Learning about history and time through the eyes of our grandparents and great-grandparents

While sharing stories about the historical homes on our campus and the people who may have lived there, the children often spoke of “the olden days” or referred to the time as “back then” or “a long, long, long time ago.” To help the children gain a better understanding of time, we asked if it was when their parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, or Manoa Senior Care buddies [Room 6] lived.

The children speculated that the people who lived in the homes might have lived there around the time their grandparents and great-grandparents were growing up. Families were then invited to participate in our inquiry project by sharing photos and stories about the children’s grandparents and great-grandparents.

Teachers created a timeline of photos and events to help the children see this progression of time. Our earliest contribution was in 1890 of Great-Grandma Maud in England. Our latest entry is of course, the present 2017, although we also noted the year in which our Kindergartners were born. Most of our information, as you can see, is from the 1930s and 1940s, right around the time the historical homes were built.

Gathering this information through personal stories has been a richer learning experience than googling could ever be! As friends shared, the children were asked to think about which of these ideas should be added to the timeline. For example, was it important to note that the cars drove on dirt roads or that people used washboards instead of washing machines to wash their clothes? We also asked the children to think about how these ideas could make the stories they are creating more complex.

Making a symbol showing that before there was

electricity, candles were put on the Christmas tree - The children wondered how the tree didn’t catch

on fire.

Drawings of what the children learned about the past

propeller planes

One grandfather came to Hawaii from Japan at 19 with only one suitcase.

One grandfather ate frogs’ legs.

One family went to Chinatown to shop for dinner every day.

Before they had electricity, candles

were put on the Christmas tree.

Children made their own toys out of wood.

Most families were very large.

Instead of driving to school, they walked to school…barefoot!

Before there were cars, people rode in

carriages pulled by horses.

No t.v., …only radios.

Doctors made house calls.

People used a washboard to wash clothes.

Lots of people came to Hawaiʻi in boats because there were no planes.

Many families had gardens and grew their own food.

The milk man delivered milk to people’s homes.

Some families raised chickens.

Families had big parties and celebrated when a baby was born. Many babies

didn’t survive because the hospitals and medicine weren’t very good.

Similarly, in Hawaiʻi, families celebrate a child’s first birthday

because many children did not live

to be one year of age.

One grandfather stopped going to school at 8th grade to work in the pineapple fields.

working in the pineapple fields

Some families fished with a net to get

food.

They drove their cars on dirt roads.

In Hawaiʻi, people traveled by cable car.

During the sharing, some bigger concepts and interesting conversations arose. In one conversation, the children tried to speculate where the people were by looking at the clues in the photo. Was it a black and white photograph? What types of clothing were people wearing? What was in the background?

Another conversation had the children thinking about what it means to be Hawaiian, or Japanese, or American? Is that determined by where you were born? Or by what language you spoke? Did it matter if someone else in your family was Hawaiian, or Japanese, or American? Could you be more than one, Japanese AND American? Were you Hawaiian if you lived in Hawaiʻi, Japanese if you lived in Japan, or American if you lived in the United States? Did you have to live there for a certain amount of time? We could have gone on and on…

Another of our conversations had the children thinking about a grandfather who came to Hawaiʻi from Japan when he was just 19 years old. The children learned that he became an American citizen.

Teacher: What do you think it means to become a U.S. citizen? S1: That means he lives in the U.S. still, but he lived in Japan and then came to Hawaiʻi and became part of the United States of America. S2: He’s part of Hawaiʻi now. S3: He’s still half-Japanese and half-American. S4: I think you get combined...You can speak English to English, and you can speak Japanese to Japanese. I don’t think when you’re Japanese and you go to United States, you don’t need to speak English to be there.

Now that the children have a clearer picture of the time, they are in the process of fleshing out their stories. Prior to listening to these personal stories, they already surmised that the families were large, based on the number of bedrooms in each home. They speculated that the families came from Japan or China, as evidenced by the cultural artifacts left in and around the homes. As the teachers beside them, we are now wondering what the children will be exploring in their speculations. This is the learning excitement that an inquiry process generates for the teachers — Will students now add details about the individuals in the families, such as work, school, and past times? Will they describe a day-in-the-life of each child or parent, knowing about modes of transportation, home conveniences, and luxuries? Will they delve deeper into discovering the ethnicities and nationalities of the families, a topic touched on by our children as we try to understand how we claim our own ethnicity and nationality.

Stay tuned!