Kids and Genealogy
– or –
How to
Plant a Love of Family History in Your Children’s Hearts.
And he shall turn the heart of the
fathers to the children
and the heart of the children to
their fathers…
Malachi 4:6
Abstract:
In today’s media-driven society, children are bombarded with messages of
dubious quality about who they are and what their expectations of life should
be. It is more important than ever that families discover opportunities to
share their own culture, history, and stories with their children.
Participation together in a variety of family history activities provides
abundant opportunities to transmit values and meaning across generations. A
variety of genealogy activities are presented, organized into age-appropriate
categories. Source citations are included.
Purpose:
To encourage class members to involve their children in family history in
appropriate ways by discovering and applying creative ideas.
A) “Who R U” – the
caterpillar inquired of Alice
1) We know ourselves by the stories we tell.
2) Gerbner’s three types of stories:
a. Stories of Relationships
b. Stories of Fact
c. Stories of Value and Choices
3) Media fills our children’s minds with many stories
– what stories are you telling your
children?
B) Participating in
family history activities provides opportunities at every age to share stories
of meaning and value. Understanding children’s developmental needs helps us
choose effective ways of sharing these stories. (See Chart 1)
1) Stories of Relationships
a. Babies
b. Young Children
2) Stories of Facts
a. 7- to 10-year-olds
b. 11- to 13-year-olds
3) Stories of Value and Choices
a. 14- to 17-year-olds
C) Activity Ideas
(arranged as presented in Chart 1)
D) Resources
1) Gerbner’s essay
2) “Listening To the Past” Brownie Try-it
3) “Heritages” Cub Scout Belt Loop
4) “My Heritage” Junior & Cadette Interest
Project
5) “Women’s Stories” Junior & Cadette Interest
Project
6) “Genealogy” Merit Badge
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Involving Children in Family History - A Developmental
Perspective |
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Children 0-3 |
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Children 4-6 |
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Children 7-10 |
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Children 11-13 |
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Children 14-17 |
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The 0-3 year old is
mainly focused on self. Developing trusting relationships with family
members. Gathers knowledge through sight, sound, touch, smell and taste. |
Active and
exuberant, the 4 to 6 year old is inquisitive about his or her world and how
it works. Interests still center around home and family. Pleased to be able
to recognize numbers and letters. Enjoys hands-on activities. |
Still active and
sometimes restless, the 7 to 10 year old is also developing an increased
attention span for subjects of interest. Wants to find out facts, and may
enjoy keeping records and journals. Interested in heroes. May enjoy
collecting, and learning to use 'grown-up' tools. Likes to show what he or
she has learned. |
Rapidly growing and
sometimes silly, the 11-13 year old is capable of more abstract thinking, and
is able develop his or her own conclusions. Likes to be challenged, and is
beginning to set goals. Values what
others think, especially peers. |
Independence,
autonomy, and experimentation are key activities of the 14 to 17 year old.
Able to collect, organize, and interpret information. Interested in moral
concepts and value systems, and can fervently debate both sides of an issue.
Able to set goals, is also interested
in giving useful service to others; at the same time, likes to have fun!. |
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Stories
of Relationships |
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Stories of Factual Explanation |
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Stories of Value and Choice |
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The Story of Me |
Visit the Cemetery |
A Family Flag |
Personal Timeline |
Photograph Project |
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Picture Books |
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Shutterbug |
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A Family Talk Show |
Personal Biography |
Letter-writing |
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Scrapbooks |
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The Tigger Movie - Tigger's Family Tree |
"Listening to the Past" Brownie Try-it |
Video Biography |
Source notes |
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A family Quilt |
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Vacations in sites from your Family History |
"Heritages" Cub Scout Belt Loop |
"My Heritage" Junior & Cadette Interest Project |
Help plan a Family Reunion |
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Make a Movie |
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Family Treasures - Show and Tell |
The Third Grader's 1850 Census" |
"Women's Stories" Junior & Cadette Interest
Project |
I'm my own grandpa" party |
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Read a Book |
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Dress-up |
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Gravestone Rubbings |
"Genealogy" Merit Badge |
Write a song |
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Keep a Journal |
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Family Tree Mobiles |
Transcribe the Stones |
Rites of Passage |
Genealogy Service Project |
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Family Tree Game |
Draw a Map |
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Alternate Spellings? |
Ancestors lesson plans |
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Map Hunting |
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Do a Little Cleanup |
Map Timeline |
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Careers |
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Genealogical Ornaments |
Do the Math |
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Using Microfilm & Microfiche |
Dancing like They Used to Do |
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Storytelling night |
Stories to Learn From |
Database entry |
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Video History |
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A Calendar for Yesterdays" |
Learn a craft |
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Memorial Day - Veterans Day remembrances |
Skeletons in the Closet |
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Grandpa's Favorite Foods |
Build a diorama |
Spiritual Activities |
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Holiday Traditions |
Life of Yesteryear |
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Family Traditions |
Time Capsule |
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3-generation Picture Tree |
Do Your Homework |
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Draw a Picture |
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Chart compiled by Elizabeth Hervey Osborn - 2001; Developmental
attributes adapted from Teaching - No Greater Call, LDS 1999 |
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Activity Ideas
Children 0-3
The Story of Me – Young children like to know they are an important
part of the family. Assemble pictures of the family before the baby, while they
were waiting for the baby, and when the baby joined the family. As you look at
the pictures, tell your child stories of how excited you were to welcome
him/her into your home.
