I have a feeling this is going to be the most difficult thing I ever have to teach

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

I'm kind of dreading this year in history, as we are on year 4, the modern history part of the cycle.

 

I've been going through SOTW 4 Activity Guide, making a list on my library's website of books I'll check out, and I'm starting to get to the part about Hitler, fascism, the Holocaust, etc.

 

My kids and husband are Jewish. The little babies I watch are Jewish. How do I explain this to my kids? They discuss the Shoah at temple, but not in detail, so my kids really know nothing about it. Most of dh's father's family came here in the early 1900s, so before things started getting too bad in Poland from where they originally came. Much of dh's mother's family was here already, too. Some of her relatives were still in Europe and one uncle and his family hid out in caves to escape being rounded up. He is deceased, now, but he told dh about it.

 

My best friend is a drama teacher and she decided to do Diary of Anne Frank for her fall play. Should I take the kids to see it? They will be 3rd and 4th graders.

 

My main question though is- Do you know of any good, sensitive books on this topic that I can read with the kids? The library's website doesn't give me a good enough description of the books. I could request them all in advance and check through them, but I thought I'd ask here first.

[Dory]

We just brushed over it when we were all together. My oldest son is old enough that he and I had more serious talks about it one on one. The other two are young enough they weren't really understanding everything. It wasn't a subject that I enjoyed having to talk about either. I actually had my mom help me out a little. I told her ahead of time what we were studying and asked if she would be willing to talk about it with one or two of the kids if I needed her to.

[Desert Rat]

The Search by Eric Havel

A Family Secret by Eric Havel

(These are both comic book style and my ds12 said they were really good, ds9 was exempt from a lot of the extra reading because of his age)

Hitler by Sean Stewart Price

SOTW handles it really, really well.

 

We also got a book on Auschwitz but I forgot to write down the author it seems. It may have been Price also which is why I didn't write it down. But the book was very good. I let them see pictures of stacks of shoes, etc. Some blury pictures of atrocities.

 

Dh's great-grandmother left her family behind in Poland. We have found 2 cousins and the rest are gone. On the way over to New York, they told her to convert to Catholicism. She did and the family has been Catholic ever since. My dh and his family are heriditary Jews. My boys know this and I made sure that they were processing this okay.

 

FWIW, I skipped the entire modern history cycle the first time round, when my boys were in Kindergarten and 3rd grade. I focused completely on biographies of famous people that year. This time round I felt they were old enough, although ds9 didn't do extra readings.

 

My ds12 was incredibly understanding. He doesn't show emotion and here he did. He was far more upset that they US and other countries knew what was happening in the camps and didn't stop it sooner. I spent a long time trying to explain that one. I didn't show him any pictures he couldn't handle, any stories that were just gore and horror. He, they, will learn them later. Once they hear it, they can't ever unhear it. So, I waited.

 

It must be taught though. Lest we forget.

Edited June 28, 2012 by Kalah

[Night Elf]

Honestly, I didn't cover it until middle school. I just couldn't bring myself to try to explain it without horrifying the kids. But when we did finally cover WWII, I cried during the lessons. My son understood the atrocities and was really angry that humans can be so stupid. He has a good head for history though, so he understood it from a political point of view, or at least Hitler's warped political point of view. I think understanding that part of it gave the lesson a deeper meaning than just teaching him that lots of people were tortured or killed and all just for hatred. There was more to it than that. That just sounds so much scarier and I didn't want to focus so heavily on it without the bigger picture of what was going on in Germany at the time. It ended up being a good lesson, but man was it hard for me to get through.

[TX6]

Teach it honestly.

 

It was hard for me growing up to understand. My grandfather was an American POW. My grandmother hid in forest. My great-grandfather was shot(lived) trying to help the women and children in the forest. My family was not Jewish. I grew up in a large Jewish community. I knew women who still had tattoos on thier arms. I knew my grandfather was on the wrong side.

 

It was a lot for me to truly understand as a child. During my last visit with my chidren to Austria I was able to learn more fron both my grandparents. I am greatful my family had the courage to teach me what I didn't learn in school.

 

I share all of this to encourage you to teach your children their history. I know it will be hard. Take it slow and only teach as much as they can handle.

 

When we lived in Germany, and my kids were all under 10, they knew there was a bad man named Hitler. We slowly built from that simple fact.

