Fun Ways for Parents and Kids to Learn about their heritage  -- while making memories too!

Hi.   This is a page for kids and their families.  There are lots of fun things you can do such as:

Do you have some ideas to share?

Look up some recipes from countries where your ancestors came from, and have a special dinner night.  Look for appetizers or soups, salads, breads, a main dish and a dessert  Plan special dinner nights to try your recipes.

Cook:

Halloween Party:

Plan a Halloween Party at a local graveyard in the daytime -- (get permission first).  Look for interesting information on headstones.  How did the children die young?  Did someone write a funny eptitaph? Who had the earliest death date?

Make a Family Board Game:

Travel:

Travel  to a place where your ancestors once lived.  Is their home still standing?  Is it in the city or the country?  Take lots of pictures.  Then visit a nearby library or museum and see what things your ancestors might have used in their home in their day.

Think of your favorite board game, such as Life or Monopoly, and then make up a game using landmarks from places your family has lived, and even cards for guessing family statistics, such as who has red hair? or who likes banana splits?

Build a Family Scrapbook & Photo Album:

Scrapbooking is fun for kids and adults.  Use interesting shapes and colors on your pages. Use rubber stamps, cutouts & photos.Title the page.

Plan a Family Reunion:

Flags:

Plan some fun relay races like a 3-legged race for dads and daughters.  Try a cakewalk with prizes.  Play baseball with the whole family.  Have an inner-tube race and an obstacle course or block stacking contest and a crawling baby derby.  Put on silly skits, mellodramas or lip-sync some funny songs while someone videotapes them.  Its fun when you can get aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents all together.

Draw, paint or  make a computer graphic of flags from countries or states  where your ancestors have lived.   You can also design and sew a family flag that shows the interests and hobbies of each family member., and don't forget the family pets.

Heritage Fair:

Plan a Party:

Dress up like your favorite ancestor party.  Do you have any queens  cowboys, pirates or explorers  in your family?  How about patriots and their wives?

Get your school, Cub Scout , church group, neighborhood assn. or genealogical society  to plan a heritage fair with music, folk dancing, foods, flags and displays of family histories and memorabilia.

Reading and Storytelling:

Collect and share family stories when you are doing something fun like roasting marshmallows over a campfire on a warm summer night.  Remember the stories and write them down to share again at another campout.

Interviewing Grandpa:

Get a tape recorder, prepare some questions and make an appointment to ask him to tell you about his boyhood days or his war stories.

Build a Pedigree Chart and Make Family Group Sheets:

It is really fun to see your own family tree taking shape.  You can print out really neat charts too.

Print out computer maps of states and countries where ancestors lived.  Locate towns and put a dot on the map for each one.

Maps: