Family Stories and Memoirs

MEMORY JOURNALS

	Dr. Seuss’s My Book About Me (Random House, 1969) is an interactive journal in which kids fill in information “all about me” – weight and height, number of teeth, hair and eye color, favorite foods and clothes, pets and family members, and more. A fun project for ages 4-8.
	From Creativity for Kids, the It’s My Life Scrapbook Kit includes a spiral-bound scrapbook, fancy paper, stickers, picture frames, and tools for story-recording kids ages 7 and up.
	Linda Kranz’s All About Me: A Keepsake Journal for Kids (Rising Moon, 2004) is an illustrated notebook with prompts that encourage kids to write about themselves: “Everybody has a favorite place. What is yours?” “If someone gave you a million dollars, what would you do with it?” For ages 9-12.
	The Treasure Chest: Creating a Family Memory Book has instructions for making a memory book in a decorated three-ring binder. Included is a list of questions aimed at getting the whole family involved.
	From Scholastic, Brown Paper Bag Family Memories is a project for early-elementary-level kids in which they collect objects that represent a family memory in a brown paper lunch bag and write short stories about each.

FAMILY STORY GAMES

	LifeStories (Talicor) is a family-friendly personal storytelling game in which participants hop playing pieces around a bright-colored board while answering questions in four categories: Etchings, Memories, Valuables, and Alternatives. Samples include “Tell about an incident that had something to do with water,” “Tell about something that made you feel proud,” “What is one of the most unusual meals you ever ate?,” “How did your parents meet?,” and “What do you want to be when you grow up?” For 2-8 players ages 6 and up.
	TableTopics are boxes of cards designed to start great conversations. Available in several editions. From the Family Infomania edition, questions include “What’s your best family vacation memory?” and “If you had to change your name, what would you choose?”
	In Six-Word Memoirs from University Games, players tell the stories of their lives by responding to topic cards in just six words. It’s based on the book Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure (Harper Perennial, 2008). For ages 12 and up.
	In our family, a lot of personal storytelling began with a board game called Reminiscing (subtitled “The Game for People Over Thirty”) that I’d been given it for a birthday. A good deal of the game involved decade-by-decade trivia questions, which didn’t go down well with our kids, all of whom were well under thirty and couldn’t remember Woodstock, I Love Lucy, or Gilligan’s Island. However, a subset of the game involved a challenge to tell a story from your past having to do with…followed by a long list of memory-triggering suggestions: a pet, a storm, a party, a costume, a camping trip, a dream, a Christmas, a bicycle, a car, a book, a grandparent, a cousin. Finally, we gave up on the board game altogether, wrote the personal story suggestions on index cards, one to a card, and stashed them in a cardboard box known from then on as the Storytelling Box. We took turns picking cards and telling stories. It’s a pastime that never fails, and the stories – try it and you’ll see – are wonderful.