🌻Do I Look Like My Mother (or Father)? Activity 💗

ctr sweetie

Mother's day is this coming Sunday, May 8th. Here is a simple and fun activity that can turn into a cherished family history heirloom passed down for generations (and added to) over time. It can be adapted for younger or older children and lends itself for a rich conversation about family ancestors.

I call it, "Do I Look Like My Mother (or Father)? activity. You can see the general activity here. The main steps are:

1) Ask your kids, nieces, nephews, etc. to find a photo of themselves.

Tip: They can print photos from social media, smartphones (downloaded to a computer), or from a photo album.

2) Then, have them find additional photos of direct-line relatives and ancestors, specifically mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, 2nd great-grandmother, 3rd great grandmother, and so on. If you can find photos for each person around the same age, that's a bonus, but not necessary to make an impact and provide heart-turning experience.

Tip: You may find ancestral photos on FamilySearch, Ancestry, MyHeritage, or other online family tree site. Or, you may have digitized family photos that can be printed.

Note: If there are no photos available, the child(ren) can draw or color a picture.

3) Consider writing the names of each relative or ancestor at the bottom of the photo so the kids can remember who each person is and how they are related.

4) Get a large 12"x18" piece of paper to glue the photos on. Or, you can purchase a frame with places for multiple photos, preferably in a line (horizontal or vertical). See example here.

5) Have the kids order the photos starting with themselves, then their mother, grandmother, etc.

Tip: You generally want to keep the families together so you might consider doing more than one (i.e., paternal line, maternal line).

6) Glue the photos on the paper, or insert in the photo frame.

Tip: Encourage the kids to decorate their paper or frame to make it theirs and let their creativity show.

7) Ask questions to engage the children in conversation about similarities they notice between photos, such as facial features. Inquire about what the child feels when he/she sees their family members that look like them. See more questions here.

Tip: A way to digitally see how the kids are related to their ancestors can be done with FamilySearch's Compare-a-Face activity. Upload a headshot photo and see who they look like.

These generation photos can be simple or decorated, created or given as gifts, done for maternal or paternal lines, enjoyed now and passed down as a family heirloom. However you choose, making visual connections for youth and their ancestors is a powerful and memorable experience. Let us know how it goes!

Avan Carter Watts

This sounds like an activity I saw on the family history website it is called compare-a-face, this activity takes a picture you have of yourself and compares it to pictures in your family line, here is the link https://www.familysearch.org/discovery/compareme