Family reunions are one of the most popular times to share family history. Hardly a year goes by that we don’t have some kind of reunion, and as you can probably guess, I make every effort to go because I don’t want to miss any fun family history moments! For this month’s Family History for Children blog link up, we’re inviting bloggers to share their memorable family reunion moments. What activities has your family done...
When my family travels anywhere that has a connection to our past, we do our best to teach our children about their family history. Children can experience family history first hand when they do “field trips” to family sites. Experiencing the places of significance to our ancestors has great potential for being memorable and fun. In the very least, it will be a photo op to help you remember for years to come. Children are...
Do you live in the Salt Lake City area or are you planning a visit in the near future? 24 July 2017 marks the 170th anniversary of the first wave of Mormon pioneers entering the Salt Lake Valley. What better way to celebrate your pioneer heritage than to load up the children and go on an adventure. Here are 13 places to check out, along with maps, links, and tips for parent/grandparent survival. East of...
Have you ever taken a family history trip? Or visited ancestral sites during your vacation? Our family has visited the Dyer Homestead in Colorado, an ancestor’s cabin in Taylor, AZ, Martin’s Cove where the Mormon pioneer handcarts went through, and more. This month’s blog link up theme is Family History Travel with Kids. Join us on July 19 and we’ll all share a blog post about this topic. Here are some post ideas: Tips for visiting family...
How can you engage your children or grandchildren in family stories? Give them paper and crayons and let them illustrate the story as you tell it. I’ve been writing fictionalized accounts of my dad’s tales so that his posterity could know him. Having my grandchildren in town gave me the chance to tell them the latest story in his saga and see their creativity. We marveled at his surviving so many adventures. So far I’ve written...
For Father’s Day, my kids and I came up with a project to learn about fathers in our family tree and how they are courageous, strong, generous, and kind…like super heroes! We also made a “Super Dad” card that you can draw a picture of dad’s face on (or glue a photo onto it). Here are the printables ! Super Dads In My Family Tree To learn about the wonderful qualities that dads in our...
For family history storytime this week we read The Wall by Eve Bunting and did two crafts to remember relatives who fought for our country and gave the ultimate sacrifice. Poppies First, we made poppy flowers. I found a Canadian book telling about the poppy flower and how it has come to be a memorial to fallen soldiers. Poppies were first used to remember soldiers after WWI. They grow in fields that have recently been plowed or...
Announcing the theme for our June “Family History for Children” blog link up: fun family history ideas for Father’s Day. What stories from our family’s past can help our sons become better fathers? What exemplary fathers do you have in your family tree whose stories can help your kids? Our purpose is to strengthen children with stories from the past by creating a fun project. Hopefully families and can use our projects to celebrate father’s...
Mothers who actively choose to remember important experiences and stories from the past and share these memories with their children have great power to shape their children’s emotional well-being. In a 2003 General Conference talk, Susan W. Tanner told about a little journal she wrote for her 17-year-old daughter. Almost three years ago, one of our daughters got married and immediately left with her husband for medical school in a distant city. She was leaving...
Do you know a memory keeper? The person in the family who captures a moment in time with a photo or video, sharing and displaying, collecting and keeping? I have the good fortune to be the daughter of a memory keeper. As long as I can remember, my mother, Anna Mae Kelsey, had a camera in her hand, snapping photos of birthday parties, family vacations, babies. Those photos went into picture frames and albums. Her simple...