Let’s discuss five ways to participate in family history. You will not regret reading this for ideas. She is wittier than anyone I know. She is the glue that has been helping to keep our family together. She is the one always there when you just need a hug or someone to listen to you. She is 87 years old. She is full of stories. She is incredibly encouraging. She still acts like she is in her 50’s. She  is determined. She is a bundle of memories. She is my grandmother.

Grandma is someone who you can count on for anything. I love her so much. I am sure you have that someone special in your life too. So how do you keep her young forever? How do we make sure we never forget her influence on our lives. She has led a legacy life, especially living through the depression era.

With places like ancestry.com and other online ways of connecting with our history, or tracking our heritage, there is no reason at all for us to not find ways to share our family stories. Family history is so much more than the typical boring things you learn about in history class, like dates, names, and records.

 1. Family Reunion

The next time you are at your family reunion you could pull out the old photos that have been stored in boxes for several years. While everyone is there, tell the stories shown in the photos. If you have extra photos that are of someone else there, and you do not want them give them to that person who may find meaning in that photo you too, of them. You could even play a game of name that person. Some people change a lot over time. So when you see a very old photo of someone, see if you that person and what event they were at or what they were doing.

2. History Class Project

For the kid who does not like history, make it fun with a different homework project. You could even use several websites online to help write an essay about your family name and it’s meaning. Where did your ancestors come from? With help from historians online, you may even find out your great grandfather, 5 generations ago, was a famous person or had a major influence in the world. When we can attach  a more meaningful purpose to our history, it helps our history classes come alive. Who knows, your child may even be more excite about going to history class after this project.

3. Create a Family Blog

With the world flying by sometimes, it can be hard to keep up. My mother’s side of the family lives in Texas and I am in Indiana, so it can be difficult to keep up with their lives and who they are. Thankfully, we all now have social media which helps, but what else do they do during the day? What are their life struggles or moments of joy throughout their day? Set up a family blog for each of you to have access to so you can write what is going on in your daily lives. This will be a forever place your kids, grandchildren, and children of future generations in your family can go to and read about what life was like when you were alive.

4. Create a Scrapbook Together

If you are the crafty type, you could make a scrapbook or digital scrapbook to preserve your memories and photos. Creating a scrapbook is a great way to bring everyone’s own personality on the pages with extra stickers or other adhesives, designer pages, or other embellishments.

5. Create a Family Time Capsule

Where do you keep all your tangible heirlooms? Don’t wait until everyone is sitting at the family reunion table and asking, “what ever happened to grandpa’s baseball?” Be creative as a family and put together a family time capsule. Pass it around in your family, so everyone has an opportunity to put something of significance in the time capsule. Take the time to interview your family members, especially your great grandparents who may not be around in 10, 20, or 50 years when you decide to open the time capsule as a family. If you want ideas of how to interview your family members, check out this blog.

Use your own family photos to print and put on the outside of this blank “Any Occasion” DIY Time Capsule. Decorate it as if you would decorate a scrapbook page, creating your own Family Time Capsule. Then, on the inside of the time capsule, put your “Message to the Future” letters from yourselves to your future children or grandchildren. Describe what the world is like now. What is currently trending. What do you predict will happen to cars or other things 20 years from now? Most importantly, save your mementos and memorabilia in the time capsule. Get your own “Any Occasion” DIY Time Capsule today and get started bonding with your family now. Get it at www.timecapsule.com.

So what would you put in your own Family Time Capsule? Comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Marcie

The post 5 Fun Ways to Participate in Family History appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.

What are some things you can think of that kids of today will never experience? Ok, so I finally saved enough money to buy my very first car. I knew there was no way my parents would buy me a car. I wanted to look cool. I wanted to fit in. I wanted to have a car by my 16th birthday too, just like everyone else. It was nothing fancy, but I was proud not necessarily because I had a car, but because I worked hard helping my parents with chores at home, and at my job to save enough money to buy an old ’87 white Ford Tempo. My work ethic has not stopped, and I am forever grateful to my parents for that. I have learned so much from my good old days.

One day I was on my way to youth group at church, and my car died. Does anyone remember the days of having to use a pay phone (if you could find a working one), just to call for someone like your dad, to come and save the day? That is exactly what I had to do. I got out of my car, walked a ways down the road to a gas station, and had to use a pay phone. I did not have a convenient cell phone back then.

Remember the Good Old Days

Do you miss the good old days? I know I do. There are many things that come to mind when people just mention the 80’s or 90’s. There were good and bad memories tied into these times. It always starts with a parent or grandparent saying, “I remember when I was a kid…” and then my cousins and I would fill in the sentence saying, “…you walked up the hill both ways to go to school.” Then, that was always followed by a big laugh.

I cannot believe that I am now old enough to be telling stories of ‘the good old days.’ That was never suppose to happen to me. I was suppose to stay young forever. Times really have changed. I remember telling my parents when I was in high-school, “Mom, Dad, if this is how the world is now, what will it be like when I have kids?”  My parents told me later, it was a wise, scary question for a young teenager to be thinking about.

I have always been the person who thinks about the future. The person who makes decisions based on what will be the consequences or rewards, in the future, if I make this choice in my life now. I know not everyone is like that, but when you grow up in a family that does not have much, you tell yourself at a young age that you never want to live like this in the future.

Don’t get me wrong, I am beyond grateful for not having much, because it pushed me more to work hard to acquire much in the future. It seems like in my family who could not afford the latest and greatest video games, time was slower because we were able to concentrate on being more creative with each other. My brothers and I had to come up with creative games to play. We had to learn how to make chores fun, to the point that we ended up wanting to do them for free for our parents out of respect and boredom sometimes.

1. A World Without Cell Phones and Computers

Soon there will no longer be a generation who remembers growing up without cell phones and computers. What a scary thought. Remember when the hashtag sign, actually meant pound. So how long do you think it will take for a phone auto attendant to say push “hashtag” instead of “pound” to reach whomever you are trying to call or your account information. I also remember constant yelling in our house back and forth between my brothers and I, “get off the internet, so I can use the phone.” I am not even going to bring up how long it took to download songs on the internet in the past.

2. Black and White TVs

Who remembers the TV when it was black and white? Who remembers renting VCR tapes, instead of DVD’s? Who would have thought that you can now watch so many movies and tv shows off of your computer, let alone for free now. I remember the saying on the VCR tapes that said, ‘Please be kind, Rewind.’ Hopefully I am not giving away my age too much.

3. A World Without GPS

Who remembers having to pull out the big, bulky folding map or atlas in the car just to find out where you were, let alone where you were going? We did not have GPS back in the past. I guess the long lost joke about a guy never stopping to ask someone for directions is no longer needed, since everyone has a GPS now. Forget about even trying to fold your map back up when you are done. It is so convenient now to just turn your GPS off when you are done using it.

So what stories do you remember of the past? How do you keep these stories alive? Why not try making your own Family Time Capsule with the “Any Occasion” DIY Time Capsule from http://www.timecapsule.com/product/milestone-collection-any-occasion-diy-time-capsule/. For other fun similar articles on this topic, check out 31 Struggles Kids Today Will Never Understand.

So what do you remember from your ‘good old days’ that kids of today will not experience? Comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Marcie

The post 3 Things Kids of Today will Never Experience appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.