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Examining Ephemera

4/16/2019

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Examining Ephemera // GrowingLittleLeaves.com
Some of my favorite items in our family history holdings are those things that were never meant to be saved, never meant to tell a story or be passed on, never meant to be heirlooms, so to speak. However, many items of ephemera DO contribute (sometimes significantly) to our family stories, and sometimes they even create their OWN stories, as they might be the only evidence of these happenings in our ancestors' lives. 

You may have heard items like this collectively described as ephemera. So, what exactly IS ephemera? Here is what the Oxford English Dictionary has to say:

"Things that exist or are used or enjoyed for only a short time"
(Derives from the Greek word ephēmeros, meaning 'lasting only a day.')

According to who you ask in the genealogical community, any of the following could be considered ephemera:

Ticket stubs from sporting events, amusement parks, theatre shows
Ticket stubs from travel
Personal or business letters and envelopes
​Greeting cards
Postcards
Invitations
Receipts 
Club or union membership cards and rosters
Dance cards
Report cards, graduation programs, reunion programs, schoolwork 
Church bulletins and newsletters
Funeral cards 
Business cards, stationary, ledger forms
Napkins and coasters
Matchbooks
Ration books

Using ephemera to introduce or enhance kids' understanding of family history is a great idea for a few reasons. By its nature, ephemera is very visual and hands-on; this is so important in order to keep their attention and interest. Even in our digital society, paper ephemera is still a part of our everyday lives, so kids will automatically understand what it is. And, my favorite reason to introduce kids to ephemera is that it is, to some degree, open-ended in its story and requires a child or teen to use analytical skills to piece together the item's meaning and significance.

​When examining ephemera with child(ren),  make it a game. Search for clues, maybe even using a magnifying glass to play out the part (much like we did for our Directory Detectives activity).

While doing so, ask them the following questions:

1.) What is the item? Read out loud any text. Examine both sides.  What was its original purpose? (Answering this question may take some research and/or help from elder generations, depending on the item in question. For example, kids and teens today are likely unfamiliar with ration books, matchbooks, dance cards, or pin money clubs. But examining ephemera like this is SO great because it not only introduces kids to aspects of their ancestors' lives, but also to common clubs or traditions or events of that historical time period. Learning general history through our ancestors makes it so much more meaningful!)

2.) Is the item dated? If yes, how old was your ancestor at the time?

3.) Is it from a particular event, place, or time period in your ancestor's life? How could you learn more about that event, place, or time period?

4.) If a ticket stub or receipt, is there a price listed? If yes, try to figure out how much the same event or item would cost today.

5.) Why do you think your family member saved this? 

6.) What types of ephemera would YOU save to help future generations know more about your life?

If your child is willing, encourage them to start collecting personal ephemera of their own, from places or events that are special and memorable to them. All you need is a three-ring binder and some acid-free, archival-quality clear sleeves. Or, if they are more technologically inclined, perhaps they will want to digitized their memorable ephemera and maybe even create their own personal digital scrapbook website online.

You will find that some kids (especially younger ones) will want to save everything - and this is an opportunity to convey to them the idea that you CAN'T save everything. We need to be selective about what we save. We need to choose ephemera from times or events or places that really mean a lot to us and that contribute to our own stories and family stories. There is an art to saving ephemera, and, if done right, it can add SO much to our family history without over-burdening future generations. 

Encourage kids and teens to help YOU or other family historians sort through and digitize the ephemera left by previous generations. Did great-grandma leave behind a box full of funeral cards? Have the kids put them in chronological and/or alphabetical order.  Are all those old letters folded in halves or thirds? Have the kids help smooth them out before digitizing. There are lots of ways to give kids first-hand experience in the process of archiving family history.

Also, let kids help you FIND new sources of ephemera that may have meaning to your family. Believe it or not, Ebay is a great place to look for pieces of family history ephemera - I've found old matchbooks from family businesses and postcards depicting long-gone buildings that played a role in my family's history. The Digital Public Library of America, as well as other state historical digital collections, are also great places to search for family ephemera.

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The Young Mom's Guide to Saving Family History

12/4/2018

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The Young Mom's Guide To Saving Family History // GrowingLittleLeaves.com
Recently, I've been reflecting a lot on my memories of my kids' baby and toddler days. Becoming a mom is actually what turned me into a serious genealogist. Discovering so many neat things about our ancestors prompted me to start this blog, because I wanted my kids to begin to know these individuals, as well. I wanted to write a blog post giving moms of very young children small ideas about how they can begin preserving their family's history, even amidst all the chaos and fatigue that new motherhood can bring. (The 'Young Mom' title doesn't necessarily refer to our ages as moms, but as mothers of young children.)

