Many years ago, I watched a free webinar on the lost art of storytelling and was inspired to increase the amount of storytelling that takes place in our home.
It occurred to me that I could use storytelling to increase our family’s enthusiasm for family history work, improve our public speaking skills, and practice hospitality, all at the same time.
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Ancestor Stories
My husband and I immediately set to work telling our children stories about their ancestors. We pulled out the family histories and family photos, which had been packed safely away, and started going through them.
Who knew how engaged our five-year-old son would be with his great-grandfather’s first hand account of a ship wreck at sea?
Or how hard he and his sisters would laugh when they learned that a great-aunt had accidentally fallen out of a window and landed in a trash can?
The shocked look on their faces when they learned that their sweet, feminine grandma used to hang from the trestle beneath a passing train, legs swinging in midair, was priceless.
“Oh my goodness!” their widened eyes seemed to say.
Now that we had our children’s full attention, we encouraged them to choose a story and prepare to share it with the small group of people we would be inviting into our home the following week. They each chose a story and practiced telling it until they had all the details down. My husband and I each chose a story, too.
Sharing Stories
The following Sunday evening our living room was filled with guests who were excited to hear our stories and anxious to share their own.
For the next few hours we laughed and cried and looked incredulously at one another as one story after another was shared. We enjoyed simple refreshments, lively conversation, and a new connection with one another.
In the end, my children were able to practice their public speaking skills. But, infinitely more important, they experienced what it feels like to ” turn your heart to your fathers”, and to open your heart and your home to others.
“That was so much fun!” my children shouted, almost in unison, as we headed to bed for the night.
“Well, pick out another story to tell,” I quickly replied, “because we’ll be doing this again soon!”
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RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
How to Write Your Personal or Family History: (If You Don’t Do It, Who Will?)
An Oral History (Preserve Your Family’s Story)
Mom, I Want to Hear Your Story: A Mother’s Guided Journal To Share Her Life & Her Love
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