If you are having difficulty getting your child to study history then try taking them to one or two living history museums where they can experience history first hand. Being able to visit the places where long ago events actually took place and seeing reenactments of what occurred can help your child better understand the event and want to learn more about it.
There are all kinds of living history museums scattered all around the world. You may be able to visit that town in the old west and walk the dirt streets, have a sarsaparilla in the local saloon or watch a gunfight at high noon. Or perhaps you can visit a fort and see what fur trading was like and the type of gardens early American colonists kept or walk on the deck of slave ship and step below and hear the clang of the door shut and experience for a few short moments what it was like to be packed in among of hundreds of human bodies with little space to move and absolutely no privacy.
By watching the games children played in different eras, the making of candles, the building of canoes and ship, or the tending of a lighthouse children learn more about not just the important events of history, but what life was like how people like them adapted and survived. It allows them to become excited about the past and really understand what the study of history is all about.
Living history museums make history really come alive by allowing those who visit to step back into the past, into a different time and get a real visual idea of the problems and the joys of a different time in history. It is a unique experience and helps children not just read about the past, but to actual experience a bit of it first hand.
