When I was a baby
History · Early Years · The School
You have a story already
You were a baby, then a toddler, and now you are at nursery. That is history — your own. You could not walk, then you could. You could not talk, then you could. Looking at a photograph of yourself as a baby and one from today shows a real change that happened to you.
Words that put things in order
History needs order words. BEFORE, AFTER, FIRST, THEN, NEXT, LAST, WHEN I WAS LITTLE, NOW. "Before I could walk, I crawled." "First I was a baby, then I was a toddler." Using these words is how you tell a story in the right order.
How we know
How do we know what you were like as a baby? Photographs, videos, the clothes you wore, a hand print, and people who were there and remember. Those are the same kinds of things historians use for people long ago, only theirs are much older.
Draw five pictures across a strip of paper: being a baby, learning to walk, your first day at nursery, something from last year, and today. Now under each, write whether you REMEMBER it or were TOLD about it. The first two will be 'told'. That line — where your own memory starts, usually around three — is the first piece of evidence you ever learn to be careful with.