Perhaps you discovered your children were not being taught American History, but rather some pie-in-the-sky ambitious ideas for whatever. Time to organize a reading program. This list is for both you and your children’s reading and discussion. History is the best teacher because it describes the intersection of ideas, people and processes. And it is true – it does repeat itself.
Key Historical Documents
The US Constitution – You can get a free copy of this document from http://lp.hillsdale.edu/free-pocket-constitution/. You may also find it online but this is nice for permanency and for a fee you can get more for family and friends. Download the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson wrote this when he was 35, so you can tell your kids this is not a nation of “old white guys.” Jefferson was so smart he could write Greek with one hand while writing, the the same time, Latin with the other.
Democracy in America by Alexis DeTocqueville. This Frenchman traveled America and his observations still stand today. Americans are different and they do things differently from other nations. As you read together make a list of those assumptions, write them down and discuss them. It will help explain why illegals don’t seem to fit in, and why foreigners do not understand us. This book is avaiable from the liberary free as an e-book.
David Barton and the staff of WallBuilders have a great deal of material which is graded for different age audiences. You may be able to talk a big local church into sponsoring them for a local program where they match up American history with the Bible. It is as good a program as you will find on the subject. The Judeo-Christian Bible and common law dovetail. This will help you understand western civilization. Barton’s work can be found on Facebook and YouTube.
Eric Metaxas has a book for youth on American history, If You Can Keep It; The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty. For younger children, Rush Limbaugh and his wife have a services of cute books where a horse named Liberty instructs young ones about history. You can use these books as a guide for a possible field trip or vacation, especially if you live on the East Coast. This series won an award!
A Jewish view of American History
If your clan prefers videos, Dennis Praeger of California https://dennisprager.com/ has an ongoing fight with YouTube that is blocking his work. You can be sure someone is doing the right thing if he is censored in the USA.
The 1st Amendment is about free speech and without the free exercise of our thoughts and words, we are sunk. Every failed system does two things – it takes away guns and squashes the right to be heard. Prager is valuable because he is a Jew which verified that history as we understand it is not strictly Christian.
Check carefully your children’s textbooks. Some schools will not allow parents to read their students’ texts. People who don’t like the truth will flat out change it to suit themselves. So they change the truth into a lie so they alone are protected. By the time the public hears about it, they may be running the country. The Bible speaks to this.
Romans 1: 24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
Movies are also good teaching material. There is a short film about the day the national anthem was written. In a sea battle American soldiers bravely held the flag high do that all involved could see that we had not lost the battle. It helps explain why so many Americans do not like sports figures treating the flag with contempt. Otherwise it looks like a small issue.
Special communism-socialism series
The Epoch Times has a series describing a full history of communism , hence also socialism. Since it is online you do not need to pay for it. And if you wish to, original subscribers pay very little. As your brood reads they can go to the internet and search for The Epoch Times and its comments or articles about the same thing to see a verification of events, and explanations. What you discuss at the dinner table will last a lifetime for your family, and in fact, one of the best reasons for a family dinner table time.
An easy novel
Little Women is a history of the American civil war’s effect on individuals and children. It is considered the first feminist novel. But you can ignore that part; it is a good story of what happens when a family of women must make do throughout a war on their own ground. They hid a black escaped slave in the basement; they nursed a sick solder; they faced issues of financing, health care and death. And they had foreign troops enter their home. For ordinary folk, war is always decided by “other people” and we must handle what life throws at us. After the war is over we can talk about what went wrong.
History Games for the family
Everybody loves the game Monopoly. A group of North Carolina students made a monopoly style game instruction in the 2nd world war, available from Amazon.
Casablanca, a movie about history
A classic movie, considered by many the best movie made is Casablanca. You can watch this many times and it always brings a new understanding. It covers a host of issues – the destruction of people’s lives in war, underground activities on many sides, the allegiances of foreigners both in and out of the fight, the role money plays, the buying and selling of police favors, the fearful anticipation of “will he escape – or won’t he.”
Yes, we know how the war ended, but this gives us a picture of the international nature of this war from the standpoint of a small group of participants. I showed it to some Chinese and they were astounded and confused. Europe to them is a solid mass, not dozens of small counties all vying for survival.
The internet also has coloring books with historical themes and lots of fun things for Thanksgiving. That holiday, by the way, is celebrated in only two nations, the USA and Canada.
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©CorneliaScottCree.com. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission, from this blog’s author and/or owner, is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to CorneliaScottCree.com. Thank you for cooperating in the effort to give glory to God.