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My mother is your grandmother and my sister is your aunt….is
this how you teach your kids about your family? How each of
us relates to each other and who is a mother to whom? Why
not use a family tree to elaborate on how each of us is connected
to each other? A family tree is not only exceptionally useful
as a teaching tool for kids, but it gives us a whole new perspective
in life too. Building a family tree can also be a fun lazy-Sunday-afternoon
activity with the kids.
Building a family tree can be simple, depending on the kind
of family tree you want to build. An elaborate one will take
a much longer time, for example, if you want to cut out pieces
of colored paper and pasting them with pictures and short
write-ups on the family member. Some people will just draw
a family tree and color portions of it into the family tree.
Kids love it and even adults will enjoy this simple and calming
activity.
Innovation and advancement in technology catches up with
our needs too – because there are family tree creators in
the form of softwares and computer programs that can help
people create their family tree easily. Using these softwares
to create a family tree takes only minutes and can be colored
in and pasted over too. Using softwares to create a family
tree is for people who are not keen on the paper, scissor,
glue and goo concept of creating family trees. Don’t be surprised,
there ARE people who are not too keen on getting down there
with art papers sticking to their clothes! Kids can have fun
creating family tree online too or with a software program.
It depends on individual preferences, really.
A family tree is nothing more than a bunch of charts that
links one person to another in a family. You can start from
whichever ancestor you want. For those who are interested
in genealogy, you can go as far back as you want. Creating
a family tree that is as in-depth as that may require some
investigation, interviewing of family members, and also research.
If you can’t find your family members or are not in touch
with them over some period of time, it may be a little bit
more difficult to fill in the blanks in your family tree.
However, with tools like www.familysearch.com,
www.rootsweb.com,
and www.usgenweb.vom,
things are much easier than before.
So, go ahead and have some fun creating your family tree
now!!
Dakota Caudilla, journalist, and website builder Dakota Caudilla
lives in Texas. He is the owner and co-editor of http://www.your-family-church.info
on which you will find a longer, more detailed version of
this article.
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