When is the last time you sat down to write a story?
My kids love to hear the same stories over and over about their childhood. Many of them aren't written down because there aren't really any photos that inspired those stories. Typically, I wrote about my kids when I was writing about pictures in a photo album.
There are some stories that we tell over and over - funny things the kids did when they were little, humorous things they said, habits they had. We do talk about those things but they aren't recorded anywhere.
When we are all together, talking about the past, I think it's amazing how many things my children remember that I have totally forgotten - and I have a really good memory. It's always then that I think, I should write them down. But where would I write them so we can share them over and over again and not forget the funny little details?
Create a story page. A story page might not have ANY photos. It might be a list of their best memories of Halloween or things they did during a long car trip or even funny things they remember about each other. Write these down and add them to an album.
Use family photos as prompts. Ask your kids if they remember what was happening in those photos - what they remember. Most of the stories in our album come from me, my reporting on what occured. But, I have a much different and more factual type of storytelling than my kids or my husband. Often, it's only my voice that the album is written in - but then I listen to the things they remember and I just KNOW that their stories need to be in there too.
Likewise, my kids LOVE it when I tell them stories about them that they don't remember.
There are bonds that form when you re-live stories together. Tell your family stories and let your family tell them to you. Then, write them down and save them in a place they can be read over and over again.
Let your photo albums live on and let them speak in many voices.
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