Picture Books – The flip albums that come with processed photos are perfect for
this. Make copies of photos of baby and family, and slip them in the sleeves.
Let the child turn the pages as you talk about who is in the pictures.
Scrapbooks – Keep a record of baby’s milestones, activites. It doesn’t have to
be elaborate; even a calendar with comments can be a precious keepsake.
A Family Quilt – Babies love special blankies. The quilt can be made of fabrics
from family members’ clothing, or with meaningful appliqués or embroidery, or
with specially printed scanned photographs. Share with baby that the blankie is
special because he/she is wrapped in the family’s love.
Make a Movie – Record a day in the life of baby. Be sure to watch it again and
again; don’t let it just sit and gather dust.
Read a Book – Among many books about families and babies, some are particularly
appropriate here. You might want to check out Me & You: A
Mother-Daughter Album, by Lisa Thiesing (Hyperion, 1998), and make your own
Parent-Child album. For adopted children, try Tell Me Again About the Night
I Was Born by Jamie Lee Curtis (Harper-Collins, 1998).
Keep a Journal – Begin now to write down little things about your child on a regular
basis. As he or she gets older, encourage your child to write in the journal.[1]
Children 4-6
Take
Them With You to the Cemetery – Enjoy a picnic. Give your child a little card
with a surname you are looking for in block letters, and allow him/her to look
for a matching name on the headstones.[2]
Shutterbug – At a family
reunion, visiting relatives, or on a family vacation, give your child an
inexpensive disposable camera. Invite him/her to take pictures of whatever
seems ‘important’. After the photos are developed, help your child make a
simple book using the pictures.
The
Tigger Movie Ò - In this
movie, Tigger dreams of the folks in his family tree. After watching the movie
with your child, you could talk about the people in your family tree, and plan
a family tree party.
Family History Vacation - Suitable
for children of many ages, invite your child to help plan a visit to a ‘place’
in history: a farm, a beach, a historical site, a battle field. Look for
opportunities to visit a Living History Museum for the area and time of your
ancestors (some examples are Colonial Williamsburg, VA, 1600-1700’s; Historic
Nauvoo, IL,1840’s; Conner Prairie Farms, IN, 1800-1850, Pioneer Village,
Minden, NE, 1860-1900’s; etc.) Don’t
forget to make your own memories… be sure to schedule time just for fun, too.
Family Treasures Show and Tell – For family night, bring out one or two heirlooms…
or ordinary objects… that belonged to an ancestor. Tell what it is and how it
is used, and if possible let the children touch it and use it.
Dress –up
– Young children learn by pretending. Provide period clothing, and let them
pretend to be “Grandpa Ford, the cowboy”, etc.
Family Tree Mobiles - Color
copy some photographs of ancestors, and allow your child to cut out the
pictures. Using a glue-stick, attach the pictures to cardboard shapes. Punch
holes in the shapes, string them to drinking straws, and hang in a prominent
place.
Family Tree Game – Gather
several photographs of family members and ancestors. Arrange them in a family
tree. Prepare “Who-am-I” question cards for each individual. For example, the
card for myself might read: “She was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. She had 4
brothers and 2 sisters. She has light brown hair and blue eyes. She learned to
play the piano. She graduated from BYU in 1987. She married Stephen Osborn.”
Players guess which ancestor is described.
