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.

We all get so busy with life, school, and work that we forget how quickly the world changes. We also take many things for granted and forget or neglect to not important times in our lives. World events, milestone moments, and memories are defining moments in our lives we need to always make sure we preserve for years into the future.

Many important and historical events define the times we live in. Where were you when 9/11 happened? Ask any baby-boomer where he or she was when John F. Kennedy was shot, and they will know immediately. What about where they were when they heard Michael Jackson died? These tragic and milestone moments in our lives are impressed on our consciousness, yet many times we forget about them too quickly.

Journal for your Homeschool History Lessons

It is important to journal observations about the times you live in. Learn from your history, so we do not repeat it. That is why for all you home school parents, it is important to teach about history. What is a fun way to do that? How do you help your child put themselves in a person’s shoes from the past? Help your child note how he or she sees or experiences events, and how they have touched their lives.

The fun part – Using a Time Capsule

What child does not eventually ask about where they came from? We all are usually interested in our own genealogy or family history. You could make a family scrapbook together, create your family tree, but what is something more tangible to save our history lessons in?

A time capsule helps you keep 3D type objects or memorabilia in it. You can save things, that you cannot necessarily keep in a scrapbook and close the pages. History is filled with tangible objects to collect, write stories about, or recreate updated versions of these objects. Have your children talk and even interview grandparents, aunts and uncles, or other significant people of the past, to find out what life was like when they grew up as a child. Capture these discussions on audio or have the kids learn to journal about what they learn. Then, save these treasured conversations in a time capsule, while teaching about the importance of history, and passing on a legacy. You could even create a timeline of your own family events showing history on a long paper or banner strung throughout your house for fun. Have the kids create other crafts, and act out a scene in history. Record this event on video and save this in a time capsule, for your child to watch years later when he or she opens the time capsule like at their high-school graduation. What an event in history that will be. For an example to get your kids started on a time capsule lesson about medieval times, check out http://www.homeschool-your-boys.com/unitstudies.html

What is your favorite, memorable moment in history? Comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Marcie

www.timecapsule.com

The post How to use a Time Capsule for Homeschool History Lessons appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.

You don’t know what you have until it is gone. Recently I attended a funeral of a friend’s mother. It is sad, that sometimes it takes the end of our lives, to help us put our lives in perspective now. How do you preserve those memories, that come flooding back to our minds, when we look at the faces or places, important in our lives? We have photos we can put in photo albums, giving us a sense of accomplishment. When your children grow up, you as a parent want to know that they are continuing to live out your family values. There are other tangible ways to accomplish this, besides a photo album. Create a digital scrapbook, or save your valuable emails back and forth with friends and family. You can also record audio stories to remember the actual excitement, fear, frustration, happiness, or other emotions during a special event or milestone moment. You can listen to the stories over and over whenever you want, even when your loved one has passed away.

However you choose to remember your memories, the important point is that you do not lose your stories or tangible objects that go with your special memories. Let’s learn more about how to preserve family stories and values. Save your mementos in a time capsule keepsake. These sentimental items will help with the details of your stories and will create a richer moment of celebration, years later when you open your time capsule to tell your grandchildren or special someone what that time in your life was like.

So, as you family gathers around for the next holiday or get-together, make sure you spend time recording those family stories being told. Gather one object, which has important meaning, from each family member, to put in a time capsule keepsake. Treasure your family values forever, for your future generations. Don’t forget to include a family tree in your time capsule.

Do not wait till later to gather your family history stories. It may be too late, as we all get older and forget things or these valuable stories. Get children involved, and show them how much you value family, and have them include their own drawings in a time capsule. What will their own interpretation of their drawing be, years later in their lives when the time capsule is opened? Do not devalue family values. Capture them in a time capsule keepsake today. To learn more about this topic read http://www.aplaceformom.com/blog/preserve-your-familys-living-legacy-12-12-12/ or to make your own family heritage project, check out http://www.teachingwithtlc.com/2007/10/family-heritage-project.html

What is one value you have learned from your family, that you would like to pass on to your children? Comment below.

Making Milestone Moments Count,

– Marcie

www.timecapsule.com

The post How to Preserve Family Stories and Values appeared first on Time Capsule | Personalized Gifts.