Family History Project Idea: Grandparent Journal for Homeschooling

Hi.

This is Leo. For my homeschool, I have been been working on a family history project. I think family history projects are a great idea for homeschool. My mom’s friend gave us a great idea about a Family History Project with a grandparent journal and we added it to our project. We are giving it for Christmas. If you want to do it too, you can. I think it is a great christmas present so if you are looking for a present, you can try this one here!

This is what the journals look like:

Here is the letter I wrote and the questions for my grandparents:

December 25, 2014

Dear _________________________,

Merry, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! As you know, I have been working on my Family History Project. The project has been a little bit slow and it is taking a long time. Our friend Marybeth sent us an idea to do a journal with grandparents and this might be more fun and a better way to start my family history project and keep it organized.

I am including my first list of questions to you. I want you to know that there are no rules. You can answer some, or all, of the questions. You can answer them in order or in any order that you like. You can add in information, or skip over questions. You can draw pictures, include photographs, whatever you want to do. This is your journal that you will share with us. Above all, I want it to be fun for you.

Also, I would love for YOU to write questions for ME. I’m going to have my own About Me journal and I will answer all of my grandparents’ questions in that journal. Each time you visit me, I would love for you to bring your journal and I will have mine, too. We can share our journals with each other and talk about all the memories.

When you finish this first set of questions, I’m going to think of more. If we run out of space, I will get another book for you. We are really excited about this project and we hope you have fun with it too!

We love you!

Love,

And here is the first set of questions:

1. What were your parents’ and grandparents’ names? Where were they born? What were their occupations? Can you share a memory or two about your parents/grandparents?
2. Who was your oldest relative when you were a child? What do you remember about them?
3. Can you share a story about how your family came to this country? Can you share a story about where they came from and how life changed?
4. When and where were you born? How many children were in your family? Where were you in the sibling line-up? Did you get along with each other?
5. What was your house/apartment like? Did you ever move? Was there any special things in your house that you remember?
6. What is your earliest childhood memory?
7. Did you have any pets? What types? What were their names?
8. What was your religion when you were growing up? Did you go to church? Can you share a memory from church?
9. What did your family do for fun? Did you take vacations?
10. Did your family eat dinner together? Do you remember favorite and least favorite meals? Does your family have any special recipes? Can you share them?
11. How did your family celebrate holidays? Did you have any special traditions that you enjoyed?
12. What was your favorite toy? What was your favorite book as a child? Can you remember your favorite song, show, or movie when you were little?
13. Did you ever collect anything?
14. Did you have chores? Did you get an allowance? If you did, what did you spend it on?
15. Were you ever in the newspaper?
16. What games and sports did you like to play as a kid? How did you spend your free time?
17. What do you remember about your neighborhood?
18. Who was your very first friend? Who was your closest childhood friend(s)? What did you like to do together?
19. What was the name of your grammar school, junior high school, high school, and college? Where were they located?
20. Who was your favorite teacher?
21. What was your favorite subject? Your least favorite?
22. Were you involved in school sports, drama, music, community service, or other extra curricular activities?
23. What did you want to be when you grew up?
24. What was your very first job? What was it like? What was your favorite job ever?
25. Did you go to college? What was it like?

Hope you like this idea. Merry Christmas!

Leo

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Caitlin Fitzpatrick Curley

Cait is a school psychologist, mom to three amazing children, and an unexpected homeschooler. She loves nature, good books, board games, strong coffee, and dancing in her kitchen. You can read about all of these things and more at My Little Poppies.

Cait co-hosts The Homeschool Sisters Podcast and is co-founder of Raising Poppies, a community for parents of gifted and twice-exceptional children. Cait is also founder of the Family Book Club at My Little Poppies, a fantastic community of book-loving parents and the Gameschool Community at My Little Poppies, a vibrant community of gameschoolers.

Cait is a contributing writer for Simple Homeschool and GeekMom. Her work has also appeared on The Huffington Post, The Mighty, and Scary Mommy. You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram
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