I like this article...I'm going to have her look through it and encourage her to do more research on one of the dogs.
I've been trying to find different ways to get dogs involved in the state standards for history (medieval times) and while I find bits and pieces, there isn't a lot I can give her to work with. :-(
I did read that Adam of the Road is a medieval historical fiction with a lost dog...so it's on my library list for the week.

If you give a child an assignment and they don't do it or don't finish it, do you wait or try something new? Since I'm the "teacher" I'm finding she doesn't care about timelines. Which would be more okay if she were getting excited about doing work...

Oh, you reminded me that Mr. Acorn knows how to make chainmail! He used to help out in an SCA armor shop. Maybe I can get her interested in making some chainmail jewelry and twist some historical perspective in there...
Fingers crossed!!!

Last year we read the story of Lewis and Clark from the perspective of Seaman, the dog that traveled with the expedition. It was pretty interesting.

We are using Trail Guide to Learning. It uses 6 week units to make an immersive study of history. All subjects (except math) are wrapped into the historic framework.

-TheKindlyVikings

What about games from that era? There was kick the cabbage. Lol

I didn't read through all the responses, so excuse me if this has already been said. I stopped when I read "history is boring", but also saw someone found the key of history when they said the genealogy was fun...

History is NOT about dates, It should be about PEOPLE.

Take away the tests about history and get to know some people and stories, even historical fiction puts history in a timeline, and help keep track who verses "1492". Focus on individual people, get to know them, The events will start to come together but don't worry about the dates, we live in a time where we can always look up the date, after all, I had to just now for the above date of Columbus. But if we know the people in an event we know how to look for the date. We love history in my house because it is like a great big old puzzle of people. Really get to know those people then you will meet their friends/enemies, and we end up learning their successes and mistakes. That is when you get all those little Ah-Ha moments of what they did and the timeline of how we got here (and hopefully how to not make all the same mistakes, which is what makes history important.)

(this post was approved by my 10-year-old homeschooler)
she was nodding her head so much I thought she became a bobble head.

If you give a child an assignment and they don't do it or don't finish it, do you wait or try something new? Since I'm the "teacher" I'm finding she doesn't care about timelines.

It's tricky. In fact, I don't assign projects with a due date at all anymore. My kids are very "present tense" people. It works so much better to say, "Today, work on that project for 30 minutes." In fact, I use the timer A LOT. They know that they can be done when it rings, so they usually put in some good effort. I do have one daydreamer. He knows I'll set the timer over again if he just sits and dreams.

Something new that is working here: NO VIDEO GAMES until school is done for the day. This is the most motivating trick I have ever employed. They start math before breakfast, voluntarily, this year. I cannot get over how well this works to motivate them. Keep experimenting! Cool things happen.

I'm glad "no video games" works for you. I have a no games/tv/ipod rule here, but the one thing I have not been able to take away yet is her stories. She is an audio-book-aholic. I did try it once (and I was miserable all day) but she picked up the Bible and started reading it... How can a parent argue with THAT!? The other problem I have is she takes so long I can't get school done before the neighbors arrive, once school is out I have 4 kids standing on my porch waiting. (and a dog freaking out inside)