Growing Little Leaves: Family History for Children - Growing Little Leaves: Genealogy for Children

Grandparents Day Worksheets

8/24/2018

Sunday, September 9 is Grandparents Day this year. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that, over the years, I've created several activities designed to help kids either learn more about their grandparents or make emotional connections with them. Grandparents are the embodiments of family history to children, and we can work to get children more interested in their family history just by tapping into the special relationship grandparents and grandchildren already share.

Today, I've created a few simple Grandparent worksheets that even the youngest children can use to celebrate and interact with their grandparents. All of the worksheets involve drawing. Drawing pictures allows even the youngest children to get their 'thoughts' down on paper, and I wanted these worksheets to be as age-inclusive as possible. (For each set of worksheets, I've included versions with a few different forms of grandparent 'names:' Grandma, Nana, or Mamaw and Grandpa, Papa, or Papaw. If you would like a version made with different grandparent name, just let me know; it's super-easy for me to adjust one for your situation.)

The first set of worksheets is for children to draw a portrait of their grandparent. This can be done with their grandparent 'sitting' for the portrait or it can be done from a photo or from the child's memory. Your child may even want to present their portrait as a gift to their grandparent. (Click on either image below to download PDF. It is 6 pages long.)

My Amazing Grandparents FREE Worksheets / GrowingLittleLeaves.com

My Amazing Grandparents FREE Worksheet // GrowingLittleLeaves.com

The next two sets of worksheets also involve drawing, but the purpose of them is to get the child to ASK his or her grandparent 'What are your favorite things to do?' and 'What are your favorite foods?' With these two questions, a child is interviewing a family elder and recording that person's response in the form of drawings. Now, these aren't earth-shattering questions, but they are questions that a young child understands and finds interesting. The goal is to simply show a young child how to ask a person questions about himself or herself and write down what they are told. (That's the essence of an interview.) Hopefully, with time, the child will grow to ask their grandparents more in-depth questions about themselves and their lives. (Click on each image below for a six-page PDF.)

Grandparent Favorite Things to Do FREE Worksheet // GrowingLittleLeaves.com

Grandparent Favorite Foods FREE Worksheet / GrowingLittleLeaves.com

These sets of worksheets are deliberately basic and uncomplicated. I wanted them to be easy to reproduce, and I WANT you to use them at whatever Grandparents Day function your church, school, elder care home, community center, or library may be hosting or sponsoring. Below are links to other grandparent-related activities I've written about in the past:

Grandparent Pyramid
50 Books for Grandparents Day
Grandparent Butterflies
Grandparents As Teachers
In Grandma's Kitchen (printable)
Roll A Memory Game
Books About Grandparents and Memory Journals

©2018 Emily Kowalski Schroeder

Grandparents As Teachers

8/24/2017

Grandparents As Teachers with FREE Printables from GrowingLittleLeaves.com

Grandparents Day is coming up on Sunday, September 10, so I have been thinking a lot about ways in which to remember, honor, and document our relationships with our grandparents.

When my brother and I were young children, there was a period during which both of our parents were working full time and our grandparents watched us during the day. And I was thinking about that time the other day and realized how much our grandma and grandpa taught us while they were caring for us.

Naturally, my grandparents had a role in teaching us how to be nice to each other and how to use good manners and things of that nature, but they also taught us a lot of practical skills. My grandmother taught me how to sew a button. She would give me an old sock and her tin of random buttons, and I would just keep sewing on buttons until my fingers hurt. My grandfather taught us how to play the card game, Uno. He also taught my brother how to play chess, but I didn't have the patience for it at the time. He was a woodworking hobbyist, and he taught us how to hammer a nail and use a vise to hold things while you were working on them.

These may seem like small little everyday memories, but now that my grandparents are gone, they mean the world to me. I want to document those memories, so my kids have some insights into my relationship with my grandparents. I also want my kids to think about what their grandparents have taught them (and are still teaching them).

I created these simple printables for getting kids to think about how their grandparents have been a teacher to them. Please feel free to use them with your family, playgroup, or church group. This activity is not limited to children - adults can and should also write about or draw what their grandparents taught them. My intents for these worksheets are: 1.) To get families talking about the importance of the grandparent-grandchild relationship and 2.) To provide a concrete, kid-friendly way in which to document some of our everyday memories of our grandparents. (Click on either image to download the two-page PDF.)

