There are many great ideas for getting our children interested in doing Genealogy. Mormon’s have been counseled to set aside one evening a week for family time. Called Family Home Evening, this is a prime time to teach different gospel principles, serve others or have fun together doing any number of wholesome activities. If you’re interested in
1) Have a “Tastes of our Family Tree” meal. Prepare samplings of recipes that have been passed down through the generations or dishes that represent your cultural heritage.
2) Learn about the places your ancestors lived. Using a large map, help the children place stickers over each town/state that various ancestors lived in and read a little bit about the history of that area.
3) Help your children create their own Family Tree. Copy family photos and help the kids cut them out. They can then paste the pictures onto a family tree they have made out of construction paper. If you want specific instructions for making simple family trees, different ideas can be found here, here and here.
4) Teach your children games that their ancestors played. Hopscotch, Horseshoes, Marbles and Jacks are just a few games their great grandparents might have played as children.
5) Have each child illustrate their favorite part of a family story after you’ve told it. Write the family story down and using the children’s illustrations compile a family story binder.
6) Teach your children at a young age the importance of preserving information for future generations. Encourage them to write in their journal or if they’re too young to write they can draw a picture about their day and paste it into their journal.
7) Play the “Guess that Ancestor” game. Have photos of the children’s ancestors at the ready along with the names of those ancestors on individual slips of paper. Have the children guess which name belongs with which photo. At the end of the game, bring out your children’s photos and your own and compare them to your ancestor’s photos. Asked the kids if they think they resemble any of their ancestors.
8) Do you have any Family Heirlooms? Show them to the children and tell the story behind them. Questions you might address: What is it? How does it work? Who first owned it? How did they acquire it? What does it mean to you?
There are many great ways to involve our young children in Family History. The sooner we start, the more ingrained the importance of family will be in their every day life.
