Genealogy as a learning resource

[rivahmom]

I have always been into researching my family tree. Well recently my daughter has shown interest in the family tree so I decided to tie it into her history lessons. I’m debating about whether I should start with recent family and work backwards or if I should begin with my early American ancestors and work toward modern times. Has anyone ever tried this?

[macgeoghagen]

I think it would be easier to research it starting in the present and seeing how far back you can go. First, starting in the present you get to start with a definite known variable. second, you never know how far back you can get. you might be able to trace the lineage back beyond an early American ancestor.

[OutRider]

Start at the beginning, slowly moving backwards in time. Be careful not to overwhelm.

Also, be awareful with DAR, LDS, and Magna Charta geneologies. Lots of errs in these sources...

[momma_to_seven_chi]

You could also use this as a unit study to incorporate a lot of research skills, library skills, Language arts, writing, even geography skills by mapping where people came from, traveled to and settled. *
I would start back with the oldest ancestor I knew then come forward in order to use it as a total program, but others said to start now and go back. And I would use it as my total theme only adding a math book separately. *It would be so easy to work in Social Studies, geography, and even science into the theme. *You could cook foods that the people ate in their lives, create sewing projects on the theme for art or any other media you wanted. *Make a paper machet tree and hang apples with names of the ancestors from the tree, lable the roots and trunks with the patriarchs of the family, etc. It would be so much fun, and so educational in every genre and subject.

I always loved to teach using Unit studies. *But alas, my children are now grown and either married or in college. I'm excited just thinking about the theme and what you could do with it. It's a shame that children grow up so fast.

[rivahmom]

We started at the begining of Colonial America and worked forward. We spent alot of time on the colonies because so many ancestors colonized different areas of the country. We are now studying WW2 and she has her great-grandfather, a WW2 vet, to talk to about it.

[momma_to_seven_chi]

Awesome! *It sounds like so much fun! *I don't know if you have girls(?), but if you do the American Girls books have a great series of "Molly" that would go well with the WW2 theme as extra reading. It allows a child to hear more about the customs of the times. *The "Dear Diary" series from Scholastic also has some books set in that time period. I remember reading the one set at Pearl Harbor with my daughter.
It would be fun to try to create a mealplan for a few days using the same rations that they had in WW2. Or perhaps creating a "blackout" room like they used in the time period? I remember my boys spending an afternoon patching old intertubes when we studied WW2, so they could learn to be thrifty like they had to be back then. And remember the lead pennies? We went to a coin collection show to get one for each of them when we were studying WW2. You could even listen to music of the time period on Pandora.com. There is lots of great "swing" available for free listening there as well as the Boswell sisters, Sinatra, Bing, and the Andrews Sisters.

I'm sure you will have a wonderful time with the genealogy theme. I think our homeschooling years were the most fun of all child rearing for our family.

[jonvee]

I think where ever you start this is a great idea. DD did a genealogy project years ago for school and it really gave her a wonderful connection to history because she could relate more to historical events when she learned that great great whosit was in the Revolutionary War or g'pas cousin was a bomber in WWII. It became more personal even though she never met the relatives involved.

Right now she's doing a history project on Dolittles Raiders and it turns out one of g'mas friends was a Raider so she has some special stuff he gave her. Very Cool! And g'pa can talk endlessly about airplanes. A very favorite subject right behind hunting and the merits of Power Bait. :D

Making history come alive is more interesting to them than just learning dates and events.

BTW - we've watched some really good programs on the History Channel lately. There might me some resources there too.

Have fun.