[cin]

Teach it honestly.

 

It was hard for me growing up to understand. My grandfather was an American POW. My grandmother hid in forest. My great-grandfather was shot(lived) trying to help the women and children in the forest. My family was not Jewish. I grew up in a large Jewish community. I knew women who still had tattoos on thier arms. I knew my grandfather was on the wrong side.

 

It was a lot for me to truly understand as a child. During my last visit with my chidren to Austria I was able to learn more fron both my grandparents. I am greatful my family had the courage to teach me what I didn't learn in school.

 

I share all of this to encourage you to teach your children their history. I know it will be hard. Take it slow and only teach as much as they can handle.

 

When we lived in Germany, and my kids were all under 10, they knew there was a bad man named Hitler. We slowly built from that simple fact.

 

:iagree:

 

Your kids are still young. I would brush over it, keep it VERY general. I know in my case, my oldest (almost 11) would STILL have nightmares if we went into great detail. She can't get the 'then' and 'now' concept separated. Just as she can't get the fact that the war is 'over there' and not 'here'. Especially if they understand that they are Jewish, it might really terrify them.

 

You might just mention it as you discuss WWII, and just say that Hitler was a bad man who wanted to kill a lot of people. (Don't mention that he was after the Jewish) But he's dead now. (At least that's the theory I believe ;) )

[Tess in the Burbs]

my kids were 3rd(girl) and 4th)boy) and we did it this year. It was hard. It was hard on me. Nothing can explain the how/why of what happened to the Jewish people in WWII. It's just sad. And it was hard to teach/explain. We read about it, talked about it. And they were sad when they thought about it. But we didn't dwell on it. I think older age is better for that topic. It's such an important history to your family...be honest about it. I imagine teaching slavery would be just as hard for an African heritage family. But you have family who could possibly tell more? If so, perhaps that one on one opportunity is the best way to let them learn....if the family is willing to talk. :grouphug:

[Mom-ninja.]

There is a lot of death, torture, and murder in history. All of history.

 

My family is German. My grandfather and grandmother were in the Hitler Juegend. Try explaining that to your kids. It's hard to explain that *we* were the bad guys. My grandmother is still alive, and she has said some very interesting things about the Nazi regime.

 

It wasn't all Hitler at that time either. Hitler gets all the attention. Stalin was not a very nice man.

 

My paternal grandfather is still alive, and he has nothing nice to say about his time in WWII against the Japanese. His stories are bone chilling.

 

History in general is a difficult but necessary subject to teach. You know your dc best and what they can handle and when.

[mom2scouts]

I'll be teaching it in another year and it will be interesting considering our family history. My son is going to marry a Jewish girl who has relatives who were killed in Germany. My husband was adopted and his adoptive father was a WW2 soldier who helped bomb Germany. His birth mother is German and her father was a German soldier during WW2 and she spent her childhood fleeing the bombing.

[sparrow]

It was the most difficult subject we have covered. I have a very sensitive son. He and I both cried during our Holocaust studies.

 

Regarding the Anne Frank play, you know your children best. At 3rd and 2nd grade, I know it would be too much for my son. My daughter would be upset, but not at the gut wrenching level my son gets.

 

Personally, with your children's ages, I would not go in too much depth. I would cover the basics, but there is a time when all of the moving literature, that covers this atrocity, will have deep meaning to them.

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

We just brushed over it when we were all together. My oldest son is old enough that he and I had more serious talks about it one on one. The other two are young enough they weren't really understanding everything. It wasn't a subject that I enjoyed having to talk about either. I actually had my mom help me out a little. I told her ahead of time what we were studying and asked if she would be willing to talk about it with one or two of the kids if I needed her to.

 

I'm glad your mom was able to help. I remember my mom telling me about the holocaust and she didn't spare any details. I was about 11-12, and I had horrifying nightmares for years because of it.

 

The Search by Eric Havel

A Family Secret by Eric Havel

(These are both comic book style and my ds12 said they were really good, ds9 was exempt from a lot of the extra reading because of his age)

Hitler by Sean Stewart Price

SOTW handles it really, really well.

 

We also got a book on Auschwitz but I forgot to write down the author it seems. It may have been Price also which is why I didn't write it down. But the book was very good. I let them see pictures of stacks of shoes, etc. Some blury pictures of atrocities.