Map Hunting – On a large map, help your child find places where your ancestors
lived. You might want to use stickers to mark the locations[3].
One family keeps a ‘Family History Globe’ in the living room, which they have
decorated with information about their ancestors.[4]
Genealogical Christmas Ornaments – In the tradition of Croatia, ancestors are
remembered in the Christmas celebration with special heart-shaped ornaments.
Children can fashion small heart shapes out of red clay, on which the name of a
deceased ancestor is written. Attach a little loop of ribbon for placing on the
Christmas tree. A similar tradition is practiced in my sister-in-law’s family:
each year small school photographs of each of the children are attached to
milk-caps, and strung on yarn. These are kept from year to year as a memento of
the children’s growth.
Storytelling Night – “When I was a child, I enjoyed spending the
night at the home of my aunt and grandmother. We would convene after dinner in
the living room, dim the lights, and I would say, "Tell me about when you
were little girl." The stories I heard helped me get to know my aunt and
grandmother as real people, and details helped bring history to life for me.
A great project for Family History Month is a family storytelling night. Declare a night each week throughout the month, and set aside an hour when no television, telephone or other interruptions are allowed. Gather in a comfortable area of your home, and encourage the sharing of stories about yourself, your parents, your grandparents, and other ancestors. Try to couple the stories with times, places, and historical events to help bring history alive[5].”
A Calendar for Yesterdays – Collect special days (birthdays, anniversaries) of ancestors, and log them on a calendar. On those special days, do something special to remember that person.[6]
Grandpa’s Favorite Foods – Find out what food your ancestors would have eaten. Try some with your family. Make a cookbook of family recipes, and illustrate it with photographs of your family eating the food, and pictures drawn by children. Make copies of the book and give them for gifts at holiday time.
Holiday Traditions – Choose to use holiday traditions to strengthen your family and sense of heritage. In my family, we make “Grandma Nellie’s Cinnamon Rolls” at Christmas, and take the finished products to friends as we go a’caroling. My father-in-law teaches his grandchildren how to bake “Popatiza”, a Croatian Strudel, for Christmas and Easter. Take a lesson from Kwanzaa, a holiday which developed specifically for the purpose of passing on family values and heritage. Be sure to photograph your family celebration, and compare the photos with pictures of family celebrating in the past.
Family Traditions – These are those things that don’t require any special holiday, but you do them anyway, like Family Service Projects, Pancakes for Sunday Supper, or using a special dinner plate to celebrate a family member’s important achievements. Again, take pictures, record and tell the stories of how the tradition came to be, and what it means.
3-Generation Picture Tree - Supplies: A box of Crayons, A pencil, Large
sheet of paper Directions: Draw a large tree. Then on the tree itself add your
name, then on two of the branches above your name write your parents names,
then above them on two other branches add your grandparents names and keep
going as far back as you can go. Then once you have all the names written on
your tree take the crayons and color your tree.[7]
Draw a Picture - Draw pictures of ancestors. Prop up an old photograph where it can
be seen, and get out the paper and the crayons.[8]
Children 7-10
A Family Flag – In a family meeting, design a family flag. You might want to look at
other flags, and talk about what they symbolize. Children can suggest ideas for
what should go on the family flag. Then using art or computer-assistance, put
the ideas on fabric. Fly your flag wherever your family is.
A Family Talk Show – Get out the video camera for this one. Have your
child pick a topic, such as birthday parties, holiday celebrations, favorite
books or (ugh!) chores. Invite a panel of specialists (family members of all
ages) to be interviewed on the show.
Brownie Projects – Brownie Girl Scouts do “Try-it” activities. One
is called “Listening to the Past”. See the attached sheet.
Cub Scout Projects – Cub Scouts earn sports and academic “Belt Loops”
and “Activity Pins”. One Academic area is “Heritages”. See the attached sheet.
The Third Grader’s 1850 Census – Children
this age are just ready to help load and look at microdocuments under adult
supervision.[9] They
especially like looking for family names, and can even dictate some information
for an adult to transcribe. Michael John Neill describes his daughter’s
experience with the 1850 census in his December 12, 2000 article at
ancestry.com.[10]
More Fun at the Cemetery - The next 5
ideas are also quoted from Michael John Neill’s essay Kids at the Cemetery.[11]
Transcribe the Stones – “Children who have just learned to write love to
show their parents how well they can do it and frequently love to copy letters
from books, magazines, etc. While at the cemetery, give them a pad and pencil
and have them follow you, copying the stones as best they can. You’ll want to
have your own notes as well, but nothing makes a child feel “big” like doing
what Mom or Dad is doing.”