What Grandma Taught Me FREE Printable from GrowingLittleLeaves.com

What Grandpa Taught Me FREE Printable from GrowingLittleLeaves.com

If you are a grandparent or grandparent-to-be, here are a few resources I found online that speak to a grandparent's role as a teacher:

Five Important Things Grandparents Can Teach Grandchildren
10 Things Grandchildren Can Learn From Their Grandparents
Grandparents Are Teachers, Too (Infographic)

I also want to draw your attention to a Grandparents Day campaign organized by CaringAcrossGenerations.org, to let your lawmakers know how much we value the aging population AND the caregivers who dedicate their lives to upholding their quality of life. If you go to this website (postcards.care), you can create a postcard. Upload a photo of a loved one, briefly tell their story or say why they matter to you, and the postcard will be sent to your Senators, free of charge.

©2017 Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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Mother's Day Adjective Worksheets

4/20/2017

FREE Mother's Day Adjective Worksheets from GrowingLittleLeaves.com

The other day, my Kindergartner brought home a worksheet about adjectives ('describing words,' as they call them). And that gave me an idea for some Mother's Day-themed worksheets involving adjectives.

I always love it when my kids bring home crafts, worksheets, or other projects from school that show they were thinking of me or another family member. These worksheets will encourage kids to think of words to describe their mom, or a person in their life who acts as a mother figure.

The first worksheet is very simple and includes ten boxes in which a child can write descriptive words about their mom and draw a picture of her. (If a child is not yet writing, have an adult write down what they say.)

The second worksheet includes a flower on which the child can draw or glue a photo (of any mother figure in their lives) in the center and write a descriptive word in each flower petal. The flower can then be cut out and given to that person for Mother's Day. This flower worksheet may also be used to honor a deceased mother figure in your family. Encouraging kids to write down their memories of loved ones, even if it is just one word at a time, is an important step in learning how to document family history and memories.

Click on each image to download a PDF.

I hope that you and the children in your life find these worksheets helpful and enjoyable as you and your family prepare to celebrate Mother's Day next month.

©2017 Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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Celebrating Family Creativity

1/14/2016

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!)

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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Drawing Ancestor Jobs

9/6/2015

On September 7, the United States and Canada celebrate Labo(u)r Day. It's a great time to use this day off of work and school to talk with kids about their ancestors' occupations. Of course, there are many jobs of the past that do not even exist these days (or some that are not much in the public eye), so talking about some of these jobs with kids can be educational in and of itself.

I created a very simple worksheet to make the conversation more hands-on for children. There is a place to write the ancestor's name and occupation, and then a larger area in which the child can draw a picture of that ancestor doing their job. (Click on the image below to download the PDF.)

Ancestor Jobs FREE Worksheet by GrowingLittleLeaves.com

Ancestor Jobs Worksheet

My second grader loves to draw, so he was eager to do this. First, I showed him a snippet from the 1860 U.S. Census. I told him who this was in terms he could understand - 'Great-Grandma's Great-Grandpa' - and showed him the column that listed each person's occupation.

Ancestor Jobs Worksheet by GrowingLittleLeaves.com

1860 U.S. Census for John M. Drees

I asked him if he knew what a Blacksmith did. He said, "A guy who makes swords and armor." (Apparently, there are medieval-type blacksmiths in the Minecraft video game, which is where he got this knowledge.) I told him that at the time and place during which this particular ancestor lived, blacksmiths made things like horseshoes, farming tools, and building supplies like nails or bolts.

We sat down and used our iPad to search for images of the tools Blacksmiths used in their work. For example, he did not know what an anvil was or what it looked like, so that's one of the things we looked up.

Ancestor Jobs with FREE Worksheet by GrowingLittleLeaves.com

We Googled images of Blacksmith tools.

Here is his completed worksheet. He still drew the blacksmith making a sword. :-)

Ancestor Jobs Worksheet // GrowingLittleLeaves.com

Ancestor Jobs Worksheet

This is another one of those activities you could complete for many ancestors, and then compile the worksheets into a folder or binder to have a nice ancestor record set to look at again and again. And I think the kids would have fun going back through their drawings and would hopefully feel some pride in their work.

May you and your family have a wonderful, relaxing Labo(u)r Day!

©2015 Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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Write To A Veteran

11/5/2014

Tuesday, November 11, is Veterans Day here in America, when we remember and honor those citizens, past and present, living and deceased who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces.

