Season for Family

A community of women finding time for family connections.

Helping Children find their family builds resilience

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With school so close (or started!), we’ve still got kids on our mind. A New York Times article by Bruce Feiler, summarizes a study about resiliency in children, “The more children knew about their family’s history, the stronger their sense of control over their lives, the higher their self-esteem and the more successfully they believed their families functioned. [It] turned out to be the best single predictor of children’s emotional health and happiness.”. Isn’t that incredible?!?

As we prepare our kids to face the challenging environment that classrooms and school yards can bring. I challenge you to consider how impactful #familyhistory can be on our little ones. Tell them your stories, and learn the stories of your Ancestors so that you can be prepared to share stories that can help your children. Help them learn how to get excited about family history!

Today I want to share a fun resource that my kids love! @normanthelatterdaysaint has a book titled “Norman Finds His Family”. It is such a cute book that teaches kids about how we can be superheroes to our deceased family members!

I think it is such a fun way to teach kids about how exciting family history can be. I especially wanted to share it this week, because many of us are stalking our bookshelves for the school year!

Watch our stories today for more fun family history book ideas. How are you teaching your kids about family history?

CAROLYNN REYNOLDS

branchesart.com
IG: @branches.art

The experience behind the lilac bush

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Before this year, I had never given lilac bushes much notice, and neither had my kids. But now they are one of our favorites. Lilac bushes have become a meaningful and special symbol in our family.

In 1892 my great-great-grandparents, Swen and Thilda, along with a few of their children, joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Swen was the first of the family to be introduced to the gospel and to have a desire to join the church. At first, Thilda was not happy about it at all, but that changed after Thilda had an experience behind a lilac bush.

One of her sons, Helge, wrote about Thilda’s conversion: “I still remember when Mormon missionaries came to our home. Father seemed a little interested in their teaching, but mother was hesitant until one time when they came back to talk to father. She went outside, and kneeling behind a lilac bush, she prayed that she might know if their message was from God. After that, she never faltered but remained faithful and true to the gospel all her life.”

This spring, we cut some fresh lilac’s from a bush in my sister’s yard and took them to Thilda’s grave. For several weeks after this experience, while the lilacs were still in bloom, anytime we would see a lilac bush, my 3 year old daughter would point to it and say “that’s the bush were Thilda prayed!”

There are a couple of things that I really love about this. I love that my children feel a real connection to Thilda and they are learning more about her life. I also love that the lilac bush has become a symbol of receiving revelation from Heavenly Father.

I hope that this story from our family history helps my children to know that Heavenly Father was involved in Thilda’s life and that they should seek and expect similar experiences in their own lives. 

SHELLY LOPEZ

IG: @goodmorningshelly

Helping our children experience the spirit of Elijah

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My 11 year old daughter has been nagging me to teach her how to start researching our family tree on @familysearch . I was willing, but a little hesitant… I was worried that it would be too complicated for her. This week, my daughter grew impatient with my excuses for putting her lesson off, got up one morning & started checking “Record Hints” on her @familysearch account. She sheepishly came into my room & told me that she thought she found some parents to one of our ancestors. Not only did I chuckle in my mind, but I was extremely skeptical. I have only ever found 2 of my direct ancestors in my 8 years of researching, I was sure this was a mistake. I came into the kitchen to check it out & to my complete & utter shock, she was RIGHT! She had just found a lead to parents of one of our direct ancestors! I felt the tears of pride fill my eyes. She did it & she didn’t let ME & my excuses get in her way!

I decided to tell this story today, to encourage you to NOT underestimate children! Whether it is your own children, your YW, or your Grandchildren, they have been prepared for this work! They can probably run circles around many of us on a computer! Make sure that you don’t make the same mistake as me. Give them the opportunities to try, fail, learn & succeed!

Something that we have been doing in my household all summer, has been to extremely limit screen time, EXCEPT for FamilySearch! They are allowed pretty much unlimited time on there. What an amazing experience it has been to see my kids shift their focus from video games to Family History! They have been indexing, digitizing, reading stories, & now will be researching. The 2 that have been participating are 9 & 11 years old. 
Elder David A. Bednar said, “…please help your children and youth to learn about and experience the Spirit of Elijah. But do not overly program this endeavor or provide too much detailed information or training. Invite young people to explore, to experiment, and to learn for themselves.”
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All week we are chatting about getting kids involved in Family History. What are some of your ideas? Have your kids surprised you with their abilities?

CAROLYNN REYNOLDS

branchesart.com
IG: @branches.art