**OurStory is coming this summer! Check back soon for year 1.**
OurStory lets kids draw their way through history. My daughter is brilliant. She's smart and creative. She's funny and clever. She also struggles with an attention disorder. It makes everything a little bit more difficult. She has always struggled with reading. She can read- but she doesn't really enjoy it. As an author a general book enthusiast, you can imagine the struggle of having a child who doesn't love reading. In recent years, she has discovered graphic novels. And I know, I KNOW, some parents and teachers basically treat graphic novels like the devil's own library, but for me- and for lots of parents with reluctant readers, graphic novels are a miracle. My kid will read. For an hour or more, sometimes. On her own initiative. She still struggles with some of the words (she prefers to guess than to sound out longer words) and tends to read books we have already read together at least once.
She also copies the books. That's when I know she understands what she's reading. She sits and draws her own versions of the illustrations. She recreates scenes with her toys. And that is what inspired the creation of OurStory.
To make History engaging to my kid, I needed 2 things:
1. I needed a way to get content into her brain (with minimal reading).
2. I needed to keep her focus so she was actually learning and not just seeing. That means getting her to take ownership of the stories.
SO- I searched and searched for engaging, fast paced, highly visual content. For me it had to be well researched and well explained- Something the academic in me found engaging. For her it had to be colorful and humorous.
Next, I had to find a way to help her retain the information. Sometimes that was easy. If a found a game, like the awesome make a mummy game from University of Chicago, she was already engaging and retaining. (Who can forget pulling a guy's guts out and filling his dead body with salt?) But for the videos and occasional texts? I needed something more. I tried coming up with questions to have her answer about the videos, but that was still too verbal for my kid. Then I struck gold.
She also copies the books. That's when I know she understands what she's reading. She sits and draws her own versions of the illustrations. She recreates scenes with her toys. And that is what inspired the creation of OurStory.
To make History engaging to my kid, I needed 2 things:
1. I needed a way to get content into her brain (with minimal reading).
2. I needed to keep her focus so she was actually learning and not just seeing. That means getting her to take ownership of the stories.
SO- I searched and searched for engaging, fast paced, highly visual content. For me it had to be well researched and well explained- Something the academic in me found engaging. For her it had to be colorful and humorous.
Next, I had to find a way to help her retain the information. Sometimes that was easy. If a found a game, like the awesome make a mummy game from University of Chicago, she was already engaging and retaining. (Who can forget pulling a guy's guts out and filling his dead body with salt?) But for the videos and occasional texts? I needed something more. I tried coming up with questions to have her answer about the videos, but that was still too verbal for my kid. Then I struck gold.
She illustrates the lesson. We divide a blank page into four parts and she figures out which parts of the video or story deserve illustration. Sometimes, when she finds a concept confusing, we play act it out with small toys. (Thus the 15th century Korean navy illustrated as elephants and cats) And you know what? She gets it. I overheard her explaining the story to her dad. She had the right names, the right order of events, some causes and effects and she understood many of the many ideas.
Choirs of angels are singing. Sometimes it's easy. Sometimes I really have to search to find something I can work with. But it is all worth it when my kid gets this amazing grasp on history. It's not just HIS-story any more. It's OUR-story.
Choirs of angels are singing. Sometimes it's easy. Sometimes I really have to search to find something I can work with. But it is all worth it when my kid gets this amazing grasp on history. It's not just HIS-story any more. It's OUR-story.