Making History Fun In The Early Years!

The girls loved learning about castles this last year, and Sophia’s favourite book on the subject was a large one, with lots of intriguing flaps. She could not read the detailed explanations on each page but she found the book fascinating and she picked up a great deal of knowledge from the pictures and scenes. I would often find her sitting in a corner browsing through the pages, and staring intently at a particular detail. I brought a range of book resources to aid them in this topic which they really appreciated, including a specific colouring book, a reading book and a couple of factual books. 

They learnt and retained a reasonable amount of knowledge on the subject and loved to revisit it throughout the year. They recognised initially the material used for a castle was wood and then later the materials changed to stone and brick. A castle has big walls, with a flag flying from the top of the wall, and the front door could be lowered and raised by the soldiers who kept guard. There is water around the outside of the walls to keep the enemies away. 

They knew that Princesses and Kings live in castles, who could be in danger from people who may want to hurt them. The family knew when they were in danger if they did not recognise the flag or the people coming to the walls. They would be strangers who you could not trust. If you knew the flag then it was okay, they would be your friends coming to visit. 

Animals such as birds, dogs, horses, cows and chickens were kept within the courtyard, vegetables were grown there. Guards protected the family, using bows and arrows, swords, shields, blasters (canons) and throwing hot oil over the top of the wall. 

The soldiers wore clothes to protect them, out of metal, including a helmet, boots and heavy clothes. 

Their interest ran over into their free time, which is the best sign in the world of how much a topic is impacting them. Once I had made the initial introduction and showed them their resources, I never had to sit them down and give them formal lessons on the subject. The rest was led by them, I had no idea how open they would be to the topic, or how long it would last. I had hoped for six weeks, and I also had another topic waiting in the wings to offer instead, if this one failed to capture their imagination. I had brought resources for pirates, with the full intention on doing a detailed six weeks with them. However whilst they liked the activity books and stickers I had brought them, they showed no intellectual interest in pursuing pirates to a deeper level. They wanted castles. Thus the historical topic of the year remained firmly and happily on these beautiful buildings and that fascinating era of old. 

We went on a YouTube tour of the most famous castles and I was so excited to show them the dozen that I had personally visited as a child with their grandad. We were mad on history, a shared loved between us, and my holidays were spent visiting all the gorgeous pieces of history within driving distance. The girls were absolutely amazed that I had actually walked the rooms and ruins of so many of these castles that I was showing them, and loved the funny family anadotes. I ended our YouTube sessions on this subject, by showing the UK working castles and palaces, and introduced them to their first look of our current Queen. They immediately nicknamed her 'The Grannie Queen', and loved seeing her in her most resplendent finery. Sophia wanted to know if there were any younger Princesses, so I showed them Princess Diana at her finest, William and Kate's wedding, and of course little Prince George and Princess Charlotte. They were fascinated to watch them on the walkabouts. 

Due to their young age the girls communicated their knowledge either verbally or by drawings. It was interesting to see how Sophia's colouring skill improved throughout the year, demonstrated in the themed colouring in sheets. 

She progressed to drawing free hand a number of different castle scenes and they were very detailed for her age, definitely showing a deep understanding of the history of castles. Kira being younger, kept up intellectually with the information, but produced a lot less evidence on paper, but she liked colouring in the pretty pictures. 

Sophia brought the big flap book to me one day and dragged over their massive treasure chest of Lego. She had a particular picture chosen from the book which she wanted to recreate. She had not long graduated from duplo to official Lego and was still getting used to it. She had her own official Lego tool which she had been entrusted with by Daddy and she was very proud that she was deemed old enough to play with 'grown up' Lego. She was assisting Daddy on the construction of his massive Bugatti model at the time and she was proving a great help there. It was their special project together. This was the project she wanted to do with me, to recreate castle walls and a scene to act out within it. As it was her first attempt of creating anything remotely like this, I laid out the first two rows of the foundations, teaching her the tips on how to build a solid wall which would be near indestructible, rather than one you could push down with a finger. She was a very quick study and took over from me after the second row, and for several weeks this was her afternoon project. The book would come out for reference and she had a glorious time making her castle, whilst Kira made several versions out of duplo during the same time frame. This castle stood pride of place in the cabinet for the rest of the year and the girls would play with it often, reinacting scenes between the enemies/robbers and the soldiers. Sophia also made an impressive sword out of Lego too and took on Kira’s duplo sword which naturally ended in tears. 

Another large project initiated by Sophia involved several cardboard boxes which she reduced from the fate of the recycling bin. She actually used the argument that we would be recycling them first before they then went to the bin. We constructed a castle with a working drawbridge as a team, and then I introduced two new art styles to them for them to decorate the outside of it. The first one was marbling and this side art project took half a week to complete as they loved it so much, we had several afternoons committed to it. The second was rubbing art, unfortunately the weather was against us at the time so the garden was too wet to provide any inspiration. However our kitchen stool provided a great substitute, and we once again lost a few days of them having hours of fun making rubbing drawings of all colours. 

The poor drab castle sat next to the draining board so long it was looking to become a permanent feature, whilst our kitchen floor became a maze of drying marbling pictures. It was so much fun! Sophia had a secret she was working on for the drawbridge at the same time which she refused to share with us, which is impressive as she cannot keep a secret to save her life. Eventually the poor castle was rescued and the decorating started in earnest. We all loved the finished product and it was worth the wait. Sophia's surprise was a colouring in of a Prince and Princess which she wanted placed behind the flap door drawbridge. The finished article was played with for weeks until a drink was spilt on it and it became a soggy mess and the girls solemnly carried the remains out between them to lay at rest in the recycling bin. 

They were feeling down at the fate of their castle so to cheer them up I brought some supplies from Bakers Ross (the online art and crafts store), and their next project was crown making! So many squeals of joy over this activity! We were all princesses for the week to follow.  

It just goes to show how much they can learn even at this young age, and how much fun can be found in each topic you choose for them to learn. The best results come by introducing topic and sit back and observe their reaction. Children at this age do not hide their feelings and it will soon become apparent if they are connecting with the content. I do not believe there is any point making a child pursue a topic in which they are not engaged in. They will resent it, they will not retain the knowledge. They can either shine like a light and absorb like a sponge, or be as dark as night and as blank as a wall. It is a partnership between you and the children, and if the subject is a vitally important one like reading, writing or maths, then it is up to you to work at it and reach an agreement that suits all of you. These are the non negotiable subjects, they need to be taught, however there are hundreds of different ways they can be learnt and expressed. Learning shouldn't be a fight between you and your children, it should be a fun adventure.