Making History Come Alive – get your ancestors involved!

If you had to tell any funny stories about your great grandfather, could you do it? Or do you know what your great-great-grandmother’s favorite color was? A lot of these things get lost to history because in the busyness of life, they don’t get recounted and passed down to the next generations. But it doesn’t have to be that way and I don’t think it necessarily should be that way. In homeschooling we have the unique opportunity to include our family’s stories into our curriculum! Here are some tips that we try to use in our family to keep the history alive!

1. Go to family reunions! That is the best way that I know of to have the younger kids mix with their grandparents, great aunts and uncles and cousins. After you go for a number of years, these more distant relatives become more familiar and you even develop a closer relationship with them! But best of all, this is where the stories from the past tend to come out and the kids can hear about the family members who have gone on before them.

2. TALK to the older relatives. Find out what it was like when they were kids. Ask about their parents and siblings. And just let them talk! You’ll be surprised where their stories may take you.

3. And of course tape these conversations or be sure to write them down as soon as you can so there is something to refer to in the future.

4. Study your family’s genealogy! I am very fortunate that someone did this on my mom’s side and my husband’s paternal side. My kids will have a great understanding of who they were and where they came from.

5. Make sure to document your own childhood and upbringing. I think blogging is a perfect way to do that and will certainly be a gift to your children and grandchildren, nieces and nephews when you are no longer here.

6. When you study history, be sure to personalize it. My husband’s family is half Irish. So when we study St. Patrick, or the potato famine or Ellis Island, I make sure to tell them where their ancestors were during that time to the best of my ability.

7. Visit cemeteries and grave yards, especially those of your relatives. There is always something that is very reverent and holy about visiting such sacred ground where a life was and where resurrections will be. Explain to your children not only about their own relatives, but how everyone in that cemetery had a life and a story. And as you check out the dates on the markers you can explain what was going on during that time period. It can be a very educational and moving experience.

8. Keep pictures of your ancestors up somewhere in your house. It’s a daily reminder of the folks who lived and loved before you and a wonderful way to make them more personal to your children.

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