Mar 11 2026 It’s Personal: Tell Your Family’s Story
Ages:
AdultDiscover the best ways to tell your personal family story to grandchildren — through forever letters, family objects, interviews, and the art of storytelling.
We learn from the research of Marshall Duke and Robyn Fivush that knowing family stories enhances children’s emotional well-being. Susan Stone, a gifted professional storyteller, shares her secrets for bringing family stories to life.
Our closets and cabinets are filled with ordinary personal treasures — a pitcher from an aunt, a grandfather’s Kiddush cup, trinkets you collected in a foreign country, a pocket watch that no longer works. Sometimes we forget the potent family stories they hold. Here are 4 steps to engage grandchildren in finding meaning in family objects.
In these “Forever Letters,” grandparents share stories, wisdom, love and gratitude, hopes, blessings, and reflections on their grandchildren as they grow from infancy, to toddlerhood, to adolescence and beyond. Here are 3 steps to writing a Forever Letter.
Discover the rich and meaningful ways objects in your closet can help you share family stories, family history, and even world events with your grandchildren and family members. Presented in the most personal and loving way by Dr. Ruth Nemzoff, author of Don’t Bite Your Tongue: How to Foster Rewarding Relationships with Your Adult Children, and Don’t Roll Your Eyes: Making In-Laws Into Family, and two of her granddaughters.
Teens interviewing their grandparents might be a brand-new and fun experience for both. The conversation can coax forgotten memories from the grandparent’s past, giving new insights into their life, and perhaps bringing teen and grandparent closer to each other. Here are 7 practical ways to get started.
We all have stories to tell, especially now that we’re not young anymore, and we’ve lived rich real lives, full of problems, and memories, of relatives, of happiness and of stories, so many stories. There are so many ways of telling the same story. The teller is always in charge. There are no rules for how good stories happen. Here’s how to start.
Banner photograph courtesy of Barbara Rosenblit
We use technologies like cookies to remember your preferences. Consenting to these technologies will provide you with a better browsing experience. JGN never shares information about your use of our website.