Make a tradition of having a “Flashes from the Past” night once a month at your house…and watch it bring family unity. The evening focuses on family…your immediate family history and/or the history of those who have gone before. You can choose from these ideas or come up with your own:
1) Pull out your high school yearbooks. It will open a fashion discussion and cause amazed chuckles.
2) Gather together and look through your family scrapbooks or watch family videos. If the pictures are still on your phone hook it up and watch a “slide show” on a computer or TV screen. Reminisce about the great times, funny times, and the hard times you have gone through.
3) Create a video of a grandparent’s house. Ask them questions and create a fun history to watch later. A variation would be to create a video of your own home and ask your kids questions.
4) Pull out any genealogy papers you have and look through the old pictures and information. Did you get your eyes from your grandma? Maybe tell a story about one of your ancestors.
5) Visit a cemetery. Clean the headstones. Take pictures. Do a scavenger hunt in the cemetery…for example: Look for someone born between 1800 and 1850 and write down the name. Find someone whose name starts with the same letter as yours. Find someone born in the same month as you…etc.
The ideas are limitless. Pay attention to how much unity it builds in your family to “visit” the past. Another post you may enjoy is “Becoming Our Ancestors.”
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