Projects Grandparents Can Do to Share Family History with Their Grandchildren

Many children fail to realize the wealth of knowledge that their grandparents are. Grandparents sometimes do not know how to get a conversation started where the family stories and their experiences can be shared. One way grandparents can get the conversation started is by sharing some old family photos. Grandchildren love to go though the old photos and often want to know who that is and how they are related to them. This is an excellent time to share stories of that person and maybe fun anecdotes about them. Grandparents can also show them family heirlooms that might have been passed down from that person, being able to hold something real makes these people from “ancient history” real too.

Another conversation starter is creating a family tree. You have to decide how far back you want to go and how large you are going to make it. Seeing the names, children and marriages helps open up to conversations about them. You could include pictures right on the family tree if you are lucky enough to have any. It is also fun to see which of your ancestors you resemble.

If you are fortunate enough to have any of your ancestors personal journals share those as they give real life everyday accounts of the joys, struggles and life of your ancestors. Do you have journals from your childhood and early adulthood that you don’t mind sharing? Your journals would provide them with a first hand look at your life. You can encourage them to begin keeping a journal of their own to one day pass long to their grandchild along with yours.