History & Science are so Much Fun with Books!

Learning is so much more fun with books!  Dry facts are just that; dry and boring.  Find  some good books, sit down and learn!  Charlotte Mason calls them "living books" and they are alive.  They make history come alive, warm and inviting. They can make a boring subject like the human body fascinating.  These books invite my children (and me) to learn more and have fun doing so.  These are the books that while reading my kids say, "Keep reading, Mom, PLEASE!"

Why so many books?

After giving a friend of mine a list of books I recommended for studying the Middle Ages, she looked at me an said, "Why so many books?"  My first thought was "why not?"  But I didn't want to sound rude, so I explained my reason behind why I have so many books in my house. 

1.  I believe that a house should be full of three things  Love, Children and Good Books (D&C 88).
2.  When I have the extra money to purchase the books, I will. (we actually budget book buying money just like groceries) OR the library has them for free (I'm the "HOLD" queen).
3.  I have a child who will not be forced to read a book, but will gladly pick up a book and devour it, if they are available to him when he feels like reading.
4.  I also have so many children that when we do our school reading time I need to have a couple books per child so everyone can have a book to read.

Now with those three reasons I will continue to fill my shelves with good books.  It is hard to pick one of those four to be the main reason, but if I had to pick, it would be because my oldest is an unforced reader and learner.  If we are studying the Middle Ages, I will assign three books that have to be read--forced reading, (usually they go with the writing assignments) then the rest of the books sit either in a basket or on a shelf and during "school reading" (that is free reading but of school books--no comic books allowed) they may choose from the shelf or the basket.  He will devour the books I leave "lying" around.  It is surprising how when I ask him to read a certain book (forced reading) he won't learn anything, yet, three weeks later he will pick up that same book and read it and share all his "new found" knowledge.  Therein lies the secret to "Why so many books?"

(Now if only I could get enough book shelves....)

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How do I know what is TRUTH?

"....[H]istory is always written by the winners.  When two cultures clash, the loser is obliterated, and the winner writes the history books--books which glorify their own cause and disparage the conquered foe.  As Napoleon once said, 'What is history, but a fable agreed upon?'....By its very nature, history is always a one-sided account."

from The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (page 256)

Dividing historical subjects into fact and non-fact is difficult because the records for some time periods are not very accurate and a lot of "information" is based on educated guesses by "authorities."  I say this because after reading a "information" book on mummies we watched a show on mummies and it was just recently proven that the techniques of mummification weren't necessarily what was thought previously.  I assume this goes for many times periods that lacked "proper" recording methods.  But this should never stop one from reading and learning.  Other examples are the Greek Myths and the Arthurian Legends (Round Table, Merlin etc). Remember that written history is from someone perspective and it will be influenced by many things.

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Why add activities to studying?

There are many reasons, but the biggest reasons is because it brings history ALIVE.  I remember as a kid making a volcano that exploded, gluing rocks to my rock poster, coloring a poster on the Dodo bird.  But I don't remember what books I read that went along with those projects (if any).  It also can eat up precious "down time" we end up with when we homeschool.  It keeps hands busy in a very productive manner.  Of course you need to teach your children how to bring the project out, set it up, do it, and then clean up after, now if only they would do it!

To make the Roman aqueducts come alive for my children, I challenged them to make their own.  I gave some specific instructions; had to collect at least a fourth a cup of water, must be done outside, no purchasing materials and before you cut, glues, stapled or ruined something--ask!  You should have seen their final project;  PVC pipe with drilled holes supported by cereal boxes with about five turns!  I was impressed.  Other things they have done:

Don't forget the power of color pencil, crayon, marker, glue, tape and scissors.  Dover, one of my favorite publishers, has tons of thematic books that do more than provide coloring pages.  The captions are a lesson just by themselves.  Usborne Books has many cut and make models that keep hands busy.  Your children's minds are creative as well, so let the juices flow.  And don't forget to take pictures, see some of ours.

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