History Alive!

I readily admit...I detested history in school. It was a bunch of dates, people and facts that meant nothing to me, and had, I thought, nothing to do with me. The only time I really enjoyed history was in 11th grade when we studied the Depression, and simultaneously I was in our HS drama production of ANNIE. That unit made sense to me. Once we moved to Europe, history started coming alive. I remember thinking...so that's the place where Hitler marched his troops through Paris...and that's where the battle of Waterloo took place...

Then I started teaching history to Jacob using The Story of the World, by Susan Wise Bauer. Jacob has become a history buff just like his Papa Miller. I remember one time in kindergarten, he had a buddy over and the two of them were discussing the Revolutionary War in my kitchen...and they knew what they were talking about! So, after 3 years of this program, we've finally made it to the Pilgrims, and tonight Jacob cooked dinner using some recipes that would have been common back then. He made 16th Century Succotash, Traditional Wampanoag Cornbread, Stewed Pompion (squash) and Traditional "Indian" pudding. He decided that cooking is fun, but a lot of work!