Document Your Family's Journey (but not too much)
We are fortunate to live in a time when it is incredibly easy to document our lives. We can use our smartphones for photos, videos, audio recordings, and even speech-to-text dictation of our memories.

However, how much is too much? Do your descendants really need thousands of photos and videos of your family? Though it hasn't been talked about much yet within the genealogical community, I think in the very near future, there will be discussions surrounding this kind of family history overload that might cause our descendants more strife than joy. Recently, I went through my kids' baby and toddler digital photo files, and ended up deleting a fair number of them. Many were repeats of the same event or scene and a lot were just not great quality photos. I want my kids and their descendants to be happy to have quality photos that tell our family story,  but not so overwhelmed at the quantity of files (or memory those files take up) that they simply ignore them because they don't think they have the time.

Safeguard Everything
I can't tell you how many moms I've known who have had at least one panic attack when the phone or hard drive on which their family photos were stored just up and dies. The recommended rule is to have files that you care about in at least three separate places, in at least two different formats, with one backup location off-site. Update your backups at least once a month; many people do it on the first of each month, but whenever you choose to do it, set up a reminder in your calendar so that you don't forget. (Many off-site backup services, like Backblaze, will do your hard drive backup automatically, so you don't even have to think about it.) I know it's hard when your family is young and money is tight, but that $5 a month I spend on a back-up service is SO worth it, just for my peace of mind, knowing my family's memories are safe.

I also recommend that you make an effort to regularly get your photos and videos off of your phone and/or tablet and into a more permanent and safe digital location. (Again, set a monthly or bi-monthly reminder.) Making physical photo books is great, and fun for even the youngest family members to enjoy, but don't let that be your only "insurance" location. There are some really great apps these days, like Chatbooks, Resnap, and Groovebook, that will easily generate and order photo books for you from the photos and social media apps on your phone.

Tell Your Own Story
It's hard to worry about documenting your own experiences and emotions when you're running on coffee day after day just trying to keep the little ones clean, rested, and fed. But I'm here to tell you how important it is to do so, because so many of the experiences and feelings of early motherhood, which are SO precious and SO personal, are fleeting moments, and you may not remember all the details down the road. And, again, there are some wonderful, easy-to-use, daily journaling apps that make it so easy these days to document your daily mom-kid adventures.

Cultivate Strong Relationships With Older Family Members 
The older people in our families are so important to our family histories that we need to cultivate strong intergenerational relationships with them, and we need to model behavior to our young ones that teaches them to cherish the older ones' experiences and memories. 

Part of building these intergenerational relationships is making the effort to BE at extended family gatherings, which can be SO hard when you have very young children AND live away from everyone else. Driving in the car for hours on end with babies and toddlers is awful. My husband and I did it so many times through the years, but, looking back, it was SO worth it. During my son's first Christmas, he was only about a month old, didn't sleep well, and didn't eat well, which meant I was terribly tired all the time. We could have easily told family members we weren't making the long drive home for Christmas, and they would have understood. But we went anyway, and I'm so glad we did because I just love the photos of my son's first Christmas with my extended family members. Here he is meeting his great-great-aunt, who was a bit of a surrogate grandmother to me and my cousins, since her sister passed away at a fairly young age. I look at this photo now, and my great-aunt has since passed away, but here is this moment in time when my descendant met a woman whose parents bravely left their homeland of Poland to start a new life in America. So, when you go to family gatherings with your young children, take photos, even if the older people don't want you to, because someday you will cherish those moments in your children's lives and in your family's history. 

Picture
As careers end and children grow up, many of our older family members can get lonely and think that the younger and busier people in their lives have forgotten about them. There are small things we can do to let them know we are thinking of them, even if we live far away. I love sending greeting cards to people. It's super-easy to program your phone calendar to remind you of family birthdays and anniversaries, or just sending a 'Thinking of You' card at any time of the year is a great idea, too. Ever since they were toddlers, I have always asked my kids to draw a little picture or scribble their names in the cards we send, and I usually include photos, too. I still have an email from my husband's now-deceased 90-year-old grandmother, in which she thanked me for an Easter card we sent her with my son's first communion photo. Those photos meant so much to her; she saved each one she received from her family members and taped them to her wall at her assisted-living center.

Probably the most important thing we can do to foster intergenerational relationships is to simply LISTEN to our elder family members, and not only when they are talking about family stories. Listen to them complain about sports teams or taxes or the government; sometimes, people just need their thoughts to be heard. You'll find that the more you listen to people, the more comfortable they will become with you as a conversation partner and the more willing they will be share old family stories and memories with you. Modeling good listening behavior is also really great for helping young children learning the basics of polite and rational conversation, which is a skill they will use the rest of their lives.

