Winter break is perfect time for family’s activities. The great one is to create a family tree together with your little ones.
Sometimes is difficult to encourage children to be interested in the past and history of their family.
However, it is still important for them to learn about their family background. The good idea to spark an interest in children about ancestors and genealogy is to create a family tree with them. This will help them to understand more about generations before them, their ethnic background, and your family’s culture.
Here are a few tips how to get your child interested in learning more about their ancestors.
Teach Them by Telling Family Stories
Telling stories about their grandparents and great-grandparents try to make it interesting for them. Mention about their lifestyle, routine, the way how they were studying in schools or moved to Canada from another country. Let them consider what their ancestors may did for living and how they looked like, and then offer them to join you in fun research and find out if their suggestions were true or false.
Visit Places Where Their Ancestors Once Lived
It would be great if it is possible to take children to the places where their grandparents or great-grandparents once lived many years ago.
You may show them area where you were spending your childhood and tell them some stories about your adventures in young age.
If you live far from this location, you can go for the family trip to visit yours or your parent’s childhood home. Also, don’t forget to visit historical sites at that area to give children a glimpse of how the homes used to look years ago.
Let Them Discover Artifacts from a Different Time
Plan a visit to historical museums and antique shops where children can have historical experience by inspecting items which may belong to their ancestors.
Also, don’t hesitate to introduce family heirlooms to children, and allow them to touch and hold them. It will help your little ones to fell bonds between them and family’s background.
Create a Family Tree with Your Child
Now it is time to fill out a family tree with your little once so they can visually see how their family came to be.
You can make it by yourself or find a free family tree template online. Go back as far as you can and fill up all names of your ancestors which you can remember. Ask your parents and grandparents to help you, and when you can’t go any farther, there is an option to do some genealogy research. Local archives and social media can help a lot. You and your children may discover interesting and unpredictable family’s background when you go farther than grandparents’ roots.
Creating a family tree is a good opportunity to teach your children importance of respecting to the past and family roots. It will help you to introduce nation’s history to them as well. This activity can be a thrilling and educational experience for whole family.
Source: How to Make a Family Tree with Your Child (theactivefamily.org)