 

Dh's great-grandmother left her family behind in Poland. We have found 2 cousins and the rest are gone. On the way over to New York, they told her to convert to Catholicism. She did and the family has been Catholic ever since. My dh and his family are heriditary Jews. My boys know this and I made sure that they were processing this okay.

 

FWIW, I skipped the entire modern history cycle the first time round, when my boys were in Kindergarten and 3rd grade. I focused completely on biographies of famous people that year. This time round I felt they were old enough, although ds9 didn't do extra readings.

 

My ds12 was incredibly understanding. He doesn't show emotion and here he did. He was far more upset that they US and other countries knew what was happening in the camps and didn't stop it sooner. I spent a long time trying to explain that one. I didn't show him any pictures he couldn't handle, any stories that were just gore and horror. He, they, will learn them later. Once they hear it, they can't ever unhear it. So, I waited.

 

It must be taught though. Lest we forget.

 

Thanks for the recommendations. I did a search, and our library doesn't have any of them, but I'll see if my sister can get them at B & N.

 

I guess I don't understand why we still don't stop these kinds of things from happening. They are happening right now. Rwanda and Sudan really get to me.

 

 

Honestly, I didn't cover it until middle school. I just couldn't bring myself to try to explain it without horrifying the kids. But when we did finally cover WWII, I cried during the lessons. My son understood the atrocities and was really angry that humans can be so stupid. He has a good head for history though, so he understood it from a political point of view, or at least Hitler's warped political point of view. I think understanding that part of it gave the lesson a deeper meaning than just teaching him that lots of people were tortured or killed and all just for hatred. There was more to it than that. That just sounds so much scarier and I didn't want to focus so heavily on it without the bigger picture of what was going on in Germany at the time. It ended up being a good lesson, but man was it hard for me to get through.

 

I like the way SOTW puts history in a global and political context as much as possible for the younger crowd. I think they will be able to understand how the global economic and political situation at that time made a ripe environment for Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, and all the other bad guys, including us. I will most likely be in tears for most of it. I can't even read Harry Potter aloud to them without crying. I've been welling up just responding to this post.

 

Teach it honestly.

 

It was hard for me growing up to understand. My grandfather was an American POW. My grandmother hid in forest. My great-grandfather was shot(lived) trying to help the women and children in the forest. My family was not Jewish. I grew up in a large Jewish community. I knew women who still had tattoos on thier arms. I knew my grandfather was on the wrong side.

 

It was a lot for me to truly understand as a child. During my last visit with my chidren to Austria I was able to learn more fron both my grandparents. I am greatful my family had the courage to teach me what I didn't learn in school.

 

I share all of this to encourage you to teach your children their history. I know it will be hard. Take it slow and only teach as much as they can handle.

 

When we lived in Germany, and my kids were all under 10, they knew there was a bad man named Hitler. We slowly built from that simple fact.

 

I will do it slowly, but they will eventually find out, so I want them to have a base of understanding about it from dh and me. I hope to be able to take them to Europe someday and visit at least one camp. I don't know how I'll hold up because I lost it at the the memorial to the deportés in Paris.

 

:iagree:

 

Your kids are still young. I would brush over it, keep it VERY general. I know in my case, my oldest (almost 11) would STILL have nightmares if we went into great detail. She can't get the 'then' and 'now' concept separated. Just as she can't get the fact that the war is 'over there' and not 'here'. Especially if they understand that they are Jewish, it might really terrify them.

 

You might just mention it as you discuss WWII, and just say that Hitler was a bad man who wanted to kill a lot of people. (Don't mention that he was after the Jewish) But he's dead now. (At least that's the theory I believe ;) )

 

Well, unless I skip the SOTW chapter, which I don't want to do, I'll have to discuss it. She talks about anti-semitism and the death camps. My boys are both pretty sensitive, so I'll try to make it as gentle as possible.

