Activities that make learning come alive

Here are some fun activities and learning experiences for each school subject, based on the principles I address in my document, “How to make learning come alive.” If your son or daughter is in public or private school, use these activities to supplement what he or she is learning in school. If you are a home school parent, try these out to supplement the curriculum you selected for your son or daughter. These may help to turn on a light bulb, especially in the course your son or daughter has the most trouble in.

History

I have more options listed for history because my greatest experience as a teacher is in this area.

People love stories, and history is the story of the human race. Watch a movie or read a book (aloud) based on historic events, or set in a historic time and place. This can be non-fiction (an eyewitness account of events that actually happened) or historical fiction (a fictitious story about fictitious characters, set in a real time and place).

Ask your student(s) to summarize the story or account, answering the “5 Ws and an H” (who, what, when, where, why and how). Also important in history is the question, “How could you confirm whether the picture painted of the past in this story is true?” Get them to think about internal and external evidence of reliability. Internal evidence of reliability (or trustworthiness) has to do with whether the author is consistent in what he/she reports. Do you catch them in any inconsistencies? External evidence comes from outside sources who either report on the same events or time period, or who knew the first author. What do they say about the events, time or author in question? (Consider the bias of the second author too—what do contemporaries or modern historians think of their trustworthiness?)

Some examples of historic non-fiction are:

1. Herodotus’ account of the Battle of Thermopylae between the Greeks and Persians
2. Plato’s accounts of Socrates’ debates with various people (e.g. “Meno,” “Crito,” etc.) in his writings
3. Any Old Testament or New Testament excerpt (yes, these are primary texts for ancient history!)
4. Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie series (she is excellent at vivid descriptions of life on the last frontier in America)
5. Colonel John Glenn’s account of being shot into space in, “First American in Orbit.” It was apparently an article in Life magazine, in 1962. I found it in an old anthology, Insights Into Literature, by Mark Van Doren, et al., published by Houghton Mifflin, copyright 1965 and 1968.
6. I am stretching the category of “historic non-fiction” somewhat with the next three items, but they are truly historic, and tell a story. Living eyewitnesses to historic events: Don’t overlook family members and friends who witnessed historic events—including yourself! Grandparents may remember the Great Depression, World War II, the Civil Rights marches, space shots, etc. You may remember “historic” presidential races or debates, the stock market crash of ’88, the Gulf War communiqués of 1991, and more. Don’t overlook “the mundane” either. Children may be fascinated just to hear about the toys you played with or the games you played as a child.
7. Don’t overlook personal effects in your own possession, or your family’s possessions, which could function as actual historic documents or artifacts by “telling a story”: birth records, deeds, wills, old tools, “antiques,” etc.
8. Sites can also tell a story: the old homeplace where you or your parents grew up; and local historic sites such as battle sites, monuments, government buildings, old factories, or house museums.

Some examples of historical fiction are:

1. Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island and Kidnapped
2. Stephen Crane’s Red Badge of Courage and The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky
3. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s series, set in Victorian Britain, about Sherlock Holmes
4. Mark Twain’s Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
5. Any of the mythological stories surrounding King Arthur
6. Stories set in the ancient world such as Ben Hur, The Robe, Antony and Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, etc.

English Literature, Language Arts, Reading

Many of the activities listed under “History,” above, would also function as good and valid learning experiences in Language Arts.

Math and Science

Ask an engineer, architect, industrial scientist, medical doctor or nurse for common or easy math problems they have to solve on the job. Help your child work these, or ask their math teacher or tutor to help.

Help your child interview a medical doctor, nurse, psychologist, counselor, therapist, or psychiatrist about the mind-body connection. I chose this topic because there is something here for both left-brained and right-brained people. It covers the connection between mental, emotional, and physical health. There is a whole section about this topic, called “Psychosomatic medicine,” in the Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy. You may be able to find a copy online, or purchase a copy of this or an old Pathophysiology textbook from a used book store.