Living Our History
By, Angela Strange
“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” Benjamin Franklin’s words are especially true when it comes to learning history. How much do you really remember about your history classes? A few names? A smattering of dates? I want it to be different for my kids. They may forget the dates, and may not remember all the facts, but they can describe what ship’s biscuits taste like and how big the Mayflower was compared to our driveway. Sure, it takes more time to teach this way, but it is worth it.
As homeschoolers we have the opportunity to take this time and really live out what we are trying to learn. We read biographies, historical fiction, and poetry. We make period crafts, build models, listen to music, act out scenes, and have lots of discussions over tea. Our favorite way to learn about a time or culture is through food.
When learning about the pilgrims, we made salt pork and ship’s biscuits from scratch. Both of which were disgusting, by the way. Now every time we come across someone in a book eating those things, the boys immediately have a strong reaction. It is something they will never forget! It has also opened up discussion about people acquiring a taste for the kinds of foods they grew up with. They are amazed that Laura Ingalls remembers enjoying salt pork!
For Independence Day, we spent a few days diving into the 18th century. Along with our traditional homemade peach ice cream, brown bread, and my mom’s baked beans, we made recipes that Benjamin Franklin and George Washington would have been familiar with. Watching videos from Townsends on YouTube, we learned how to make pot roast over a campfire. We adapted this for the crockpot. Next came donuts, and lemon cream. Delicious! Then we went on to make an omelet and pancakes. Both of these contained nutmeg, which was a favorite spice at the time. We learned that this was carried over from Medieval times when food was spiced heavily to cover up meat that had gone bad. Without refrigeration, this was still needed to some extent in the 1700s. The pancakes were also more like a crepe on account of the fact that chemical leavening had not been invented yet.
One of our favorite parts of our day is tea time. We drink tea, eat a snack, and read books. We found out about the type of tea that was dumped at the Boston Tea Party. The tea was called Bohea tea. It was an oolong black tea with a smoked flavor. I dragged my brother into my craziness and he put some oolong on the smoker for me. It came out really good! We were able to drink Colonial style tea while reading poetry and books about the Boston Tea Party and the Revolution.