​Take Charge of Elder Generations' 'Collections'
You might have parents and grandparents who are super-duper family history curators, and if that's the case, this point may not apply to you as much, because there are already people in your family who are doing their best to preserve family ephemera for future generations.

BUT, you might have family members who just have boxes of what they deem as 'old stuff' in their attic or crawl space - maybe some old photo albums, china sets, military memorabilia, family legal papers, etc. They may have intentions of 'someday' going through that stuff, or they may just be leaving it for younger generations to deal with when they pass away. Ask them NOW if you can go through it, organize it, and maybe even re-store it in better & safer archival containers. Also, doing so now, before the older generations pass on, allows you to ask your older family members who things belonged to, where they were made or came from, and who are in the photos, all information that is super-important to preserving family history.

Digitizing photos and other family documents is an easy way for a busy mom to contribute to saving family history. Scanning photos is simple, doesn't require a ton of mental focus, and can be done gradually in small pockets of time. So, if you get discouraged that you don't have the time or energy to actively researching your family history, think about just getting some photos scanned and eventually that will all add up to a great accomplishment for your family history records. 

Introduce Your Babies & Toddlers To Their Ancestors
It's never too early to start talking with your small children about their family history. Talking to babies right from birth is SO important to their brain development. I always struggled with this when my kids were babies. I would read to them a lot, but the 'baby talk' never came naturally to me. Now, I realize I should have just told stories about my memories of growing up and people I knew from the past, like my grandparents. Turns out that talking about anything is good for baby. And, of course, continue telling those stories to toddlers, preschoolers, and school-aged children. As a child gets older, make the stories longer and more detailed. Pretty soon, the kids will be telling the stories on their own to younger siblings or cousins.

Visiting cemeteries with young children is a great way to 'introduce' them to their ancestors. It's great exercise and it teaches children not to be afraid of cemeteries, an unfortunate and misguided viewpoint they might pick up from books and/or movies. While at the cemetery, model good and safe cemetery etiquette and even bring a little rag along so your toddler can help you 'clean' off your relatives' graves. Make going to the cemetery a regular occurrence for your children.

Let the little ones touch and hold items that have been passed down through your family. Young children are such tactile learners; if they can associate an object with a story and an ancestor's name and photo, they will connect with that story SO much better than if you just tell the story alone.

Of course, I have many more ideas for helping even the youngest kids connect with their family history and they can all be found on the ACTIVITIES page. I hope that mothers of young children have found at least some of these tips helpful, and I hope they can now see that you don't need to devote hours of time to pure genealogy research in order to have a large impact on the preservation of your family's history. You are living your future family members' history RIGHT NOW and you can make large strides in small ways to keeping your family history alive.

©2018 Emily Kowalski Schroeder


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Raising Family History Curators

4/3/2017

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Raising Family History Curators // GrowingLittleLeaves.com
For the past three years, I've been sharing my ideas for how to teach young people about their ancestors in engaging and meaningful ways. Ideally, though, I want my children to do more than just know about their family history. I want them to use it, share it, continue to collect it, and preserve it for future generations beyond their lifetimes. I want them to become not just students of our family's history, but curators of it as well.

I love the word curator to describe my role as a family historian. The word 'curator' has roots in the Latin word, 'curare,' which means "to take care of." 


A museum or archive curator does all of the following on a regular basis:


Acquire
Interpret
Share
Preserve


These are my comprehensive goals as a family historian, and I'd like my children to continue these tasks as they grow into adulthood. What are some ways in which we can encourage kids to adopt this type of family history philosophy?

Acquire
Every day is an opportunity to record and save family history. When I was a pre-teen, I was somewhat of a budding photographer, and I took tons of everyday photos. My mom let me use the family camera, and I took many, many photos of my parents, my siblings, and our home - photos that wouldn't have been taken if it weren't for me. You can see some of those photos at this blog post: When 'Bad' Photos Are Good. Give a child a camera and see what they capture.

Encourage children to speak with family members about their lives and memories, and show them how to record interviews using simple mobile phone apps. Perhaps, a
round the dinner table, ask each child to think of one question to ask a grown-up about their life as a young person. Have a family member record the date, questions, and memories in a simple blank-page journal. Below are several Growing Little Leaves blog posts that encourage children to capture memories and other unique aspects of their family members:

Childhood Christmas Memories Interview

Roll A Memory Game
Sibling Interview
Fingerprint and Signature Trees

Interpret
What do all these documents, photos, and heirlooms tell us about our ancestors? Interpreting is probably MY favorite part of family history research, and I'm willing to bet there are plenty of kids out there who are also intrigued at uncovering the mysteries hidden within all of the 'stuff.' 

