One of the memories from my childhood is being with my grandmother by the fireplace telling me stories. She used to tell me about some old “legends” with real characters of our land and stories about my own family.
One of my favourite aunts lived next to my grandmother’s house. Like my grandmother, my aunt also had a handful of stories to tell, and that’s how I got to know fantastic stories about my ancestors – having created an inexplicable connection with them (even though in most cases, I didn’t truly know them).
These days, I try to convey these stories to my children so that they don’t get lost in time and so that they can pass them on to the next generations.
Why is it important to convey family stories to the youngest?
- Storytelling connects you with children and opens up horizons for them beyond activities such as social media, video games, TV, etc.;
- According to David Niven, it allows you to strengthen ties between the various family members and feel an affinity with them;
- It strengthens the feeling of belonging to the family, bringing a positive outlook on it and reinforcing its importance in the child’s life;
- According to research, children whose families value their history and rituals are less likely to develop behavioral problems. There is also a lesser predominance of conflict at home.
- There is a greater probability of triggering high levels of interest and concern for family members when children become adults, (according to J. Leader);
- Lastly, and most importantly, it increases the probability by 5% that children are happier as adults (also, according to J. Leader). It may seem like a small percentage, but since only 40% of our happiness depends solely on us, 5% is something! ?
5 ways to share your family’s stories
I’ll share with you what we’ve been doing here at home:
I tend to tell stories when opportunities arise:
When we make one of my gramma’s recipes together, or when passing by a special place that has a story connected to it, before falling asleep, and when we see photographs of the family.
I show them meaningful objects:
A painting made by their aunt, pillows & objects that belonged to their great-great-grandmother, and old books that belonged to their grandfather, etc.;
We repeated the rituals and traditions of our ancestors:
On Thanksgiving, we would go to the countryside and break the turkey’s wishbone as part of our celebration. Our ancestors thought that breaking the turkey while holding a wish in their minds used to bring them luck and happiness. It brought everyone closer together, and after all, Thanksgiving is all about spending time with family.
I research our family tree, and we add stories to the family:
We had lots of fun with some interesting names, and we realized that to come to the United States, some of them had to undertake long journeys, while we also discovered the occupations they did.
We used Rakonto as our “family book”:
We created a “family book” using Rakonto’s collections feature – we recorded things like: episodes and trivia about the family, cooking recipes, important facts, how they got their nicknames, the family tree, etc. We can complement it with illustrations, photographs, and postcards. (click here to create an account where you can create your own “family book”).
Click here and create your own free Rakonto account.