Renaissance: Role-playing History

My students all have enjoyed hands-on homeschooling, even in Middle School. As they get older, they tend to not want to make crafts, so what can you do to make your homeschool activities both more hands-on and yet age appropriate for the older students? We have been doing more and more role-playing which are great for older students, multi age family groups or co-op groups. Any student from elementary to adult can play and learn.

What is history role-playing?

History is presented to the student as a story, instead of just dry facts. I want my students to understand history in context of real people who had real lives and not just "this happened then."

Is the time spent on it worth the educational value you get out of it?

Learning about history requires reading and researching, and students will be engaged in these activities, but it comes alive when we can also excite the imagination. They can then begin to be able to picture the people, places and things of a particular period. Because they are also making decisions based on things that really happened to the people, the student begins to empathize with historical figures and make connections with the people of the past, and begin to relate these historical events to current events. 


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