I've talked with my kids about family members who have served, those they have met and those who have passed away. We've looked at some old photos and talked about when and where our relatives have served. Even though they may not understand all of the history, issues, and politics involved with military affairs, it's important to talk with young children about the sacrifices servicemen and women and their families make to help protect our nation and our liberties.

Today, I asked my son if he would like to write a letter and maybe draw a picture for a family veteran, and he said yes. He actually chose to write two letters - one to my uncle who served in the Army during the Vietnam era and one to my husband's grandfather who is an Army WWII veteran.

Write To A Veteran // GrowingLittleLeaves.com

He wrote simple letters with a greeting, a short thank you statement, and then signed his name at the end. We focused on sounding out words and spelling them correctly. I wasn't too strict sentence structure and capitalization this time, but that is definitely something you can work on during this exercise.

On the opposite side of each letter, he drew pictures - one with an eagle and one with an American flag.

Write To A Veteran // GrowingLittleLeaves.com

If your family doesn't have a veteran or active member of the military to write to (or even if you do), consider writing a letter and sending it to Operation Gratitude, an organization that collects letters and care packages and distributes them to active military members and veterans. They provide their services year-round, so please consider sending in letters more than once a year.

©2014, Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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Sketch A Family Photo

11/3/2014

Do you have a child who loves to draw? My six year old son LOVES to draw, so I knew that he would be up for this activity as soon as I mentioned drawing. Asking your child to sketch a photo is a very simple, no-cost way of getting kids to look closer at old family photos. All you need for this activity are family photos, paper, and any sort of drawing utensils (pencils, crayons, markers).

Let your child choose which photo he/she wants to sketch. We sat down at my laptop and looked through a bunch of photos. To my surprise, my son said that he wanted a photo with "only a person." He chose an old black-and-white portrait of his Italian great-great-great-grandmother, Cristina Licciardi.

I asked him if he wanted to use crayons, markers, or colored pencils and he chose markers. He wanted to draw his sketch in color, and he mentioned to me how he would have to imagine what the colors would be, since the photo was all black and white. That's right, dude, and I told him that, when this photo was taken, color photography technology did not exist.

Sketch a Family Photo // GrowingLittleLeaves.com

Working on his family photo sketch.

As he was drawing, I was amazed at how closely he looked at the photo's details - the hair, the clothing, the jewelry. We had looked through old family photos before, but he was never really willing to stop and look at stuff like that. He becomes quite focused when drawing, and this particular sketch became a challenge to him. He was not used to drawing women with a hairstyle like this, or with a such a high shirt collar. He told me that he felt he 'messed up' on a couple of parts - he can be quite the perfectionist - but I think he did a fine job. And it gave us a chance to talk about how this woman was related to him and where she was from, not to mentioned our discussions about photography and clothing and hairstyles of the past.

Sketch a Family Photo // GrowingLittleLeaves.com

Sketch A Family Photo // GrowingLittleLeaves.com

Again, let your child(ren)'s interests drive HOW you teach them about their families and their ancestry. Design activities around their interests and you can't go wrong. On this day, we may have only talked about one ancestor, but quality is always better than quantity.

As always, feel free to send in photo sketches that your kids have done. I'd love to see them!

©2014, Emily Kowalski Schroeder.

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Family Heritage Flags

10/6/2014

Family Heritage Flags // GrowingLittleLeaves.com

Today, October 6, is German American Heritage Day. On this day in 1683, the first group of German immigrants to settle in America sailed into the Port of Philadelphia. I do not have any German ancestry myself, but many, many of my husband's ancestors were from Germany, and so my children share in that German heritage.

I wanted to do a simple craft or hands-on activity to 'celebrate' the day with my kids - nothing too complex or too difficult to understand, especially for my four year old. One thing that both of them seem to understand is that different countries have different flags. They recognize the American flag when they see it, and during the Summer Olympics earlier this year, we looked at and talked about other nations' flags. So, I thought, why not do a craft involving the German flag?

Fortunately now, in the age of the Internet, it is super, super easy to look up what each country's flag looks like. There are also several free-access websites that allow you to print off blank black-and-white versions of world flags for coloring or other crafts. This website has eight pages of printable black-and-white flags for nearly every nation of the world (scroll down to see links to all eight pages of flags). This website is not as globally-comprehensive as the previous link, but for the countries that are represented, the coloring printables go beyond just the country's flag. It has maps, symbols, folklore pictures, and other cultural items related to that nationality.

