12 Ideas to Incorporate Family History Into Your ENGLISH Curriculum
by Shenley Puterbaugh
WRITING
1. Create a brochure - Creating a brochure for a place an ancestor lived can help your child work on writing skills as well as learn about their homelands!
2. Write a poem about an ancestor - Learn as much as you can about them then write a poem!
3. Turn an ancestor’s story into a skit - Writing the script for a skit will help children and youth imagine being their ancestor and what they were thinking, feeling or doing during the event that is now a family story. Perform the skit or use dolls or legos to act it out!
4. Write in a journal - Recording day to day events, thoughts and feelings, will help children to remember their own life. Find a great list of journal prompts here (https://dailymom.com/nurture/journal-prompts-for-kids-stuck-at-home/)
5. Write short stories from the lives of parents, grandparents and ancestors - Discover the meaningful or memorable stories that have been passed down in your family. To find stories, you can 1. Ask family members what they remember about their family members or what stories they have heard about their ancestors, 2. Ask around to see who has inherited old family journals, 3. Do research on a website such as familysearch.org or ancestry.com to find stories that others have contributed about your family members, or 4. Do research by finding old documents (such as obituaries, census’, and birth, death, or military records) and piece together stories. Children can use a story board to put the story in order and add illustrations.
6. Record your memories - Start by making lists such as: meaningful songs, neighborhood friends, best friends, milestones, favorites, places lived and vacations. Another exercise is to draw maps of your childhood neighborhood or house. Lists and maps will trigger a flood of memories. Pick one memory and write as much as you remember about it. Then pick another and another. Your memories do not need to be written chronologically; they can be individual stories in any order. The important thing is that they are recorded for yourself and your posterity.
7. Create a blog - As you learn information and stories about your ancestors, share what you learn with your extended family! A blog is a great way to do this because it can be updated as you learn more and no matter where your family members live, they can get online and learn the stories you are finding about their ancestors!
8. Write about family heirlooms - Find the family heirlooms that are in your home by doing this Family Heirloom Scavenger Hunt from American Ancestors. If you can’t find any heirlooms, ask older family members what heirlooms they have and ask them to send you pictures of them. Record the story behind the heirlooms you find and why it is special or important.
9. Write an essay - There are positive and negative lessons you can learn from stories of your ancestors. Write about the stories, the lessons you learn and how learning it has impacted you.
READING
10. Find and read books - Find books that are about events your ancestors experienced and times and places they lived. As you read them you will learn what life may have been like for them!
11. Create your own family history library - Once you find books, buy them and create your own library of family history books for your family to have access to and enjoy!
12. Read children’s books that inspire family history - Click here to find the booklist!