Modern History

A has been really interested in ancient history, particularly the ancient Greeks. She likes the whole first volume of Story of the World, though--Phoenicians, Egyptians, Mesopotamians, Alexander the Great, it's all good. In the meantime, we've pressed on with volumes 2 and 3 of Story of the World, and have covered periods in history recently that I find really fascinating--the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, the Abolition movement, the Trail of Tears. Really dramatic upheavals that surely no one could find boring. 

I decided recently that we should pick a time in history and spend some time there, preferably something a bit more recent the Ancient Greece, and maybe even covering some American history. The American revolution didn't really excite anyone around here, and we have done a fair bit on Lewis and Clark over the years, so I was thinking we'd focus on the period between the Lewis and Clark expedition and the civil war, which covers some pretty interesting ground--Nat Turner, the Trail of Tears, early westward expansion, War of 1812 and later Napoleon, independence in Mexico and South America. Anyway, I put a bunch of stuff on hold at the library covering this time period and then asked A if that sounded interesting to her. Well, the closest person to this time period that held any interest for her was Catherine the Great, a bit before the period I was thinking of and definitely not American. When I asked what period of time sounded most interesting of all, she said she really wanted to study "Those early wars between England and France, before Henry the VIII, even". OK, not especially modern, but this is good. We can work with this. I wish I would have asked this question before putting all those materials on hold at the library! 

When I asked M what he would like to spend time learning about, he said "Germs, viruses, and dinosaurs. Mainly dinosaurs." He and my husband went to see the Walking with Dinosaurs show and had a great time and it rekindled his interest in dinosaurs. I wish I could find a really great dinosaur timeline. We have a great book that covers the creatures on earth in different epochs, but it would be really cool to be able to see some of them laid out so you could follow the evolution without having to turn a page. I bet someone has made a poster of this. Ah ha, google comes through again! This poster is a lot like what I was picturing.