Learning history with the boys

In an attempt to Swedenize my patriotically and linguistically detached children, I’m integrating a special deliverance of Swedish history into our otherwise fairly standard curriculum. The amount of books I’ve managed to find on the history of Sweden for children in English is very limited – so limited in fact, that I’m thinking about writing one myself, as I go about with the boys – and the ones I did find were very expensive. Luckily, 12 years in a Swedish school with old-fashioned teachers, left me with more than enough memorized material to fill out the who’s and what’s. Along with Herman Lindquist’s The history of Sweden in Swedish, I’m putting together the puzzle for the boys to enjoy quite well.

This Academic year ranges from Gustav Vasa to about the time Sweden instituted democratic elections at the end of the 19th century. Of course, there’s tons of stuff I didn’t know of before, or things that I’ve completely forgotten about, like, I know how Gustav III was murdered, but I had forgotten his important role in promoting culture, art, and academics. I just learned that Sweden was the first country in the world to recognize America as a free nation (after the British admitted their defeat, that is), and I really never could tell Queen Ulrika Eleonora from Queen Lovisa Ulrika until now.

In all, it’s exciting to study history with my boys, and the one thing that is more evident than anything is that there’s SO MUCH to learn, we couldn’t ever cover everything, even if history was our only subject; not even if we dedicated all twelve years solely to the study of history. So I get to choose what I want the boys to know, by prioritizing, and this is really the beauty of homeschooling: my aim is to give the boys as wide and deep of an education as possible, but in this case, where it’s impossible to cover everything, I’m glad that I’m the one who gets to choose what’s important.