Could this simple card game spark a learning revolution?
Devised by über-enthusiastic (and aptly-named) history teacher Harry Hastings, History Heroes is a card game that aims to educate, and excite, children about that great institution – the British monarchy. History, exciting? If your memories of school history lessons consist of being bored to tears by endless dates and facts, then that may sound like a contradiction in terms. But Hastings is a man keen to blast away the cobwebs and make a clean break with the past, so to speak. "I want to be the Jamie Oliver of the history world," he says. "I'm on a crusade."
Starting at 1066 (naturally), Hastings' game is fun, even addictive, to play. Players have to guess which card is in their opponent's hand, either by looking at the picture or solving clues of different difficulties – there's green for easy, orange for middling and red for the real smarty pants. Admittedly, it's a little more stretching than Top Trumps, but it taps into that same avaricious instinct to win as many cards off your opponent as possible. Once children start playing, they will soon start to make links between the different monarchs – a clue on one card might help them to uncover the identity of a monarch on another card a little later in the game. So even those with minimal knowledge will quickly start to improve. It's a good work-out for the memory, too...
And with the Royal Wedding coming up, now's the perfect time to crib up on all things royal. After all, when Miss Middleton processes down the aisle it will be history in the making.
History Heroes is available for £7.99.
Posted: 18/04/2011 at 12:17
