After living through the effects of last week’s announcements about the Coronavirus COVID-19 and the fact that many schools across the United States are now temporarily closed, it seems to me to be a natural extension of the school closures, to look at that segment of our population that is involved in homeschooling. The latest statistics indicate that there are presently an estimated 2.5 million homeschool students in grades K-12 in the United States. It is likely that many millions more will get their first taste of homeschooling due to the potential virus closures. From what I have already heard about online, I suspect that most of the new “homeschool parents” are far from prepared for the experience.
Of course, after our recent experience at RootsTech 2020 in Salt Lake City, Utah, the entire The Family History Guide staff of volunteers were able to see first-hand how a free, educationally structured and sequenced program can fit perfectly into the homeschool environment. At the RootsTech Conference, we did over 1000 demos of the website and found hundreds of others at the conference who were already using the website to learn about and teach genealogy in formal and informal settings. The most interaction we had was with the Activities section of The Family History Guide using programs developed by the Family History Technology Lab of the Computer Department at Brigham Young University.
The entire website of The Family History Guide is structured to act as the basis for individual or group classes. Every section can easily be used as an individual or group lesson plan or as a supplement to a lesson plan. The Tracker system of The Family History Guide website also enables the classes to be monitored and graded.
If you are homeschooling or know someone who is, you need to look at The Family History Guide as a way to help your home students gain an insight into their historical and cultural past. As a side benefit, the homeschool students can use the website to learn about DNA, individual countries around the world, and technology.
Take a minute to review the website and watch the Overview Video and you will see how useful and beneficial this wonderful website can be.
