You may not think that history is a very important subject to teach your young child but you are completely wrong.  History is just another way to broaden your child’s horizons and to give to them world’s that seem completely unimaginable. 

When my oldest became focused on Egypt, he couldn’t believe how different the world had been.  The non-fiction facts that we read about seemed like fantastical worlds where people worshiped strange gods and spent their lives building huge monuments under the cruel and demanding sun.  The whole topic was something that he couldn’t get bored of and even to this day (2 years after the fact), he still enjoys learning about Egypt and has plans to become an Archaeologist. 

After Egypt came a whole slew of other history subjects and currently we are working on a project surrounding Canada in World War 1.  Actually, it is Vimy Ridge to be specific and he is hearing things like, “The birthplace of our nation,” and “Canadians invented many practices in combating enemies that are still used today.”  Personally, I was hesitant to work on Vimy Ridge since it is focused on war but when the local museum announced that they were having a model competition for Canadian history, I relented and my son and his dad are making a model of Vimy Ridge.

When you teach your own local and national history, it not only awakens you child to the worlds I already mentioned but it also helps foster an understanding of the community and nation that they come from and helps them develop a sense of national pride.  Being proud of who you are and where you come from is important for everyone and children are no different. 

The only thing that you should consider is whether or not the subject is age appropriate.  If it isn’t or you do not feel that you have any way to make it age appropriate, then you should find a different history topic to choose from.  If you are interested in pursuing history subjects with your child, you should:

• Follow the direction of your child.  He or she will probably choose where they want to learn.  My son started with volcanoes and learned about Pompai and Mount Vesuvius.  That went to Roman Culture, which lead him to Egyptian, Egyptian went to Greek and then Greek somehow shifted to Mayan.  Right now, however; the main focus is Mayan and Egyptian.
• Buy some good history books for kids.  The Usborne library offers many wonderful books and several of their series correlates the pages in the books to child appropriate websites that cover parts of the subject that the book may or may not cover.
• Find some appropriate coloring pages.  I know we found some excellent ones on Roman Legionnaires when we were looking at the Roman Empire and there are tons floating around about everything from daily life to campaigns the empire (or time period) experienced.
• Visit museums.  Many parent’s overlook museums since they believe that a child will have absolutely no interest in them.  My kids have been going to museum’s since they were infants and absolutely love them.  There are so many strange things to look at and my son was overjoyed when we went to the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) to see a real mummy. 
• Last but certainly not least: Don’t force it.  If your child isn’t interested in history, don’t force him or her to be.  Instead, just wait it out or pick a historical fiction to read to him or her.  Chances are the fiction will peek his or her interest and you can branch off to the non-fiction again.

As my son and husband work on the model, I will post them up and a little how-to’s on model making made easy.  For now, simply enjoy delving into worlds that you can hardly believe existed.

Tags: child development, Egypt, Greece, History, Mayan, Rome, teaching, Usborne, Vimy Ridge

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