I've been asked to come up with a plan for a family history themed Stake Primary activity. Has anyo
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We stole an idea from the Preston England FH Center & we are very excited about it. We are calling it Grandma's Attic: a Portal to the Past. We will have old fashioned things that today's child have never used or even seen We will have a round robin structure: 5 groups: Cleaning Area: Wringer Washer, Scrub boards, clothes line, shaving, 2. Pretend Area: typewriters, rotary phones, old fashioned clothes, old fashioned toys, 3. Craft area: old fashioned or family heritage craft 4. Cooking Area: Rolling pins, hand sifters, play dough, old pans, egg beater, noodle cutter, etc, 5. Old Fashioned Games: stick pull, 3 legged race, sack race, jumped rope, pick up sticks—jacks –simple games, musical chairs, blind man’s bluff, tug of war, (tie), egg & spoon race, hula hoops. Would love to hear other ideas.
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What a fun idea!! Thanks! I've been thinking about having 3-5 children from different units take 1-3 minutes each and tell something about an ancestor -- pictures, heirlooms, story, food, customs, etc.. The idea is to let the others see their peers getting involved and having fun!
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Using various sources, we wrote 8 lessons for our stake Primary activity leaders to use with their 8-11 year olds, but they wouldn't fit all the ages. The ideas above look like they would be fun.
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Are the lessons ones you could share? I've also be thinking about how we can support the unit leaders.
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Let me get the link and I will share...
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We have a simple “learn genealogy” game plan for an activity. It has goals, certificates for achieving the goals they chose, they can learn simple rules about how and why we put certain things in certain fields. Also we used family search data from the archived “Rookie mistakes” page and created a little 4 part series about Rhonda Rookie who makes mistakes that kids “get” and can laugh about while learning. If you are interested. Naswfamilyhistory@gmail.com
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We created a handout that explained how to do five FH activities for either youth or primary. We called it "The Lord's Youth Battalion - Gathering Israel on Both Sides of the Veil." The five activities related to the "battalion" theme: Becoming a "Major Story Teller, "Master Gardener-Caretaker of your Family Tree, "Field Researcher," Family Investigator," and Senior Commander Interviewer." We got the ideas from my sister. She used to do all of them with her cub scouts when she was a cub scout leader. Here is a link to the document on my google drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lh1w58pqSpJIWgLqvB4_87yEsasgzAkO/view?usp=sharing
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We had some fun activities for our stakes 10 yr. Old activity to introduce them to the temple experiences they would be having. We made a "wheel of genealogy " game. We divided the kids in two teams . Each team was given candy . Each person on the team, we're given a chance to spin the wheel and guess a letter. We had three phrases they could do if there was time. One was "I love my grandma and grandpa" . the things on the wheel said things like: you team get 4 more pieces of candy, loses all your candy, guess another letter, get a free vowel, trade seats with another team and leave your candy. The candy the teams not the individual. We passed a little key from one child to the next with each turn and at the end the person holding the key told about their grandparents. We had memorabilia for them to look at and touch as well. They liked that.
Another activity we did was the family search app picture my heritage. We had a laptop and printer, took headshots and put it in the photo they wanted then printed them off. You can do more than one in a photo too.
We had blank copies of WWI draft registrations for them to fill out with examples of real ones for them to see. We found some funny ones. Then they shot need guns at targets for "shooting practice".
There is a great game on family search under help > I believe it's old German script help. We printed off the main board of letters and the old script letters and made a matching game out of it. We've made other games too like a guess the year of the photo game with photos from several generational years the strings to connect the with the correct year. We timed it so it was a contest. Sorry this was so long.
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Natascha, this is incredibly useful!! I started to put together a couple things but this is WAY better!! Thanks so much for sharing!
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Thanks, Jennifer! These are great ideas! I've noticed the old German script instructions but didn't think of using it as a game. I love creative minds! Thanks again!
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Jill: I would love it if you would email me a copy of the 8 lessons?
treasuredmemories@msn.com
Warmly
-Shelley
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Thanks for sharing.
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https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Pfo8ZO8OKyCCoLJJNx_aociwhGtSAuRr?usp=sharing
Hopefully, this will open for you. Becky VanDyke is out stake FHC director, and she headed this up. We used a number of ideas from other sites. By the way, they were willing to share as long as you keep their site information on your handouts, etc.