 

my kids were 3rd(girl) and 4th)boy) and we did it this year. It was hard. It was hard on me. Nothing can explain the how/why of what happened to the Jewish people in WWII. It's just sad. And it was hard to teach/explain. We read about it, talked about it. And they were sad when they thought about it. But we didn't dwell on it. I think older age is better for that topic. It's such an important history to your family...be honest about it. I imagine teaching slavery would be just as hard for an African heritage family. But you have family who could possibly tell more? If so, perhaps that one on one opportunity is the best way to let them learn....if the family is willing to talk. :grouphug:

 

The only ones who were alive at the time and in Europe are all gone now. Most everyone was already here. I used to love hearing dh's grandmother tell us how her father was one of the very first electricians ever, so the Russians kept kidnapping him from Poland and forcing him to install electricity in Russia. He got sick of it, and he and dh's grandmother came to America to stop the kidnapping. They worked hard and brought the rest of the family over.

 

Dh's aunt married a Russian Jew, who is now in his mid 80's and he has some horrible stories about Russia at that time. I really don't want him talking to the kids because he has no filter. I don't even like hearing some of his stories. He became a grandmaster chess champion and got out of Russia that way.

 

 

There is a lot of death, torture, and murder in history. All of history.

 

My family is German. My grandfather and grandmother were in the Hitler Juegend. Try explaining that to your kids. It's hard to explain that *we* were the bad guys. My grandmother is still alive, and she has said some very interesting things about the Nazi regime.

 

It wasn't all Hitler at that time either. Hitler gets all the attention. Stalin was not a very nice man.

 

My paternal grandfather is still alive, and he has nothing nice to say about his time in WWII against the Japanese. His stories are bone chilling.

 

History in general is a difficult but necessary subject to teach. You know your dc best and what they can handle and when.

 

Yeah. I dated a German guy for a year. I have a really good German friend, and her friend's daughter is going to be staying with us for 5 weeks this summer. It's hard to explain how good people can get caught in a bad time. Or, how do we explain Hiroshima and Nagasaki? That's going to be very difficult, too. I think I'd like to focus on the people who managed to help others in the face of adversity.

 

I'll be teaching it in another year and it will be interesting considering our family history. My son is going to marry a Jewish girl who has relatives who were killed in Germany. My husband was adopted and his adoptive father was a WW2 soldier who helped bomb Germany. His birth mother is German and her father was a German soldier during WW2 and she spent her childhood fleeing the bombing.

 

Life is crazy that way, isn't it. I've had to deal with extremely racist relatives when I was dating a black man for 3 years. History follows us. That's why I'd like my kids to have a good understanding of it from an early age.

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

It was the most difficult subject we have covered. I have a very sensitive son. He and I both cried during our Holocaust studies.

 

Regarding the Anne Frank play, you know your children best. At 3rd and 2nd grade, I know it would be too much for my son. My daughter would be upset, but not at the gut wrenching level my son gets.

 

Personally, with your children's ages, I would not go in too much depth. I would cover the basics, but there is a time when all of the moving literature, that covers this atrocity, will have deep meaning to them.

 

Yeah, I'll have to think about the play. I take them to most of her plays, but I don't know about this one. I saw a production of it when I was a young adult. Very moving. My friend is doing the updated version and the German soldiers actually come into the room, where they don't in the older version. I'm sure ds1 and I will be crying. Ds2 is more of a stoic like his dad, but we'll see. I think he's more prone to the nightmares, though.

[TravelingChris]

I am trying to think how I did it. In a way, I think the choice to shield my children was completely taken away from me because they personally witnessed (in a non direct way since they were not close, but did see the plane and then saw the black smoke rise up) one of the 9/11 attacks. Then while we were trying to find my husband, they saw on tv the tower coming down. My younger ones were four and just turned eight then.

 

Basically we taught them that there is evil in the world and there are people who decide to follow the evil. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and many more recent evil people who lead atrocities and genocidal movements are all part of the lesson.

 

I wouldn't stress, at this age, the Jewish angle too much in his hatred. As they get older, they will realize that not only was Hitler against the Jews (and also against many others too since out of the 11 million killed, 5 million weren't Jewish), but there are still evil people out there who want to kill them because they are Jewish or American or ,....

[WiseOwlKnits]

Here's some suggestions I have for books - the Holocaust is a topic close to my heart.

 

I Will Come Back For You

The Butterfly

Benno and the Night of Broken Glass

Number the Stars - this one might be a little old

Who Was Anne Frank?

Best Friends

[Bang!Zoom!]

It confuses me too Lynne. Here's why.

