With the start of the new school year, curriculum may be on the minds of many homeschooling families. If genealogy is something that you would like to incorporate into your children’s homeschooling there are many ways that you can do it. Genealogy lends itself well to many different study areas including creative pursuits like scrapbooking, English language (writing family history), science, and geography as well as history.
Depending upon the ages and interests of your children, you can introduce them to genealogy in any number of ways. For example, you could create a pedigree chart, have each child choose a relative and interview them, teach them how to use different resources to find genealogy information, or even take a road trip to a place that has significance to your family.
If you know of ancestors that were alive during historically significant events like the Great Depression, World War II, the Civil War, the Vietnam War, the fight for Civil Rights in the South, or any other historical event which would place learning about those ancestors in the context of learning about the historical events that they lived through? Even of actual family stories from that time period have disappeared, children can learn enough about their ancestor to create a character around whom they can write a story that took place during the time that the ancestor lived.
Scrapbooking is a very appealing educational and creative medium for children of all ages. It is also a great medium for exploring genealogy. Gathering old photographs, newspaper clippings, letters, and other memorabilia is just part of the fun. If you live near a place with historical significance to your family, why not take a trip there. Many kids love learning about new places, and visiting a place that is important to the family is likely to be interesting to them.
What are your favorite ways to incorporate genealogy into your homeschool curriculum.
Photo by bandini on morguefile.com.