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I listed it just above, but I wanted to respond to you directly.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Pfo8ZO8OKyCCoLJJNx_aociwhGtSAuRr?usp=sharing
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@HeiseltMelissaJean1 HeiseltMelissaJean1 - I tried to upload this as an attached document, but Word and PDF documents aren't allowed, and even TXT documents have to be "moderated" and no one is available to do that late at night or apparently on weekends. So I'm having to break this into two posts because at the end I was notified that "Your post is too long." I agree for this disussion board, but couldn't come up with an easy way around it other than breaking it into two pieces. (I don't keep documents "in the cloud" so I can't link to an on-line document - sorry).
Our stake Primary had a really great activity just yesterday that was promoted as "a fun family fair celebrating the 200th anniversary of the First Vision." Each ward/branch was asked to come up with an activity for the 7-11 year olds and their families. Each was in a different part of the cultural hall - except ours. The FHC was asked to also be part of the event with our own activity. We thought long and hard about what to do that would be fun and educational for both the kids as well as their parents. It finally came together as such a simple activity that there was almost no preparation needed, no bringing in of any supplies or equipment - nothing. And it only required a handful of people for 90 minutes. Yet of those that came across the hall into the FHC, not a single person, young or old(er), went away without having had a very positive experience, as well as having possibilities for individual and family activities opened up to them. We know that, because of the comments from everyone, including parents. The children, of course, loved it!
We had a person assigned as a "helper" at each computer (we have six in our FHC, all with the new capabilities such as cameras). "Training" for the helpers took must minutes, and each also found ways to enhance their involvement by practicing at home the week and even night before - because they were having fun. For the helpers, we used both adults and youth who could easily relate to both children and adults, as well as the technology.
As families came into the FHC, we of course asked them to sign in for monthly reporting purposes (😁) and then had them go to a waiting computer (there were just a few brief waits, but not bad since they rotated around as part of their visits to each of the different activities over a 90 minute period). Each family was asked if anyone had a FamilySearch account that included photos of at least some of their ancestors, and a tree that extended back at least four generations, preferably more. If so, we had that person sign in to their own FS account, and then the helper showed them the new "Activities" option on the top main menu of FamilySearch (either the last item on the menu bar line for non-member accounts, or right next to "Temple" for member accounts). Ideally, we had the kids sit down and actually do the activity, but in a handful of cases parents did it with their kids watching. We started with the 2nd item in the "Activities" menu (skipping the first one because it's largely duplicated in some of the following menu choices under "Activities").
Where Am I From? - We explained the map and the variable generations option, and showed how the map can be expanded and contracted with just the mouse wheel - having the child or parent actually doing the operations, not just us demonstrating it. We let them experience the Timeline, but explained that because we only had 10 minutes per family, they could go home and explore the others as well (Generations, My Family Lines, and My Heritage). They saw the timeline information, and were then able to see all the various options such as Photos, Stories, Documents, Audio, and Ordinances. Of course, many did not have much information more than a few generations back, but we generally were able to find some ancestor with at least some of those things that someone had uploaded. When families didn't have accounts or had extremely limited data in their trees yet, the "helper" signed in with his/her own account, and let one of the children (preferably) sit down and navigate the activity with direction from the helper - with the statement that they can imagine this is their own family a few months from now after they've put the same kinds of information into FamilySearch for their own ancestors. Be sure to explore all of the many other things that can be done just in this one "Activities" menu choice - it has expanded beyond anything that used to be available in the "Discovery" tools.
All About Me - We guided the person at the computer through the screen with all of the various things they can view, such as the price of movie tickets for other members of the family (mom or dad) when they were kids, the population of the United States in various years, or if a parent's account was being used, those glaring comparisons to today were automatically evident on the screen if the parents were even just in their 30s. With a few grandparents in the room (including this one who had to use his own FS account for one family), it got really eye-opening with 50¢ movie tickets, 3¢ postage stamps, etc. We also briefly sampled a few of the other things on that screen. Note that you can choose a different year (top right corner of the screen).
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Compare-aFace - This requires a few minutes of individual practice by each helper in order to be able to guide families through the activity. But basically, you can insert a photo of any member of the family regardless of whose account is open, and later delete that photo if it's not of the person signed in. Use the new photo to compare against ancestors. Everyone enjoyed seeing who they looked like. Try taking multiple photos (2 or 3 max due to time) of the person who's sitting at the computer, with their faces up close to the camera, perhaps using a cell phone flashlight adding additional light to their faces, etc., and different matches will appear. If you're lucky enough to have a family with an account holder that has multiple photos of that person, you can select different photos of that person, pointing out that each family member can have their own account, and do this for themselves.
Record My Story - Be sure to show that not only are their broad categories of things to write about in their lives, but each category has multiple questions to be answered. With this one activity, a person can create and then upload into FamilySearch a multifaceted personal history, a small piece at a time.
