American history

First Ladies Who Led the Nation

February 6, 2018 by Jenna

President’s Day is coming up in a few days, so now’s a good time to honor some of the lesser-known but no less influential people in American history—our First Ladies. While presidents often become a driving force for political changes, First Ladies have taken the lead in social changes. Though some of these women were reluctant to become leaders, God has His own plan for who will help lead a nation. In His sovereignty, many of our First Ladies have become influential, not just as presidential spouses, but as leaders themselves.

Take a moment with your children to learn about these influential First Ladies and what they’re known for.

Abigail Adams (First Lady 1797–1801)

As the nation’s second First Lady, Abigail Adams took many of her cues from her predecessor and friend, Martha Washington. She took household matters in stride and hosted many events. The trend of First Ladies hosting special events continues to today. But more importantly, Mrs. Adams was her husband’s advisor and confidante in political matters. The couple exchanged more than a thousand letters during his political career, in which they would often discuss the policies of the new government. In one notable letter, she exhorted him to “Remember the Ladies.”

Eleanor Roosevelt (First Lady 1933–1945)

The best-known First Lady in American history, Eleanor Roosevelt led a change in how the nation viewed her position. She refused to be a background player who focused on high society dinners and simple beautification projects. Mrs. Roosevelt actively used her position and influence to change the face of American politics. She brought social issues to the forefront by speaking about them. In her speeches, she covered issues such as children’s causes, women’s health, and racial equality. She also became a successful delegate to the United Nations after her husband’s death. She continued her work for social reform until she died in 1962.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (First Lady 1961–1963)

The elegant and refined Jacqueline Kennedy spent her term in office using her talents and education to reach out to the artists and scientists of her day. One of her most notable accomplishments was the restoration of the White House as a museum—not to redecorate and beautify it, but to preserve and display the development of America. It was as much an act of scholarship as one of redecoration. She recorded and broadcasted the restoration to the nation, guiding a special tour of the White House herself. After John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Mrs. Kennedy captured the emotions of the moment by calling her husband’s term in office “Camelot.” There would be other great leaders, but Camelot’s time was over.

Rosalynn Carter (First Lady 1977–1981)

In supporting her husband’s efforts to win the presidency, Rosalynn Carter spent many months campaigning. It was during this time that she found a passion that would follow her into office. The first First Lady to make a campaign promise, Mrs. Carter promised her husband’s supporters that she would use her influence to improve the lives of people with mental illnesses. Her work lead to the Mental Health Systems Bill and the Age Discrimination Act. Today, she is a member of the National Women’s Hall of Fame—along with only four other First Ladies—and she continues to work for the benefit of mental health issues.

While the changes our First Ladies have inspired may have been subtle, their influence has helped to shape the culture of America today. Even though we may question the end of those changes, we can take comfort in knowing that each president’s heart was in God’s hand when he chose his wife.

This post was updated on 2/19/2018 for the purpose of correcting Eleanor Roosevelt’s death date from 1960 to 1962.

Why History Seems Boring and How to Make It Fascinating

October 5, 2017 by Ben

It’s not unusual for children to find history boring. But that wasn’t the case with me. I’ve been a history nerd ever since my dad took me on a homeschool field trip to a World War II aircraft carrier. But I understand that not everyone shares my enthusiasm for studying the past. Does your child get bored with history?

There are plenty of reasons some children (and adults!) think history is uninteresting. Here are just two of them—and my suggestion for how to fix the problem.

• Just the (Boring) Facts

Sometimes studying history feels like the mindless memorization of unrelated dates and names. As they read historical narratives, kids may get the sense that dates pop up without warning, sometimes causing them to wonder why particular events have dates associated with them and others don’t.

And then there are the names. Certain people have some action or achievement associated with their names that we exhort our children to remember. Take the Age of Enlightenment as an example. There are so many philosophers and so many scientists—each with a discovery or book title attached to his name. Trying to keep track of it all can feel overwhelming.

• Not Relevant (to Me)

Not only do the dates and names feel overwhelming, focusing on facts makes it difficult for your child to see what all this has to do with him personally. He’s hearing about a bunch of dead people who haven’t done a thing for centuries. And when is anybody ever going to use the fact that 1,285 years ago this month Charles Martel defeated the Moors in the Battle of Tours? It just doesn’t seem to make any difference in our day-to-day lives.

Big-Picture Approach

Those are two common complaints, but what can we do to help our children see the significance and relevance of people and events from the past? We can turn “boring” history into a fascinating study by using questions to focus our children’s attention on the big picture. An important aspect of this is teaching history as a narrative in chronological order.

And here are a couple of effective questioning strategies you can use to help your children see the big picture of the historical narrative they’re reading. This involves going beyond the regular surface-level questions like “When did . . . ?” and “Who wrote . . .?” Big-picture questions enable students to synthesize historical data into an overarching view of the past.

