History Hunting for Homeschoolers & Families

Homeschoolers and families, in general, have unlimited access to history outside of textbooks. It’s much more fun to involve children in hunting for history than to make them think learning names and dates for a test is all that history is about. History hunting pushes children into the books or onto the internet and, without forcing it, they begin to build a timeline of what has happened to us humans since the world began. Start history hunting by identifying what you already know about the history of a person, place or thing. Then make a list of questions you want to research. Do the research. Finally, have a conversation about what you learned. End by thinking about what questions remain for future projects. Here are seven introductory ideas for history hunting that you can begin to use with your children.

Houses and other buildings are great starting points for history hunts. Ask when it was built. Who designed it? What other buildings were built at around the same time? What materials were used? Do we use the same materials when we build similar building today? What tools were used? Whose hands actually did the construction? Is the building being used for its original purpose today? If not, what has changed and why?

Art contains lots of historic information. Go to an art museum or find a famous painting online. Talk about what the painting is about. If there are people in the painting, think about what they are wearing. Are the clothes similar to what is worn today? What buildings, activities, foods, or items are in the painting? How do they compare with what is commonly seen today? Who painted the picture? When and where was it painted? Was the artist trying to portray what the world was like at the time they were painting or was the artist painting something reimagined from history or made up in their mind? Does the painting illustrate a specific historic event? If so, what can you learn about the event from the painting?

Heirlooms or things you have in your home that have been passed down from grandparents or other older people can help connect you with history as well. Talk about what the item is, whose it was originally, when and why they had it and what made them pass it down to your family. Figure out how old it is. Ask who the president was when the item was made. Share the stories of the person who first had the item. Is it something you can still wear or use or is it a keep-sake that no longer has any practical use?

Found items can be historic and sometimes even valuable. Perhaps you are vacationing at the beach and you find a bottle washed up on the shore. Perhaps you are digging in your yard and you find a clay marble or an old button. Try to find out what you have found. Then try to date it by looking online or by asking people at an antique shop, pawn shop or museum. Brainstorm about how the item may have ended up where you found it. Perhaps the button has an insignia. Could it be from a Civil War uniform? What other questions can you think of to make a history connection from the item you found? This is how archaeologists think about what they discover on digs. Perhaps there is an archaeology dig happening nearby that you can visit.

Movies can introduce children to history too. The movie may be set in the past or it may have been produced in the past. Be critical in how you watch each movie. Look at the clothes, the hair styles, the transportation, the work being done and the way people act with each other. Ask what historic information you can learn from the movie. Then look online for verification. Were the hair styles, for instance, true to the historic period or to the time that the movie was made? The cinematography and animation can also be clues to history. How do these technical aspects inform you about the history of film-making, for example?

Letters and diaries are primary historical documents. They usually have dates to indicate when each letter or entry was written. They usually have a signature or other information about the writer and about the intended readers. Perhaps they include information about people, places and events that triggers research questions about history. What was being communicated? Why did the writer think it was important to write? How do you think the reader responded? Are there other letters that might extend what can be learned? Why did you or your relatives keep the letter or diary?

Conversations with older people often produce information about what they have lived through. Anyone who is old enough to remember the attacks of September 11, 2001, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the first moon-walk or the attack on Pearl Harbor can share what they were doing, wearing, and thinking about on that day. People who have traveled to far-away places have stories to tell and, often, pictures or souvenirs to share. Children may be surprised at what a grandparent says if they ask about what they ate for lunch at elementary school or how they researched a term paper when they were in high school. Not only might these conversations enhance the relationships between the students and their elders, the information can expand what the child understands about the past. Internet searches using the word “vintage” in the search box may bring up images that can be compared with the descriptions they heard. When historians use oral history as a way to do their research, they ask questions and then they record the answers using audio or video recorders. They also write accounts of what they learned.

By Lesley Barker PhD ©2020