Gravestone Rubbings – “While you probably will want to do rubbings of
your ancestral stones yourself, children can make rubbings of newer stones,
perhaps ones that have engraved images. They can even spend time looking for an
appropriate image to rub. Make certain the stone is steady and not in danger of
toppling over. Younger children will have an easier time with newer stones.
Crayons and heavy paper should be sufficient for this project, although
children could experiment with crayons, charcoal, chalk, pencil, etc., Make it
clear that they should not mark on the stone as part of this project or harm
the stone while making their rubbing.”
Draw a Map – “Creating maps utilizes several of the children’s skills, and an
extra map might come in handy later. Your child’s map probably won’t be the
same quality as your own, but it’s a good time activity.”
Do a little Clean up - “It might
take a little convincing, but junior might be convinced to pull the weeds
around great-great-grandpa’s tombstone. I’ve even been known to take a damp
cloth and wipe off the bird droppings from my grandparents’ stone. Of course,
this has a higher ‘gross-out’ factor,’ which may or may not serve to encourage
your child.”
Do the Math – “Have your child determine the ages of various individuals buried in
the cemetery. For children whose math skills are really good (perhaps better
than their parents or grandparents), calculation of birth dates from death and
ages may be possible, or at least a way to occupy time until Mom or Dad
finishes looking for stones.”
Stories to Learn From – Tell stories of how your ancestors faced
difficulties similar to ones your children faced. What did grandpa do when he
had to move? How did great-grandma feel when her mother died? What did dad do
when a bigger kid bullied him?
Learn a Craft – Find out how something was
made or done ‘back when’, and help your child learn to do it, too. Weaving,
whittling, soap-making, knitting, quilting, even toy-making are all hands-on
activities children might enjoy. Local opportunities include the Longmont
Museum’s Pioneers & Settlers summer day-camp classes about pioneer times,
including crafts such as candlemaking, blacksmithing, and gold-panning, along
with period refrigeration, schooling, and clothing.
Build a Diorama – Use toys (Legos or Lincoln Logs) or craft items
to build a miniature of some aspect of an ancestor’s life, such as a model
farm, a fort, a home, etc. Did your ancestors settle along a railroad? Build a
model railroad with their farm alongside.
Life of Yesteryear – What games did your ancestors play? How did they
get their food? How were things then different from now? Children this age will
enjoy the If You Lived… series of
books from Scholastic, available in paperback. Titles include If You Lived 100 Years Ago, If You Lived
With the Sioux Indians, If You Traveled West in a Covered Wagon, If You Lived
in Colonial Times, etc. Also popular with children this age are Laura
Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books,
and the American Girl series.
Time Capsule – In a family meeting,
talk about what it might be like in the future. Have children think of some
things that they think kids of the future might find interesting. Gather some
of these items, and put them in a ‘time capsule’. Put the time capsule in a
safe place (don’t forget where!) and set a date sometime in the future to open
it again.
Do Your Homework – “Read about the times that your ancestors lived
in and connect your ancestors with stories from history. A great time for this
might be while you are helping them with their history homework. Tell them
about your relatives that may have been involved in various wars, large
migration movements, or other events in history. "This is your
great-grandmother" may not get their attention, but, "This is your
great-grandmother who crossed the United States in a covered wagon" just
might.”[12]
Children 11-13
Personal Timeline – Using a large sheet of
posterboard, draw a line across it long-ways. Beginning at the left and writing
below the line, write down your birthdate, and continue to the right with
significant dates in your life (broke leg, got a pet, went to school, learned
to ride bike, got scout rank, moved to a new house, etc). Above the line, and
using an almanac or other reference, write down major events in history
(Presidential elections, weather disasters, wars, popular movies or music,
etc.)
Personal Biography – Tell the story of your life. You can use the
Timeline to help you organize it. Add pictures. Put it in a binder, and add to it
as time passes. The Biography Maker, a useful tool for writing
biographies, can be found at http://www.bham.wednet.edu/bio/biomak2.htm.
Video Biography – With permission, video tape an interview with an
older relative. Interview others who knew him/her. Video tape photographs of
that person, and add music. Make a copy to share with family.
