Inspired by a 1950's meme

 I recently saw a meme about how life has changed in the past decades that inspired this blog post. The meme was about how 60 years ago ONE income was enough, 40 hours a week at work was enough, retirement was at 60 and you got a pension. Last summer our family did a Decade Study. It  was fascinating for me as the kids' presentations were so informative and visual as we saw the changes happen right before our eyes. One comment under that meme was about the physical appearance of the people in the side by side pictures. In the 50's there weren't as many overweight people as there are now. My guess is in large part because fast food restaurants weren't as abundant as now a days, processed food wasn't as easily and as readily available and "back then" people had  or took the time to cook and sit down to eat dinner. It's been proven that slower eating helps you eat less and digest food better. We are all so busy now a days we  often inhale dinner as we run to a ball game, meeting, event, etc. or we are eating in the car as we go.

I got the idea for the Decade Study a little later in summer. We started at the 40s and ended the with the 90's. Tho my husband and I started  it out with a quick history of the 30's and the Big Depression. That was the BEST Idea I may have had in years when it comes to making education fun for the kids. The knowledge each kid learned is still being brought up in conversations often.  They all had to present it to us and know their topic for questions to be asked, my then 8 year old learned to make an awesome PowerPoint Presentation.  In the first few months of school they all studied artists, people in history, musicians, historical events and even "where are they now" kind of things. The kids would come home all excited and tell me they already have their assignment done it just needs tweaked from summer. This year, they're studying the states and will share fun facts as we travel through the state we're driving in as we go out west to attend our oldest daughter's college graduation. I don't think it's as nearly as fun as last year's study. :)


When we did the  decade  study I had written topics on a piece of paper--1 for each person in our family, 8 was a lot of topics to come up with!-and they had to research that topic and make a presentation of some kind for our  Friday night fun. I always had food. We ate some great stuff and some not so great stuff and watched a show or commercials from that decade. LOVED that!!  Other topics I chose were: Music, Media, American History, World History, Games & toys, tv/movies, entertainment & fashion.

We started in the 40's. I forgot what I made for dinner that week but when we got to the 50's the history was so interesting and how health, diet, and family connections started changing. Women started working during WWII to help the men that were fighting for our country. When the men returned, lots of women decided they were doing fine working and wanted to continue to work and Women's equality debates and platforms started. Some men struggled to find jobs because women were doing those jobs they were doing before they left for war. My favorite thing I noticed--because I was doing the food was in the 50's TV dinners were introduced. More women were working, didn't have as much time as they had the decade earlier to make fresh healthy meals for their families. Because of war, things started costing more. Grocery bills rose, clothing prices rose, etc. Kids needed to start doing more stuff for themselves...This isn't a "history is bad" or "women working is bad" blog post. I just found it so interesting as to how life has changed and how we saw it change--on paper and on the computer. Kids learning to do more for themselves and not being coddled  is  almost always a good thing, I think.

Anyway...I've had several people recently ask me or message me about the decade study and how I had organized it for our family. So now ya know! We have fun memories of doing that on vacation, at home, at a park, and the kids will still randomly share "Fun Facts" of what they learned last summer. The benefit of doing this has been huge for our family. We have 3 new family favorite meals (Chicken a la King-from the 60s- is the most requested meal I've had all year), they understand politics and why certain things happened in history, our kids music interests have broadened so much. How many 13-16 year olds do you know that go around singing Roy Orbison, Billy Joel, Simon & Garfunkel or Carole King?....or who even know who Rosemary Clooney is.....or James Dean? They appreciate a gas powered lawn mower, a computer and the internet, a cell phone. How many of us had a boy or girl call and our siblings or parents teased us because they answered the phone when we got THAT call from that cute boy or girl? AND they know why the tab on a soda can has a hole on one side...it's not for your finger to pull it up. :)

Find something to study and put your own twist on it to make it fun for your family. Those memories you make will be held near to all your hearts for a long time to come....AND think of all the cool stuff they'll learn with you!