When was the last time you and your family visited a historical site? Many of my students tell me they’re going to Disney for vacation. A little fantasy for a little while is fun but year after year? Where is the reality of our heritage? Visiting historical sites can be both economical and eye-opening to the struggles of our ancestors.

Martin Cothran in his article “Why Are We No Longer Visting Our Nation’s Historical Sites?” gives several reasons he thinks sites are being neglected by the younger generation. Cothran references Mitchell Reiss of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation as saying, “For a variety of reasons – business decisions made in years past, less American history being taught in schools, changing times and tastes that cause us to attract half the visitors we did 30 years ago – the Foundation loses significant amounts of money every year.”

So how can we help our children gain a sense of history and God’s plan for us as a nation and as a family? Here are a few ideas your family might enjoy.

• Research an area together you plan to visit to find what’s available. In my area, there is everything from Davy Crockett’s birthplace to the Battle of Cowpens and Kings Mountain to the last covered bridge in SC – Campbell’s Covered Bridge. There are log cabins, historical churches, reenactments, gardens, and Native American demonstrations. All this and more within a two-hour drive of home.
• Visit gift shops for books about the area, old fashioned games, toys to encourage your child to remember what they saw and heard. I bought my grandson a set of pewter Revolutionary War soldiers at the reenactment of the battle at Walnut Grove Plantation. It was a day trip only forty-five minutes from home.
• Outdoor dramas such as “Horn in the West” (Boone, NC), “Unto These Hills” (Cherokee, NC) and “The Lost Colony” (Mateo, NC – I gotta go see this one) are always big hits with the children.
• Camp out in Federal or State Parks. They are less expensive and give children the opportunity to live without the conveniences (no electricity or sewer hookups in Federal campgrounds). I love to have the children help me cook over the open fire on camping trips. A peach cobbler in a cast iron dutch oven is not only delicious, but it’s also is a great historical learning experience even if you use a can biscuit crust.
• Get out and read a roadside marker. Find something new off the beaten path. Take pictures. Make a travel journal or scrapbook.
• When you get home encourage your children to visit the library and find biographies and historical fiction about the lives of the people and places you have encountered. Who are the authors of those books? Try these authors: Laura Ingalls Wilder, Jenny Cote, Joyce Moyer Hostetter and many more. You may even find that an author is visiting your area! Oh, what a chance to ask them even more questions about our great history.

What are your favorite places to visit? What favorite authors of biographies and historical fiction have you discovered?

Discover America and be amazed at the great nation our God has given us.