History is an abstract concept for children, so if I can link something tangible – like me – to history, perhaps they can have an understanding.
At the end of the school year we read non-fiction chapter books. Little House on the Prairie is a favorite. In that book, the things I can personally connect to learning history and bringing it to life are:
- My grandmother and Laura Ingalls
- My family log house
- My grandfather in the mines, much like digging a well
- Indians
Let’s start with my grandmother.
My grandmother Nan was born in 1886, the same year Laura Ingalls Wilder’s daughter was born. They both have the same name, too – Rose! What a connection. There’s more.
Nan as I remember her.
Nan when she was 14.
Just think- I not only spent time in her childhood home as a child,
I visited there when I was 14.
My granddaughter just turned 14.
Nan in 1909 when she was married.
Look at that hat and muffler!
The log house.
Nan was born and raised in a log house in West Virginia. While Pa built a one-story house, Nan’s was a two-story house. Still, it was built the same way.
She told me all about that house. I spent time there as a child. I love that house.
That’s me, visiting the house in 2016.
Nan was a storyteller. Oh, those wonderful stories and memories! I remember her stories well, and my own childhood events have become the foundation for ‘Jennie Stories’. Perhaps that is why I enjoy Pa’s stories in Little House in the Big Woods.
The log house is in Lowell, WV. Today it is known as the Graham House, named after a family member who built it, and is on the National Historic Register. But, back then in the 50’s, my family still owned the house. The history is thrilling; it is the oldest two-story log house west of the Appalachian mountains, built in the early 1770’s. My grandmother, Nan, lived in the house until she was married. She told me many times the story of Indian raids. On one occasion the children were in the summer kitchen and ran to the house. The boy did not survive and the girl was kidnapped. It took the father eight years to get his daughter back, trading horses with the Indians – hooray for family stories! They are the glue that keeps us together.
As a child, listening to this story is much like my preschoolers listening to my childhood stories. I know how that feels, and I, too, made those pictures in my head. That’s what children do when they hear a Jennie Story or chapter reading, like the Little House books. Stories are the keepers of words and memories.
My grandfather in the mines
One of the most thrilling chapters in Little House on the Prairie is Pa digging a well with his neighbor, Mr. Scott. The life and death adventure of digging a well, and the deadly gas deep in the ground, became a lesson in history. I had family history that was much the same.
Pa and his neighbor, Mr. Scott, were digging a well. Pa was careful to lower a candle each day into the deep hole to make sure the air was safe. Bad gas lives deep under the earth. Mr. Scott thought the candle was ‘foolishness’, and began digging without sending the candle down into the well. The rest of the chapter was an edge-of-your-seat nail biter.
I love this chapter. So did the children. I realized I could connect what happened down in that well to something real; a portrait of my grandfather as a little boy wearing miner’s gear, including a candle on his helmet. My grandfather and his father had mines in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. I grew up with their stories and photographs, including this portrait.
I brought it to school the next day to show the children. “This is my grandfather”, I said. “He went deep under the earth, just like Pa and Mr. Scott. What is that on his head?” Children couldn’t sit. They jumped up, pressed against me and each other, all wanting a closer look. “That’s fire!” someone said. “No, it’s a candle.” “A candle is fire.” “What did he do?” Ah, those wonderful, spontaneous questions that spark the best learning. This was ‘a moment’, fifteen children eager to hear more and learn.
I told them about mining, going underground, and about the candle. I then showed them the Garth Williams illustrations in the chapter ‘Fresh Water to Drink’, with Ma and Pa turning the handle of the windlass to get Mr. Scott out of the well, and Pa digging the hole that is as deep as he is tall.
We talked about how hard that would be. We imagined what it would be like inside the hole: Dark or light? Hot or cold? Then someone asked, “How old is your grandfather?”
I was connecting generations and bringing history to life.
I want my preschoolers to have a firsthand piece of history. It is a ‘real’ way to enhance learning. That happened with my Grandfather’s portrait, and with chapter reading Little House on the Prairie.
Indians
Some history was not good, like the Indian raids on my family’s log house, but in order to grow and develop we need to learn from that history. Pa’s neighbor, Mr. Scott, said
“The only good Indian is a dead Indian.”
Yikes! Yes, I read those words to children. I have to be true to history and to the author. I ask children, “Is that true? Why would Mr. Scott say that?” “Indians just look different, and many people are afraid of someone who looks different – like Gloria.” That was an ‘ah-ha’ moment of learning for children. Thank you, Gloria. You bring more diversity and understanding to children than you know.
I hope you have enjoyed this series, how I make history come alive for children.
Jennie
Getting everyone onto the raft.
Tah-Da!
The Little Red Chair, by Cathy Stefanec Ogren
A Teacher's Reflections 