Posts

Image of the Grannies

The Elucidating Grannies

The Elucidating Grannies

 

On June 12, 2021, my sister Liz and I launched the inaugural journey of the Elucidating Grannies. Joining us were my nine-year-old granddaughter Eva and my sister’s two oldest grandchildren, Aydan, age 11, and Abby, age 10.

Grannies and Grandkids

The Elucidating Grannies Inaugural Adventure

 

Our destination: The Historic Triangle at Williamsburg, Virginia.

Our goal: to take our progeny on a time travelling adventure in which they explore colonial and revolutionary era American history.

Our mission: Through travel experiences, we will help our grandchildren learn history and social issues through the soles of their feet and the connections they make with their hearts.

Becoming the Elucidating Grannies

Taking on the role of expanding our grandkids’ minds was a natural evolution for Liz and I. We both have three children. When our kids were young, and money was lean, my sister and I took our collective clan on summer camping adventures with a distinct historical and sometimes literary bent.

Liz and I grew up devouring the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. When we became mothers, we read them out loud to our kids. So our first adventure in the late 1990s was on the trail of Pa Ingalls’ “itchy foot.” We traveled from the banks of Plum Creek in Walnut Grove, Minnesota to De Smet, South Dakota.

Read more

Trivial Pursuit board game

Why History Matters: A Teacher’s Rationale

When I was working on my undergraduate degree in the early 1980’s, a boyfriend questioned my choice of major. “Why does history matter anyway? What’s a history degree going to get you besides winning at Trivial Pursuit?”

Although I relished beating this guy every time we played the board game, my pursuit of the past had loftier aims. For 26 years I taught history to high school students. Now I write history books for children and teens. You see, I knew all along what my boyfriend didn’t. Understanding history isn’t trivial. It’s vital.

Read more

Teach Students how to Analyze Sources and Give Them a Peek inside their Teacher’s Soul

In a previous post, I discussed how history is a verb, not a noun. What does “doing history” look like in a classroom? Here is a fun activity teachers can use to introduce students to the skill of analyzing primary sources.

Historians dissect primary sources such as letters, diaries, court documents, or song lyrics in their quest to interpret the past. They systematically examine each component of the source in order to make sense of the whole. Read more