Family Life Management 7400.360
Take Home Assignment 2
LESSONS FROM THE PAST

Overview: In this exercise, you need to combine your creativity and what you’ve read in this chapter. Since a lot can be learned from our past, we are going to do just that.

What you need: Paper/pen/pencil or computer, depending on how you want to give in the report; time to think!
Optional: Internet, books, or people as resources to add to the information in the textbook.

The assignment:
1. Go back to the part of the chapter on eras of the American Home’s evolution.
2. Pick the one you’re most interested in – pre-modern, modern or post-modern.
3. Read up about that era, or ask people about it. (Remember last chapter? Your grandparents as resources? Well, here’s a chance, perhaps, to use those resources!!)
4. Imagine yourself in that age and time. Imagine what your name would be, what your family looks like, how old you are, where you live, etc.
5. Describe a day in your life, in that era, in as much detail as possible. You can start in the morning, and describe all you do or all that happens, in a narrative form, or in bullets, or create a story. Have fun doing this!
6. Since we learned that the family might be considered a system, look through the description, and point out parts of it that support the notion. For instance, if you wrote about going to work and coming back to a meal, notice that work is an output on your part that brings in inputs, which helped prepare your meal.

Report/Interpretation - Write/type up your assignment in this format in two pages:
1. Era chosen
2. Background information  (name, family, economic status, etc.)
3. Description of the day in that era
4. Point out at least 3 instances that support systems theory, or pick Economic Theory , and explain why
    your instances support Economic Theory’s principles or concepts)

Back to the syllabus.