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Book Review: The Keeping Quilt and The Blessing Cup

10/4/2016

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Over the past 30 years or so, author and illustrator Patricia Polacco has created some amazing and poignant works of children's literature, many of them surrounding historical events and some of them based on her own family history. The Keeping Quilt and The Blessing Cup are two of my favorites, and are based on the lives of her Russian Jewish ancestors.
Book Review: The Keeping Quilt and The Blessing Cup by Patricia Polacco - GrowingLittleLeaves.com
In The Keeping Quilt, we meet a young girl, Anna, whose family has just immigrated to the U.S. from Russia. We hear about the family's struggles in adapting to new life in a big city and learning a new language, but we are also witness to the important roles of community and family in immigrant life. The book follows the journey of a handmade quilt passed along through several generations and how it served family members as a tablecloth, wedding huppah, baby blanket, and even a play tent. This story is a charming example of how an heirloom can come to represent a family's history, people, and experiences. The Keeping Quilt is appropriate for all ages. 

The Blessing Cup is a prequel to The Keeping Quilt. It tells the story of Anna's family before they came to America - about what life was like in Russia. This story is more intense than The Keeping Quilt from an emotional standpoint, because it does allude to the terror felt by the family and village people during the Russian pogroms, and about the hardships the family goes through on their journey out of Russia and eventually to America. However, it also demonstrates the kindness, generosity, and sacrifice of strangers. And through all of their ordeals, there is another heirloom that comes to represent the family's journey - a cup from a tea set given to Anna's parents as a wedding gift.

I would recommend The Blessing Cup for ages 7 and up. As mentioned above, the historical events within the story are more complex, and some younger children may not emotionally process it or understand it as well as older children. It is, however, a good story to help you initiate discussion with your children about immigration push-and-pull factors throughout history, particularly with respect to people of the Jewish faith.

I've written before about how important it is to introduce our children to family heirlooms at an early age. Heirlooms are concrete, tangible items that link us to the people in our family who came before us. After reading these books to your children or grandchildren, share some of your family's most cherished heirlooms with them, and better yet, share the stories and memories that accompany those heirlooms. 

*This post does NOT contain affiliate links*


©2016 Emily Kowalski Schroeder
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Introducing Old Technology

6/30/2014

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Introducing Old Technology // GrowingLittleLeaves.com
Lately, I've been thinking a lot about ways in which to help children understand what life was like in the past - to make the past more concrete to them.  When you really think about a child's current life span - 4, 5, 6 years - you start to realize how limited their view of time is, which, of course, means that they don't have much of a reference point regarding changes in history and technology.  But if we, as the older adults, show them tools and technologies from the past, it can spark an interest in how people lived before their time.  And then us savvy family historians can start talking about WHO in our families lived during those times and actually used those tools and technologies.

Kids. Their natural curiosities literally make them gravitate towards anything that looks or works differently from what they are used to in their everyday lives.  This curiosity oftentimes makes them much better than adults at figuring out new technologies, but why not direct their interest backwards in time, instead?  The kids and I visited my parents last week, and like many others of their generation, they had some older technology around the house that my kids had never really encountered before.  Now, to most of you reading this, what you will see in these photos will be nothing special to you - a record player, a rotary phone - but to most children, these items are literally history in front of them.

My son and I went down in my parents' basement where they keep their old records and record player. Now, records are sort of enjoying a bit of a renaissance and becoming more popular again in certain circles, so some children today ARE growing up with record players in their homes. My husband and I do not have one right now, so this was something new to my son.  I found an album that would be of the most interest to him, and I showed him how to use the player.  Not surprisingly, he was very interested in how the sound went from the record, "through the needle," and into the speakers.  He enjoyed looking at the album 'art,' and while he was doing all this, I was explaining to him that THIS was how his grandparents and great-grandparents listened to music in their homes.  I told him that this album was even older than me and he seemed pretty impressed at that.

