Young children tend to want to try doing the things that they see their parents and grandparents doing. If you are a genealogist, then your child, or grandchild, will want to “help” you to do that. One way to let them do that is to find some fun, interactive, family trees that are designed for kids to fill in.
Genealogists tend to want to share the things that they discover about their ancestors. Little kids tend to want to “help with” the activities they see their parents and grandparents doing. While it can be exciting to see that your family includes a very young person who appears to be interested in becoming a genealogist like you, it is also problematic. Small children are not really ready to do the types of research that adult genealogists enjoy doing.
In order to keep that child’s interest in genealogy alive, you are going to need to find some fun, age appropriate, genealogy tasks that they can “help” you with. Fortunately, there are quite a few websites that will give you free access to family trees that are designed with small children in mind.
Strangely enough, you can find an online, interactive, family tree on the McDonald’s website right now. Their current Happy Meal toys and activities have something to do with the Smurf movie. Hit the tab called “Family Tree” to open up a cute, easy to use, family tree “game”.
Kids can make themselves, their brothers and sisters, their parents, grandparents, and pets. Each one can be customized. The child can select from pieces of a cartoon face, in order to make each addition to the family tree look like the actual person does. When finished, it will automatically be placed on the family tree in the correct location. You can print out the entire thing when it is complete.
PBS also has an interactive family tree that kids can use. This one lets kids select from differently shaped profiles, in order to represent each relative on the tree. There is a way to connect each icon to other ones, in order to establish how people on the family tree are related to each other. This one allows you to either use the online version, or to download a version of it.
Family Tree Magazine has a really easy to use interactive family tree. The tree is already laid out, with a box for each person. Kids can click on the box and enter the names, birthdays, and death dates, of their relatives.
If you are looking for family trees for children that do not require the child to use a computer, I would recommend the ones from Disney. You can print out three different colorful versions of a family tree that shows images from “The Tigger Movie”.
Another interesting idea involves wall decals. Miami Munchkins has a large wall decal that is shaped like a tree with many branches. It comes with decal frames that a child can place the photo of a relative into.
Image by Dazzie D on Flickr