Learning History with Your Child Isn't Just for Homeschoolers

If you're homeschooling your children, or simply looking for a project to enrich their knowledge on world history, you might consider one I did with my daughter, Elizabeth, when she was in the sixth grade, and being homeschooled. For parents who enjoy genealogy and learning history, it is an undertaking that will educate both parent and child.

My daughter and I decided to explore the family tree of the British Monarchy. This was in 1994, and the Internet was not part of our life, as it is today. Our research was done the old fashioned way, using our set of World Books.

Although the Internet today is exploding with information on the British Monarch, I'd recommend using a set of World Books or another set of encyclopedias, instead of searching online for the information. This is especially true for young children. The reason; you may discover information overload that will confuse and distract from the basic project.

So, what is the project, exactly? Our goal was to create a family tree poster, and a report. The family tree poster would illustrate and simplify the relationships of the current British Monarchy, and the report would expand on the individual stories of those included on the tree.

I purchased a large poster board for the family tree. For the report, I bought a three ring binder, plain typing paper, colored pencils and markers, and an ink pen. We also needed a hole punchers, to enable us to place the completed pages into the binder.

We began by looking up the current British Monarch, and reading about her in the World Book. With my help, my daughter entered that individual's vital information, (such as name and birth date) on the bottom of the poster. We read about the Queen, and discussed her life and the information given.

Using one sheet of plain typing paper, my daughter wrote about the Queen. Elizabeth took the information we'd read, and used her own words to write a summary. After corrections were made to her work, she drew pictures of the Queen, and added other illustrations.

We then moved to the Queen's parents, and included them on the family tree poster, and a new page summary with illustrations. To simplify the project, we only included the royal line. Had we not done this, by the time we got to the tenth generation we would have had over 1000 individuals listed on the tree.

When we were finished, we had about forty pages for the report, with each page giving a brief story of that generation's king or queen. An ideal way to proceed with this project is to allow several months for completion, and each day look up one generation to write about and to add to the family tree.

After the report was completed, Elizabeth added a title page, and inserted the work in a three ring binder. We still have both the report and family tree. Occasionally we unroll the tree, and refresh our memory on the royal line and enjoy reading through the pages of the report, embellished with Elizabeth's unique art.

You can try this project with your own child, yet you don't just have to do the British Monarchy, choose another country!