Introducing Old Technology // GrowingLittleLeaves.com
Introducing Old Technology // GrowingLittleLeaves.com
Introducing Old Technology // GrowingLittleLeaves.com
Having him explore the rotary phone was fun, too.  My husband and I do not even have a land-based telephone line at our house - we use mobile phones all the time - so my kids are not even aware of having phones that you can only use at home.  And the people who they do see with 'home' phones - like their grandparents - have wireless handsets, so even just the concept of a phone with a cord is novel to the kids.  Add to that equation a funky-looking circular dial and, to the kids, this thing looks like something from another world.
Introducing Old Technology // GrowingLittleLeaves.com
My son picked up the receiver and heard a dial tone.  He asked, "What's that?"  (Again, not something he has ever encountered in his life.)  We showed him how you had to put your fingers in the holes and move the dial in order to reach a certain number.  Then, I called this phone with my mobile and, boy, did that ring startle him!  (You forget how loud those ringers really are on these phones.)  And, again, I explained that this was how people made telephone calls before mobile phones.  You had to be at home and you could only move as far away from the phone as the cord would let you.  Sometime, I am going to find a photo of an even older phone and explain to him that you'd have to ask a telephone operator to connect your call!
Introducing Old Technology // GrowingLittleLeaves.com
So, as you can see, you don't need truly antique items around your house to begin on conversation about the past with your children.  Start teaching them about your OWN past before you start to tell them about great-grandma.  Of course, if you DO have true antiques from the past, I'm sure the kids would love to see and hear about those, as well.  My parents use an old cast iron pressing iron as a door stop, and next time we visit, I'll show it to my kids and tell them that people used to have to heat the entire iron near the fire or on the old stove if they wanted to get the wrinkles out of their clothing.

©2014, Emily Kowalski Schroeder. 
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What Is An Heirloom?

4/7/2014

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What Is An Heirloom? // GrowingLittleLeaves.com
he last couple of family history activities we've done have been a little more advanced and geared towards my son's age (6+), so I decided to do a little something simpler with my 3 year old daughter today now that my Kindergartner is back in school.  

We read the book, Ella the Elegant Elephant by Carmela and Steven D'amico.  Ella is a young elephant who has just moved into town with her mother, who is a baker.  Ella is worried about starting school when she finds that her grandmother (who we never meet in the story) has given her lucky hat to her.  The book goes onto teach a valuable lesson about bullying and about how to love and help even our enemies.  The hat ends up being a magical hat, and the story ends quite happily. 

After we finished the book, I went back to the part at which Ella first gets the hat, and I asked my daughter, "Who gave Ella the hat?"  She correctly said, "Grandma."  I told her that when grandparents give us something that used to belong to them, it is called an 'heirloom.'  I asked her if she could say that word, and she did (it came out sounding more like 'air-whoom, which was pretty cute.).  

Then, I showed her a cookie tin that used to belong to my grandmother.  I told her that my grandma used to bake cookies, and then keep the cookies inside of it.  I let her have it and we went to get her play cookies.  She put some of her cookies in the tin, along with some of her other play food.  I repeated the word 'heirloom' a couple of more times, and then told her that anything could be an heirloom - a book, a quilt or blanket, jewelry, even an old toy.  I didn't do so at the time, but you could even ask the child what he/she would like to pass on to someone someday as an heirloom.

What Is An Heirloom? // GrowingLittleLeaves.com
What Is An Heirloom? // GrowingLittleLeaves.com
I've mentioned it before, but it's difficult to know exactly how much information a 3 year mind can soak in.  But using real, concrete family 'treasures' is a great way to get even the youngest children to think about the people who came before them.  Repetition is key at this age.  I'll continue to let her play with this every so often so we can talk about it, and I have a music box/snowglobe from my other grandmother that I will probably introduce to her soon.  Maybe next time I will even bring out some photos of my grandmothers so she can associate a face with the heirloom. (Baby steps, though; overwhelming them with too much information at once will just lead to confusion and disinterest.)

©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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