Encourage kids to look carefully at old photos. What were people wearing or doing? What can we learn about the times (and the people) from what is in the photo? Sit down with a bowl of popcorn (or other favorite snack) and go through a census schedule with your child. When was this information recorded? What do the different columns mean and how can we use the information in those columns to piece together a snapshot of our ancestor's life at this time? Interpreting family history documents very often involves learning at least a little about regional, national, and world history, so there is definitely educational value (beyond family history) in teaching kids how to interpret documents. It's also great for developing critical thinking skills.

Examine heirlooms with your child. Talk about who they belonged to and what they were used for. Does the heirloom offer any clues as to how that ancestor lived, what they enjoyed doing, or what they did for a living? This Heirloom Roleplay Activity can be used to help kids think more deeply about a family heirloom.


Share
​Once you tell your child a little bit about your family's history, do you encourage him or her to share it with others? Sharing our ancestors' stories is an incredibly important part of being a family history curator, and this includes sharing family stories with both family members and non-family. The easiest way in which to encourage kids to share a family story is to simply ask them to tell you one. Young children who love to talk especially enjoy this method.  Older children and teens may instead enjoy writing down a family story or creating videos and/or websites for telling and sharing a story.  

Got a family reunion in the plans? How great would it be to have the children in the family create ancestor posterboards or videos or drawings or even plays in which they act out a particular ancestor's life? In the sharing process, kids can really showcase their individual interests, talents, and creativity, which is why this is such an important aspect of a child's family history journey.
​

Preserve
Teaching kids about proper storage and organization of family history ephemera is important, and we should encourage children to help us in the process of preserving family heirlooms, photos, journals, interviews, and documents. Who knows - you might find that one of your children has a better knack for organization than you do!

A couple of years ago, I wrote this blog post about how easy it is for even the youngest children to help  digitize family photos. Got a bunch of photos with dates written on the back? Kids can help organize them chronologically and place them in archival boxes.

Raising Family History Curators // GrowingLittleLeaves.com
My almost-4yo daughter helping me digitize family photos.
Older children and teens can help with the transcription of family journals, letters, and even audio interviews. Artistic children and teens might be interested in helping you create family history scrapbooks (which falls into the Share category, as well).

Talk with kids about why it is important to digitize paper items and backup digital files in several places. Encourage adolescents to digitize items that are important to telling their life stories - award certificates, report cards, sacramental records, artwork, sentimental photos, etc. It's never too early for kids to start documenting their own lives for their descendants.

Take kids to the cemetery and show them simple ways in which to care for gravestones. Let them help you clear away weeds or overgrown grass and show them how to use water to clear away grime and dirt from the stone. Tell them that it is important to report any damaged or fallen gravestones to the cemetery owners or managers.
​

What other ideas do you have to help kids embrace the role of family history curator? Please share in a comment below!

©2017 Emily Kowalski Schroeder
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Digitization Project? Get Kids Involved!

1/14/2017

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How To Work With Local Youth Groups To Accomplish Digitization // GrowingLittleLeaves.com
A few years back, I volunteered with a local county digitization initiative and helped prepare county probate documents for scanning. We removed the documents from envelopes, unfolded and smoothed them flat, and removed any metal staples, pins, or thread (!) holding papers together. The experience was a lot more interesting and educational than I thought it would be! Some of these packets had not been opened in over a hundred years, and it was really beneficial to me as a family historian to see how these probate files were arranged and what types of documents were included, even though they were not at all connected to my own family.

How To Work With Local Youth Groups To Accomplish Digitization // GrowingLittleLeaves.com
How To Work With Local Youth Groups To Accomplish Digitization // GrowingLittleLeaves.com
As I thought back over that experience, I realized that kids, from upper elementary ages through teens, very easily could do this, too!  And, like me, they could learn a lot about the sources they are helping to digitize.

What Kids Can Learn From Digitization Projects:
*Kids learn about the documents and record sets they are digitizing through hands-on observation.

*Kids will understand that they are doing a service to the community and to family historians searching for information about their ancestors.

*Kids learn the value of using digitization to protect documents (and the information contained within them) from natural decomposition, fire, and water damage.

Would your local genealogical or historical society like to initiate digitization projects, but doesn't feel like it has the 'manpower' necessary to accomplish them? Would your group like to attract more young faces to its ranks and become more visible in your community? If the answer is yes, consider designing and implementing a digitization project in partnership with a local youth organization or school group.


Some school districts, scouting groups, and churches require or at least encourage kids to complete service hours,
and a project like this would be perfect for a teen who maybe doesn't want to volunteer in the local food pantry or church nursery. Perhaps even work WITH the churches and schools in your area to digitize some of their historical holdings that would surely be of use to family historians in your area. Our local high school has a history club and this type of project would be a perfect activity for them!

