Researching Roots

Help your child connect with the past by researching your family tree. Researching your roots can be a fascinating past-time that brings past events alive and makes them more than dates in a dusty text book.

Here are some tips from the “Kids Korner” of Cobblestone Legacies:

Getting started

Start with yourself and your family. Using a form called an Individual Summary Sheet to record your findings. Record basic information about each person and their family - when and where they were born, names of their parents,  names of their children, and details about their life.

Then use the  Family Tree Chart. This chart shows all your ancestors, you and you brothers and sisters, your parents and grandparents.

You can find the following resources as well as some great writing tips for writing your family history at Cobblestone Legacey’s Kids Korner:

Family Interviews – a list of questions to ask when talking with your grandparents or great grandparents, your aunts and uncles, or anyone else you want to find out about. (a PDF file)

Family Tree Charts – a variety of special charts to show your family tree.

Individual Summary Sheet - an easy to use form to record a variety of information about an individual. (a PDF file)

Family Group Sheet – a handy form to record all the information about one family. If there are more than three children in the family, use the Family Group Sheet continuation form for other children. Print as many as you need for your own use. (PDF files)

Happy Researching!

Educat

Win a date with Robert Munsch!

This family story writing contest by one of my favourite authors, my be just the bbost to help your reluctant writer.  At least one adult and one child 12 or under must write the story to be entered.

This just came in my mailbox from yummymummy :In celebration of Family Literacy Day, ABC Life Literacy Canada is having The Munsch at Home Contest!  All you have to do to enter is write a fun story with your family about playing games and submit it online.  The grand prize winner will receive:
A personal visit from Robert Munsch
A public story-telling event with Robert Munsch
PLUS, your story will be published
10 runner-up stories will also receive a special Family Literacy Day prize pack, and their story will be published on the ABC Life Literacy Canada website.

Click to enter...

Which stories should I tell this week at the Munch a Bunch of Munsch fest at the Omemee Library? Come out and learn to clone an author!

Win a mini Munsch book pack

What is your favourite Robert Munsch Story? Why? Are you like me and can’t get through “Love you Forever”? Do you relate to the calamity of “Moira’s Birthday”? Are you uplifted by “Angela’s Airplane?”

Draw will be held when there are 25 entrants. One entry per household.

Follow this blog and leave your confidential contact information in a comment and you could win a mini Munsch book pack from me! Give away:open to adult residents of Canada

Additional entries for this giveaway-

• Rt #Win a Robert #Munsch mini book pack. One entry per day.
• Follow me on Twitter 
• Blog my giveaway 5 entries
• Post my giveaway somewhere else 2 entries per placed posted
• Come to the Omemee Library performance, then post about it somewhere online 10 entries

Cook up some Learning in the Kitchen

Cooking can incorporate many subject areas.
Language-learning to read and write directions
Math-counting, measurement, fractions,division, and multiplication
Science-chemistry reaction when ingredients are combined and various processes are used
History-examining the historical differences of cooking processes
Geography- looking at how geographical areas determine recipe methods and ingredients
Then of course there is home economics-examining nutrient and budgetary values of ingredients and recipes.
The most important ingredient is a sense of humour and discovery to encourage enjoyment of learning.
Here are some handy lesson links:

Encouraging Budding Authors

Many authors published their first books before they could vote. Encourage your child to write, you may have a tow headed Jean Little  tucked into those bedclothes upstairs!

4 Stumbling Blocks & Solutions


Long time- Little Reward It is very important to see the fruits of your labour. It’s very discouraging to only have a big hole in your paper after 15 minutes of trying to spell “Once”, In addition. getting your work in front of a real audience is all important.Read the following problems and solutions to bring the joy of writing into your household.

Budding Artists?

If you have a budding artist,  encourage their reading, writing,and artistic abilities, by having them submit work to a real audience. Having a “real audience” makes a world of difference in the quality of work and pride in the accomplishment.
When I was in University, Scott Young, offered to read over an essay I was working on, when I had writer’s block. Simply knowing ,a “real” writer would be reading my work, spurred me on. Writer’s block vanished! I polished it up to the deadline.

There are several companies open to submissions of artwork. Mead stationary is one such company. Many of Mead’s products, especially decorative items, contain photography and artwork from various artists.

What other “real audiences “ have you found?
Here are the details from Mead’s site:

Why? How? Where?- Questions Spur Creativity

This picture from Animal Planet reminds me of  the Rudyard Kipling story: How the Elephant Got its Trunk (a favourite with many children) In this story, Baby Elephant asks a lot of nosy questions about his neighbours.
Fostering  Curiousity
Young children have an enormous curiosity about the world, that if nurtured , can lead into many marvellous areas of invention, scientific discovery, and composition. Sometimes in frustration,, at not having a definitive answer,,adults will stifle this curiosity. One very successful tactic that , is to admit, “I don’t know. What do you think?” These are the times to grab a recording device and capture for posterity this peek into our child’s thought processes.
When students get a bit older ,they tend to lose a bit of this curiousity, to rekindle the creativity a study of "Pourquoi Tales", or “Just So Stories"  can be just the ticket.
Suggested Resources
Many Native legends give explanations about how the animals received their traits, some favourites with my audiences include How Bear Lost His Tale, the bitter,sweet story of Jumping Mouse (or How Eagle Came to Be), and the scary Water Monster (Bullfrog & the importance of free water for all).
Many tried and true authors authors offer explanatory tales as well. Young children enjoy these stories, for even though they will often see the silliness in the tale, they take comfort in there being a predictability to the world in which they live. Try a comparative literature study of Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories or Thornton Burgess' Mother West Wind Stories , then create some of your own Pourquoi tales to explain animal adaptations  that interest your family.

Here are some questions from  students I recently met:

Why do earthworms have both genders’ organs?   Why do  daddy seahorses carry the babies?  Why do bears hibernate?

Send me your stories, and  I’ll post them here!

Authors on the Net

I just stumbled across Canadian Author MichaelIP Burke on Twitter!  He is a new author to me, but his site Flower and the Giant.com is very intriguing, so I can’t wait to read some of his books.

 

Some of my other favourite Canadian Author sites include: Robert Munsch, where you can listen to his books online.

 

Jan Brett, ( ton of FREE downloads)

 

 

and for the older crowd Gordon  Korman - (has an interactive message board ) Did you know he wrote his first book at age 12? What are your favourite Canadian author sites?