Girl Scout Activities – My Heritage
Girl Scout Activities – Women’s Stories
Boy Scout Activities – Genealogy Merit Badge
Rites of Passage – Many heritages have special rites of passage that
help mark a young person’s transition from childhood to adult. Bar/Bat
Mitzvahs, Quinceaneras, Priesthood Ordinations, etc., all provide opportunities
to share stories of meaning and values and to participate in rich tradition.
Take pictures, and record events. Compare them to how members of your family in
the past marked growing up.
Alternate Spellings – Make a game of thinking of as many
possibilities for how an ancestor’s name might be spelled. Teach how Soundex
and Miracode indexes work, and keep a list of possible spellings.
Map Timeline – Mount a large US or World Map on cardboard. Using different color
pins for each generation, map out where ancestors were born. Label the pins
with dates, and connect them with yarn to show generations and relationships.
Compare what you see with what you’ve learned in history classes… can you guess
why these ancestors moved/didn’t move? Alternative… map out where your
ancestors are by census years.
Using Microfilm and Microfiche – Children this age are ready to do some
independent research. Visit a Family History Center or genealogy library, and
take a tour. Learn to use the equipment, and how to order film.
Database Entry – Children this age are ready to begin using genealogy software.
Start a file for your child, and encourage him/her to enter data as it is
found.
Memorial Day/Veteran’s Day – Were any of your ancestors soldiers or sailors?
Remember them on these special days. In our family, we make a point light a
candle and fly the flag on Veterans day, in honor of Daddy (a submariner during
the Cold War), Aunt Jeannie (who was an Army nurse in Vietnam, and died as a
result of injuries she received there), Great-great-uncle Willie, who died in
World War II, and Great-great-great-great-grandpa John Stoner, who died in the
Civil War.
Spiritual Activities – In many religious traditions, children this age
are allowed to participate in special rituals on behalf of ancestors. Lighting
a candle, baptisms at the temple, and ancestor celebrations are only three such
traditions from various religions. Encourage your child to participate in the
tradition of your faith.
Children 14 – 17
Photograph Project – Piles of Photos sitting around your house? Enlist
a child this age to help sort and label them.
Letter Writing – Often a part of high-school English assignments, encourage your
child to write a letter to a relative asking about family history.
Source Notes – Another gem from English class, show your child how sources should
properly be cited (and if he/she is interested, go through your own database
and enlist your child’s help in bringing your citations up to speed!)
Help Plan a Family Reunion – Enlist the young folk, get their ideas, and put
them in charge of an activity of their choice.
I’m My Own Grandpa Party – For a party or youth activity, invite guests to
come as an ancestor from a certain time period. Have everyone bring a story or
song to share. Play music from that time, and serve treats of the period.[13]
Write a Song – If a young person in your family is musically talented, invite
him/her to write a family song. Tell the story of the family in rap, country,
ballad, whatever![14]
Genealogy Service Project – There are many genealogy projects waiting to be
done – census transcriptions, book indexes, photography and electronic
scanning, cemetery transcriptions, preservation and clean-up. And many youth
organizations require a ‘graduating’ projects (Eagle Project, Gold Project,
Laurel Project, etc.). Encourage your son/daughter to consider a genealogy
project to fulfill service requirements.
Ancestors Lesson
Plans – The PBS series Ancestors offers as a companion to its
television program a set of classroom lesson plans designed to help
high-schoolers learn how to ‘do’ genealogy, and how history can come alive in
the classroom through genealogy. These activities also teach basic research
skills, a useful asset outside of Family History. Check out
http://www.pbs.org/kbyu/ancestors/teachersguide/
Careers – Your young person might want to make a list of the careers his/her
ancestors pursued. How were those careers useful? Which careers were highly
valued? Perhaps there might be some talent passed on, that would make one of
these careers (or its modern equivalent!) interesting to him/her.
Dancing Like they Used to – Research popular music and dance from an
ancestor’s time period. Have a party and dance the way they did back then.
Skeletons in the Closet – Every family has them. At this age, it’s
important to talk about decision-making, and learning from the experiences of
our ancestors.
The Significance of Story
The following is an excerpt
from Fred Rogers and the Significance of
Story, by George Gerbner, a leading scholar of TV program content, written
for the 40th anniversary of Mister Rogers
Neighborhood. The article appeared in Mister
Rogers' Neighborhood: Children, Television and Fred Rogers, a collection of
diverse essays published by the University of Pittsburgh Press. For the full
text of the article, please see http://www.current.org/pb/pb609g.html.
