Three Ideas for Connecting with Family Members

You can never have too many ways to connect with family members!  Given the likelihood of physical distance between family members these days and the tendency to feel like “connecting” means texting, it’s important to find more meaningful ways to connect.  

As the last Giving from the Heart post in this #familyhistoryfriday series, today we’ll look at three creative, meaningful ways to connect with family members.  These are sweet things you could give from the heart for a birthday, holiday, or just because.

Family Tree Canvas

Knowing family stories is the {biggest predictor of a child’s well-being}!  It has been shown to increase self-esteem, make kids more resilient, and even lower depression and anxiety.  Family stories, then, are an ideal way to create connections.  (You can find tips on creating family stories {here}.)  Seeing a family tree each day is a great reminder of those family stories.  It’s a reminder to every family member that they all belong –to the family and to each other.

I particularly love this idea for a family tree canvas because I think it makes a huge difference to see faces on a family tree and not just names.  It’s obviously perfect for a child, but if you leave out the main branch (the baby face there at the bottom), this could be made as a general family tree for all the siblings.  In the same way, it could be an extended family tree starting with grandparents, a lovely gift from the heart for cousins.  (You can personalize your own gallery-wrapped canvases here.  Or you can see the one I have hanging on my wall without pictures here.)

"When our hearts are turned to our ancestors, something changes inside us.  We feel part of something greater than ourselves.  Our inborn yearnings for family connections are fulfilled when we are linked to our ancestors.”  -Russell M. Nelson

Family Calendars

One way I love making family connections every single year is with a family calendar.  My sister-in-law’s family had always done a very simple one that used pictures of each family member during their birthday month.  I have taken that approach with our family’s calendar.  I love that method because in the past 8 years, our little family has lost our mom/grandma and two sons/cousins.  That means we, obviously, don’t have recent pictures of any of them.  Because we focus on each person instead of recent photos, we always have pictures of every single family member each year.  It’s been fun for me to go back and find pictures of my mom as a young mom or as a college student to use for the family calendar.  She’s always there with us. 

Update 2022:  This tutorial video shows you how to make a calendar in a snap using a (free) template and free software called Design & Print.  The print quality is amazing!

If you prefer more flexibility in design and like being creative, this video tutorial shows you how, using amazing digital scrapbooking software called Artisan.  Same gorgeous print quality, too.

Another idea for using a family calendar would be to have a perpetual calendar of birthdays and special days.  A perpetual calendar just lists days of the month (not days of the week, which vary by year) so it can be used over and over.  This would be a great way to remember birthdays, anniversaries, and other special days of family members.  Go back a couple of generations, too, beyond the birthdays you celebrate right now.  It’s really fun to celebrate more family members that way.  It helps emphasize connection.  One of my grandfathers was born on Leap Year day (February 29), so that’s a fun thing to always remember.  We had cake one year, too!

Family Faces Books for Kids

The closest my kids have ever lived to their grandparents was a 7-hour drive.  (The furthest was 8 time zones, but that’s another story.)  It has always been important for us to find ways to help our kids connect with their grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles.  Phone calls and letters have been great ways for our kids to get to know and connect with family members, but when they were small, they needed more.  Small kiddos have small memories.  If they went 6 months without seeing grandparents, my kids didn’t remember them very well.  I adore this idea for keeping family faces fresh to little ones.

{A little book like this} is an ideal way to help young kids recognize and remember family faces.  (At that link you can also read about the special experience I had making one for my niece about my mom who had recently passed away.  It was tremendously meaningful to her!)

Every Day

Which of these ideas would help the members of YOUR family?  You can find even more family-strengthening ideas at {Gift Ideas for the Whole Family} and {Four Creative Ideas for SharingFamily Stories}.

Having something to see or hold every day really helps people make connections.  My niece {reads her book every night}!  A calendar and a family tree canvas can be seen every day.  

Remembering that we belong is {good for the heart and soul}.  Pictures do that for us.  Family stories do that for us.  So let’s share them more and do that for each other.

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This post was originally published at www.livegrowgive.org on September 28, 2018, by Jennifer Wise.  Find more #familyhistoryfriday posts about connection, stories, photos, memories, and family by clicking the hashtag below next to Labels.

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