Grandparents Sharing History With Grandchildren
Write a Book
There are many stories you can share in a book. The best way not to get overwhelmed is to focus on sharing a specific story with the book. It might be a book about your life up until today, or it might be a book about the family tree. It’s up to you, and you don’t have to do just one. You could write separate books such as “The Day You Were Born”, “How Grandpa and I Got Married”, and more.
Make a Video
If you are more comfortable recording a video of the story, try that. You can usually record a video using the software right on your computer, tablet, or cell phone. You can then send it to them via email or via a private Facebook group, or share through file-sharing software like Google Drive or Dropbox. Again, stick to one story at a time to keep them short and to the point.
Make a Family Photo Album
A really great way to connect your grandchildren to their history is to create a family photo album that is accessible online. Arrange it by name, event, and by year. In this way, you may have duplicates, but it will be easier for them to find the photos they are interested in at that time.
Create a Family Calendar
One way to connect history is to create a family calendar with everyone’s birth dates, death dates, wedding dates, and other important dates recorded for the past and the future. This is very easy to do today with Google Calendar and Gmail. Everything can be right there and shared with everyone at the same time.
Create a Family Tree
It’s interesting to look at family trees. This can be harder depending on your situation if there are divorces, adoptions, and so forth, but it is a great way to show your grandchild where they fit in with the family history by looking at a family tree image. There is a lot of software now to help such as Family Tree Builder.
Link – http://www.familytreebuilder.com/
Plan Trips to Discover Your Heritage
A fun way to talk about and discover history to share with grandchildren is to plan heritage-themed vacations and trips. For example, if your family comes from Ireland, why not travel where everyone came from? If your great-great-grandparents met in Paris during the war, go to Paris and walk on the same streets they did.
The more you can pass on family history to your grandchildren, the more connected your grandkids will feel to their heritage. Being connected to the past is a great way to ensure that the future is better than the past, and it can all happen through stories.
