Easy FHE for Toddlers and Kids - Post 2 Family History

FHE Family History

Remember keep it simple.

The insperation for this lesson came from the FHE lesson ideas found in the Family History page on LDS.org. It is lesson #6... click here to check them out.

Song: We used "I Love to See the Temple" because it is a song that my kids know, but you can also do "Families Can Be Together Forever".

Lesson: This may take a little more preparation if you don't have family photos that are easily HERE. Then we gathered a family photo and photos of Grandparents.
accessed. We printed out this family tree coloring page. It can be found

We showed the kids each picture and asked them who it was. We then gave them the coloring page and explained that families are like trees. We helped them write in everyone's names. As they colored their tree we talked about where each person was born. Then we explained that Heavenly Father want families to be together forever.

Treat: We had strawberries because Grandma likes them. You can do something that one of their Grandparents like.

That's all... remember keep it simple and fallow the spirit.

December Family History Challenge

With Christmas on it's way there is lots to do and traditions all around us. How often do we take a moment to ponder where our family traditions came from. This year I wanted my families traditions to be a reflection of both my husband and my family cultural heritage.  I started thinking about the countries that our ancestors came from. My family is from Italy, Ireland, Norway, France and Britain. My husbands family is from Germany, Britain, Ireland, Netherlands and Scotland.

This months challenge is to learn more about the Christmas traditions in the countries that your family originated from and implement one of them.

I found some sites that had basic information that can get you started.
1. http://www.whychristmas.com/cultures/
2. http://www.thehistoryofchristmas.com/
3. http://www.the-north-pole.com/around/

          The tradition that we decided to incorporate in to our Christmas is the Advent Calender from Germany.There are lots of different interpretations of the Advent Calender so I am going to pass on some of my favorites.

• Children’s Activity Advent Calendar Printable {Free}

• Paper Chain Advent Calender
• Scripture Paper Chain Advent Calender 
• Christmas Kindness Advent calender
• Scripture Advent Calender
• Advent Calender of Christmas Memories

 I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and are able to spend it with loved ones.

November Family History Challenge

 Growing up I always heard stories of the amazing food Nana would make on her wood-burning stove. My mom said that she would make ravioli for Thanksgiving and that there were photos of her drying noodles on the front porch. When she passed away none of us had any of her recipes so I have been working on recreating them.

    This months challenge is to find or recreate an old family recipe and then to share it with us and make it for Thanksgiving. When you make it on Thanksgiving let your family know the history behind it. It can be a lot of fun to dust off an old family recipe and pass it on to the next generation.

This is a recipe for pizzelle an Italian Christmas cookie and is the

closest I have been able to find to the ones my Nana would make. These are made on a special press. When you take them out of the press you dust them with powdered sugar.

Pizzelles Ingredients
 makes 2 dozen

•  3 eggs 
•  3/4 cup white sugar 
•  1/2 cup butter, melted 
•  1 tablespoon anise extract 
•  1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 
•  2 teaspoons baking powder

October Family History Challenge

     Fall is in the air and the leaves are changing color. As a result I have been thinking about family history activities that I can do and the Find a Grave project came to mind.

   Find a grave is an online database that contains records of graves and pictures of the headstones allowing individuals the opportunity to search for the resting places of their ancestors. Also this site is free. The reason that this site is able to provide this information for free is because volunteers go to the cemeteries near them and gather the information to add to the database.

  With this in mind and Halloween as my inspiration I have developed my October Family History Challenge. The challenge is to help Find A Grave by going to the site and finding a cemetery near you that needs to be added. Next take a tip to the cemetery of choice, then spend some time taking pictures and collecting information. When you are ready to upload your information here.

  This last Saturday my family, accompanied by a friend, had the opportunity to gather the information on over 50 graves. We will be uploading all the photos and information during the week. However, we saw something that made us very sad at the cemetery. In the tree line we found a pile of discarded headstones. We don't know why they were there, but we hope they were just old headstones that had been replaced. Regardless we gathered the information that we could and will be adding it as well.

Okay, now your turn! After you have completed your challenge leave a comment and let me know how it went. 

Indexing

  Recently my huby and I were discussing family history with a friend who is from the Caribbean. He was telling us that there is no way for him to work on finding his ancestors because there are no records from his country online. My husband wanted to see if that was correct and in the process he found out that the records are not searchable yet but they are on their way. This is thanks to a process called indexing.
  "Indexing is the process of creating indexes for record collections.  Having indexes allows researchers to more quickly find records for specific individuals; without them, researchers might have to look through hundreds or thousands of records to locate an individual record." (FamilySearch.org)
  The reason we can learn about our family history from the comfort of our homes is because individuals, mostly volunteers, have done the indexing required to create the databases that we use to search for our ancestors.
  If you are unable to find information about your family it would be worth considering becoming an indexing volunteer. You can do this several ways. The first method I would recommend is through Family Search. They have an amazing setup and will teach you step by step how to do it. Another method is helping with the Find A Grave project. If there is a cemetery near you that they don't have in their database you can take photos of the headstones. You then upload the photos and enter the information on the headstone and where it was located.
   There is something for everyone when it comes to family history.

 ( I didn't make this video it is from lds.org)
https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-03-01-indexing-is-vital?lang=eng

Family History I'm lovin' it!!!!

   I have been spending a lot of time this last month on Family History. For those of you who are not familiar with this it is the study of the lives of your ancestors. This last month I have found several new ancestors that I didn't previously know of. It was really exciting! I also learned that one of my ancestors served under George Washington during the Revolutionary War!!

   If you want to start learning about your family a great place to begin is with creating something called a family tree. Here is an few example.

 Family Search is a great website to help you put together a family tree. Part of what makes it great is that it is free to use and has just released an app for all of you smartphone/tablet users. In addition it has a large database of recourse you can use to learn more about your ancestors.

   Also for those of you new to family history if you want to see stories about others discovering their family history you should check-out the TLC show Who Do You Think You Are.

This will most likely be the first posts of many about one of my favorite things to do. So stay tuned for more exciting finds.