Heroes and Heroines from history. Who would you want your 5yo to learn about?

[PavlovtheCat]

We can chose anyone we like. It does not have to be from British history really but I would like to try to keep it contained las locally as possible so it is relevant. So, Devon ideally, but not limited to Devon or UK. And ideally relatively new history, so we can relate it to a time frame she might grasp, like in her granny's lifetime.

I am struggling to come up with something .

DH said John Lennon.

Any more?!

Agatha Christie - she was from Devon wasn't she? plus she set one or two of her books there

Rosa Parkes

You don't need the entire history of the civil rights struggle, just that someone thought the rules were wrong and tried to change them.

Or what about a member of a lifeboat crew? There are numerous accounts of heroism, and IMHO the fact these people are prepared to volunteer to do something dangerous makes them all heroes.

Also lots of info available and in Devon you can't be too far from the sea so depending how in depth (no pun intended) you want the research you could do a visit.

Please don't do the The queen mother! What sort of a heroine was she to inspire women of the future???

Rosa Parkes
The Pankhursts
Florence Nightingale

My DD6 is also doing Grace Darling. To my shame I hadn't heard of her but she seems really enthusiastic. Away to Wiki myself ...

Have a look at horrible histories :)

My 4yo DD loves boudicca and the suffragettes, and has a fascination with Henry VIII - would any of them be good? Do you have anything Roman near you?

Did any of the cool postwar Labour politicians come from near you?

What are the stories people tell round there? Up here there is a folk tale about a huge worm that wrapped itself round a hill, then a knight killed it using cunning. Is there something like that? (Not historical though, tbh)

Wayne Sleep was born in Devon. So was Peter Cook.

Cool post war politicians,WordsAreNoUse?

Michael Foot was born in Devon.

words that'll be the Lambton worm then?

Insancerre - however did you guess? Because worms wrapping round hills are such a logical thing, I would have thought that loads of towns would have them

:)

Oooh, do Peter Cook! If you are doing him, keep an eye on Mastermind over the next few weeks for a dashing young man having him as his specialist subject. Don't look in the audience though, his wife didn't realise they had changed the lighting so that you can actually see the audience...

I have just totally blown my cover to anyone who knows me by giving my location and practically my name, and I only name changed this afternoon.

My DH went to the same school as Peter Cook (but later). It sometimes seems that it's the only thing about the school he's proud of.

Ok we did Helen Keller. She was one cool person! I know she was not local but she is a pretty inspirational role model as she learnt to overcome major obstacles from a very very young age.

Dd is impressed.

I am however going to take a lot of the suggestions on this thread and continue to help her learn about some of them even after this topic is finished at school.

Some great ideas, thanks everyone.

I mig teach her about agatha Christine soon, she wrote some of her stories on burgh island, and one of her books was set there. We go there a lot for the magnificent beach, bigbury on sea so that would be very topical.

Hmm, wouldn't want to diss anyone's suggestions, but am and at some of the suggestions on here. I don't find anything remotely heroic about some of them.

Helen Keller sounds like she was a good choice. :)

Raoul Wallenberg he was a swedish architect and was sent by the King of Sweden to help alleviate the plight of Jewish people in Hungary during the war. He overstepped his brief and saved tens of thousands of Jews. He gave out swedish passports like confetti. He stopped trains going to concentration camps and got people off. The Nazis tried to murder him on more than one occassion. When the Russians beseiged the city he went out under a white flag to ensure the safety of his people and was never seen again. The Russians said he died in the Lubyanka prison in 1947 but people who left russia from various gulags and prisons used to talk about a swedish prisoner right up till the 1980's.

He was a true hero and is largely forgotten now. What happened to him was a tragedy and he should never be forgottenb

Some people have a pretty odd definition of "hero or heroine"!

we do this at school and have some really interesting choices.

Olaudah Equaiano (escaped slave & anti-slavery campaigner)
Elsie Inglis (early doctor and fascinating WW1 record)
Noor Inayat Khan (ww2 spy)

My pupils love learning about children who have done amazing things - my all time favourite lesson to teach is about the Little Rock Nine - the black pupils who integrated the prestigious all-white high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, with armed guards etc.

Mine are just interested in the blood, guts and gore of history, not sure who they would choose for heros, have just asked my 2yr old who can't sleep, says his favourites is Pachacuti, 4yr old likes aztecs + charles II and 6yr old likes william wallace. Not all heros, but a catchy song goes a long way as publicity for children.

I think that time and place has less meaning for children, as dh has found our when dd (yr R) has asked which stone age era he was born in and another time how old he was in the Stuart era! For them I think story is more important than not being too long ago, or too local, unless you can walk past the place and say 'there it is'.

Charles Dickens was born in Plymouth.

Sorry, it was Portsmouth.