Helping Parents Raise Kids of Character
“… A great story to illustrate to your children how obedience may be hard for the moment, but will lead to greater good in the end.” ~Rick
If you’ve ever seen the wonderful 1941 movie, Sergeant York you’re already acquainted with the story of the Tennessee mountaineer, a hard-drinking, brawling, straight-shooting country boy who became the most famous American hero of World War I.
Continue reading True or False? Signers of the Declaration
Every so often, we like to highlight and recommend books we have loved reading. These are books that are favorites and at the “Top” of our list!
The one I’m telling you about today is no exception- We love this book, Francis Marion, and The Legend of The Swamp Fox!
You may already know that I get excited about American History. And so, I love it when a book can bring true facts and real people to life through a story and great illustrations for the whole family.
Francis Marion is one of our favorite characters from the Revolutionary period, and he is who this book is all about!
He did much to help us win our independence by thinking creatively how to outsmart the British. His adventures are so exciting, and he is a man we need to introduce our kids to.
Continue reading Top Book Pick: Francis Marion and The Legend of The Swamp Fox
Don’t you love reading together as a family? It’s a fun time, a “together” time, an inspiring time. There’s nothing like snuggling with a couple of kids while a toddler falls asleep under the coffee table. 🙂 (at least, that’s how it happened at our house!!) I have some books that are perfect for family reading time. Let me tell you about them!
Rick and I wrote these books last year for Master Books: Fight for Freedom + America’s Struggle to Become a Nation.
Yes, they are written as 4-6th grade history curriculum, but the whole family will enjoy hearing these stories from our founding era – stories every person growing up in the 1800’s in our country knew. But, these are not just a conglomeration of boring facts to memorize and bits and pieces with no meat. This is a wonderful gathering of true and engaging stories from America’s History. So, they are equally appropriate, used as a Family Read-Aloud book.
When we lose our history (our heritage) we will lose our freedoms; that’s what’s happening today in our country. That’s one reason we wrote these books – to do our part in preparing this generation to stand for truth and principle as the men and women you’ll hear about in these books did.
Continue reading 2 Books Every American Family Should Read
Continue reading 5 Reasons Why Your Child Wants to Learn History from Uncle Rick!
I was chatting one day with a teenage boy who worked for me and somehow the conversation turned to the subject of studying history. Young Sam didn’t see the point of it.
“Why,” he reasoned, “should I care about things that happened before I was even born?” Now, I’ve heard it said that there’s no such thing as a dumb question, but..well, as I said Sam was young.
Personally, I love history. Especially American history. I believe that it is the most important academic subject we teach our children. That’s why my wife and I wrote our elementary (Providential) American history text books. That’s why I saw very little of Marilyn except the top of her head for a year and a half—it took eighteen months for her to write For You They Signed, a book of character studies from the lives of the great men who signed the Declaration of Independence. That’s why I spend so much time recording great old books for kids in my Uncle Rick audio book club. History matters far more than most people think. The only reason you were bored with in school is that it was poorly taught.
As I tried to explain to my friend Sam, certain things could not happen in the present if certain other things had not happened in the past. For instance, if Sam’s mother had never met Sam’s father in the past, there would be no Sam in the present. Just little things like that.
The events of the past made the world in which we live for the present. Today, things are happening that will determine what will happen tomorrow. “Now” is the meeting place of eternity past and eternity future and it is not possible to separate the three time periods. They are siblings; in fact, conjoined triplets.
Continue reading The Dumbest Question I Ever Heard is Now History
Every year, I have my kids learn/review the presidents in order.
This three page full color chart of the U. S. Presidents from George Washington to the present is a great visual resource for helping your children learn the presidents.
Continue reading Presidents Chart Download