If you teach a class or help your own child with homework, you may wonder how you’ll ever get through the subject of history. Many kids are uninterested in what they consider outdated stories even if they are true. However, you can bring history to life by creating family trees. Here are a few suggestions for using this resource to enhance learning and memorization.
As a Visual Aid
You can utilize family trees when you’re learning about specific families from history, such as ancient kings and queens. It’s hard for kids to keep track of names and who is related to whom. A family tree provides a visual aid to help kids remember these people and how they relate to others.
A prime example is John Adams and his son, John Quincy Adams or Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt. For world history, remember all of the kings who carried on the family name, such as Henry the Viii or Charles the III.
Enlarge a basic family tree template and put it on poster paper that you can hang on the wall. Insert names and simple facts to help kids remember the lessons. You can also give them smaller family trees for them to fill out as they learn the information.
As a Class Project
To make history more than just a bunch of facts and figures, create a class project where everyone researches family members of a famous historical family. They can learn important facts while also discovering personal information about these people.
You can also take a simple three- or four-generation family tree template, fill it out with the names of the people and have the class research other information. For example, the kids could make a list of all the wars during the family’s lifetime or what inventions were discovered.
Relate History to Their Lives
Another use for family trees is to have kids fill out information about their own families. You can have them go back to the time period you’re studying about. It will bring these events to life when they realize that their ancestors were alive during this time. Help them imagine what great-grandma would have thought about World War II or the 1950’s.
Instead of just reading about people they don’t know, they will learn about history that was current when their own family members were alive. If possible, you can even have them find out what role they played in the events. For example, some kids may have great-grandfathers who fought in World War II. This information will become more than just a bunch of statistics, but part of their own family history.
When studying history, you can help kids learn how to relate to events that happened long before they were born with the aid of family trees. In the process, they may just find they learn something about themselves and their family. At the very least, history will come to life for them and they will find it interesting and relevant.
When studying history, you can help kids learn how to relate to events that happened long before they were born with the aid of family trees. In the process, they may just find they learn something about themselves and their family. At the very least, history will come to life for them and they will find it interesting and relevant.