We were pleased to read that education secretary Michael Gove hopes children will learn about Britain's 'rich island history' and that English Heritage is to receive £2.7m to help children understand areas of local significance and how they relate to British history. This coincides with the two immense occasions happening this year in the UK - the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics and Paralympics in London. These events are highly unlikely to happen again in the UK in our lifetimes, so we should embrace them while we have the opportunity.
We will be using these events to teach our children to value their own family history. As part of our Olympic activities (we will say more on the Olympic theme in future articles), we have asked our children's parents and grandparents to share their memories of their experiences involving sports, with the help of old photos and medals. This helps children grasp the concept of the passing of time.
Our Royal Family is very special and unique to the UK, and recently, with the wedding of William and Kate, we had a chance to explore history and talk about the royal weddings we remembered when we were growing up. Hence history is passed on.
All this helps to reinforce in a relevant way many elements of knowledge and understanding of the world, such as using stories to learn about their families and others and encouraging children to ask questions about events in the past through discussions.
When we talk of our children's heritage we must remember that it's all the things we choose to value when remembering the past and that one person's view of this can be different from another's.
However, it brings to all a sense of time, place and purpose and we can be confident we are giving our children in our care a strong identity and helping a generation want to celebrate the importance of who they are.
