- Define and explain Stories from Home in your own words
- Use key terms such as Memory accurately
- Apply what you have learned to new examples and questions
- Avoid the common mistakes learners make with this topic
This lesson focuses on Stories from Home: ask family members about the past and record their memories.
Ask family members about the past and record their memories.
Key ideas
The past lives in stories
Not everything from the past is written down. Families keep history alive by telling stories: how grandparents met, where they grew up, what school was like. Asking questions and listening carefully is real historical work.
Your life is history too
When you were born, what your first word was, the day you started school — these are all events in history because they happened in the past. Future historians could learn about the world today by studying the lives of ordinary children. You do not have to be famous to be part of history.
Key term — Memory: What a person remembers about their own past. Memories are precious clues about history, though two people can remember the same event differently.
Why do families tell stories about the past?
To remember people and events, and to pass memories down to younger family members.
Answer: To remember people and events, and to pass memories down to younger family members.
- Thinking history is only about famous people Everyone's life is part of history. Your family stories matter just as much to you as kings and queens matter to a nation.
- Putting the newest event first Always start with the oldest event. On a timeline, the past sits on the left and today sits on the right.
Practice
Any two older relatives, for example a grandmother and a great-uncle.
Past: your third birthday. Present: your breakfast this morning.
A line that shows events in the order they happened, oldest first.
Being born comes first.
Quick check
Which of these best defines "Memory"?
Put these in order: you learned to walk, you lost your first tooth, you were born.
- Stories from Home: ask family members about the past and record their memories.
- The past lives in stories: Not everything from the past is written down.
- Generation: All the people born around the same time, such as your grandparents' generation or your own.
- Watch out for: thinking history is only about famous people