.
  • Use your camera to make a modern record of history and create a scrapbook with the photographs of what you saw.
  • When you get home, ask your child what his favorite object or activity is and why. Talk with your child about what it would have been like to live in that historical place in that period of time. Your family might pretend to be living in the historical place. Try spending an evening "long ago," without using electrical lights and other appliances such as TVs and microwave ovens. How is life without those luxuries different from your life today?

Cooking Up History - Kindergarten-Grade 5

Every culture has its version of bread. Children enjoy making this Native American fry bread. (Check the Bibliography and Resources sections of this booklet for books that contain other recipes from history.)