On Monday a group of the Home schoolers from our area visited a one room school house, where Francis Willard originally taught. My calendar tells me that September 28th is Francis Willard day. If you want to be more educated about who she was, there is a lovely search box at the top of your internet browser that will be more than happy to point you to that information. And now you are more enlightened. You're welcome. Anyway, back to the story. We were encouraged to dress the kiddos in 1850's costumes to add to the fun. So I set about sewing long skirts and bonnets, like the good mom that I am. We all had so much fun. The sweet little old lady, who was playing teacher that day, gave them a good mix of a history lesson and a taste of what school would have actually been like way back when. My girls, being the drama queens that they are, jumped into character and you would think that they had actually travelled back in time. Emma sat perfectly still with her hands in her lap for around 2 hours, which is unheard of around here. The children had to go around the room in the beginning, stand up and say their first and last names. When they got to Abi, she stood up and said "Abi" very confidently. When the teacher asked her "Abi, what?" expecting her last name, Abi said, "gail." Obviously... Abi Gail, duh. Too cute. We had a mix of ages in our group, it felt very authentic. We have since been enjoying "Little House" stories and mommy's collection of old school books ( I have strange hobbies, I know). I am more than pleased that they are taking an interest in this era of time that I have long been fascinated with. I have always said that History was my worst subject, and I still hold that to be true- in that I have never been great at memorizing names, dates and places. I really didn't/don't care. However, when it comes to the social parts of history, I am fascinated. So, as long as I can teach them history in that context, we will all be good to go. My favorite part of this whole experience was the little motto that the teacher helped the children to memorize. It was supposedly the motto that Miss Willard had sitting on her desk. It goes like this...
I am only one,
But I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But I can so somethings.
What I can do, I ought to do.
With the help of God.
2 comments:
I had some good history teachers and professors that actually made history about what people did in their everyday lives at different periods of time rather than the names and dates stuff. Looks like you have a great start on being that kind of history teacher for your girls!
What a fun field trip! My husband is a huge history buff. I don't much care....but I'm starting to enjoy learning about it more now that I'm older.
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