I was swimming with my son yesterday when we began talking about history. He was asking me questions about Indians and how we came to be in Canada. I was answering his questions while I strained to recall all the social studies that I had taken over the years. At one point I mentioned Europeans and when he asked me what a European was, I listed off nations that had settled in North America.

When I said Germans, he paled significantly, which is quite a feat since he is very pale to begin with, and his eyes grew wide with worry as he said, “There are no Germans in Canada, are there?”

Wondering exactly why he was worried about this, I questioned him and he went on to explain that Germans were the bad guys. Everyone said it and they started those big wars. The question that came tumbling out of his mouth was surprising as he asked, “Are Germans bad?”

This really raised my awareness of how tricky it is to answer a question. We fight wars, have soldiers fighting wars and we present an image of the ultimate good and the ultimate evil. In the World Wars, the Germans were the ultimate evil and that is still taught in history books. If you approach history in this manner, then how can you say, “Well, Germans were bad back then but now they have good people and bad people just like everyone else.”

For some reason, that doesn’t seem to cut it and I had to approach it in a somewhat different manner.

So how do you handle this? For me, I look at it not as a race of people being bad but of making a bad choice. They chose to fight for their country and their country was being led by a bad man. Obviously, I don’t get into the darker points of the war, my son is only 7, after all, but I do not want him to be plagued by discrimination, especially at such a young age.

My first reaction to his question was to say, “Well, your great grandparents were german, are you bad? Am I bad?” He smiled in relief and said, “No.”

I then explained how the country was led by a bad man and because of that many bad things happened in the country and during the war. They fought for the wrong thing but they fought for their country. People make mistakes (of course this is a bit of an understatement when it comes to the World Wars) and it isn’t right to believe that all Germans are bad simply because of the wars.

As I was explaining, he smiled and said, “I know who led the Germans, my friend told me.”

I smiled and asked him who led the Germans during the wars and he said, “A bad man named Hitler and another bad man named Merlin.”

Which brought me to another conclusion, I really needed to keep an eye on what other children were teaching my son. The next half an hour was spent in explaining Arthurian legends and who Merlin was and yes, this whole conversation took place in the pool.  )

Sirena Van Schaik

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As I have mentioned in earlier posts, my son and his dad are making a model together for a contest that is being put on by the local museum. The model that he chose to do was the Battle of Vimy Ridge and in particular Hill 145.

It has been an adventure and after 2 and a half months, he finally finished it this weekend. (I will post pictures when I can get the feature working again,) It looks really good and we decided that he would have a little plague beside it explaining what his model is about and what Vimy Ridge is.

Over the last two months, I (and Dad) have been talking to him about Vimy Ridge and World War I but I decided to gather a few print outs and read it to him over the weekend. I then had him tell me about Vimy Ridge in his own words.

This is actually a great way to get your children to remember what you are reading. Asking questions like, “So what happened when,” or “What part did you find interesting,” or even “Why is this important,” will help your child put some order into their thoughts on the subject while reinforcing the learning. It also prepares them for when they have to start writing reports and will have to think about those questions on their own.

I have done this with both of my children since they were very young and it is simply a way to recall learning. It is also a great way to remind me what we are learning because many times the subject is pretty new to me too.

So with that, I thought I would post his report today. It gives you some idea of what he retained, even at 6 (just about 7), and is an example of how effective these projects are.

Battle of Vimy Ridge: Hill 145

April 9th to 12th, 1917

My model is about Vimy Ridge. This is Hill 145 where the Canadians won against the Germans and no other army had won there before.

During World War I on April 9^th, 1917, Easter Monday, at 5:28am, the Canadians began their battle to win the Ridge. It was a hard battle and they had to fight machine guns, artillery, cannons and Germans. They had to get through barbed wire and lots of mud and dirt.

They won Hill 145 on April 10^th, 1917 and they won the Battle of Vimy Ridge on April 12^th, 1917.

Many brave Canadians fought at Vimy Ridge and there were over 7,000 injured soldiers and 3,598 soldiers who died.

Why is Vimy Ridge important to Canadians?

- It was the “birthplace” of Canada!

- It was where Canadians became proud.

- It was the first time that the whole Canadian Army fought together and commanded its own soldiers.

- Canadian Soldiers invented the Rolling Barrage, the Platoon System, better communications, Indirect Machine-Gun Fire and many other things at Vimy Ridge that are still used today by soldiers.

- Canadian soldiers did what no other soldiers had been able to do before at Vimy Ridge.

I am proud of the soldiers who fought there because they fought for Canada. We should never forget them.

“In those few minutes I witnessed the birth of a nation.”

-Brigadier General A.E. Ross

The quote was one that my son really liked and was one that he wanted on his plague. So now he is ready and in two weeks he drops of the model and we will know if he wins by July 1st. Even if he doesnt, it was a great experience for both him and us and a lot of learning was done on all of our parts.

Sirena Van Schaik

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If you remember, my son and husband are working on a historical model about Vimy Ridge for a contest the local museum is having.  This is a pretty big endeavor but they are enjoying it immensely.

Vimy Ridge, for those of you who aren’t familiar with it, is a place where several battles took place in World War I.  it is considered to be the birthplace of my nation, Canada, simply because national pride began at Vimy.  There Canadian soldiers did what no other army had been able to do; they took the Ridge.  Not only that, but Canadian soldiers came up with many new ways to fight an enemy and many of those practices are still used by armies around the world.  A lot of pride is felt when you talk about Vimy Ridge, and it is wonderful to remember the veterans and all the soldiers that died in all the wars.

As I mentioned, I’m not a big fan of war.  I used to be anti-war, no ends justifies the means, but after gaining a very close friend who volunteered in the US Marines during Vietnam (yes he was Canadian), and being bombarded by family that are interested in war history, I have changed my opinion.  Sometimes, no, the end does not justify the means but sometimes it does.  World War I was one of those times. 

So now that I gave you a brief history lesson, sorry about that, let’s get back to model making, or at least parts of it. 

What you will need is a sheet of foam insulation, the pink kind only.  They usually come in big strips so you will need to have something to cut it down.

Cut the insulation to the dimensions that you want it.  Vimy Ridge is a small model since we are going by the dimensions given to us by the museum.  So my husband cut it 16 inches by 22 inches.  He then cut 3 other squares, each one getting smaller to form the hill.

At that point, he cut the hill out of the foam using a sharp knife and then glued them together using the heavy duty foam insulation glue that comes in a container for a caulking gun.  After it dried, my son cut out the trenches, and explosion craters. 

This is all you need to do with the foam, cut it with an exacto blade or some other type of knife and then lift it out with a flat head screwdriver or anything that can be used as a lifter.  You can shape the foam into just about anything and you can even use it to make buildings.

On our model, my son hit the hills with a meat mallet to make it look like churned mud, and then he applied plaster of paris to blend in each layer so it looked like a muddy hill.  After that, it was simple enough to paint it with primer and it is now ready for the next stage. 

So when you make a model, which I’m sure you will have to make at least once with your school age child, all you need for right now is

• Foam Insulation (pink)
• carpet knife or exacto blade
• heavy duty glue
• Plaster of Paris
• Primer

I will have more for you later.

Sirena

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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.

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