Memories questions and history lessons

Recently, we have been putting information into our family tree on www.ancestry.com.au.

It's been interesting not just for us to collate all the various information we've been sent by relatives but also for our girls to see this information - rather than just have it sit in old envelopes tucked away in drawers.

The girls were interested to see things like - for example, the same first name being given to several generations of their ancestors. (They did think this was rather boring and unimaginative!! )

We also need to find a way to add the information we are slowly gathering from living relatives in the form of 

'Memories Questions'. 

 We live in the Far North of Australia, and our family and relatives are scattered across the globe, so our girls don't get to spend time with other family members very often.

So, every now and then, we email a question to various relatives on both sides of our families. We've asked things like, "What do you remember about your first bike?", "Did you ever have a pet?"  "What do you remember about going to school?"; "What toys to you remember playing with as a child?"  

We have tried to ask questions that relate to what our kids are doing, so that when the answers come back, it provides more interest for our girls to read what their great aunts, uncles, grandparents and of course us - their parents, remember of being their age, going to school etc.

Now that the girls are getting older, and have their own computers and emails, we will encourage them to email their own questions to the relatives.

Our eldest daughter just now at school (Grade 5) is looking at in history, whether life is better now or in the past.  I'm sure her grandparents would have an opinion on this and it would be a great way for her to research the subject for her school work.

Our younger daughter (Grade 3) is also studying history - with an upcoming visit to the local museum.  When we last visited the local museum a few years ago, I was amazed to see an old dial telephone there.  Our family had a telephone like that growing up - and to see it in a museum now reminds me quite how far technology has come along in the last few years (not to mention it makes me feel old seeing something from my childhood in a museum!)

When I was taking a look at our younger daughter's school curriculum for this year (Grade 3), I saw one of the Key Inquiry Questions written there is, "How and why do people choose to remember significant events of the past?" .

In asking our Memories questions to family members, we have noticed that some questions get very long interesting responses from some people, but others remember little or nothing.  It is interesting to see what things people do and don't remember  - what is important and relevant to them!   Hopefully asking and reading responses to these Memories questions, will help our daughter consider this question.

Do your kids get to spend time with older relatives?  Do these family members ever share memories or experiences from their past with you kids?  Are their questions you wish you had asked your older relatives - who perhaps are no longer here?

How are you preserving your family history and memories and are you kids interested in it?

Richard III - Horrible Histories

I read today that the bones of King Richard III of England have been found and positively identified!  Amazing that they can dig up bones from under a car park and identify them as belonging to someone who died over 500 years ago!

I grew up in England, and remember at primary school studying endless Kings and Queens, but my memories of these have faded over the years so I turned to Wikipedia and Horrible Histories for some help recalling facts about which King, Richard III was!

Brief facts

Richard III was King of England for only two years in the mid-fifteenth century, and was the last English King to die in battle.  He became King after the death of his brother - Edward IV. Edward's sons should have inherited the throne, but they were declared to be illegitimate, Richard so took the throne and the boys were never seen again! Richard was rumoured to have murdered them  - leading to the legend of the Princes in the Tower (of London), where they were supposedly held.

Richard III was the subject of a play by William Shakespeare which does not portray him in a good light at all. Given the popularity of Shakespeare's plays, this portrayal has become the basis of many people's opinion on what Richard III was like.

History for kids

So - then I looked at Horrible Histories to see what they had to say about Richard III - and I found this fun song - written and sung by Richard III to set the record straight and show he really was a nice guy!

I discovered Horrible Histories last year when our eldest daughter began watching the videos at school. The videos are based on books which are designed to get children interested in history by presenting the gory or  unusual bits of history in an amusing manner.

I never remember enjoying my history lessons at school, when we learnt about those endless Kings and Queens, but having seen some of these Horrible History videos and taken a look at the website, I'm sure I would have enjoyed history a lot more had that been around when I was a kid!

I'm a big fan of things that make learning come alive for kids. I do remember a visit in primary school to the Yorvik Viking Centre in York as a school kid. I remember enjoying the trip - I especially remember that they had authentic smells from the Viking days - pretty disgusting, but fun for kids and certainly memorable!  So I do think that Horrible Histories is onto something with highlighting the gory bits of history to engage kids!

Horrible Histories

Horrible Histories has a website with lots of fun facts, jokes, quizzes and games.  If you live in the UK, you can buy the Horrible Histories magazine from shops, but anywhere in the world you can sign up for the email monthly newsletter.

There are gory history games to play on the website - like Putrid Pirate Battleships, and  Mummy Madness!

Books

There are also a series of Horrible Histories books available, which look interesting and fun too! Lots are based on British history, but also the USA, Egypt, Vikings, Greeks and even a Horrible Histories book about Christmas! Go here to see a huge selection!

At this stage in school, our girls are mostly learning Australian history, but they have also shown an interest in history in general through TV shows and stories.

Horrible Histories seems like a great way to help encourage that interest and help them learn about history in general!

Whale adventure

Well, everything is all about whales here at the moment, from the great white Moby Dick to Whale Adventure by Willard Price.

Willard Price wasa childhood favourite of mine and I wondered whether the girls would like a 'boy's book'.  No need to worry, they love them. The books are a little dated but time never stands in the way of a great adventure.  Especially one that has strong characters, animals and baddies too!

Willard Price (28 July 1887 – 14 October 1983) almost made it to 100.  Unreal!!  What a life of natural history, travel and exposure to animals as well as literary genius.  I remember spending so many hours as a kid lost in a faraway place reading about Hal and Roger and their many adventures around the world in search of animals for their father's zoo.  It was really the take em back alive spirit that shone through, I wonder if Steve Irwin ever read them?

The one we have just read and inspired us to watch Moby Dick too was whale adventure.  It is quite different from the others as it misses the bring them back alive element and mixes old school whaling, Moby Dick and modern whaling ships. It is almost a history lesson as much as an adventure. In the same way Moby Dick takes you back to the days where men scoured the seas in search of whales and their oil for so many purposes, the vocabulary of whale adventure and it's nautical terms was at first tricky.  Once we got beyond this the girls loved it.

Contrasting it with Moby Dick is also interesting- there are a lot of parallels!
The crazy old captain, the feisty whales and edge of seat story lines. The biggest lesson learned by our girls are that whales are beautiful but powerful creatures.  As per Moby Dick- he was only protecting his girls and only when they hurt him did he take revenge with serious consequences.

It also seems a great way to have introduced the girls to a literary heavyweight such as Moby Dick- there is no way they would have read it themselves at the ages of 6 and 8.  They really enjoyed both the book and movie.

I even found a link to a schooltype lesson on Whale Adventure.


In the end though,I think what really touched us was that whales are amazing animals and the girls are also into the save the whale idea.  The power of them as they breach is also amazing to see.  We are also excited as we often go out to the Great Barrier Reef and the whales are just starting to arrive.  I'll see if I can post a photo or video when we actually see one in real life.


Long live the whale.



As an aside- and thanks to Wikipedia, these are all the books of Willard Price:

The Adventure Series (Willard Price)

Euan