If
I ask you what is the unique or the most distinctive aspect of human life or
the human species, what would you say? There have been many answers to that
question. Homo sapiens is the
tool-making animal, the social animal, the language using, communicating animal.
All are true, but I don't think any of those is the most distinctive characteristic of our species. Other creatures
do some of each of those things. But there is one thing that no other species
does: tell stories.
Our
ability to tell stories is important not only because we live by storytelling,
but also because we erect a world that is constructed from the stories we hear
and tell. Most of our reactions are not
in response to the immediate physical environment, which is what most species
do most of the time. We are not on this planet just to look at our immediate
environment or to experience reality. We are here in a very general but very
real way to exchange stories. We are here to contribute to the reality (or
should we say, that fantasy we call reality). Each of our stories contributes
to a larger context, a larger environment, a larger world in which we
live--most of which we have acquired not through direct experience but through
stories we hear and through stories we tell. To each story we adjust our
everyday experience and even ourselves.
So
it is the stories that animate the human imagination--the stories about how
things work, what they are, and what to do about them--that provide the most
distinctive and characteristic aspect of human life. And as Fred Rogers wisely
notes, each one of us is capable of contributing; each individual viewer
creates his or her own exciting, vital story.
Three kinds of stories: what, why and which
In
theory, there are three kinds of stories. In reality, they are all mixed up;
there are few pure stories, but for the sake of analysis, the pure types can be
reduced to three categories.
The
first kind of story illuminates one of the most important aspects of human
life: invisible relationships. It reveals how we relate to each other--the
hidden dynamics of the network of relationships in which we live. By such
revelations, these stories tell the truth about how things really work, because
how things really work is not
apparent, is not visible. It is something behind the scenes, and the only way
to make it apparent is to make us see something that we otherwise cannot see.
The way to do that is fiction and drama, or as Fred Rogers calls it,
make-believe. "Make-believe" is the construction of a story that allows
us to see what is usually covert. It depends on characters and actions that we
invent in order to tell the truth about how things really work or might work or
should work or should not work. (When Lady Elaine challenges a pronouncement of
King Friday, it is really an inquisitive child insisting one more time,
"But why, Mom?") These
kinds of stories--what we usually call fiction, drama and fairy tales--are
often dismissed as unreal or fantasy when they are in fact the unique and
indispensable ways of illuminating not that which is but that which shows how things work, or what is behind the
scenes.
The
second kind of story is that of factual explanation and explication. Histories,
documentaries, the news of today--these are all examples of the second brand of
story. By themselves, these stories are meaningless. A news story--a story of
fact--acquires significance only as it is fitted into a framework that is
erected by the first kind of story of how life really works behind the scenes
where we can't see. Once we understand that--and we all acquire some
understanding of it as we grow up in a culture--then we can use the facts, then
we can fit in the facts to confirm the fantasy we call reality and say,
"Yes, that is real." If it doesn't fit, we discard it, or we say it is
biased or false or invalid.
The
third story is a story of value and choice. This type of story asks,
"Well, if this is how things work and this is how things are, then what
are we going to do about them?" These are the sermons, the
instructions--today, most of them are commercials--that present a little
vignette about a style of life that says, "This is how things work, this
is how things are, and this is a desirable outcome for us to attain (or an
undesirable thing that you want to avoid), and therefore you should choose this
particular direction, product or service." It is an enormously important
cultivation and reinforcement of a framework of life, of what is desirable, of
what are the values and choices of what to select, and how to select from them.
Mister Rogers' reiterative theme of
recognizing the worth of the individual echoes and re-echoes in the lives of
the children who watch.
These
three kinds of stories have always been interwoven, and together they provide
the fabric and context of that we call the culture. (I am defining
"culture" here as a system of stories that regulates human
relationships, into which we are born and which we absorb and acquire as we
grow and become socialized into our place in a social structure.) They have been
woven together in very different ways at different times in history.
Brownie Try-it
Listening to the Past
1)
Speaker: Invite a
special guest to your meeting, to tell about her life when she was a girl.
2)
Explore your
Neighborhood: look for things that are old, new, made by people, etc.
3)
Family History:
Invite family members to share some family history stories.
4)
Games of Yesteryear:
Play a game from the past.