Picture My Heritage - We spent the least time here because there simply wasn't enough time to create, manipulate, and paste one of the children's photos into the various costumed photos shown in the activity. Instead, we just had them go to the activity, see the different costumes pertaining to their own heritage, and we asked them to image putting their own photo right in place of the one in the picture. We briefly told them that it takes some manipulation of brightness, stretching of four sides of their face photo to properly fill the space in the picture with the costume, etc., but did not demonstrate that aspect of the activity - but we invited them to play with it at home. (Children that have come into the FHC at other times and tried it in the past couple of weeks have loved it! And even 10 year olds have done it entirely on their own without a FHC staff member standing beside them - they only had to be shown the activity. These kids really know how to manipulate computers!)
In-Home Activities - We had them quickly navigate down the screen to see the major categories of activities that can be done alone ("About Me"), as a family ("My Family"), or specifically directed to "The Temple." The parents suddenly had their work already done for them - many, many Family Home Evenings! 😉 And both parents and children got an idea of how much fun they can have at home for a long time to come. At that point we also briefly had them go to the top menu item in "Activities", the "All Activities" sub-menu. We had them look it those items to see that some of them were already in the other areas we'd covered, but that there were many more (Historical Records, My Pioneer Ancestors, Women of Faith, WWII Service Records, etc.).
Because we only spent about 10 minutes with each family, they only got just a taste of what's available, but they each got to actually experience enough of the activities to realize, "Hey! We can do this at home!" And in the process, temple and family history activities moved out of the perception of a hobby, into a very personal and exalting experience. Future interest in family history can only build from such experiences - and it was just plain fun!
This activity could have many other variations, and could be done with many laptops being brought in (if the WiFi capability in your building has been sufficiently upgraded), and the activity itself could fill an entire hour or more, I suspect. There is so much buried in the unobtrusive new little "Activities" menu item on FamilySearch, that it could take hours and hours to explore - and that's the whole point of the "Activities" activity! Get them learning, having fun together as a family, and coming to know and care about their ancestors, not just seeing boring lines on a chart with names/dates/places to which children AND adults can't easily relate.
One last thing: we asked many of the families if they'd seen the movie "Coco." Almost all had. We gave them the thought that FamilySearch and the Memories section of each Person Page is the means whereby we can guarantee that from this day forward, none of our ancestors can be forgotten, because those memories will be available to be experienced over and over for generations to come in FamilySearch.
Hope this helps a few of you. Be creative - we thought of all kinds of different scenarios to which this could be applied, whether individually or with a family by temple and family history consultants, as a small group activity in a ward or branch (whether Primary, YW, YM, RS, EQ, or even a ward family fun night), as well as just a part of a larger event such as our stake Primary hosted yesterday for 7-11 year old Primary children and their families. It was quite a hit -- have fun!
-- Chris Schmink
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Chris, thanks so much! I love the simplicity of this activity -- and we'll be doing it at the stake center where there's a FHC with quite a few computers (and potential laptops).. This is a keeper for sure! Thanks again!
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We've created a few activities designed for groups that come to the center. More and more we are taking them to computers given the discovery experiences available to guests without accounts. You are welcome to any of these ideas that might have merit.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1tl9Wy4mNqYs70z_O5-Jx1DEy5lxfrOOe?usp=sharing
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@David James Magleby - Great lessons!! And now that the "Activities" are all available without logging on to another page (the Discovery pages), but instead are now on the top menu bar on the FamilySearch main page, it's even easier to get to. Your first lesson outline is also the very first item now in the "Activities" drop down menu on our main pages when we sign into FamilySearch. Additionally, those would be outstanding outlines for ward T&FH consultants to be using one-on-one as they properly fulfill their callings in wards, working with individuals and families. But I can also see a great opportunity now that it's been explicitly stated that FHCs are to be staffed by ward consultants. They could bring in small groups from their wards TO the FHC, not so much as FHC staff, but "just" as ward T&FH consultants. It's a win-win-win situation - helping individuals understand that they're truly working in the most important work on the earth today (per President Nelson), making outstanding use of those actually called as ward T&FH consultants, and also boosting the monthly stats in the FHC, thereby justifying keeping or even adding to the current numbers of computers, and making sure they get upgraded when it's time for automatic replacement. Great material!
-- Chris
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There are lots of ideas here:
Family History activities for young children: http://www.growinglittleleaves.com/activities.html
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What a great resource! Thanks!
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Thanks! I'm so grateful for all these great ideas!
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Has anyone shared information about the new FamilySearch Community group @Engaging Youth in Family History? This would be a great place to share ideas like this and get new ideas too!
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I have a doozy. Hang on I’ll upload it within the hour. You
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