• Before-and-After Reading Questions

These questions are most effective when given to children as preparation before they read something and as follow-up afterwards. Before children wade into material chronicling a series of bureaucratic changes, scientific advancements, or philosophic treatises, they need to know what they’re looking for. Guiding questions like the ones below from World Studies (page 152) can help. Having a purpose in their reading will lead children to see the bigger picture.

• Critical Thinking Questions

A second type of big-picture question can also help your children refocus on the important ideas after reading through the details, like this one from Heritage Studies 4 (page 171).

Such questions generalize history, making it more relevant. They help your children move from superficially recalling details to thinking critically because they have to synthesize the details in order to create a generalization. All those pesky details are important, but if children don’t develop critical thinking skills, they won’t see the significance.

By understanding chronological order and generalizations of historical events, students can make appropriate analogies to things that are happening today. While no past event is a perfect match for a current event, there’s often significant overlap. The differences mean we cannot use the past to predict the future, but we can use the past to give us moral clarity about the present. A student with a biblical worldview and an understanding of historical context will be better able to navigate the complexities of current events. Ultimately, those connections to worldview and the present will make history interesting to your child.

Use effective questions in history so your children will learn to value history as they see its connection to the present.

Scope & Sequence: A Homeschool Game Plan

September 19, 2017 by Ben

As a homeschool dad, I wonder about taking children who can’t read and preparing them for college. It seems like such a huge climb. How do we take five-year-olds and prepare them for what the Lord has planned without overwhelming them? To help with the process, I like to think about board games.

I’ve always enjoyed playing board games. I remember whiling away the summer hours with Monopoly and Risk. As an adult, I’ve come to enjoy playing Settlers of Catan. So I want to introduce my children to board games. But finding a game that engages everyone is challenging for two reasons.

1. It Can’t Be Too Hard

2. It Can’t Be Too Easy

If the game concepts are too complicated for my children to understand, they get frustrated and don’t want to play. But if the game concepts are too easy, they learn them quickly but soon lose interest because the game no longer challenges them. The best games are simple for everyone to begin playing. However, the best games have enough depth to them to accommodate the complex thinking of mature players. That’s why games like checkers have such longevity. They’re simple to learn, but as children grow they can use increasingly complex strategies.

Preparing children for what God has planned works in a similar way. If children are given concepts that are too intricate or abstract, they get frustrated and want to quit. If the material is too easy, the child gets bored and loses interest in learning. The best learning is carefully planned to be challenging without being frustrating.

Scope & Sequence

Curriculum publishers typically have a teaching plan called a “scope and sequence.” These documents are like maps that show a path through content that moves children step by step from awareness of material to mastery of the material.

If there were a scope and sequence for checkers, it would start with basic moves. For the child who has developed an understanding of how to move the pieces, the scope and sequence would include basic tricks for capturing pieces. Later, older players describe and model the broad strategies for winning the game. Finally, the child would have the opportunity to create his own strategy for winning. Then he can refine that strategy through playing with increasingly challenging opponents.

When it comes to homeschooling our children, we want a plan that keeps them engrossed in learning. The best plans increase the complexity of the materials in coordination with the child’s maturation.

Applied to History

I’ve enjoyed watching my daughter develop in her love for history. So teaching her in the evenings after work has been a special time for us. The BJU Press Heritage Studies curriculum does a terrific job of challenging her without being frustrating.

As she enters third grade, I’m excited to teach from the Constitutional Convention up to the Civil War. So much happened in that time period involving executive actions, legislative compromises, and judicial review—in other words, some complicated stuff.

But we’ve been preparing since first grade. Here’s how my daughter’s been getting ready, through the curriculum, to tackle the formative aspects of our nation’s history that we’ll cover in third grade.

First Grade Heritage Studies

In an introductory way, we covered local leaders, national leaders, rights, and voting.

Second Grade Heritage Studies

We returned to local, state, and national leaders, but we added more detail. The president, Congress, and judges were given more specific definitions. We learned that the Constitution guarantees our rights and our responsibilities to get involved in elections by voting.

To make this learning more concrete, we also role-played an election and wrote a “law” for our house.

Third Grade Heritage Studies

We’ll review the interplay of local, state, and national leaders. But now, we’ll add detail about how the legislative, executive, and judicial branches work together. This time, it’s within the context of the Constitutional Convention and the first presidency. So we can see how presidents administer policies through their cabinets and how Congress has two groups.

At this point, my daughter is ready for the drama of this early period. She’s ready to understand Hamilton and Jefferson’s fight over the national bank and ready to explore the legislative compromises that lead to the Civil War. She’s prepared to learn this material because we followed a plan. As in the game of checkers, the basic concepts were easy. Each step made the next one easier. It wasn’t simple, but the increasing challenge of the material has made it fun.

Take a look at the Scope & Sequence BJU Press offers, a game plan carefully designed to help your child be a winner.