I printed out two blank German flags. My daughter simply colored - ok, scribbled - one of the flags with crayons. I found a picture of the German flag on my phone and asked her to copy it. Then, we used a circular paper punch to make red, black, and yellow circles that she glued onto the other flag I had printed out. Her artistic interpretation was minimalistic, but that's ok! Let the children be creative with it and design the activity around what your child enjoys. You could color it by finger-painting, or maybe by gluing on small colored pompon balls. You could even use colored beads or candy, like M&Ms. You could tear off small pieces of paper, glue them on, and make a mosaic.

Family Heritage Flags // GrowingLittleLeaves.com

Family Heritage Flags // GrowingLittleLeaves.com

Family Heritage Flags // GrowingLittleLeaves.com

As you are doing this activity, be sure to show your child where the country is located, using either an atlas, globe, or a map on the Internet. Younger children who are still learning colors will benefit from identifying the individual colors within each flag. With older children, you can discuss the symbolism within the flag - what the colors and pictures represent. (In Wikipedia, if you type in 'Flag of (country),' the site will return a page that is all about the symbolism and history of that country's flag.) And, of course, be sure to mention who in their family tree has ancestral roots in that country. For younger children, it could be as simple as saying, 'Grandma and Grandpa S's ancestors came to America from Germany a long time ago.' As children get older, little by little you can start talking about specific years of immigration and names of ancestors.

Our children are fortunate to live in a time and place that recognizes the importance of ethnic diversity and celebrates different cultures throughout the year. Of course, you don't have to wait until a special month or day to celebrate your family's heritage, but it is a good idea to know when these months occur because your community or surrounding communities may have special ethnic celebrations to look out for. Here is a list of some of the common heritage months and days in America, as well as some traditional holidays still celebrated in the 'old countries.'

African-American History Month (February)

Irish American History Month (March)
St. Patrick’s Day (March 17)

Greek American Heritage Month (March)

Arab American Heritage Month (April)

Scottish American Heritage Month (April)
National Tartan Day (April 6)

Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (May)

Cinco de Mayo – Mexican American (May 5)

Haitian Heritage Month (May)

Jewish American Heritage Month (May)

Caribbean American Heritage Month (June)

French American Heritage Month (July)
Bastille Day (July 14)

Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 – October 15)
Mexican Independence Day (September 16)

Italian American Heritage Month (October)

Leif Erikson Day – Norwegian American (October 9)

German American Heritage Month (October)
German American Heritage Day (October 6)

Filipino American Heritage Month (October)

Polish American Heritage Month (October)

Native American Heritage Month (November)
Native American Heritage Day (Friday after Thanksgiving)

Dutch American Heritage Day (November 16)

St. Lucia’s Day – Traditional Scandinavian Holiday (Dec 13)

©2014, Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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The Family Pumpkin Vine

10/2/2014

Family Pumpkin Vine // GrowingLittleLeaves.com

October is Family History Month here in the U.S, and as the weather turns cooler, it's a great time to do some family-related crafts indoors. As people celebrate the harvest, autumn, and Halloween, October is also the month of the pumpkin!

Pumpkins, of course, grow on vines, but it's a little more complex than that. A main vine sprouts from the ground, and then other secondary vines grow outward from, but still connected to, the main vine. And actually, if left unpruned, tertiary vines can grow outward from the secondary vines. As the plant grows, you may get many unique pumpkins growing along many separate and different-sized vines, yet all of the individual pumpkins are somehow connected to the main vine. If that doesn't sound like a family, I don't know what does! So, I thought that in honor of pumpkin season, we could put the family tree analogy on a temporary hiatus and create a family pumpkin vine instead.

I recently encountered this post over on Pretty Prudent about making pumpkin stamps out of toilet paper rolls. Take an empty toilet paper roll, fold a little crease into one side, and tape the top so that the crease stays in place. (I used a similar technique in our Mother's Day Garden of Hearts that we made back in May.) I did this with three separate tubes, because I had purchased three different shades of acrylic orange paint. Pumpkins are oftentimes very different shades of orange and I thought it would give the final product a little more dimension. Plus, these little bottles of paint were only $0.50 at Wal-Mart.

Family Pumpkin Vine // GrowingLittleLeaves.com

Family Pumpkin Vine // GrowingLittleLeaves.com

I tore a sheet of paper out of an oversized sketch pad and squirted a little bit of each color paint onto a disposable plate. Then, my daughter got to work stamping pumpkins all over the paper. I didn't tell her how many to stamp or when to stop, but if you have a specific number of people in your family you would like to represent, you can help the child count out the right amount of pumpkins.

