If you are an American who lived overseas or value your ancestry. . .

[Jean in Newcastle]

Do you spend extra time studying the history of the countries you lived in or came from? Some countries will be studied more intensively in different curricula. But no one deals with the history of the Philippines (where my dh comes from) - other than perhaps as part of World War II history. Do you think that I should spend more time teaching my children the history of the Philippines and Ireland and Scotland (where my ancestry is from) than is normally allotted? Or do we ignore it because relatively speaking their history isn't as historically relevant?

[Amira]

I figure if it's important to my family, then we'll study it. We spend more time on Denmark because half of our ancestors are from there, and we spend significantly more time learning about Central Asia than your average homeschooling family because we lived there. Still, our focus is on traditional world history.

[Kelli in TN]

Through the years we will sometimes take a break from the norm and do a little extra study on Norway just to help them understand their culture (on my side).

[Laura Corin]

I am English and DH is American. The boys have grown up mostly in Asia, but we have recently moved to Scotland. Our main history is SOTW plus UK plus US (slightly more UK than US, but that balances the US slant in SOTW). We do a year of Chinese history for each boy at some point, and when we moved to Scotland we did a quick Scottish history sweep (backed up by field trips, TV programmes, etc.)

 

So yes, we do try to do everything, but there are pretty good materials available on all the relevant countries.

 

Laura

[elegantlion]

Yes, I think there is great importance in understanding the culture of your ancestry. I'm also a big genealogy buff, so I'm biased. :D Most of my ancestors have been in America since just after the Mayflower so we've been here a while. However we are taking about 8 weeks next year to study family history.

 

Mostly Irish on dh's side, Mostly English on my side. Those will be our two focus areas. I've spent a lot of time on the internet looking for ancestral sites in England and Ireland. I've found some buildings still standing directly linked to my family. We plan to research and discuss them.

 

I find a certain pride knowing where I came from, culturally speaking.

[Dayle in Guatemala]

The first year we were here we spent all our time in history studying the Incas, Maya, and Aztecs. We did some great stuff and it opened up a respect for the country and culture we live in.

 

Dh and I have a heinz57 kind of background, so at some point, we do touch on all the cultures that make up our family history. We are mostly European with a splash of Native American, and a little Middle East. Kind of an unusual combo!

[chiguirre]

We haven't done much yet, but I do plan on studying Venezuelan history. I have a nice colorful history book and geography book that are sort of DKish. They came as supplements in our newspaper and I had them bound when they were complete. I'd also like the kids to read through a history of Latin America in high school, preferably in Spanish. Something like Tulio Halperin Donghi's Historia Contemporanea de America Latina would be good for this purpose. Of course, this is about 10 years in the future, right now we've read a Picture Book of Simon Bolivar and called in good.

[elise1mds]

DH is Aussie, so my kids are getting more than the usual share of knowledge about that country since I want them to know the history of both the USA and Australia. They already know quite a bit about foods, songs, phrases, and landmarks (Ayers Rock/Uluru, for instance). As they get older, I'll branch out into other countries like Ireland, England, and Germany that are the homes of other ancestors. I'm another genealogy buff, though.

[dhudson]

We spend extra time on Scotland (dh family is very Scottish although have lived in US for 100 + years) and Ireland so by extension have learned more about England as well. We feel heritage is important, not everything, but important. Our kids all have gaelic names and dh has several kilts (which he wore at our wedding) and have started Irish Dance with dd.

[stripe]

Having an understanding of the history of one's parents' home country/ies is a different thing than having knowledge/familiarity of your parents' culture(s). That being said, I think an advantage of homeschooling is being able to personalize to what's relevant to you. If you have brought your kids up to be bilingual, for example, you can conduct some classes in another language and/or include detailed language classes or literature study in high school. And someone who knows a lot about the history doesn't necessarily speak the language or feel at home in the culture, speak the language, want to eat the food, or so on. Anyway I think it's a nice perk to teach them the history of their parents' countries, especially if you feel that will give them a better understanding of the culture (benefitting them on a personal level). It doesn't have to be exhaustive for them to be well informed.

[Deb in NZ]

DH is a NZer & I am American. Dd & Ds#1 spent their first years living in the Pacific Islands, where dh worked for over 20 years. Ds#2 has only known NZ as home. We have used SOTW 1-4 to give us a good basis to relate both US & NZ history. We spent one year using SL 7 & SL 3+4. This was a wonderful combination for us. This year I'm having dd do a indepth study of NZ, while the boys are covering a CM-style variety of history books. I find approaching individual country histories after having the base of world history is just right for us.

 

JMHO,

[Mom2boys]

I lived in South America for a year, and have a minor in Latin American Studies, so that region gets extra coverage in our geography studies. As far as family history goes, our ancestors have been in the US since the 1600's, so we don't have a unique culture to teach our children. :)

 

If my children did have a parent or grandparent from another country, we absolutely would study the culture and history of that country.

