Be a Lover of History
September 25, 2019
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Gena Suarez
An Eternal View of History
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Hal & Melanie Young
Becoming a Lover of History
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Lee Binz
How to Love High School History
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Danika Cooley
Exploring Family History
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An Eternal View of History
Hey Mama,
A verse that brings me great comfort is this one because it reminds me of the bigger picture: “
It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.” - Lamentations 3:22-23
God is eternal. He has been around since before the days of old. He does not change. So stable. Never wavering in His love towards us. And a great characteristic of this God we serve is His never-ending mercies for His children.
Before we knew Him, He loved us. He had great MERCY and compassion for us, even in our sin! I love this verse because I’m shown (yet again) that I am on His mind.
Never alone. Just as we love our children, He loves His: you and me.
“
Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old.” - Psalm 25:6
What must history look like to God? Maybe it's like re-reading a favorite book, knowing full well how it ends, yet still excitedly turning each page because you STILL want to see what happens. God is eternal . . . FOREVER . . . and His view of history must be so different from our own always-failing, doomed-to-repeat-it mentality.
Aren't you glad His mercies are NEW
every day, forever, eternally? That makes me smile, Mama, as do these encouraging words about teaching our children history from some of your favorite authors at
The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine.
And remember, Mama. . .
Today is a new day. Yesterday is in the past. You may have had some discouraging moments and feel like you are still recovering. Maybe something upset you yesterday, and you’re not quite over it. Can today be any better?
“I blew it again. Why can’t I do better as a mom, be a more patient wife? Smile more? I’ve got permanent scowl lines . . . ”
As you go about your activities today, remember these truths:
- We serve a merciful God.
- He is patient, kind, compassionate, slow to anger, and affectionate.
- He smiles on us. He’s not standing over His daughter (you!) with a whip, pointing a critical finger.
- We are called to model Christ. Know Him; be Him to a hurting world.
Yesterday is in the past. You have made your peace with the Lord and with anyone else you’ve needed to, right? So now, walk confidently as His daughter, whom He loves greatly.
If He’s not upset, you don’t need to be either. Just start over. It’s that simple.
Hug those kids. They will only want to cling to your shoulders and climb up into your lap for so long. Today, show mercy. Show patience. Model compassion and mercy. Walk in grace.
Praise the Lord for His goodness! Rejoice in this day and be glad. You serve a good, good God, Mama.
As for now, His hand, (as always) is on your head today.
- gena
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Becoming a Lover of History
History is important. Nearly half the Bible is historical narrative; so it’s clear we need to learn about God’s work across the centuries. It allows us to learn from the tests others faced, to take encouragement or warning from the character they displayed, and to avoid making the same dumb mistakes our ancestors made!
But history can be deadly dull if it’s taught badly. So how can we help our children love this important subject?
Spark their interest. Introduce your kids to all sorts of things like “the Age of Exploration,” “inventors and inventions,” “lives of famous artists,” “the Age of Chivalry,” or “the race to the South Pole.” When you get their attention with a time or event they like, they naturally start to ask, “How does this fit into the rest of history?” and you can build out from there!
Fiction makes history come alive. When we first read
A Cry From Egypt, we were stunned to realize what the plagues and exodus must have been like for ordinary people like us.
The Little House on the Prairie series makes the Westward Expansion very personal. Older readers can learn a boatload of history from novels like G. A. Henty’s, which, though fiction, are based on primary sources. Add biography and fiction to history, and it won’t be boring!
Use a timeline. The hilarious history parody,
1066 and All That, says that you really only need to know two dates—the Roman invasion of Britain in A.D. 55 and the Battle of Hastings in 1066. That was a joke, but really, learning just a few key dates does help! In American history, learn Columbus in 1492, the Pilgrims in 1620, the Declaration in 1776, the Civil War in 1861, World War I in 1914, World War II in 1939, and Apollo 11 in 1969. That’s seven dates you can use to place other events, like, “The Wright Brothers flew about ten years before World War I,” or “Andrew Jackson lived between the Revolution and the Civil War.”
Don’t forget local history. Every community has a background story you can see in local museums, older buildings, and statues in the park. Spend some of your field trip time exploring the stories of your own town or region. And don’t forget to tell the museum staff you’re a teacher—we’ve gotten some great resources for free.
Your friends,
Hal & Melanie
P.S. We have some great historical fiction audiobooks—
Hero Tales from American History, Men of Iron (the Age of Chivalry),
The Sky Pilot (Western Expansion in Canada), and more. Click
here!
