Discovering Music

We are currently watching this DVD lecture series.  We are on Unit 9 (out of 17 units).  I am absolutely enthralled by it!  I'm watching it with my 18 and 11 year old sons.  My 11 year old claims he does not like history.  He does however love all things musical, so when I stumbled across a mention of this course at The Well Trained Mind board, I eagerly checked it out.  It's perfect!  Dr. Carol Reynolds is so cute and quirky, intelligent and enthusiastic.  I've studied lots of history in my day, but I'm learning a lot from this course.

If you have a music lover or a history lover, you may really enjoy this course.  I'm a little sad that we aren't using the workbook that comes with it.  I initially looked at it and saw all the fill in the blanks and thought ugh!  I knew the 11 yo would never consent happily to such things.  So we decided to just watch the lectures.  The lectures are so rich though, I feel the need for reinforcement.   I'm kind of thinking of just watching all the lectures all the way through this time, but later on, maybe when my 11 year old is high school age, going back and doing the whole course.  Now that I'm looking at the workbook more closely, I can see that it adds a lot to the course.

Anyway, we all give Dr. Reynolds an enthusiastic two thumbs up!

Mummifying Apples

When your kids are going through an Egyptian phase, do this experiment. We 've actually done it twice now over the years. It is much easier than the other popular experiment of mummifying a chicken (which may make your children wretch when you realize you forgot to administer mummifying procedures for a couple of weeks and have to clean out your smelly cupboard. Ask me how I know.)





You might also enjoy reading aloud this book. Or this. Or this.


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We loved listening to this.

Watching The Prince of Egypt fits in nicely with this as well. We also enjoyed Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. Actually you should watch them in reverse order if you want to do things chronologically.

It doesn't hurt to read this book too, at some point.

A visit to a museum that has stuff from Ancient Egypt is a must at some point in a kid's childhood. We took a trip to Richmond one year to such an exhibit. We also visited New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and saw their fantastic exhibit there. The coolest thing about it though was that outside the museum in Central Park is a play area that is completely Egypt themed. My kids had fun climbing through pyramids and sphinxes. They still reminisce about that years later.

I like naturally unfolding unit studies. A child is interested in something and over the course of months or even years, you as the parent keep an eye out for various resources that tie into that interest.

Photo Credit: gmu-worldhistorysources

Peanuts History

This is one of my favorite American History resources.

Enjoy watching with your kids! Learn a lot!

This is America, Charlie Brown!

History the Easy Way

Give 10 year old Age of Mythology for his birthday. Watch him get obsessively into it. Worry that this is too much time in front of a screen and that you are ruining him. Notice, however, how enraptured he is as husband reads out loud The Children's Homer by Padriac Colum each night. Notice how son has become conversant in classical mythology. Son asks for a book on world mythology. Get him another book by Colum. See son reading and enjoying the book. Think: Wow, this son didn't start reading until a year ago and now look at him!

A year later give son Age of Empires. Watch him get obsessively into it. Find yourself strangely free of worry about it. Notice how into history your son has suddenly gotten. Notice him reading books like the Usborne Illustrated World History for fun. On impulse buy Susan Wise Bauer's Story of the World's first three volumes. Watch son curl up on couch for days on end reading these books.

Check history off your mental list for this particular child.