Let’s face it, your children is probably find learning about history a chore. Chances are, if you were to sit them down at home and ask them to read a history book, they’d end up being distracted or bored within minutes.
History has been tarnished with a bad reputation of being boring and dry which is such a pity since it’s actually a very insightful and interesting subject. For most individuals, they believe that learning history only consists of having to sift through a book while attempting to retain a whole lot of historical information, which isn’t true.
There are a variety of different ways to learn about history either than through a book or boring lecture.
Below are eight different ways that you can try to make learning history interesting at home for you and your family.
Play Dress Up
It’s always fun to create costumes from scratch and compare them with the original version. With history, there are so many outfits that can be created from the Roman empire to the Greeks and the Egyptians, the possibilities are endless.
The costumes for dress up don’t have to be anything overly elaborate. You can even use pieces from your existing wardrobe. The idea is allowing you and your children to learn more about what individuals wore in certain historical periods while having fun.
This would also pique your children’s interest as they may want to find out more about why outfits were a certain way. For example, if they were creating an Egyptian outfit, they may want to find out why the Egyptians had such elaborate headgear and their significance.
Netflix
While thinking of Netflix, you may not automatically think of history. However, either than having a variety of movies and television programmes, there’s also a lot of good history documentaries on Netflix like Hiroshima: BBC History of World War II.
Perhaps you might think that these documentaries would be dry and not interesting. However, a lot of documentaries now present historical information in an engaging manner that’s sure to capture your entire family’s attention.
If you don’t have Netflix, you can look into what’s showing on television or other digital platforms such as YouTube and educational websites to scour for interesting history shows.
Crafts
There’s nothing like a good craft day where you can learn something new while utilizing your creativity. There’s plenty of history that can be learned from crafts especially if your child has an artistic flair.
For example, to learn about the history of the Great Wall of China, you could have a craft day where you and your family try to build a replica of the Great Wall. While your children are working on their project, you can educate them on the historical significance of the Great Wall and provide them with interesting facts.
Having ownership of a project will allow your children to be more inclined to learn about history.
Field Trips
While schools may have field trips that usually involving taking your children to various museums, the science centre, zoo and more, there are plenty of other places to go to find out more about history.
For example, you can take them to a battlefield like Labrador Battery at Labrador Nature Reserve or a cultural museum like the Peranakan Museum that may not be as well-known. Rather than telling them about a specific place that someone from history lived in, why not take them there and allow them to experience it themselves?
Your children will be more inclined to want to learn about history when it’s right in front of them.
Reenactments
Sometimes going to the theatre or joining a workshop is a good way to be exposed to history. Being able to see live reenactments also usually resonates with individuals more.
You can check your local listings to see if there are any upcoming plays, musicals, shows or dances with historical components that you can see with your family.
Alternatively, some museums have workshops that use creative ways to educate your children about a certain historical period or they may even have hands-on workshops to teach a specific historical skill.
Recreating
There’s a lot that you can recreate from history and there are many ways to do so. If you have a lego set at home, you can recreate certain structures from the past with your children. If lego isn’t their cup of tea, you can also do it with playdough, Lincoln logs or other toys that you may have at home.
Either than with toys, you can always recreate structures on the computer, especially if your children are older. You can do that on video games such as Minecraft or even researching for certain websites that will allow you to recreate history.
Be a reporter
Have your child interview someone in the family (preferably someone older) and have them find out more about their past. The individual being interviewed can role play as a historical figure and you can even have your children come up with the interview questions.
During the interview, you can videotape the whole experience and your child can even dress up like a reporter if they want to. At the end of the interview, you can review it together as a family and ask your child what they’ve learned from the ‘historical figure’ that they interviewed.
While certainly educational, the idea to also make this a fun and light-hearted experience.
Play games
Games are a great way for informative learning and there are plenty of games that you can play with your children for them to learn more about history.
Some examples of board games with a history element are ‘Ticket to Ride’ and ‘History of the World’. If board games don’t really appeal to your family, you could also attempt history trivia quizzes on platforms like Sporcle and make it a friendly competition.
If you prefer for your child to learn history through some games online, there are also plenty of resources and platforms available for you to research on the best game for your child to play.
Conclusion
As you can tell, there are many unique ways to make history interesting to learn at home. With these ways, learning history will never be boring for your children. Instead, it’ll end up being a fun-filled and informative experience for the whole family.
If you love our creative ideas on how to make learning fun, here are some more:
Level Up Your Child’s Language Skills: Learn Chinese with Video Games
6 Things You Can Do For Your Kids During The Year End Holidays To Prep Them For 2018
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