How to Teach Family Heritage Using Historic Events

Teaching family history to your kids is a rewarding and sometimes educational experience for both teacher and student. Studying family history by identifying historic events and how it affected your family's heritage is an interesting way to identify the struggles and successes that your ancestors shared with the community at large. Here's how to teach your family heritage by using events from history.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Set your ancestors in time. Identify when Great Great Grandpa was born and when he died and identify historical events that fall within that time period.

2. Identify the main historical events that affected your family. Some fairly recent American historical events to consider are the Great Depression, World War I and II, and the bombing of Pearl Harbor. If you have family history dating back further, you may want to include Civil War, slavery and Native American struggles as well.

3. Develop a time line. Placing an ancestor on a time line gives a graphical representation of your family's place in history and gives your children a better idea of what events surrounded your ancestor's life.

4. Tailor your research to the age of the child. If your child is not ready for the details of things like the holocaust, share family history in an age-appropriate manner. Keep things simple for young children and go into more detail as your child matures.

5. Learn together. It is much more fun for both teacher and student to make discoveries together. Visit your local library or historical center and dig up what you can find about your family. Be sure to ask your librarian about the resources available to connect your family to their place in history.