As I sat down and fastened my seat belt I could tell the older woman seated next to me wanted to chat.  Normally I would have been all over that because I loved getting to know people.  This time I was dreading it.  I knew the usual questions would come up.  When she inevitably asked what I did for a living and I said I taught history I was going to get the predictable response.  Almost everyone I told would say, “Oh!  History is boring!”

Copyright: masterwilu / 123RF Stock Photo

The thing is, those people weren’t wrong.  History is boring because what we use to teach it is boring.  Most  classes use dry textbooks full of seemingly pointless facts and figures followed by fill-in-the-blank worksheets and tests.  Those make it so that  kids can’t see how history is relevant to their lives.  If we want kids to connect with history and see how fascinating it is we need to ditch the textbooks and tests!

So, if you’re going to skip the traditional route, what can you use?

To find out, go read my guest post at Proverbial Homemaker as part of their Teach My Child series.  Don’t forget to enter the fabulous giveaways while you’re there!