I’ve always had a fascination with the possibility of time travel.
I read a lot about black holes and strange phenomena. Maybe it was a safety net to attempt to learn about the unknown and unexplainable when I felt my life was falling apart. I found refuge in books. I escaped into worlds that seemed safer than my own.
As a kid, I really thought I’d have more Bermuda Triangle issues than I’ve had in my lifetime. I even panicked a bit as I flew along the edge when I was 14 on a trip to Puerto Rico.
As an adult and parent to four children, I am coming to terms with my fascination with myth, legend, unexplained phenomena, and even new and experimental science. I am remembering my hobbies and loves of my childhood and youth and I feel safe to impart the appropriate parts on to my kids.
We watch a lot of movies and shows. I love having film night with pizza each week. We read lots of books in our homeschool. There is no such thing as twaddle. Everything has its place. I often include fun books in our morning read alouds to break up the seriousness and often tragedy of history.
I refuse to just leave it alone. We discuss and analyze and compare and contrast what we read and watch. I love cinema history.
Many of these shows and books flashback to 1989 or thereabouts – and I remember suddenly how I felt, what I experienced, how I lost so many parts of myself in the rush to grow up, trying desperately to live up to expectations and make money, to become successful and stifle who I am.
I often fantasize to the point of anxiety what I could say to myself if I could travel back to make corrections.
We laugh at the potential paradox in shows and books. We wonder how things would be different if history were changed.
Time Travel Unit Study
My kids haven’t seen or read all these in the list. Use discretion and preview for content.
Resources
- Quantum Leap
- Warehouse 13
- Back to the Future trilogy
- Star Trek VIII: First Contact, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Star Trek (2009)
- Doctor Who
- A Wrinkle in Time Quintet by Madeleine L’Engle
- Arrival
- Frequency movie and the show Frequency
- 12 Monkeys
- 2001: Space Odyssey
- Planet of the Apes
- Interstellar
- Terminator series
- Looper
- Somewhere in Time
- Kate & Leopold
- The Lake House
- About Time
- The Time Traveler’s Wife movie and the book by Audrey Niffenegger
- Peggy Sue Got Married
- The Butterfly Effect
- Flight of the Navigator
- Time Bandits
- Click
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure
- Austin Powers
- Donnie Darko
- Groundhog Day
- Army of Darkness
- Men in Black 3
- X-Men: Days of Future Past
- Doctor Strange
- Avengers: Endgame
- Deadpool 2
- The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
- All You Zombies by Robert Heinlein or the movie Predestination
- The Time Machine by H.G. Wells and The Time Machine Teacher Guide and movie
- A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain
- Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving
- Kindred by Octavia Butler
- 11.22.63 by Stephen King
- Night Watch by Terry Pratchett
- A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury
- Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
- The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov
- Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams
- Sphere by Michael Crichton
- Four Past Midnight: “The Langoliers” by Stephen King
- The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
- Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer
- Outlander series and show by Diana Gabaldon
- A Brief History Of Time: From Big Bang To Black Holes by Stephen Hawking
- PBS Genius with Stephen Hawking
- Scholastic Lesson
- Space.com
- The History of Time Travel
I don’t think time travel is possible, but it is fun to think about.
I love time travel stories, too! A Wrinkle in Time is a particular favorite, which my 6-year-old daughter really appreciated, but I don’t like the other books in the series as much as that one.
I assume time travel is not literally possible, but thinking about it is a great way to build empathy for people in other historical periods–including understanding how your loved ones of different ages have been affected by their experiences–and to think about the effects of our own choices.
Some other items for your list:
Chrononauts card game from Looney Labs (a great project is to make your own timeline, with Linchpins and Ripplepoints, either for your whole life or for a short period)
The Green Futures of Tycho by William Sleator (YA novel)
Parsley Sage, Rosemary & Time by Jane Louise Curry (children’s novel)
Summer Magic by Ruth Chew (children’s novel)
A picture book I really like that depicts “time travel” via picturing each ancestor’s life when she was your age is The Sky Was Blue by Charlotte Zolotow.
I’ll also mention The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula LeGuin, in which history is altered not by time travel but by dreams that change history.
ah, I just read The Lathe of Heaven! Thanks for the recommendations.
My kids would have loved this!
Great list, Jennifer! I was a big fan of Quantum Leap when it aired. I still remember the Lee Harvey Oswald/JFK Assassination episode. I enjoyed Peggy Sue Got Married. And The Butterfly Effect is a great movie! Click is hilarious. And of course, the Back to the Future franchise is a classic.
I often think about going back in time and having a chance to do things over. However, I would miss out on learning a lesson from my mistakes. Thanks for sharing this on Traffic Jam Weekend.