Learn About Your Home

Help your child pick something in the house they want to learn about. It could be an heirloom, a piece of furniture, an appliance … whatever sparks their interest.

There’s a tremendous amount that we take for granted in our daily lives. We don’t think to explain to our children how miraculous some of our possessions really are. 

Part of sharing ourselves and our history is talking about the things we choose to keep in our homes.

If your children are six or older, this can be a fun research project together. If your children are three to five years old, make it a game and see what they start asking about.

If they don’t come up with anything or you have babies/toddlers, keep your eyes open for a teachable moment to explain what life was like before an item was available.

They are consistently fascinating conversations and an excellent way to share our gratitude every day for what we have, not just during the holidays.

EXAMPLES:

Some of the conversations we’ve had around appliances include:

• the use of washboards and laundry wringers in lieu of the washing machine
• old-fashioned “ice-boxes” instead of refrigerators and how they used to work by putting ice on top and there was actually a person that delivered ice
• the miracle of indoor plumbing versus the outhouse

My son (three) was once only vaguely interested in a set of matryoshka dolls that sits on a shelf in our living room. After taking it down one day, we took them apart and I shared where they came from.

We looked up Russia on our wall map. I told the story of how I accidentally almost lost half the pieces in a vacuum cleaner incident when I was little. The stories fascinated him and now he asks me to retell the story all the time and frequently points out other items on the shelves and asks me to tell their story.

It’s a wonderful habit that I enjoy indulging in. What about you? Is this something you could see yourself doing?