A few years ago Diana wrote about a youth activity she created with a Mission: Possible Theme. I recently adapted this idea so the missions could all be completed using the Family Tree app on a smartphone. This was a really successful activity and I’m excited to share my adaptation along with all the materials you will need to carry out the activity with your own youth group or family. Youth and leaders alike enjoyed themselves and commented about how much fun they had. Some voiced their surprise that a family history activity could be so much fun. What...
I’m excited to introduce our new guest blogger, Alice Childs. Alice is a temple and family history consultant for her stake in Highland, Utah. Her passion for helping consultants succeed led to the creation of her blog, Souls to Bless, where she regularly posts ideas and inspiration for Temple and Family History Consultants from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. – Nicole A few years ago, my daughter was assigned to complete the Meyers-Briggs personality test for a high school psychology class. After the students had completed the test, the teacher grouped the students according to personality types...
Children can help their families find names for the temple and learn how to navigate the FamilySearch Family Tree at the same time! Here is a worksheet for children to use as they search for icons in FamilySearch. I made this worksheet for a one-day family history camp for children at the Tucson Family History Center. My friend organized the event for the primary children in her stake. This was just one of the stations the children visited that day. They completed the worksheet with the help of youth family history consultants. Click here to download a PDF of the...
Dallyn Vail Bayles and Tammy Simister Robinson performing Teach A Child / I Love to See the Temple at BYU Education Week 2018 Janice Kapp Perry and her son and daughter, Steven Kapp Perry, and Lynne Perry Christofferson, shared their temple and family history music at BYU Education Week on Wednesday. It was a spirit-filled hour with experiences about temple work and uplifting lyrics sung by the talented Dallyn Vail Bayles and Tammy Simister Robinson. Many of the songs performed can be found on the Perry family’s album entitled “As Temples fill the Earth.” One of my favorite parts of the...
FamilySearch.org offers many ways to discover ancestors. Below is a list of the email campaigns and discovery activities that FamilySearch has created to help users discover interesting facts about ancestors, including their occupations, obituaries, headstones, and how much we look like our ancestors. Many of these activities are perfect for youth activities or for helping children become acquainted with ancestors for the first time. How does it work? If you have an account with FamilySearch and have added your parents, grandparent, and linked in to ancestors in the collaborative family tree, then you will be able to make discoveries with...
I have a great family history activity for children to share today – teaching children to find names for the temple by doing family history research with historical records! The activity was created by Alana Anderson. Alana lives in an LDS stake near me in Tucson. She is an activity day leader and did the Finding Franklin Time Machine Activity with her group. It went so well, that she decided to create a “Family History Mystery” activity to take it a step further with her own family, and share it at her stake activity days event. The girls and their...
Looking for a fun activity for children that helps them learn how to use FamilySearch.org? When children look at an online family tree for the first time, it is helpful for them to learn how to navigate around and see what information they can find out about their ancestors. This scavenger hunt does just that! With little clues like, “find a relative with an unusual name” or “find a woman who had more than ten children,” the scavenger hunt will pique their curiosity and help them get used to using FamilySearch. This scavenger hunt can be used with children ages...
I recently helped with a neighboring stake’s Family Discovery Day. I was delighted to be contacted about it. We came up with family history ideas to keep the children busy for 3 hours while their parents attended the classes. I was just one of the people who helped, and each person who did had unique and wonderful ideas. The kids all had a great time! My friend who was teaching an adult class heard a girl tell her mother, “I thought it was going to be boring, but it was so fun!” Let me tell you about it. The stake...
Today I’m sharing a memorable and inspirational stake activity days event that I recently attended for 8-11 year old girls. Since I’m not in that age range, I’ll explain why I attended! After the Tucson family history fair when I shared my presentation, “Kid Genealogists,” I was lucky enough to chat with two incredible primary leaders. One was a friend who I had worked with before our stake boundaries changed (and who also shared a guest post here). These lovely ladies told me about their upcoming stake activity days event which would include a class about family history. I invited myself,...
I wish the MyFamily History Youth Camp had been around when I was a teenager. I would have LOVED it! The camp is in conjunction with the BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy and when I was there last year, I saw that there was a youth camp going on at the same time. My curiosity was piqued! The youth camp is July 24-28 this summer and it’s a one of a kind experience. I’ll be attending parts of the camp this year as a break out speaker and observer. I interviewed the camp’s director, Annie Merrell all about the camp....