[Rosie_0801]

What sort of resources do you guys use? I know the Australian homeschoolers history text, I've heard you talk about "Our Island Story." Any other all in one's that stand out. Not for anywhere in particular, I was just pondering this the other day, and now seemed like a good time to ask.

 

:)

Rosie- history-a-holic

[Laura Corin]

HE Marshall also wrote This Country of Ours (US history) and Scotland's Story. I also like the Young Oxford History of Britain and Ireland.

 

Laura

[Wendi]

I do put some special emphasis on countries from which our ancestors came (Germany, Italy, Poland, Scotland...). So far we haven't done a separate study; we've discussed the countries in our normal history studies. (I did add in a book on Robert the Bruce when we studied the Middle Ages.) We'll do some genealogy in a couple of weeks as we talk about immigration in the late 19th-early 20th century.

 

We both love history, and I'm a genealogy buff, so it's a natural to want to learn more about the places our ancestors actually lived.

 

Wendi

[nova mama]

My parents immigrated from Ghana in the 70s. My husband's family is also of African descent, but we don't know which country(ies). All three of my children can name all 53 African nations (I made up a song), and now we're learning the flags and map locations. I also read them African stories and folktales at dinnertimes. My children will learn plenty about US and European history from me (we're doing SOTW, study classical/European composers, etc.) and in PS. Why not also teach them about their ancestors? I think it's all relevant.

[Annabel Lee]

Do any of you know of any free way to trace ancestry and countries of heritage? Whenever I try to look up geneology online, the sites always charge for their info. I'd love to know more and share it with my dc whether we do it as part of school or not.

[Mamasteff]

We included some relevant historical facts from our host country on our timeline book (mostly gleaned from a Lonely Planet - I know, not great, but there wasn't a lot out there, and it was pre-wikipedia). There were elections while we lived there, so we put those on the timeline, just as we continue to do for our home country.

 

I have tried to include genealogical information in context. When we learned about massive European immigration to North America, we traced lines that we knew of, from Norway, England, and Ireland, some through Canada and some through Ellis Island. I am blessed to have lots of information, so I have been able to make personal connections to "important" people and events (Civil War, Revolutionary War, Benjamin Franklin...).

[Jean in Newcastle]

I'll share what we've done on Filipino history and culture. I found a storybook at a used book store - "Grandfather's Stories from the Philippines". What a find! It was so nice to read folk tales from dh's country - something that dh's parents had never done for him, actually. Neither dh or I speak Tagalog so we can't transmit that part of the culture to them. But the kids do know many cultural things from spending time at Grandma and Grandpa's.

 

We actually went to the Philippines for three weeks a couple of years ago. Dh's parents gave us a very wonderful gift in taking us to share with us their culture and country. Ds11 was in WWII history paradise!

 

We brought back two cultural items from the Philippines. One was two CDs of Filipino folk music, much of it influenced by the Spanish. The other is related. We bought a bandoria - a Spanish stringed instrument that is used in Filipino folk music. Now we have to figure out how to play the darn thing!

 

But I was raised as a "third culture kid" in Japan. I do speak Japanese and teach some to the children. We've gone to Japanese cultural festivals here in the U.S. We often eat Japanese foods. We study Japanese history as it pertains to each period in the history cycle.

 

But the ancestry that ds has related to the most is his Scottish roots! We often have bagpipe music skirling (sp?) through the house! He has tried to learn ancient Scottish but none of his friends could understand him. . .

 

Oh - and I did search the library for a book on the local history of our little city in the U.S. We don't have long roots here but I felt that it was important to understand the history of this place that we call home now.

[ElizabethB]

Yes.

 

I plan to, and ours has a racial twist most people don't know about.

 

When I was collage age, I saw a picture of my Grandmother when she was a teenager for the first time. I told her, "Grandma, you were beautiful!" She replied, "Do you really think so?" I said, "Yes, you look like a model." She said, "I never thought I was pretty growing up. I was too tall and too blonde and too thin. You were supposed to be shorter and dark haired and a bit plump when I was growing up. When I was little, I was called 'Dirty little Swede.'"

 

If my Grandma had been born 50 or 60 years later and had braces, she could have been a supermodel! Instead, she was discriminated against because of her ancestry and made to think she was not pretty.

[Reya]

Yes! I'm always on the hunt for books on China. The selection's pretty pathetic for that in nonfiction/history, too, but not as bad as the Philippines.

[Laura Corin]

Yes! I'm always on the hunt for books on China. The selection's pretty pathetic for that in nonfiction/history, too, but not as bad as the Philippines.

 

If not, it might have a few ideas for you.

 

Laura