 

Growing up, military history was a part of daily life. Discussions, photographs, stories, conversations with veterans, both active and retired. I had zero shelter from the deeper understandings of what was happening or had happened. I was fully awake to the costs, decisions, figures, etc.

 

I think by that experience it branched into who I was and am today. I ended up a poly-sci student for many years, volunteer work- on and on it goes.

 

My oldest daughter, she was non-sheltered also. She ended up very politically awake, became and is an activist, her mindset it is also under the influence of family history and events. It all turned out very nice.

 

Now my youngest hasn't a clue really. And I can feel the choice in my hands, and having some history behind me; I realize how big of an impact this can have, emotionally and far into the future.

 

I think my deal is I just feel inferior to the task and the honor it deserves; but I know I'll do it. It is quite serious to expose a young child to the not so distant history in a way, well...many ways.

 

I often catch myself thinking..."well didn't you cover major conflicts in other areas of history with just as big a price paid by real human people?"

 

Do you think because we have access to film, narratives, photographs and more statistics (along with being more culturally *alive* elements in memory) it just makes it that much difficult?

 

There is something very emotional about it. It might be that by being our children's guide (rather than a textbook that's marched through for a requirement by someone we have little relationship with) it is a causation for sensitivity. It's an awesome task.

 

I can only recognize your thoughts and tell you that I have them too. Good luck with it.

 

This is a photo from inside Evergreen Air Museum. They have a Titian 2 rocket there. Watching your kid walk right up to an actual Titian; I can't even begin to describe what that feels like. I can tell you I couldn't take any pictures clearly of her standing next to this railing though.

 

My hands, they were shaking you see.

 

Edited June 28, 2012 by one*mom

[Sparkle]

I wouldn't go into too much detail at those young ages - I'd save it for jr. high or high school. A few books you could use at this age:

 

The Little Riders by Margaretha Shemin

Twenty and Ten by Clare Huchet Bishop

Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan.

 

They're all good, adventure-type books, that deal with heroism and loyalty, and nothing too bad happens that would upset a sensitive child.

 

For slightly older kids:

The Borrowed House and The Winged Watchman by Hilda Van Stockum are good.

[Kathryn]

Teach it honestly.

 

It was hard for me growing up to understand. My grandfather was an American POW. My grandmother hid in forest. My great-grandfather was shot(lived) trying to help the women and children in the forest. My family was not Jewish. I grew up in a large Jewish community. I knew women who still had tattoos on thier arms. I knew my grandfather was on the wrong side.

 

It was a lot for me to truly understand as a child. During my last visit with my chidren to Austria I was able to learn more fron both my grandparents. I am greatful my family had the courage to teach me what I didn't learn in school.

 

I share all of this to encourage you to teach your children their history. I know it will be hard. Take it slow and only teach as much as they can handle.

 

When we lived in Germany, and my kids were all under 10, they knew there was a bad man named Hitler. We slowly built from that simple fact.

 

There is a lot of death, torture, and murder in history. All of history.

 

My family is German. My grandfather and grandmother were in the Hitler Juegend. Try explaining that to your kids. It's hard to explain that *we* were the bad guys. My grandmother is still alive, and she has said some very interesting things about the Nazi regime.

 

It wasn't all Hitler at that time either. Hitler gets all the attention. Stalin was not a very nice man.

 

My paternal grandfather is still alive, and he has nothing nice to say about his time in WWII against the Japanese. His stories are bone chilling.

 

History in general is a difficult but necessary subject to teach. You know your dc best and what they can handle and when.

 

:iagree:I've not sheltered my 6yo at all. He knows about Hitler, he knows about Stalin, he knows about bin Laden. These are things that shaped our world and that have had very real consequences for us in general and in particular with family members' deaths, and thus came up in the course of conversation, not in history lessons. When he wondered about various family members, I explained about their deaths or imprisonments. When he saw the news story about bin Laden, I explained what happened on 9/11.

 

I've been very surprised here at how reluctant people are to discuss 20th century wars and atrocities. I feel that my early and constant exposure to these topics was a positive force in my education. My elementary school had concentration camp survivors come in to speak with the whole school (K-6) every year. We read Anne Frank in 6th grade.

 

I think what you choose to do needs to be a reflection of how you choose to parent and what you think your children can/should handle.