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Family Ties for Teachers and Parents

The Family Ties site helps kids explore an essential area of history -- their own!

The site features Keiara and Brandon, descendents of the Still family (which boasts the nation's longest-running African American family reunion), who talk about what makes their reunions special, as well as an interview with Dr. Ione Vargus of Temple University's Family Reunion Institute, discussing how African American families are finding their members and their history through reunions.

The site also offers practical tips on planning a family reunion. In addition, an interactive game helps kids build their own family trees, and a quiz challenges kids' knowledge about the ways people have kept in touch over time.

For Teachers:

1. Creating family trees can be an excellent way to involve parents with work going on in the classroom and to give students a sense of their place in history. The Grow a Tree feature offers guidelines for gathering information to include in the tree and then supplies interactive elements that allow kids to build their trees online and add historical events into their families' timelines. Make sure you are aware of your students' family situations before assigning this activity. For some children, e.g., foster children or newly adopted children, creating a family tree can be difficult and sometimes painful.
   
2. Letter writing is a dying art form. What will historians and biographers of the future do when most correspondence takes place via e-mail? You can fight back by making sure your students know how to write a letter. To pique their interest, have students play the P.S. Keep in Touch quiz. Then talk about the different ways people have kept in touch over time, the basics of letter writing, and the role letters have played in the study of history and biography. If you'd like to integrate letter writing more regularly into your curriculum, consider starting a pen pal or e-pal relationship with another classroom in this country or overseas. For tips and strategies, check out the Arthur's World Neighborhood guide.
   

For Parents:

1. You can explore history through the story of your family. Creating a family tree with your child is a wonderful way to share family memories and to give children a sense of where they belong. Work together on the Grow a Tree feature on this site. Its Tips File walks you through the process of making your family tree. After you have built your family's timeline, check out the timeline of events in the Grow a Tree feature, and add some historical events to put your family's experiences into perspective. If you want to delve further into genealogy, you can find lots of sites on the Web (you may even find existing sites about your family), or check out one of these books at your library or bookstore: Climbing Your Family Tree: Online and Off-Line Genealogy for Kids by Ira Wolfman or Through the Eyes of Your Ancestors: A Step-by-Step Guide to Uncovering Your Family's History by Maureen Taylor.
   
2. Look at the Hello, Cousin! section of the site, and share the story of the Still family reunion with other members of your family. Inspired yet? Using Keaira's and Brandon's experiences and Dr. Ione Vargus' interview for inspiration, make this the year you organize a family reunion. If you split up tasks, you won't have to shoulder all the responsibility and you will give your children memories and relationships that will last a lifetime.
   
3. Keeping in touch with friends and family can be challenging in today's busy lives. However, letter writing is a valuable habit to pass on to your children -- and a great way to practice their writing skills for school. First, together play P.S. Keep in Touch and talk about the many ways people have stayed in touch over time. Talk about what it was like before e-mail, pagers, and instant messaging made communication so immediate, and how exciting it felt to receive a long letter in the mail. When you're on vacation, set aside some time together to write postcards to friends and family back home. You may want to talk through some of the events and experiences that your children could describe to give them some ideas. If a friend moves away, have your child exchange street or e-mail addresses and launch a correspondence. Grandparents and other family members who live far away will also appreciate periodic letters. After a fun-filled weekend or an exciting accomplishment, encourage your children to write or e-mail about it. Don't just leave correspondence to holidays and birthdays.