Tag Archives: sharing family stories

Family History Games for Kids

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image from Stacey of The Thrifty Chick blog

I found this great post today via FamilySearch on Geni about fun DIY games to teach kids about their family history. I love these ideas!

Pop on over to Amanda’s post and get all the details. We had a genealogy game growing up. Not sure I can remember the name of it. I bet my mom still has it. You had to build a family pedigree from clues on the cards. I played that game over and over. I’ll have to check on it. I just can’t come up with the name of it now.

Do you created any family history type games that your family enjoys playing?

2014 Family History Writing Challenge

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The Armchair Genealogist is planning her Family History Writing Challenge for 2014. At this point she is asking what our biggest writing challenges are, other than time. You can comment on her blog or on Facebook. In 2012 Lynn did 29 day writing challenge from February 1 – 29th. And it looks like she repeated the challenge in 2013. Now she is going to change-up the challenge a bit and while I don’t know what will be, I’m committing now to participate in The Family History Writing Challenge in 2014. I’ll let you know when she posts more information about the challenge but it would be awesome if everyone would seriously consider taking on this challenge.

Laundry Tells Stories

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by abdelrahman dnewar of Mansourah, Egypt on Behance

While I was browsing on Behance today, I came across this collection of photos that tells the stories of families in Egypt through their laundry hanging on the line. I’d never thought of this before. Hanging clothes out on the line isn’t something I see much of in my neighborhood it is fun and inspiring me to open my eyes to the things in our culture and the bits of info, photos and ephemera that tells us stories about our families. Stories are all around us, I’m just not as aware of them as I’d like to be.

Have you noticed any unexpected ways stories are told in the world around you?

another photo from abdelrahman dnewar

 

More on Story Prompts

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Since I’ve been working on my story prompts project (I really am making progress and I should have something to share soon.) I’ve noticed story prompts in more places. In Your Story Coach‘s October newsletter besides listing her own “story sparks” Tami also shared a Tumblr site that shares daily writing prompts. Both of these resources are intriguing and I want to use them in future projects.

What have you used to help get your memory going?

Related articles

The Struggle is Part of the Story

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by Whitney of blog.whitneyenglish.com

I came across this quote recently and it resonated with me on so many level. I love it for applying in my personal life and in telling the stories of my life and my family and my ancestors. Life isn’t meant to be smooth sailing, even thought we think it is. We learn and grow so much because of the struggles, be they small or monumental. I also love this quote on a visual level too. Great job all around Whitney!

In Whitney’s original post she listed six main points that help her keep a good attitude in the struggle:

  • you’ve got to find gratitude
  • stop searching for happiness
  • have faith, take heart, choose courage
  • let it go
  • don’t be afraid to hope for better
  • hope does not disappoint

You can find her entire post here.

Story Prompts: update

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Prototype for My Story Prompt Jar

I got some more work done on my story prompts jar idea today. I’m really excited how it is coming together. I used the great questions from StoryCorps.org. Instead of printing the questions on card stock I got some chipboard. My new printer can handle really thick paper so I thought I’d give it a try. I was inspired by tongue depressors and the idea that with the colored tips you can keep track of which questions you have done by flipping them over.

I still have some work to do to clean things up and tweak the pages some. I also what to design a simple journal to go with the jar as a gift. When I get the files finished I’ll share them here.

diaries & connections to the past

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This post has some great thoughts on the value of handwritten diaries and journals. Makes me want to increase my efforts to not just use technology to record my life but also do things the old-fashioned way too.

 

savaconta's avatarAccidental Pen

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I have been thinking a lot about diaries – especially the old, hand-written ones.  In our local news, there have been several recent articles about a Civil War diary that is being examined by local historians.  It chronicles the daily life and struggles of a young Union soldier as he passed through this area.  The story is fascinating, but for me it is even more remarkable to look at the images of those pages … his handwriting on the old paper, the scribbles in the margins, the entire personal image that is captured not only by his words transcribed, but by the physical pages themselves.

It made me contemplate my own journaling and diary-keeping.  The mark of my pen, the paper and the books I choose to write in, the ink, my penmanship.  While I know there are many distinct advantages to maintaining a digital record – and there are…

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Never Good Enough

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My niece, Kimberli shared this on Facebook and I thought it is very applicable to me and probably to most of us. It certainly applies to story projects and sharing them with family, friends and the world. It only takes two minutes to read just follow the link below.

Never Good Enough

I really like Noah’s attitude. Even though it isn’t perfect it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t share it or enjoy the process.

What makes a flash story?

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I love the idea of flash stories. It makes sense to me to work in small bites. Then we can actually get something done and we are more likely to do it again. Plus a story that only takes a few minutes to read is much more appeal to our family and friends.

 

Inside the Mind of a Child

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Nighttime adventures: Three tyrannosaurus rex heads tower over Nate, here in the foreground by David Niles

I love this idea for a story project! This dad not only listened to his son’s dreams but he took those stories and turned them into amazing photos. What a wonderful way to capture the imagination and personality of his son. The link below goes to the story and lots more amazing photos.

Loving Father Recreates His Son’s Dreams