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History Begins at Creation

September 13, 2016 by Ben

I’m a few weeks into teaching Heritage Studies 2 to my oldest daughter. One day as we started our history lesson after family worship, my daughter exclaimed, “I learned this in Bible class!” (That’s because our second-grade American history textbook began with creation.) She was surprised to be learning something in history class that she learned from the Bible.

As a parent, I was pleased that my daughter recognized our study of American history started with a historical account from the Bible because my wife and I have committed to give our children a biblical worldview education so that they will view each subject by faith. When we study history, faith demands we begin the study with creation, understand humanity in light of creation, and see civilization through creation.

By Faith Begin History with Creation

When I took world history in high school and college, the textbooks began with civilization in ancient Mesopotamia. My Christian teachers dismissed evolutionary “prehistory,” but they never replaced these myths with the account of the beginning of human events in the Garden of Eden. When we as parents start to teach “history” without the creation account, we treat it as a secularist would, as something other than an account of how the world actually began. I want my children to approach all subjects by faith. That means taking creation seriously in their history course.

By Faith Understand Humanity in Light of Creation

Secularists try to find ways to define humans. They sometimes call us tool-using-creatures or symbol-using-creatures. Without the creation account, we have a poor basis for understanding human beings. How can our children properly study a subject that records and interprets human events yet doesn’t define our humanity? Our history textbook taught my daughter that we’re all created in God’s image and that God gives us two important directions: fill and rule the earth. While the Fall (also covered in our textbook) twisted us, our identity is still rooted in the one in whose image we are made and the directions He gave us in the beginning. Creation is foundational to understanding that humans and humanity are the central focus of historical study.

By Faith See Civilization Through Creation

In general, secularists claim that humans started to congregate and plant crops, which in turn led to civilization. They claim civilization allowed for occupational specializations, such as priests who invented gods. In contrast, the creation account tells us that God ordered humans to “exercise dominion” over the earth. In the first generation, people began cultivating crops (Cain) and practicing husbandry (Abel). Even when murderous Cain began founding cities, he did so because of God’s call to rule over the world. Civilization didn’t beget God, instead God’s direction to man gave rise to civilization.

As my daughter continues to study American history, these foundational concepts are central to her understanding of the events and people we will learn about. My wife and I want our daughter to view history through the lens of faith. That’s why we want a history text that begins with creation.

Learn more about teaching from a biblical worldview by signing up for our homeschool email.

How Can Illustrations Be Used to Engage Your History Student?

March 17, 2016 by Ben

Right outside the BJU Press art department, the room is lit with the glow of florescent light bulbs. But when I cross the threshold into the artists’ workroom, I find myself in a room without much artificial lighting. Instead, large windows allow natural sunlight to illuminate illustrators, ceramic artists, fiber artists, and their work. In the far corner of the room, close to the window is Zach’s desk. His workspace is dotted with illustrations he has done.

Zach is one of the illustrators working on a new edition of Heritage Studies 5, a fifth-grade history textbook from BJU Press. His artwork does more than add to the beauty of the book, it enhances your child’s education.

Artifacts in Their Historical Place

Zach pulls up several of his illustrations on the computer to show me. One textbook page shows a woman from Plymouth holding a water jug over an herb garden. On the left there is a photograph of the illustrated artifact.

“The depiction of the watering jug is direct and depicts the simplicity and genius of the jug in a way that text alone could never do.” Zach explains. The illustration transports us back in time to see what life was like at Plymouth. A photograph alone could show only small pieces of life. Illustrations give us opportunities to expand our understanding.

Emotional Connection to History

Elsewhere on our blog, Zach has explained the emotional impact of illustrations. It’s an impact that text alone is incapable of portraying. So when Heritage Studies 5 takes up the subject of the American colonists’ emotional state leading up to the Revolutionary War, text needs the support of pictures. Zach created a series of nine three-inch-tall colonists reacting to the acts of the English government. As the text describes successive grievances that lead to the revolution, the colonist moves from shock, to disbelief, to anger until he shouts: “This means war!”

“Illustrations free the student to perceive information as not only factual, but also emotional.” Zach says. “They work hand-in-hand with maps, photos, and text to create a collaborative experience where artistic disciplines are woven together to form an immersive tapestry of history.”

History books should be accurate in the information they convey. History textbooks should also engage children so that they understand an event, remember it, and make use of it. As illustrations work in conjunction with text, maps, photographs, and informational graphs they empower children with a desire to better understand the event. All the art and information develop interest and insight into the setting, circumstances, and surrounding emotions of what they’re studying.

Returning to the tapestry metaphor, Zach argues: “A tapestry is worth more than the cost of spools thread: just as the act of weaving thread creates value, the act of weaving artistic disciplines [together] creates value for the child.”

To see more of Zach’s work in Heritage Studies 4, click on “Look Inside the Book.”