Don't think you have the technology to accomplish a digitization project? Check with your local library; many public libraries have both standard and oversized scanners, as well as laptops, available for patrons to use and sometimes even checkout. And library meeting rooms are great areas in which to meet and do the actual work of organizing and digitizing. (Just be sure to reserve those rooms far ahead of time so they are available.)

Not sure about how to make the digitized records accessible to your members and/or the community? Guess what - kids can help with that, too! For many teens, creating and editing webpages comes as second nature, and there are many easy-to-build-and-edit website services that would be a breeze for your society to maintain. The holding organization (library, courthouse, archive) may also help get the digitized database and images online.


Tips For Creating A Digitization Project in Cooperation With A Youth Organization:
*Decide what will be digitized and get permission to digitize from the holding organization, library or archive. 

*Identify and contact local youth groups you think might be interested in participating. Contact group leaders through phone or email and explain your vision.

*Plan an adult-only meeting with the leader(s) of interested youth groups sometime either at the end of the school year or during the summer before a school year begins. Determine what the leaders are looking for their kids to get out of the partnership. Decide on a project meeting location and meeting frequency (monthly, semi-monthly).

*Confirm that the meeting location and necessary technology are available and reserve those days and times as far ahead as possible. Recruit and sign up adult volunteer members from your group to assist and oversee during each meeting date.

*Attend one of the youth group's meetings and introduce your group and it's mission to the youth members. Clearly articulate the goals and purpose of the digitization project to the youth members. Explain to them what their jobs will be during the process.

*Consider an 'open house' style of project meetings in which participants can come and go within a designated time frame at their convenience. (It's not as chaotic as it sounds, once kids understand their tasks and the process behind the project, they will be able to jump right in at any time.)

​*Provide participants with (non-messy) light snacks or bite-sized candy. Participants will find their experience more enjoyable with food. 

*Be prepared to sign-off on service hours, if necessary. Create a sign-in sheet or perhaps a simple form that can be easily filled out at each meeting, so participants can return them to their group leaders. 
​

*Make it a yearly project, if possible. Youth organizations have a high-turnover rate; kids are continually 'graduating' out of groups and new members are always joining.

With good planning and an enthusiastic attitude, your society CAN successfully partner with local youth groups to accomplish great things towards preserving important pieces of your community's history.

©2017 Emily Kowalski Schroeder. All rights reserved.
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Family Photo Worksheets

10/17/2016

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Identifying and documenting family photos is an important aspect of preserving family history. When I was a kid, I remember looking through photos that my mom had just had developed (at the grocery store!) and I even remember helping her put them into photo albums. Unfortunately, in the age of digital photography, most kids these days do not spend much, if any, time holding and looking at physical prints of photographs, which is a shame because photos are one of the most engaging primary sources that family historians use to document family history.

I created a couple of simple notebooking worksheets that will help elementary-aged kids examine. family photos, and even give them a hand in documenting them. The worksheets are identical, except one is for horizontally-oriented photos and the other is for vertically-oriented ones. Click on each image to be directed to a downloadable PDF. 
Family Photo Documentation FREE Worksheet from GrowingLittleLeaves.com
Document a Family Photo Worksheet
Family Photo Documentation FREE Worksheet from GrowingLittleLeaves.com
Document a Family Photo Worksheet
And, just for fun, I also created a 'Hashtag a Family Photo' worksheet. For young people who use social media apps like Twitter and Instagram, communicating in hashtags is almost like its own language. For those not familiar with them, hashtags are labels put on photos or tweets (using the # symbol) that help classify them and help other people on that network find them.

This worksheet would be a lot of fun at family reunions. Give everyone a copy with the same family photo on it and ask each person to create hashtags. Then, read them aloud to everyone. Social media hashtags can get pretty comical at times, and I think the same thing would happen at a reunion. And this is a great way to engage young people at reunions in a 'language' they can understand and relate to.
Hashtag a Family Photo FREE Worksheet from GrowingLittleLeaves.com
Hashtag a Family Photo Worksheet
You can also download these and other free worksheets from the Growing Little Leaves Printables page.

©2016 Emily Kowalski Schroeder
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Research and Source Documentation for Pre-Readers

9/18/2016

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Hands-On Research and Documentation Activity for Pre-Readers from GrowingLittleLeaves.com
Teaching kids who can't even read yet the basics of research and documenting their sources? Can't be done, you might be telling yourself. But I will show you a simple, hands-on activity/game I developed to teach young children to do just that! Admittedly, this is not an activity that will teach children anything about their individual ancestors, but it introduces an important SKILL that is necessary to learn, not only for genealogy research, but for research in virtually ALL academic fields.