Family Pumpkin Vine // GrowingLittleLeaves.com

Family Pumpkin Vine // GrowingLittleLeaves.com

After the paint dried, we got out a green marker to draw the vines.

Family Pumpkin Vine // GrowingLittleLeaves.com

When she was done drawing the vines, I asked her who in our family each pumpkin would represent. She included her immediate family members, grandparents, a few aunts and uncles, a cousin, and even a grand aunt and grand uncle. I wrote down each family member's name, but if you have an older child, you can ask them to write the names - it's good practice. Here is my daughter's finished pumpkin patch!

Family Pumpkin Vine // GrowingLittleLeaves.com

As I have mentioned before, getting even the youngest children interested in and educated in family history begins with them realizing just who is in their family and how they are related to those people. Repeatedly talking about and identifying family members will help children better piece together the 'family puzzle.' When you also make it fun, as they grow, they will associate exploring family relationships as a positive and interesting experience.

©2014, Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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The Shoe Box Timeline

5/28/2014

The idea of 'timelining" your ancestors has been prominent in recent years among genealogy researchers. Timelines help us organize our sources, create a story of our ancestors' lives, and place their lives into perspective within the larger realms of local and world history. Several genealogy software programs these days offer the option to create timelines from our family trees, and there are even some websites that will do it for you, too.

While young children do not necessarily have a mature concept of time, they do understand the progression of basic life events: birth and school as children, marriage and having children as adults, death (usually) as an older person. I wanted to create a fun, hands-on way to teach my son about one of his ancestors using a timeline. So, we created a shoe box timeline. Here are the materials you will need:

- Empty shoe box with lid.
- Exacto knife or sharp scissors that will cut through the shoe box.
- White paper
- Tape
- Markers or crayons
- Family documents and/or photos pertaining to one ancestor

First, you will need to use the knife or scissors to cut a 'window' into the shoe box. (Definitely a job for the adult!). The lid to your box should look something like this when you are done:

Shoe Box Timeline // GrowingLittleLeaves.com

Next, you will need several sheets of ordinary white paper. The number of sheets you will need depends on how many life events your timeline will cover. You may need to trim the height of the paper so that it will easily slip through the sides of the box. Then, tape the paper together so that you have one looooong sheet of paper that you can run through the box.

On the box itself, you will need to either lift the side flaps on the lid (as I did in the photo above), OR remove the side flaps of the lid all together, so that the paper can easily slip through. You will also have to tape the box lid to the main part of the box, otherwise it will fall forward when you set it on its side like this.

The next step will be to choose an ancestor for the timeline. Because it was Memorial Day, I suggested to my son that we use my maternal grandfather who was a WWII veteran. I got out my laptop and showed my son some photos of his great-grandfather. First, we talked about when he was born. For each life event, I wrote down the year in which it occurred, and my son wrote it on the picture he drew for that event. Even just writing the years down can teach kids a lot about the past and the passage of time; my son will be writing '20**' on his school papers and emails and work reports for the rest of his life - I'm pretty sure that, before this, he didn't realize what years really looked like before the year 2000.

My grandfather's birth: I told my son he had six older siblings when he was born, so he drew people to represent them all.

The Shoe Box Timeline // GrowingLittleLeaves.com

The other events he drew pictures for were high school graduation, joining the army, getting married, and having children. After that, he had had enough, which brings me to an important point. The child with whom you are working may get tired of the project before he/she has completed the entire life timeline. That's okay and completely normal! Put it away, come back to it later and finish it when he/she is ready. Also, be sure to use the opportunity to mention important historical events and how they affected your ancestor's life - in this case, we talked about WWII and how so many people got married and had children afterwards.

Shoe Box Timeline // GrowingLittleLeaves.com

High School Graduation

Shoe Box Timeline // GrowingLittleLeaves.com

Serving in WWII

Here is what the timeline looks like all stretched out. (Click for larger view.) Both of my kids liked pulling it through the shoe box, and you could even pretend like it's a little movie production. When you are done, you can just roll up the paper and store it in the box for later.

Shoe Box Timeline // GrowingLittleLeaves.com

So, if you know young children who like to draw, try this activity with them. They may enjoy it more than you know, and you could end up with timelines for several ancestors. (If you do try it, send me a photo! I'd love it see it!)

Shoe Box Timeline // GrowingLittleLeaves.com

©2014, Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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