Adams President

How To Use The Internet To Teach Your Children

Because of all the school budget cuts, it’s become incumbent on parents to expose their children to the information they’re not getting in school. Fortunately, the Web is full of teaching materials — if you know where to look. And since little ones are so ahead of where we were at kids, going online to learn is natural for them. I watched my four-year-old nephew navigate YouTube looking for NASA launch videos and tornado pictures, so it should be a snap for older kids.

There are plenty of opportunities for learning in odd places, such as in the world of vintage art. Digital versions of old postcards, greeting cards, magazine pages and other “ephemera” contain a wealth of historical information that’s quite revealing. The following vintage images are just a handful of the types you can use for teaching:

Vintage Travel Art

Children can learn a lot about their world from free travel memorabilia. These walks down memory lane instruct not only about the destinations themselves, but how different cultures were represented in advertising.

Old Sailing Ships Photos and Paintings

There’s plenty of interesting information to be discovered when studying historic tall sailing ships. From sloops-of-war to caravels like Columbus sailed, there are interesting details bound to catch any child’s imagination.

American Icon Postcards

There were a number of postcards created that featured American statesmen and heroines. As a matter of fact, these were all the rage. From Abraham Lincoln images to greeting cards with illustrations of Betsy Ross and John Adams to fictional American icons like Uncle Sam, the Internet is full of antique pictorial references. Many tell stories along with the pictures, making them mini history lessons.

Colonel Stoopnagle Tales

Spoonerisms originated in the early- to mid-20th Century, created by Reverend William Archibald Spooner and made famous by Frederick Chase Taylor, a radio comedian, performing under the name Colonel Lemuel Q. Stoopnagle. These twisted fairy tales swap letters or sounds in unique ways. Authentic spoonerisms include “a blushing crow” for “a crushing blow” and “fighting a liar” for “lighting a fire”. In addition to being funny, these mangled mash-ups also teach children to play with language.

Victorian Era Fashions

Fashion isn’t necessarily trivial or just for children who want to become designers, if it reveals something about the way people used to live. Looking at Victorian fashions what life was like in the 19th century century. At the very least, they’ll get a better perspective on just how good their lives are now!

But history isn’t the only place you’ll find teaching materials on the web. You just have to make sure the materials, or at least your presentation of them, is impartial. Children absorb the attitudes around them, so giving them balanced information is important. That impartiality will bear sweeter fruit for them later in life.

John Adams – President Washington – VP John Adams