In simple terms, research is just one big scavenger hunt, which is already something kids LOVE and are fully capable of doing, even at young ages. Documenting research sources is something none of us really like to do, but we know that it's necessary in order to have a successful research outcome. As with any activity, the keys to making this work with young children are to make it short, hands-on, and FUN!

You will need:
4 small (Amazon-sized) boxes 

12 manila file folders
Construction paper or cardstock in four different colors
Computer with printer and clip art worksheets (see end of blog post)

Glue Stick
Clear tape
Scissors
Pencil
Clipboard (optional)


This activity consists of four numbered boxes: 1, 2, 3, and 4. Each box holds three manila folders labeled A, B, and C. Each of those folders holds four clip art images, for a total of twelve images per box. Each box has it's own theme: Animals, Food, Transportation, and Sports. Each image in a folder is covered by a different color: red, pink, blue and purple. (The colored paper is just taped to the white paper along the top, so you can still flip it upwards.)

Hands-on Research and Documentation Activity for Pre-Readers from GrowingLittleLeaves.com
Food-themed Box with Folders
Hands-On Research and Documentation Activity for Pre-Readers from GrowingLittleLeaves.com
Color flaps that cover each clip art image.
Aside: Since this is a genealogy blog, you may be asking why I didn't use photos or other images pertaining to our family tree. The purpose of this activity was to teach the method of looking for something and documenting it, so I wanted my daughter to not get bogged down with details of dead people. That is why I chose simple, familiar images from everyday life. With older children, you could absolutely rewire this activity using images from your family's history, and they would still benefit from learning the method by which they found the images. I'm thinking about trying it with my 3rd grader - I would have categories for people, heirlooms, buildings, and jobs.

This is one of the worksheets I created that my daughter used in this activity. First, I explained to her that the picture on the left is what she needs to find.​
Hands-On Research and Documentation Activity for Pre-Readers from GrowingLittleLeaves.com
Next, I showed her the numbered boxes with the folders in them. The boxes are 'labeled' with clip art images that more or less show the category of pictures that are found within that box (see photo above). When we are researching in a library, we don't look for sports books in the food section, so this was a simple way to talk about that concept when you are looking for something in a research setting.

When she did find the image she was looking for, I explained that she should circle the number of the box she found it in. Then, she had to circle what letter of folder it was in, and finally which color the image was under. After we did the first one together, she caught on quickly and did the next two by herself.
Hands-On Research and Documentation Activity for Pre-Readers from GrowingLittleLeaves.com
Hands-On Research and Documentation Activity for Pre-Readers from GrowingLittleLeaves.com
The real teaching moment in this activity is when we gave her completed worksheet to big brother and asked him to find the pictures based on her worksheet notes. He was able to do it MUCH quicker than she originally did because she had essential mapped out where each one was located. And THAT is why we write down where we find things when we research anything. :-)

If you would like to try this activity at home, below are the links to the clip art images and documentation worksheets I created. All of the images are from OpenClipArt.org, so if you'd like to create your own set, I suggest starting there. As always, a link to this exercise will be included in the Activities page of the Growing Little Leaves website.
prereader_research_and_documentation_worksheets.pdf
File Size: 1070 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

animals_clip_art.pdf
File Size: 912 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

food_clip_art.pdf
File Size: 577 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

sports_clip_art.pdf
File Size: 563 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

transportation_clip_art.pdf
File Size: 775 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

box_label_clip_art.pdf
File Size: 488 kb
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Celebrating Family Creativity

1/14/2016

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Celebrating Family Creativity with FREE Worksheet from GrowingLittleLeaves.com
I've been thinking about creativity a lot over the past week, not in small part because the world lost one of its most creative and expressive people of our time when musician David Bowie passed away last weekend. 
​
We are fortunate that David Bowie left us with a vast collection of music and performances with which to remember him, but how do YOU, as a family historian, preserve the originality and imagination that runs through YOUR family? Do you maintain notes or images of ancestors' creations in your family tree database programs? Do you write about the creative talents of past family members on your genealogy blog? Do you discuss those talents with the younger members of your family?

I firmly believe in helping children develop their own senses of creativity at all stages of development. Fostering creativity in day-to-day life helps children develop empathy, understanding, and compassion, not to mention an ability to see things from different perspectives, which is a necessary part of invention and innovation. And, like so many other things, family history can help children discover the creative talents that wait inside of them, ready to emerge at first inspiration. 

Though you may not have any famous, professional creative artists in your family tree, the personal creativity of our ancestors was expressed at many levels in many different ways. Read through this list while thinking of only the grandparents and/or great-grandparents you knew, and I guarantee you will find evidence of the creative spirit. And today, creativity can be found in many technical and computerized professional fields, so don't forget to talk about current family members when it comes to creativity, too!

