What do you do with all of the fascinating information that you have collected about your family history, as part of your genealogy research? You might have a family tree hanging on your wall. You might have some nicely made scrapbooks filled with old photos of your ancestors. If you are looking for something more interactive, that can be shared with children, why not make a genealogy coloring book?
Your children, or your grandchildren, may not understand why you find it so interesting to dig through old archives and records. It might be hard for younger children to grasp exactly who an ancestor is, how he or she is related to the family, or why you care so much about this person whom you have never met.
In order to have children understand the importance of genealogy, you need to make it less abstract for them. They need hands on activities that they can do that will help them understand the subject better. They need family stories presented in a way that is engaging, and that works well for the child’s cognitive level.
Educators at schools in Creswell, Oregon, have created a coloring book as a part of a “living history project”. The project focuses on the history of the town of Creswell, where the schools are located. The coloring book was created towards the end of a grant process that took nine years. The teachers also created lesson plans and small projects that went along with this history unit.
The high school art teacher, Jack Stepp, created the drawings for the coloring book. He used historical photographs of places in Creswell, and designed the images for the coloring book to look as much like those places as possible. The idea was that the coloring book would be a part of the history unit that could be accessible to children of all ages.
A coloring book is a great way to make history come alive for children! Genealogists could create their own family history coloring book fairly easily. You could illustrate a story from the life of an ancestor, (such as how that person came to America). You could draw images of the home your ancestors lived in, or the land that surrounded it.
You don’t necessarily need to be a fantastic artist to do it, either. A good way to start is to get the image that you want to work from onto your computer screen. Use a piece of computer paper to trace over the major lines in that image. Computer monitors work quite well as “light boards”, in my experience. Another option is to tape the photo to a window, put a piece of paper over it, and use the sun as your light source as you trace. Once you have the initial sketch, it becomes much easier to finish the drawing. Your kids, or grandkids, will have fun with this unique coloring book about their family.
Image by Paul Stein on Flickr