Family 101

Give your kids a sense of family history with these activities.

* Draw a simple family tree. Start with your kids at the bottom and work up and out as far as you can. If it is big enough piece of paper, add pictures of family members as far back as you have them. (You might want to make photo copies of older photos to preserve the originals.)

* If your family has lived somewhere else, point out the locations on a map or globe.

* Tell stories about your extended family. Call, write, or e-mail family members and ask them to share favorite family stories. Write them down and put them in a 3-ring binder. Read these together to give your kids a sense of generations and history.

* Share what games you liked to play when you were a kid and play some with your kids.

* Create a rotating storyline. When I was young my mom's family did something called a "Round Robin". Each family member participating would put a letter of what was going on in their world into an envelope and send it to the next relative. That relative would leave the letter they received and add their own and send it the next. This would continue until the person who sent the first letter got back the packet. That person would remove their old letter and put in a new one. Clearly, this was back in 'snail mail' days, but you get the point. Come up with a systematic way to stay in touch. (Don't forget to include the kids. They can stay in touch with their cousins that way.)

Not all families are warm, fuzzy and safe. Of course, tailor this down to what will work for the family you were blessed with.

Until tomorrow. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:5-9