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Lee Binz, The HomeScholar
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How to Love High School History
If you love your country, you want to teach your child to love high school history and social studies. Think about the long-term benefits of these classes! Academics and life skills are closely related, especially in the context of history. Teach these subjects to prepare your students to vote knowledgeably, take responsibility, and understand the world around them through current events.
Your goals may be lofty, but the formula is simple. Most school districts and college requirements include a few key classes that will achieve your goals. In high school, cover American History (1 credit), World History (1 credit), Economics (½ or 1 credit), and Government (½ or 1 credit).
But your job isn’t to merely teach this stuff. Your job is to help your children enjoy the information they learn, so they can become better citizens. It may surprise you how little is required. You don’t need to include certain time periods or specific people or demand a certain depth of understanding. Geography is optional in most states and assumed to be covered within the context of history.
Social studies are also called “social sciences” or the study of human societies and interactions. Once your children meet the minimum requirements, you can branch out to include any social science, such as psychology, sociology, or anthropology. Your children can study any kind of history, such as Polynesian history, the history of baseball, or the history of any country, such as the history of your country of origin. Any type of government can also be the focus of study, such as Constitutional Law or comparative government.
I graduated from public high school, and I confess that I was woefully unprepared for adulthood. I couldn’t have told you within one hundred years when the Civil War was. It wasn’t until I began homeschooling my own children that I learned enough history to help me.
In contrast, I homeschooled my children through high school. They know and
love history and have always been much more knowledgeable than I am in this area. I’m so thankful we homeschooled! You can learn more about homeschooling high school by downloading my free e-Book
How to Be a Better Home Educator
.
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Exploring Family History
I love teaching history. It is truly fascinating, and teaching it helps our kids really understand the events going on around them in a larger context.
That said, my life's mission is to help equip you to teach the Bible and Christian history to your kids. I care a lot about Christian history, and I have a new series for your elementary-aged kids coming next fall.
We tend to think about family history in the context of our immediate family, but as Christians, we know that the history of the Church is our family history. It's worth teaching!
Here are four reasons why:
1) TEACHING CHRISTIAN HISTORY GIVES KIDS HEROES.
Humans gravitate toward celebrities, sports stars, and comic book characters. Let’s give our kids some real heroes.
Psalm 16:3 (NLT) says,
“The godly people in the land are my true heroes! I take pleasure in them!”
2) TEACHING CHRISTIAN HISTORY GIVES KIDS PEERS AND A FAMILY HISTORY.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” - Hebrews 12:1-3 (ESV)
What could be better than allowing the “cloud of witnesses” to point our kids toward Jesus?
3) TEACHING CHRISTIAN HISTORY GIVES KIDS A CLEAR VIEW OF GOD’S SOVEREIGN HAND IN HISTORY.
Charles Spurgeon (the “Prince of Preachers”) once said, “Cheer up, Christian! Things are not left to chance: no blind fate rules the world. God hath purposes, and those purposes are fulfilled. God hath plans, and those plans are wise, and never can be dislocated.”
We often cannot see God’s purposes in our own lives, but we can recognize them years later in the lives of others.
4) TEACHING CHRISTIAN HISTORY GIVES KIDS SOLID EXAMPLES OF LIVES SOLD-OUT FOR JESUS.
One of my boys wrote a long testimony to give on the day of his baptism. He gave me permission to share the last paragraph with you. He was nine at the time: “I’m a Christian. I will follow Jesus for the rest of my life . . . I’ve been thinking about all the great Christians we’ve been reading about like Lillian Trasher, Mary Slessor, and Eric Liddell. I want to be like them—a God-fearing Christian who leads many lives to Christ. I will follow Jesus with my life.”
When children are young, we teach Christian history simply by reading it. There are
so many great
biographies and historical novels for kids. While you're teaching your kids to
love history, don't forget to include the history of our Christian brothers and sisters!
Danika Cooley is an award-winning
children's author
, and the developer of the popular Bible Road Trip™ curriculum. Grab your free Sample Pack of the REVISED EDITION
here
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Contest Corner
for the month of September
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Linda J. Hawkins’ lovely award-winning cookbook
Southern Seasons with Memory Making Recipes has 182 pages of beautiful photos and family recipes, with an internal spiral binding which allows the book to lie flat (so helpful for cooks!). It costs $27.99 and is available at Heart to Heart Publishing.
Linda J. Hawkins is both a mother and a grandmother and the descendant of gifted cooks in her own Southern family from Kentucky. She has combined her family’s recipes with her own photographs of nature, events, and people (as well as food) with meaningful quotes and Bible verses to create a book that is at once a devotional, an encouragement for moms (and families), and a cookbook of recipes keyed to the four seasons of each year.
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