Idaho Commission for Libraries

Why is it important to tell family stories?

• It's a great opportunity for parents / families to communicate with their children and contribute to their literacy development.
• It's a valuable experience to hand down family stories each generation. Many of our most powerful memories and important experiences come from our families.
• The oral language development that goes along with telling family stories is a necessary component in literacy development. Studies of early readers show they come from homes where oral language is used in a variety of ways.
• Children love to hear stories about their parents' and grandparent's childhood experiences and this helps them become avid listeners. They also like to hear about themselves -- such as telling them about the day they were born or adopted. Their wonder and excitement moves their imagination while listening to family stories.
• Handing down stories is a great way to keep a family's heritage alive and an opportunity to convey family values. A knowledge of their family history helps them know who they are and make sense of their life.

How early can you start?

You can start sharing stories with children when they are babies. Baby photo albums made of durable vinyl work great as story prompters -- babies can turn the vinyl pages, chew on them, and look at them over and over while family members talk about the people in the pictures -- and they wipe clean! You can also make your own with posterboard, pictures or color copies, and ziplock bags.

Scrapbooking is really popular now and that's a great family activity that also builds literacy skills. Include your child in as many of the babybook and scrapbook activities as possible and let your child start a family scrapbook of their own. It's also nice if you can include the child's artwork and early writing in these albums or scrapbooks.

What can you do as children get older?

As children get older they might enjoy tape recording family members telling family stories -- where they lived as children, what their school was like, and holiday memories are ideas to start with.

Children might like to venture into genealogy by creating their own family tree. Public libraries have lots of resources available to get people started down this road. Through the Internet, they might be able to e-mail distant relatives -- genealogy also opens up history, geography and other learning opportunities for the family. Family journal could be another way of passing down family stories.

Read stories about other families. This helps show that all families are the same in some ways and all different in some ways.

For more information about the importance of family stories visit your local public library.

References

Emergent Literacy Project Training Manual. Information written by Carol Nelson, Ed.D., Project Director of the University of Idaho Emergent Literacy Project.

The Family Storytelling Handbook: How to Use Stories, Anecdotes, Rhymes, Handerchiefs, Paper, and Other Objects to Enrich Your Family Traditions. By A. Pellowski. New York: Macmillan, 1987.

The America Reads Challenge: Ready*Set*Read for Families site has tips for families as their children's first teacher, activities for young babies, crawlers and walkers, toddlers and preschoolers, a suggested book list, and more resources.

Idaho Early Childhood Information Clearinghouse. This site provides information about young children, birth to age three, including links to Idaho programs and worldwide information, current practice and research, and child development information. http://www.idahochild.org

Most of the above information was written by Carol Nelson, Ed.D., Project Director of the University of Idaho Emergent Literacy Project. Posted in cooperation with the Emergent Literacy Project

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