Activities for Parents

Resources to Online & Hands-On Activities

CALLING ALL PARENTS!!!

          While some of these resources and activities can be done by kids alone, especially older kids, these are meant to be done as a family; these are journeys we are inviting families to go on together.  Take the time to tell stories, ask questions, answer questions, remember and EXPLORE.  There are so many more resources now that allow us to truly bring history and experience to our children.
          Finally, we encourage you to engage in conversation with your children.  Through our own experiences, and those of others, we know that some of these conversations are difficult and some kids just aren't ready for.  Below are some table talk questions you and your family can discuss as well as some resources to help support the more difficult conversations.  As always, please share your own stories and resources!

          Below are online resources for creating a family tree.  These resources allow for the flexibility that exists in our world to reflect the complex parts of our families.  Oftentimes, when our family does not "fit" the expected "norm" we feel this is wrong.  It is not!  We should know and honor our family and understand what led us to be who we are today.

Online Family Tree Resources

1. Family Echo (free, requires registration)
2. Canva (free, requires registration)
3. Creately (free, requires registration)
4. Template.net (free Google Doc templates, requires registration)
5. DNA Weekly (free, no registration required)

Most online activities will require a free registration, though not all.  If you do not feel comfortable registering for a website, please see below for hands-on resources you can download and print to build your family tree.

          These resources will allow you to now only create a family tree that is as complex as real life, but also add some personal elements to the family so that the art can reflect the person.

Build Your Own Hands-on Family Tree

1. Tree templates
   1. Each page has a different style tree; choose your favorite!
   2. Pages are set up for 11 x 17 paper
   3. You can also create your own tree and just use the leaf/heart/butterfly cutout templates
2. Leaf templates
3. Heart templates
4. Butterfly templates

You can use just one of the templates, or all of the templates!  The purpose is for you and your child(ren) to enjoy creating and discovering your family tree.  Here are some other ideas:

• Add actual pictures of your family members
• Add personality traits (ex. funny, stubborn, loving, quiet)
• Add job/career info (ex. lawyer, teacher, construction, writer, pilot)
• Add location info (ex. born in California, currently lives in Atlanta)
• Add fun facts (ex. was national judo champion, travelled to Europe for soccer)

          These activities offer opportunities to explore both our own personal history and the history of others.  It is just as important to learn about other as it is for others to understand us.  

Exploration Activities

1. Google Earth
   1. Education (Experience and create stories about the world.  You can also sign up for updates!
   2. Voyager (Go on pre-designed explorations on Google Earth; search by category)
   3. Create your own story! (Instructions to create your own story or map using Google Earth)
2. Smithsonian Institute 
   1. Explore history through different lenses and topics (such as toys, culture, time period, activities, discoveries and more!)
3. History View
   1. Virtual tours of museums, art galleries, national parks and historic sites

Table Talk

          These are questions that the whole family can answer and discuss to highlight how we are all different, but also how we are all celebrated.  There are different ways to engage - discuss one each night at dinner; discuss 3 at your Friday Night Family Night; pick a question out of a hat to discuss on your way to school in the mornings; create your own opportunity!

​Discussion Questions:​

• ​What are you proud of yourself for?

• ​What do you appreciate about your family?

Resources

• Embrace Race - "Our Story: There is a growing body of research and evidence that makes clear that children’s racial sensibilities begin to form in infancy, that almost all children develop racial and other biases by kindergarten, and that those biases become fairly entrenched by adolescence. And yet, most national organizations dedicated to children’s racial learning direct their resources mainly to middle and high school educators. There are too few resources for young children available for parents, grandparents or other caregivers or for early childhood educators.  EmbraceRace helps fill that gap."
• Learning for Justice - "Our free educational resources—articles, guides, lessons, films, webinars, frameworks and more—help foster shared learning and reflection for educators, young people, caregivers and all community members. Our engagement opportunities—conferences, workshops, and school and community partnerships—provide space where people can harness collective power and take action...Through this continual cycle of education and engagement, we hope that we can build and maintain meaningful relationships with communities and we can all move from learning for justice to creating it."