Josh and Becca Thrap and Family

I am picky about the kinds of history that interest me. For example, my dad has always been interested in the Civil War and more recently has become obsessed some might say about geneology. While I agree that both are important both historically and as lessons to the present and future, they bore me. Not my thing. In seventh grade, we didn’t specifically have History class, it was still called Social Studies, but it covered some History. I found my teacher (who will remain unnamed here) to be a gigantic dork and I couldn’t stand listening to him or watching him. I went to visit the nurse during his class more than is probably appropriate. You may be thinking to yourself…”ok, but are you sure the real problem wasn’t just that you were a bratty preteen?” Touche. But, at the same time I had other classes with teachers who kept me engaged so, no, ultimately I do not think the problem was me. Of course seventh grade turned me off to a lot about school and I floated through as much of high school as possible, but luckily for me I had an AWESOME history teacher my first semester of college. And then, when we had to move to Ames for Josh’s education and I stayed at home with three kids in the 700ft married student housing with free cable I discovered the History Channel. Wow. I love the History Channel. Initially it sucked me in with shows like Modern Marvels, Histories Mysteries, Wrath of God and Decoding the Past, and now, almost five years later, it keeps me rivoted with shows like Digging for the Truth, Ancient Discoveries, Cities of the Underworld, and all the specialty shows like Star Wars Legacy Revealed. And what’s even better about it is that Jacob enjoys watching the shows with me. I know my kids watch a lot of tv, but at least some of it is educational! This week for example Jacob and I have learned about the ancient Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut and how they found her mummy, and about the underground cities of Cappadocia and how the early Christians used the tunnels to survive attack. Fascinating.