Woodworking, metalworking
Embroidery, sewing, knitting, crochet, needlepoint, weaving, quilting, cross-stitch
Painting, drawing, sculpting
Dance
Singing, playing, composing music
Fashion - designing, creating, wearing
Cooking, baking, cake and cookie decorating

Writing - journals, stories, poetry
Theater writing and acting
Flower/garden designing
Photography, videography
Designing and building structures
Writing computer programs
Computer graphic design
Tattooing (Many tattoo artists are incredibly talented, creative people!)
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It's important, when talking with children about their ancestors, to not only discuss the factual, mechanical details of their lives, but also, as much as possible, to try to give children a sense of their ancestors' personalities, and creativity is a big part of one's overall persona. Do you have something physical that an ancestor made? Show it to the children in your family. Do you have journals or stories or poems that an ancestor wrote? Read them to the children. Do you have sound or video recordings of a family member performing in some capacity? Play them for the children. Even if all you have are simple photos or newspaper clippings or memories attesting to a past family member's creative hobbies and talents, share them with children, and emphasize the joy those family members found and expressed to others within their creative mediums.

I've created another of my family history 'notebooking' worksheets where children can either write or draw about the creative talents and hobbies of their family members. When used in conjunction with some of my other (free) ancestor worksheets, which can be found here, you and your child can create a binder full of ancestor facts for kids to collect and browse through while learning about family history. Click on the image below to open a PDF of the 'Our Family's Creativity' worksheet, which is six pages in length. Pages two through six can be printed off as often as needed so that you can add as many family members as you want to your notebook. And don't forget to ask the child to include him/herself on the worksheet, showcasing his/her creative abilities. 

Celebrating Family Creativity with FREE Worksheet from GrowingLittleLeaves.com
©2016 Emily Kowalski Schroeder. Worksheets for personal use only. Reproduction or redistribution of prohibited without written consent of owner.
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Engaging Children in Family History With The Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner (and GIVEAWAY)

8/11/2014

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Engaging Children in Family History With the Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner // GrowingLittleLeaves.com
**GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED**

​Disclosure: I was provided with a Flip-Pal mobile scanner in order to facilitate this review.  All opinions, ideas, and photographs remain my own.


Children are naturally drawn to and curious about new technologies.  They have no fear of gadgets and they seem to have an innate ability of learning how to use new technologies incredibly quickly. Of course, I am always searching for ways in which to get my kids (ages four and six) more interested in their family history and the people and events of the past who made them who they are today.  I thought that using the Flip-Pal mobile scanner would be a great way to use my kids' love of technology to get them more interested in looking at and learning about old family photos, scrapbooks and photo albums.  

Probably like many of you fellow keepers of family history, I have a box that looks like this.  Old family postcards, wedding invitations, random photos - some are ten years old, some fifty years old. Like all old pieces of family ephemera, they need to be digitized to ensure that they are protected in case of loss, decay, or disaster.  I thought, "Why not allow my kids to help me in the process?"  

I placed the battery-operated, cord-free Flip-Pal mobile scanner on the ground with the box of photos and asked my four-year-old daughter to join me. (Isn't it the truth that kids are most comfortable on the floor?)  She was immediately intrigued by this new gadget.  I showed her how it worked and pretty soon, she was scanning like a pro on her own! (It really is THAT simple to use.) As we scanned each photo, we talked about the people in the photo and about how old they were when it was taken.  Just this simple exercise of scanning old photos and postcards was exposing my daughter to decades of family history!

Engaging Children in Family History With the Flip-Pal // GrowingLittleLeaves.com
Engaging Children in Family History with the Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner // GrowingLittleLeaves.com
Now, I have in my possession a family Christmas scrapbook that I made a few (ok, many) years ago using old holiday family photos.  It is over-sized, so it's really impossible to scan the pages on our conventional scanner that is connected to our desktop computer.  I had been planning for many months to make a trip to our local library to use their large scanner to digitize the scrapbook pages. 
Engaging Children in Family History with Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner // GrowingLittleLeaves.com
Not surprisingly, I haven't yet found the time to make it to the library. By myself. Without the kids. When the scanner was available. So, I thought my daughter and I would begin the task of scanning the scrapbook pages with the Flip-Pal mobile scanner.  The Flip-Pal comes with a 4GB SD memory card that is pre-loaded with EasyStitch software - for larger photos or documents, you scan different sections and then the software creates one high-resolution image using all the images.  My daughter was interested in helping me with this, too.

We scanned eight sections of this scrapbook page and here is the image after the software stitched it together.  The EasyStitch software really did a great job; the image quality compared with the original is just about perfect.

