by Nur Asyikin Abdul Majid

Created on: May 18, 2009

History is never an easy subject to remember plainly because there are many things to learn and memorize about the past and the past is not a short period of time. We have to learn the cause of the situation and why such actions were taken into consideration. Many dead people to remember, many places of history to memorize and many more historical facts to jot down into our memory. But history if being portrayed properly, a person could easily remember and recalls the occurrences which took place in the past.

I remembered my history lessons and luckily I managed to get a teacher who loves her subject as much as she loves her fashion. Her teaching methods were so admirable that not once has anyone of her students ever failed history. Up till now, I can still remember almost everything that she had taught about the history of South East Asia and mind you, being fifteen at that time, history was a subject many of us thought better to be discussed amongst the dead.

One of the best methods to teach history to a child, in fact to anyone is by bringing history out to life. Before teaching a topic in history, the teacher or parent must read and summarize the important facts of the topic instead of reading everything from the book. The tone of the teacher's voice is an important role in bringing out the topic at hand. Instead of going on like a drone of bees, try using the tones of voice where one would use when telling an interesting story. Bring the history and the important characters to live with pictures or short movies from sources like National Geographic Channel or History Channel or Discovery Channel.

Interacting with the child is also another way of waking the child up from their boredom. In a form of play or short sketch, make your child act the historical part out and pause him once in a while as you explain to him the significance behind the play. You can also quiz him on the next action in the next scenario.

History is best remembered when one understands the meaning why such actions and measures were taken up during that specific era. Therefore helping the child understand history with plays, short movies, interactions and quizzes drives more impact. Once your child understands the significance of each historical story, make him write and organize a summary chart. Adding pictures of the place and person's face also helps your child in remembering.

Then have an occasional impromptu quiz on any of the history topics which you had gone through with him on anytime of the day. Should your child have problems in remembering the answer, prompt him by giving him the snippets memory of the interaction you did with him on that topic, this will boost your child's memory. When he answers the quiz correctly, always praise him.

Whenever you watch a program show or stumbles upon any matter that has relation towards any topic of history which you had gone through with him, never hesitate to refer that matter to that point of history topic to your child. Only then will your child understands the significance of history in his or her life.

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