Things to do with your children, friends, or grandchildren …
… spend the summer gathering Family Stories of all kinds!
I bet you are a storyteller and you did not even know it. Every day you share with someone something that happened to you, that is telling a story. From my creative tips I hope that you have a comfort level knowing you can tell a story, so now let’s build on it … Writing a quality sentence is like putting a puzzle together. You know the basics, noun and verb. But if you want to paint a picture for the reader you need to include various parts of speech. Hence puzzle pieces!Why?
In my humble opinion knowing your family history gives you a solid foundation of who you are and builds a stronger family relationship.
Supplies
- A way to record or video with sound
- Select where you will store your recordings
- A box – decorate it and place items, pictures etc that your family member gives you.
Extra bonus If you want make a family scrapbook with the pictures, letters, as well as any other treasures you collected.
Storytelling Topics for the summer time
In this assignment two things will happen?
Part One: you are the detective learning about the topic, therefore the person being questioned is the storyteller. You are learning the art of listening!
Part Two: In order to be a good storyteller you have to acquire the knowledge in order to share and tell a story.
Have fun!
Part One – Detective Work
Arrange a time to record several people in your family. Some suggestions for this month. (Of course once you get the hang of it, I bet you will come up some of your own ideas for questions to ask your loved ones.)
- ASK your mom and dad to tell you about the day you were born.
- How did they feel when they saw you?
- How big or little were you?
- How long did you stay in the hospital?
- What day of the week and what time?
- If you have a baby book check it out!
- RECORD your mom telling about the day she was born or ask your grandparents if they live in the same town or Skype them if possible.
Do the same for your dad. - RECORD your parents telling you the family line, How far back to they know their grandparents, great grandparents and who knows they might even know the names of your great grandparents. Find out any information you can. Have fun locating where they were born on a map.
Part Two – You become the Storyteller
TAKE the information you have acquired and put together several stories.
Record yourself for fun telling the family stories.
Suggestion: You could introduce yourself as a family history reporter and with each story introduce yourself your ‘Show’.
Example: Good evening everyone and welcome to my Family history channel. Today my story is _______
- The day I was born
- The day my mom was born
- The day my dad was born
- My family line — mom’s side
- My family line — dad’s side
You know have 5 shows!
Congrats you are a Family History Storyteller!
Have a fun time in June. Can’t wait to hear the stories.
ADDED BONUS
Make a scrapbook of your family history, Pictures, names etc. write the story in the scrapbook for safe keeping. Now you have a Scrapbook and a video.
Stay tuned for the Summer fun for July!