Engaging Children in Family History with Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner // GrowingLittleLeaves.com
EasyStitch Scan // GrowingLittleLeaves.com
Aside from the wonderful applications related to old family photos and scrapbooks, there are many other uses for the Flip-Pal that, as a mom, I can think of in my daily life.  Here is a sampling of other items I would scan.  Imagine how much clutter you could rid yourself of!

- Important receipts
- Your child's artwork (Yes, even the over-sized ones with the EasyStitch software!)
- Your child's award ribbons, certificates, and/or merit badges
- Recipes that you've printed out or torn out of magazines
- Ticket stubs, postcards, maps, brochures and other memorabilia from family trips
- Greeting cards that you have received from family members

Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner Giveway

Engaging Children in Family History with Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner // GrowingLittleLeaves.com
This giveaway is for one new Flip-Pal mobile scanner (includes the SD card pre-loaded with the Flip-Pal Toolbox 2 software, SD-USB adapter, and four AA batteries installed) valued at $149.99. One-year limited warranty.  Good Luck to you all!

Liability Disclosures, Rules, and Policy Statement:
No purchase necessary. This contest is open to residents of the U.S. and Canada aged 18 years and older.  The contest will begin at 12:00 a.m. EDT 8/12/2014 and end at 12:00 a.m. EDT 8/20/2014. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning.  Rafflecopter will randomly choose and winner and that winner will be announced on this blog within 48 hours of the contest's end time.  Void where prohibited.  All entrants agree to release of liability of the sponsor, Emily Kowalski Schroeder and the Growing Little Leaves blog.  Winner will be shipped prize directly from manufacturer.

​**THIS RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED**
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Making a Time Capsule

5/23/2014

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It's towards the end of the school year, and one of my Kindergartner's projects was to make a time capsule for himself that we will keep and open when he graduates from high school.  I think it's a great idea, and has applications in the family history realm, which is why I am sharing the idea with you today.

The time capsule is just an ordinary shoe box.  My son was allowed to put in anything that would fit in the box, with the understanding that he wouldn't see these items for twelve years (which meant no toys that he was in any way attached to).  We settled on a little Darth Vader toy and stickers to represent his love of Star Wars.  We got a plastic Lego Movie cup at McDonald's earlier this year, and we decided to have that represent his love of Legos.  The kid loves Altoids mints, so we included an empty tin of those as well.  I printed out some photos of him from throughout the year , and included those in the box.  I threw in a couple of his drawings, too - one of the Solar System, which he loves reading about, and a scene from the movie Frozen.
Making a Time Capsule // GrowingLittleLeaves.com
Making a Time Capsule // GrowingLittleLeaves.com
Making a Time Capsule // GrowingLittleLeaves.com
But my favorite suggestion from the Kindergarten teachers was to include letters from family members.  My husband and I each wrote one.  I also asked his grandparents to write one and my siblings even wrote some, too.  Twelve years is a long time, and, unfortunately, all of the loved ones in my son's life may not be around in the year 2026.  This exercise ensures that, no matter what happens, my son will have a message from all of these people in his life who care about him, and they will be able to wish him well as he starts his adult life, even if they aren't physically present anymore.

Another option, in addition to the letter-writing, would be for parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents to talk about what they would have put in time capsules when they were six years old. Depending on what we have or haven't saved over the years, some of us may even be able to show the child our old toys and childhood drawings and photos.  If none of your childhood stuff is around anymore, you can always just write down the answers to some questions about your childhood.  Put your answers to those questions in the child's time capsule.  Now, they automatically have a simple chronicle of an ancestor's childhood.  And it doesn't require a lot of time or writing on your part - just answering some simple questions, like the ones below:

- What toys did you like to play with?
- How did you get to school?
- What did you wear to school?
- What did you eat for breakfast?
- What books did you like to read?
- What did you like to do for fun?
- What sports did you like to play?
- Who was your favorite family member to visit or spend time with? Why?
- What were your best friends' names?
- What was your favorite holiday? Why?

Right now, in genealogy research, there is such a huge emphasis on interviewing elder family members before the information they know is lost.  Young children are not really interested in sitting down with a family member and asking them to answer questions about their past, but that doesn't mean that they won't want to know this stuff about their ancestors when they get older. And when they open up that time capsule at age 18, and read a heartfelt letter from a grandparent, that just may spark an interest doing a little more research about that person's life.  And we all know how much that can snowball, of course.  :-)

©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder. ​
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    Emily Kowalski Schroeder

    Founder and Author of Growing Little Leaves

    Emily Kowalski Schroeder / Founder and Author of GrowingLittleLeaves.com

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