Noteworthy Ways to Share Family History with Your Children

I have a passion for family history and genealogy. I love it in my bones, I tell you! And you know what? I have learned there are real benefits to teaching our family history and stories to our children. Let me share with you some of what I have learned.

Family History Knowledge Builds Self-Esteem

In 2013, I read an article at The New York Times titled "The Stories that Bind Us." It talked about two psychologists, Dr. Marshall Duke and Dr. Robyn Fivush, who conducted an amazing experiment.

It all started when Dr. Duke's wife, who works with special needs children, noticed that the children who knew a lot about their families did better when they faced challenges.

Intrigued, Dr. Duke and his colleague created 20 questions to test children regarding how much they knew about their family. Some of the questions were: Do you know where your grandparents grew up? and Do you know where your mom and dad went to high school?

Then, the Drs. compared the children's results to another set of psychological tests the children had taken and reached a conclusion. From the article, I will quote this part:

"The more children knew about their family's history, the stronger their sense of control over their lives, the higher their self-esteem and the more successfully they believed their families functioned."

Can you believe that? Isn't that remarkable?! So, how can you start sharing family stories with your children, you ask? I have some ideas!

Sharing Family History in Everyday Situations

I use every opportunity to tell my children, my nieces, and my nephews their family history in short little conversations. "Look kids!" I yell. "That's the house your aunts and I grew up in. I planted that small tree when I was in the eighth grade from a tiny, little sapling." Or, "Look kids! There's the school that caught fire when Aunt Chrissie was in the third grade. Someone was playing with matches in the coat closet."

In other situations I say something like, "You know, that reminds me of the time when..." There are so many opportunities throughout our day that we can share a family history story. We just need to start paying attention. And, if your kids are anything like mine, they love a good story!

Sharing Family History Through Music

This is probably one of my most favorite ways to share our family history. Let me give you a little background. My mother was raised Pentecostal. She and her brothers and sisters had a gospel singing group and would travel all over the South singing praises to Jesus!

Though the singing group was dissolved as they grew up and had families of their own, they would always get together for a singin' at Thanksgiving and Christmas at Grandma's house. That was one of my fondest childhood memories. Today, my sisters and I do that with our kids. I even learned to play the guitar just so we could do it like our aunts and uncles did when we were young!

It is so fun to hear the kids sign along to a favorite old hymn and to be able to tell them how much their great-grandma loved that song and why.

Sharing Family History Through Art

Several years ago, I decided to try to recreate every type of art my grandmother's had done. Embroidery, tatting, crocheting, painting, making crepe paper flowers, and that is just the short list! It continues to be something I enjoy doing.

As I learned a new skill myself and then taught it to my children, I had opportunities to tell them stories about grandma-so-in-so and why she loved to crochet or why Memorial Day meant making crepe paper flowers for the graves of long passed ancestors.

I love to display the things the grandmothers have made throughout the house. An old quilt, a teddy bear, or a pretty embroidered pillow case...it's fun to see things Grandma made!

Sharing Family History Through Pictures

I will admit, I am not big into traditional scrapbooking like I used to be. Now, I enjoy digital scrapbooking. But it was this hobby of pretty paper, stickers, and pictures that first peaked my interest in family history. I created volumes of old pictures and memorabilia that are now shared with the whole extended family. As the little ones look at the pictures, I tell them stories of their ancestors. Their faces light up and my heart melts a little.

Kids are so stimulated by pictures. I noticed how the young ones got a real kick out of Grandpa being "a little boy"! So fun!

There are so many ways to share our family stories with the rising generation. What are you doing in your homes to share your family history? We'd love to hear your ideas in the comments below!

-Amie