[Paperdoll]

Check out your child’s history text book. In the 70’s there was one paragraph only on Abraham Lincoln in my child’s text book!

Read the book “The Light and the Glory”. by Peter Marshall and David Emanuel, and you will see why we are exactly where we are today. I have never read a more beautifully written or better researched book on the history of early America from l492 forward.

You can order it from Borders.
It is a book every American should read! I’ll bet you won’t be able to put it down.

[NavyCanDo]

Thanks for the tip. A great book recommended on the Glenn Beck program was A Patriot's History of the United States. It's a bit heavy for my 9 year-old, but it is a great reference book, and will be more so as he grows older.

If anyone knows of an age appropriate book I can teach him history from please advise

[NavyCanDo]

For the benefit of our 9 year-old son, we have taken a chapter from the book, “How to Raise an American”, and applied it to our lives. Each month we have a Patriot’s Birthday Party held for a famous American, or someone who contributed to our society in a great way.

We will not only discuss what the person did to make them special, but what America was like at the time, what they wore, what they ate, toys their kids may have played with, and songs they may have sang. Often my son will get a small gift related to the person or event, like for Columbus’s Birthday he got a compass, and a lesson in basic map navigation like Columbus would have needed to know how to do. A Kite on Ben Franklin’s day, a new Baseball glove on Lue Gehrig’s day, and so on.

We also plan our meal around it - with the Birthday of Columbus we had Italian, for Ben Franklin Philadelphia Cheese Steak Sandwich and French Fries for being the first ambassador to France. For Neil Armstrong’s day we ate good old fashion TV Dinners and freeze dried astronaut ice cream. And for Ronald Reagan’s 100th we had Jelly Beans for desert.

When possible we will also watch a movie or documentary together about the person, or get a book from the library.
It’s great fun and educational, and he can’t wait to see who I pick next month.

Get the Idea?

The possibilities are as much fun planning as doing it. Reagan, Washington, Harry Truman, Sally Ride, Lou Gehrig, Henry Ford, Jesse Owen, Walt Disney, Jackie Robinson, Abe Lincoln, Father Flanagan, and on and on.