Cub Scout Academics
Heritages
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE
HERITAGES ACADEMICS BELT LOOP
Complete
these three requirements:
- Talk with members of your family
about your family heritage: its history, traditions, and culture.
- Make a poster that shows the origins
of your ancestors. Share it with your den or other group.
- Draw a family tree showing members of
your family for three generations.
REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE HERITAGES ACADEMICS PIN
Earn
the Heritages belt loop, and complete five of the following requirements:
- Participate in a pack heritage
celebration in which Cub Scouts give presentations about their family
heritage.
- Attend a family reunion.
- Correspond with a pen pal from
another country. Find out how his or her heritage is different from yours.
- Learn 20 words in a language other
than your native language.
- Interview a grandparent or other
family elder about what it was like when he or she was growing up.
- Work with a parent or adult partner
to organize family photographs in a photo album.
- Visit a genealogy library and talk
with the librarian about how to trace family records.
Variation: Access a genealogy Web site and learn how to use it to find out information about ancestors. - Make an article of clothing, a toy,
or a tool that your ancestors used. Show it to your den.
- Help your parent or adult partner
prepare one of your family's traditional food dishes.
- Learn about the
origin of your first, middle, or last name.
Junior & Cadette Interest Project
My Heritage
1. Find out more about your heritage. Do you know your family history or the
history of people who share your racial/cultural/ethnic heritage? Make a family tree of the members of your
family.
2. Look around your room or your home and choose one object
that you believe you would want to keep with you as you grow up. Why did you
choose this object? And why is it important to you?Ask older friends or
relatives to show you and tell you about an object that they have had for a long
time. Why have they kept that object? Why is that object important to them?
3. Find
out the meaning of your first name, middle name, or your last name. Baby name books are an easy place to find
that meaning of first and middle names.
Did your parents use a baby name book to pick out your name?
4. Find
out what games, songs or dances your ancestors might have enjoyed and share
them with our troop. (Leader note: each
of our scouts brought in a game, song, or dance and demonstrated it or had the
scouts in her patrol play the game).
5.
Begin a “wisdom
list” of quotations, sayings, and advice your parents, grandparents and other
older people have shared with you and prepare a booklet that includes your
favorite ones. Make the journal with
the supplies I put in your packet. Put
a favorite family photo in the frame on the cover of your journal.
Junior & Cadette Interest Projects
Women’s Stories
Do ONE of the following (either a
or b):
a) Make a chart of all the women in your family
as far back as you are able to discover.
Next to each name, record some information about each woman: her job, accomplishments, talents or other
information you can find out. Attach
the chart here. Are you similar to any
of these women?
b) Imagine a female ancestor. What kind of person was she and what were
her accomplishments and skills? Draw a
picture of her, or write a description, and attach it here.
Do the
following:
Talk to an
older female relative or friend and ask her about the changes in her life, the
community and the world since she was your age.
a) Who did you talk with?
b) What was it like when she was your age?
c) How does she think
women’s lives have changed?
![[BADGE]](./KidGen_files/image009.jpg)
Boy Scout Merit Badge
Genealogy
- Explain the meaning of genealogy and genealogical
resources.
- Begin a pedigree chart with yourself and fill it in as far as
you can at the beginning of your project. Add any additional names, dates,
or places that you find.
- Show yourself as a child on a family group record form, and show
one of your parents as a child on another family group record form.
- Interview an older relative to obtain information about your
family. This interview may be in person, by telephone, or by letter. Add
any information obtained to your pedigree chart and family group records.
- Obtain at least one genealogical document showing proof of some
information on your pedigree chart or family group records. This document
may be located in your home, a courthouse, an archive or library, etc.
- Tell how you would evaluate genealogical information.
- Do ONE of the following:
- Do a time line for yourself or for a close
relative.
- Keep a journal for six weeks, writing in at
least once weekly.
- Write a short history of yourself or of a
close relative.
- Do ONE of the following:
- Tell how the development of computers is
affecting the world of genealogy.
- Tell how the development of photography (including
microfilming) has influenced genealogy.
- Tell how personal and family history have
begun to influence the way society looks at local, national, and
international history.
- Contact ONE of the following and ask a question relating to its
genealogical services or activities; report the results:
- A lineage society
- A surname organization
- A professional genealogist
- A genealogical education facility or
institution
- A genealogical record repository of any type
(courthouse, genealogical library, state archives, state library,
national archives, etc. )
Tell
where you would find current information about genealogical records and
research methods.