War. Hngh. What is it good for?

Well, up until today I would have agreed with the chorus line and said, “Absolutely nothin’!”

But apparently Edwin Starr and I were wrong.

Apparently war is actually good for something. It’s good for sparking an interest in learning in young boys.

Go figure.

My home has definitely been suffering from the mid-winter fidgets. School has seemed fairly unappealing to all of us. History was fun enough when we were studying Egypt before the holidays, but I just couldn’t muster up a whole lot of enthusiasm as we closed that out and tried to sneak into Greece. Egypt just petered out very anti-climactically and then there was this pause as I tried to pull together a few fun Greek ideas.

But honestly, I can’t say that ancient Greece was one of my most beloved subjects in school, so I just haven’t been too terribly enthused to pull together anything to share with my boys. They like history, for the most part. And I really enjoy going from creation and working our way forward through time as Sonlight has us doing. I’m pretty sure history would have meant a whole lot more to me had I been taught that way, and I enjoy seeing my boys' budding awareness of history as God’s plan. The history books and the Bible going side by side through history. Really, it’s a neat thing.

But Greece. I dunno. It just didn’t feel much like a fun subject for four kids under seven.
Or so I thought, anyway.

We’ve been reading some Greek myths and picking Greece out on our map, and Punky has been following along well enough with Finny floating in and out of our reading time.

But today, I watched my children light up with an excitement that is generally saved only for Lego creations and toy weaponry. Today, I watched as history took on a life of its own in the eyes of my sons. Today, the Trojan War brought ancient Greece to life for two young boys.

And it was the coolest thing ever!

It started in the usual way as I brought together a few quiet activities for the big boys to work on while I read from our history books. Punky mostly played, but being the auditory whizz that he is, I could tell he was still absorbing enough to call it school. Finny sat coloring some pages from an Ancient Greece coloring book and Girly Pie crawled round chewing on the fallen crayons.

Punky was less than amazed as we talked about Homer and his poetry. He was not terribly impressed with the Greek accomplishment of standards for coins to increase their trading power and wealth. Really, I was about to call history done for the day and pull out Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle for our read-aloud time.

But then I grabbed the Children’s History of the World book and noticed that today’s chapter was on The Fairy Tale War, otherwise known as the Trojan War. So I went ahead and read it.

I forget that raising little boys is a far cry from raising small versions of myself, only with different genitalia. Wars, fighting, trickery, battles over beautiful women – none of that really hits home for me. I read it. I absorb what I need to. I move on.

But my little men… WOW. That is the stuff dreams and passions are made of! Punky immediately lights up and recalls how his aunt once gave him a brief synopsis of the Trojan horse story. Suddenly he’s pacing in circles around the room as he starts spouting off quite a few details of a story she told him months or even a year or two ago. He continued the excited pacing (a sure sign for him that he's excited and trying to funnel all his excess energy and excitement into a somewhat productive activity) as I read the fairly dry version from the history book, and then when I pulled out the picture book with the same story written with a few more interesting details and full of pictures and color he was still and fully attentive. His eyes were glued to the pages of the book. Finny was scanning the pages picking up the colors, plotting out his Trojan horse coloring pages. Punky was scheming away at the multitude of play opportunities this story offered. We eagerly discussed the details of both versions of the tale and pondered over which parts could be true, which were certainly false, and whether or not any of it was really likely to have happened. Everyone participated. Everyone had something to add. Finny had his colors chosen and ready to fly on the paper. Punky was designing his own Lincoln Log version of the Trojan horse in his head.

Suddenly, Greece is a pretty darn impressive little spot on the map. Suddenly, this whole Greek history thing is really COOL!

As I worked on photocopying the coloring pages for Finny, Punky disappeared, only to reappear shortly to proudly announce that he had already begun his Lincoln Log horse. He was ready for their afternoon rest in their room to begin. After all, he had a horse to build, a walled city to erect and an exciting battle to recreate.

So there you go. War. It’s actually good for igniting the fiery passion of learning in boys. I can’t say I really get it myself. And I’m not personally looking forward to all the future historic wars yet to come in our homeschooling career. But luckily for me, there are plenty of those wars to learn about. So I’ve got a good chance at having at least three interested little souls in this house that will happily gobble up history over the next decade or two.

So take that, Mr. Edwin Starr.