Wherever we may be, my husband and I are big fans of stopping to read historical markers. So, even at their relatively young ages, our kids are familiar with the purpose and importance of historical markers.
This blog is mostly about trying to help kids learn about the lives of their ancestors, but before they can really understand and appreciate the importance of certain events in an ancestor's life, they need to be able to view their own lives as a continuum of similar events and accomplishments. Once they reflect upon their own lives, they will have a better understanding of WHY preserving our ancestors' lives and stories is so important.
Kids live their lives 'in the now.' They don't spend much time looking back at their past accomplishments. But I'm here to tell you know that they SHOULD look back every now and then. Adults are always trying to get children to learn something new or improve upon their skills - always moving forward - but there is value in showing a child how far they have already come. So, today I'm going show you how I created a representative 'roadtrip' of personal historical markers for my 7-year-old son.
This blog is mostly about trying to help kids learn about the lives of their ancestors, but before they can really understand and appreciate the importance of certain events in an ancestor's life, they need to be able to view their own lives as a continuum of similar events and accomplishments. Once they reflect upon their own lives, they will have a better understanding of WHY preserving our ancestors' lives and stories is so important.
Kids live their lives 'in the now.' They don't spend much time looking back at their past accomplishments. But I'm here to tell you know that they SHOULD look back every now and then. Adults are always trying to get children to learn something new or improve upon their skills - always moving forward - but there is value in showing a child how far they have already come. So, today I'm going show you how I created a representative 'roadtrip' of personal historical markers for my 7-year-old son.
Supplies needed:
Black posterboard
Ruler
Pen or Pencil
Scissors
White electrical tape
Glue
White paper with which to make the road markers
Computer with printer and internet access (optional)
First, measure out and cut a black posterboard into three equal-width strips. (With my posterboard, I ended up with three 7" wide strips.) When you tape these together, they will be your road. Next, simply find the middle of the strips and cut short pieces of white electric tap to make the road lines.
Black posterboard
Ruler
Pen or Pencil
Scissors
White electrical tape
Glue
White paper with which to make the road markers
Computer with printer and internet access (optional)
First, measure out and cut a black posterboard into three equal-width strips. (With my posterboard, I ended up with three 7" wide strips.) When you tape these together, they will be your road. Next, simply find the middle of the strips and cut short pieces of white electric tap to make the road lines.
Next, I used Microsoft Word to create simple shapes for the historical markers. You can also just as easily cut out the shapes by hand.
You and your child will have to decide what important life events to include on the markers. You could write it out in narrative form or, as we did, just list the facts of each event. We chose some of the obvious important events like, birth, baptism, first day of school, and learning to walk. We also included things like first major league baseball game and learning how to read. To make each marker more visually-appealing, we downloaded symbols to represent each event at openclipart.org. Then, we glued the markers to the road.
Can't have a roadtrip without a vehicle, so we also downloaded a car image from openclipart.org. We placed it at my son's most recent big accomplishment (riding a bike), and the car will move forward every time we add a new marker. And don't forget to make sure the road goes on past the most recent marker. Kids will have fun striving towards new accomplishments worthy of being a part of their own personal history roadtrip! I plan on hanging this up in my son's room, so he always has a reminder of everything he has done so far.
This idea also can be used to create timelines of ancestors' lives. Thanks for reading, and remember all activities featured on this blog can be found on the Activities page of GrowingLittleLeaves.com