This we’re celebrating the 25th birthday of Discover Texas History!
Can you believe it? A quarter of a century helping students fall in love with Texas. It’s theoretically possible that some current students are 2nd generation!
Discover Texas was my first professional writing project back in 1999.
I wrote it because I hated Texas History when I was in school, and I didn’t want my kids to hate it, too.
I’d just been to a homeschool bookfair and asked an exhibitor I trust what she suggested for teaching Texas History…and she pulled out the very same book that bored me almost lifeless when I was in 7th grade! I figured it hadn’t gotten any more interesting for being another 30 years older and dustier. 😉
My husband LOVED Texas History. He encouraged me to write something that would include field trips and real story books and make-and-do projects to help kids “get their hands dirty with the dust of history.” So that’s what I did.
Other people saw the program, liked it, and asked if they could buy a copy. That’s kinda the short version, but here we are, celebrating 25 years of making history a learning adventure!
I can’t tell you how gratifying it is when parents come to find us at conferences to tell us how much they love our program or when children hug me and say, “This was the best year EVER!” :’)
I’ve made a little video that celebrates some of the things I love most about Texas and its history. The background music is a wonderful song–“West Texas”–by the amazing Panhandle composer, Doug West. I heard it for the first time a few months after I finished writing Discover Texas, so it seemed fitting that I should use it (since it’s been my personal “ear worm” for 25 years).
If you love it as much as we do, you can find it online wherever you stream your music from.
I hope you enjoy the video. If you do, you’re welcome to share!
